The FCC Wireless and Space bureaus temporarily paused the pleading cycle on amended spectrum and earth station license assignment applications filed by SpaceX, Spectrum Business Trust and EchoStar following the submission of new filings (see 2511120048). The bureaus “will announce a revised pleading cycle for the transaction by public notice when the amended applications are accepted for filing,” said a notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest.
Airspan filed a revised application at the FCC for a waiver to offer dual-band radios that operate across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum, similar to a waiver approved for Ericsson. Airspan's petition was posted Monday in docket 25-234. NCTA opposed the company’s earlier pursuit of a waiver (see 2507090012). The FCC “has seen deep interest by wireless providers in deployment of 5G service in both the 3450 MHz and the 3700 MHz bands, and there is an ongoing, recognized and growing need for base station and [distributed antenna system] manufacturers to support operations in these bands cost-effectively,” Airspan said.
Low earth orbit satellite is increasingly a head-to-head competitor for wireless ISPs in rural markets, with SpaceX's Starlink sometimes reaching download speeds faster than WISPs, Ookla said Monday. In Q1 2025, Starlink had median download speeds of 104.71 Mbps, putting it on par with or better than several larger WISPs, Ookla said. Its review of WISPs found that they all improved their median download speeds between Q1 2021 and Q2 2025, though to varying degrees. Starry delivered the highest median download speeds of the WISPs studied, at 202.25 Mbps in Q2 2025. Other WISPs had Q2 median download speeds of up to about 100 Mbps. To keep competing in broadband, WISPs must find ways to secure more spectrum to avoid network congestion and interference, Ookla added.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center recommended in a report released Monday that the acquisition and use of spyware by state government agencies should be banned. Government use of spyware “comes at great cost to privacy, free speech, and free association,” and there’s no way to deploy it “without violating Americans’ First and Fourth Amendment rights,” the report said.
A group of American manufacturing companies and rural broadband providers on Monday announced the launch of the 5G American-Made Coalition to defend the continued use of the citizens broadband radio service band as a shared band. “For the first time in decades, American companies are designing and building 5G equipment here at home, strengthening our supply chains, and further enabling the reindustrialization of our country,” said John Puskar, the coalition's CEO. Among the members listed on its website are Abside Networks, Cambium Networks, Keysight Technologies, Nextlink, Skylark Wireless and Tarana.
AT&T has already deployed 3.45 GHz spectrum that it bought from EchoStar (see 2509090055), adding coverage to nearly 23,000 cellsites in a matter of weeks, the carrier said Monday. For AT&T subscribers, download speeds will jump by up to 80% for mobility customers and as much as 55% for AT&T Internet Air customers, it said. FirstNet customers will also see improved service.
Los Angeles County supports the Safer Buildings Coalition's request that the FCC launch a rulemaking on guidelines for getting consent from licensees to install signal boosters (see 2511130025), it said in comments filed Thursday in docket RM-12009. The county is “experiencing dynamic, wave-like rolling patterns on our public safety frequency spectrum,” the filing said. Interference is due to multiple public safety radios and bidirectional amplifier systems “interacting and adjusting their bandwidth usage in real-time, affecting over 500 known devices on our licensed spectrum.”
Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week about his industry’s work with wireless carriers on protecting radio altimeters in the upper C band. Sununu asked the agency to allow more time for comments than is proposed in a draft NPRM, set for a vote Thursday.
EchoStar’s Dish Wireless filed at the FCC a third amended petition for designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier in the federal default states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and North Carolina, as well as the District of Columbia and all federally recognized tribal areas. The petition, posted Friday in docket 09-197, “amends and replaces in its entirety” a petition from April 2024, Dish said. Granting the ETC designation “serves the public interest because the Company is well-positioned to make wireless broadband services more robust and more affordable to low-income consumers.”
Service providers should file comments at the FCC opposing proposals to increase power levels in the citizens broadband radio service band or to reallocate the band, NCTA board member Sandra Howe urged Thursday in a blog post. The future of CBRS is “at risk,” she wrote. “CBRS democratizes mid-band spectrum” and “enables [wireless ISPs,] cable operators, schools, hospitals, utilities, farms, and local governments to build private and localized LTE/5G networks.” With county-level licenses, a three-tier sharing model “and a mature device ecosystem, CBRS has lowered the barrier to entry for operators who’ve historically lacked access to prime spectrum.”