The FCC license for 112 non-geostationary orbit remote sensing satellites granted to Theia Group in 2019 is now EMTech Global's. That license was satellite startup Theia's "largest asset by far," U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel for the Southern District of New York said in 2021 in a docket 1:21-cv-06995 order appointing a receiver for Theia as part of litigation that investors FCS Advisors brought against the company. LTS Systems bought Theia's assets, including the license, at auction in 2023, with EMTech Global then acquiring the assets from LTS and subsequently seeking FCC OK on transferring the license to an EMTech subsidiary, according to EMTech's transfer application. The Space Bureau approved the transfer Friday, said a notice in Friday's Daily Digest.
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved the National Exchange Carrier Association's proposed average-schedule interstate settlement disbursements formulas for one-year beginning July 2. An order Friday in docket 23-415 noted that the formulas included "three consumer broadband-only loop" factors instead of one in NECA's filing from the previous year.
The FCC Wireline Bureau announced its annual tariff review plans for LECs, effective July 1, in an order Friday in docket 24-41. The bureau also adopted modifications for its rate-of-return tariff review plan and waived rules requiring that carriers file an access charge tariff for a two-year period.
The growing pace of space launches is prompting more conversations between the U.S. and other countries about space objects' state of register, Ryan Guglietta, lead foreign affairs officer at the State Department's Office of Space Affairs, said Thursday during an FCC Space Bureau-hosted workshop about U.S. interagency payload reviews. Establishing a payload's registering state is becoming increasingly complex, Guglietta said. For example, a payload could be built in one nation, assembled in another and have other multinational touchpoints. He said the U.S. is trying to create a shared understanding with other nations of what constitutes a payload's registering state. The FAA spearheads the Interagency payload review, and Stacey Zee, FAA operations support branch manager, said if one agency raises a concern during that review, then the agency aims to resolve it early in the process. Sabrina Jawed, FAA commercial space law team manager, said in a worst-case scenario -- there's no payload approval, even though the payload has been integrated into the launch vehicle and is ready to go -- "we have the authority to say 'hold up.' However, we do not want to do that." Space Bureau Special Counsel Karl Kensinger said integrating a payload into a launch vehicle marks a critical point, and it's tough to move backward from there. The satellite operator must have a license by then or face "significant risks," he said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Thursday on an application and waiver request from Woodburn, Oregon, on a license for a new trunked private land mobile radio system using four VHF channels from the industrial/business pool in Marion County, Oregon. “Woodburn states that the four I/B channels [[it seeks]] to license are needed ‘for the development of a … Digital Trunking System’ which will be part of a ‘cooperative effort between’” Woodburn's Police, Public Works and Transit departments and Hubbard's Police and Public Works departments, the bureau said: “Woodburn proposes to license eight Public Safety Pool channels in addition to the four I/B channels for its trunked system but states that all additional VHF Public Safety Pool channels have been ‘exhausted in the area and no further usable channels can be located.’” Hubbard is in Marion County.
LTD Broadband asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday to overturn the FCC's denial of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase (RDOF) I auction long-form application. It filed a partially redacted petition (docket 24-1017). LTD was the largest RDOF winner, receiving an award of roughly $1.3 billion to deploy broadband to 528,088 locations across more than a dozen states (see 2012070039).
Challenges remain as companies implement a voluntary cyber-trust mark program based on National Institute of Standards and Technology criteria, speakers said during an FCBA CLE on Thursday. FCC commissioners approved the program 5-0 in March (see 2403180046), but the order has not appeared in the Federal Register and the program's timeline is unclear. The cyber mark label will appear on consumer IoT products with an accompanying QR code. It's comparable to the ENERGY STAR program, which certifies products as energy efficient.
The FCC said i-wireless agreed to pay a $1 million fine for an inaccurate filing it made in 2011, as it sought eligible telecom carrier status in Florida. The agency approved the application in 2012. “AT&T’s study area in Florida, which includes portions of several major population centers such as Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, and Jacksonville, was not included in the i-wireless submission or the appendix,” the Enforcement Bureau said in an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. In 2013, i-wireless “filed a request to amend its designated service area in Florida to include AT&T’s study area” saying it was “inadvertently omitted from the list of approved service areas in Florida,” the bureau said. The Wireline Bureau approved the amended request for ETC status, citing “the unique circumstances presented.”
Voice on the Net Coalition representatives met with FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff to discuss the group’s proposal on robotexting rules. VON proposes “that the Commission require and oversee a process whereby a neutral, third-party entity is selected to vet application-to-person traffic on a technology-neutral basis, with policies applied equally to all traffic regardless of whether the traffic in question is initiated via a Unified Communications as a Service platform or directly on a mobile network operator network,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-402. “By engaging in this common-sense level of oversight, the Commission would further the goal of protecting consumers, combating unlawful text messages, and promoting competition in the marketplace for communications services,” the group said.
Alaska Communications Systems settled a nearly $6.3 million fine with the FCC over a rural healthcare program's rules on competitive bidding and rural rate determinations. An Enforcement Bureau order Wednesday said that ACS will make a $5.3 million repayment to the Universal Service Fund and receive a credit of $1 million for "ACS's withdrawal of claims and appeals" for certain funding requests between FY 2015 through 2018.