Alaskan carriers told the FCC that the agency appears to be on the right track with the eligible-areas map and the draft performance plan template for the Alaska Connect Fund, though they suggested that further changes are needed. The map is viewed as critical to mobile support in the state. Reply comments were posted Thursday in docket 23-328.
The FCC updated its "covered list" of unsecure companies this week to reflect a recent determination that some uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and UAS critical components on the list should be exempted, reflecting guidance from DOD. Last month, the FCC announced it was adding some drones and components to the list (see 2512220036).
The Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division said Thursday that T-Mobile should drop claims in an eight-minute promotional video that “AT&T and Verizon have announced price increase over price increase a combined ten times in the past two years.” AT&T had challenged the claims, which NAD found to be inaccurate.
CTIA agreed with other commenters that urged the FCC to move with caution in response to a further NPRM approved in October as part of a broader order that further tightens the agency's equipment authorization rules (see 2601060037). Comments were posted this week in docket 21-232.
The FCC Wireless Bureau said Wednesday that it won’t extend the Jan. 15 deadline to file reply comments on an NPRM proposing changes to wireless infrastructure rules. Cities, including Boston, Dallas and Washington, sought the extension last month. Local and state governments raised concerns about the FCC proposals in initial comments (see 2601020017). “We find that the request does not provide adequate reasons to extend the time for commenters to file reply comments in this proceeding,” the bureau said in docket 25-276. Initial comments were due Dec. 31.
The CTIA Wireless Foundation on Wednesday announced the launch of Catalyst 2026, a competitive grants program “for early-stage social entrepreneurs creating impact through wireless innovation.” Up to six finalists will be selected in mid-March for participation in a second round, CTIA said. The winner will receive a $100,000 grant, second place $50,000 and third place $25,000.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau asked for applications starting Wednesday for lead administrator of the commission’s voluntary cybersecurity labeling program. The application window closes Jan. 28. UL Solutions, selected as lead cybersecurity label administrator (CLA) during the Biden administration, withdrew last month, said a bureau notice Tuesday.
DOJ and the FCC asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit not to rehear an August decision upholding the FCC’s $80 million data breach penalty against T-Mobile (see 2508150014). T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations committed by Sprint, which it later acquired.
A case filed last month by the Pacific Legal Foundation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia should help clarify that cellphones aren’t an “ordinary possession” when it comes to Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure, said Jim Harper, a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in a blog post Tuesday. “When you are carrying a cell phone around, you are carrying private and personal information comparable to what is contained in your house,” Harper wrote. “When government agents want to search a cell phone, the U.S. Supreme Court has said, ‘Get a warrant.’”
American Airlines announced Tuesday that it’s working with AT&T to offer free Wi-Fi to AAdvantage members starting this month. The airline is “delivering what customers have been asking for: free, high-speed Wi-Fi … on more aircraft than any other carrier in the world,” said a news release. Deployment of the satellite-based Wi-Fi will happen in phases “and by early spring … will be available on nearly every American Airlines flight.”