EchoStar and the Rural Wireless Association urged the FCC to reject waivers allowing Grain Management's proposed purchase of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). Utility groups weighed in to support the transaction. Reply comments were posted Wednesday in docket 25-178, closing out the pleading cycle.

T-Mobile and Grain Management jointly asked the FCC to approve a transaction in which Grain would buy all of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). Oppositions were due Monday in docket 25-178.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, locked down support Wednesday from a pair of top Armed Services Committee Republicans for the panel’s spectrum budget reconciliation package language after strengthening the original proposal’s exclusion of the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506060029). Cruz’s office also reemphasized his view that the revised proposal’s language to encourage states to pause enforcement of AI laws no longer threatens jurisdictions’ eligibility for the enacted $42.5 billion in BEAD funding (see 2506230043) in the face of Democratic assertions to the contrary.

The Rural Wireless Association is fighting Grain Management's proposed purchase of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). In a docket 25-178 petition to deny posted Monday, the group said the deal raises red flags about spectrum aggregation, competitive access and spectrum warehousing. A Grain/T-Mobile deal would be in the public interest if the FCC denied the related waiver requests and put conditions on T-Mobile's acquisition of the 600 MHz spectrum, the filing said. It urged the agency to keep the current license renewal timelines and buildout obligations for the to-be-assigned 800 MHz licenses, ensuring that Grain promptly makes the spectrum available to utilities, rural and regional carriers, and enterprise providers. Meanwhile, T-Mobile should be required to partition the 600 MHz licenses and make the spectrum available to small and rural carriers to lease long term or acquire, the association said.

The Utility Broadband Alliance supported a transaction announced in March, in which Grain Management would buy all of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). Comments were due Friday in docket 25-178.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday that he's standing pat on the spectrum legislative language he released last week as part of the panel's portion of the GOP's planned budget reconciliation package, despite ongoing objections from some Armed Services Committee Republicans who agreed to the deal. Meanwhile, House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told us Tuesday that he's willing to accept the Senate Commerce proposal’s language exempting the 7.4-8.4 GHz band from potential sale.

Senate Commerce Committee Republicans released the panel's portion of a budget reconciliation bill Thursday night with language that proposes mandating that the FCC sell at least 800 MHz of reallocated spectrum, as expected (see 2506050064). Some communications industry groups praised the measure, but observers said they expect other stakeholders to criticize it. Lobbyists said they expect that Senate Commerce Democrats will likely vote against the proposal, as party-affiliated House Commerce Committee members did last month when that panel marked up its part (see 2505140062) of what became the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1).

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, insisted in a brief interview Thursday that a deal he reached Wednesday with top Armed Services Committee Republicans for spectrum language in the chamber’s budget reconciliation package (see 2506040078) remains in place, despite panel member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., indicating new wrinkles emerged. Senate Commerce planned to release its reconciliation language Thursday but hadn’t by our deadline. Meanwhile, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, National Emergency Number Association and other groups urged Senate Commerce to allocate some future auction proceeds in its reconciliation proposal for next-generation 911 tech upgrades.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, insisted in a brief interview Thursday that a deal he reached Wednesday with top Armed Services Committee Republicans for spectrum language in the chamber’s budget reconciliation package remains intact, after panel member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., indicated that new wrinkles had emerged. The deal ensured the spectrum title would exclude the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and parts of the 7 and 8 GHz bands from possible sale through the entirety of a proposed restoration of the FCC’s lapsed auction authority, which would run through Sept. 30, 2034. Rounds, Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., pushed for exclusions on the 7 and 8 GHz bands.

NASHVILLE -- The federal government is warehousing or squatting on much of its spectrum holdings, Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Monday at the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect 2025 trade show and conference. Also at the event, states and providers complained about BEAD uncertainty (see 2506020047).