Amazon Web Services inexplicably gets a pass on the regulatory standards that far smaller enterprises such as telecom providers work under, Strand Consult's John Strand wrote Tuesday. AWS consistently lobbies against requirements for it to financially support more accessible and resilient access networks, including investments in broadband infrastructure and connectivity vouchers for low-income users, he said. There's a discussion to be had about whether AWS operates "a parallel internet" of fiber-optic backbones, routers and interconnection points and "whether these elements constitute 'telecommunications' under U.S. law." AWS likely is already eligible to contribute to USF but doesn't due to FCC forbearance, which lets AWS claim a self-provider exemption, he noted.
The FCC should “reverse course” on superseding and suspending its 2024 incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) order (see 2506300068), said the United Church of Christ, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Pennsylvania Prison Society and other justice reform groups in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 23-62. Evidence in the record shows that jails that providers said would lose service because of the 2024 order haven’t, the letter said. Continued reliance on claims that jails have lost service due to the 2024 order would be “arbitrary and capricious.” It's also arbitrary and capricious for the FCC to vote on the draft IPCS order slated for the Oct. 28 meeting without first taking up the pending application for review challenging the bureau-level suspension of the 2024 order, the groups said, because they address similar issues. “Given that the Commission has considered substantively a number of issues in its order, it is the height of arbitrary and capricious behavior for the Commission to fail to grant or deny the Application, at least as to the issues it will address if the Draft Order is adopted.”
The call-branding Further NPRM on the FCC's October agenda (see 2510070038) needs to delve more into what happens when originating providers don't meet their branding obligations, ZipDX said Monday (docket 17-59). Language about "enforceability" doesn't spell out who the enforcers might be or what obligations they might have, the conferencing service provider said. It called for the FNPRM to ask what entities, aside from the originating provider, should have responsibility in ensuring that caller identity information is correct.
BEAD won't close the digital divide and should be seen "as the new floor to work from, not the finish line," Connect Humanity wrote last week. Flawed FCC broadband maps and locations removed from BEAD eligibility due to coverage by unlicensed fixed wireless have meant that numerous homes "slipped through the cracks." The locations receiving satellite broadband "are not getting the digital foundations for business development and industrial investment," the group said, noting that BEAD's 100/20 Mbps speed target runs the risk of being out of date and inadequate before networks are built. BEAD also doesn't address affordability, which is a huge barrier to adoption, it said.
The FCC shouldn’t repeal company-specific do not call rules and requirements that prerecorded calls include an automated opt-out mechanism, said the National Consumer Law Center, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other consumer groups in an ex parte filing Thursday. Proposals to repeal the rules are on the agency’s Oct. 28 meeting agenda. “If adopted, the Commission’s proposals will unleash unstoppable telemarketing calls as well as unwanted robocalls such as unasked-for reminders, survey robocalls, and customer satisfaction robocalls,” the filing said. “As is evident from multiple comments from individuals and small businesses to the FCC in recent years, more protections are needed against unwanted and illegal calls, not fewer.”
A Verizon Business survey of 500 companies that use IoT services “found considerable optimism around return on investment, growth potential, and ongoing use of the technology,” the carrier said Tuesday. Among the results, 84% of companies surveyed “consider AI a key technology for IoT, while 70% say it has accelerated their IoT deployments,” Verizon said. In addition, “82% report that combining AI with video/camera data can deliver valuable insights for real-time decision-making.”
Thirteen attorneys general have asked the U.S. District Court for Northern California to let them intervene in the proceeding on the $14 billion merger of wireless networking companies Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Juniper Networks. The companies settled with DOJ in June. “Regulators from across the political spectrum have argued that the Trump Administration’s approval of the HPE/Juniper merger is inadequate and potentially the result of backroom deals,” said California AG Rob Bonta (D) in a news release on the motion to intervene.
Members of the U.S. military and Coast Guard, first responders and other federal government workers affected by the shutdown can get more time to pay their Verizon bills, the carrier announced Tuesday, instructing them to call and ask for payment deferral options. “If federal employees need relief during the shutdown, they can reach out to us, and we will keep them connected,” said CEO Dan Schulman.
After two years of declining investment in telecom equipment, “the pendulum is beginning to shift,” Dell’Oro Group analyst Stefan Pongratz blogged Friday. “Aggregate worldwide telecom equipment revenues across the six programs tracked by Dell’Oro Group … increased by 4% year over year” in the first half of 2025, he wrote. “The improved market conditions were driven by several factors, including easier year-over-year comparisons, inventory stabilization, and favorable currency movements.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau has issued a national security advisory reminding companies that communications equipment on the "covered list" has been “determined to pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States and its citizens.” FCC Chairman Brandon Carr posted the advisory on X Friday.