The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Monday on Corn Belt Telephone’s application to buy Templeton Telephone’s assets and customers. Comments are due Aug. 11, replies Aug. 18 in docket 25-163, the notice said. Templeton Telephone provides local, long-distance and other services in the Templeton local exchange in Iowa and has been designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier, the bureau said.
Lumen's and Commnet Four Corners' former Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups in numerous states are open to other funding programs, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday. Lumen and Commnet both defaulted on their RDOF obligations and could face penalties, it said. The states with open census block groups are Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington.
One of AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellites, if non-functioning, would take from five years to 20.5 years to reenter the atmosphere, depending on its altitude, the company told the FCC in a docket 25-201 filing posted Monday. The filing -- a series of responses to Space Bureau questions -- covered such ground as collision avoidance and propellant availability for end-of-life maneuvers. AST called a completely dead satellite "highly unlikely ... due to the massive redundancy designed into the satellites."
Representatives of groups concerned with NextNav’s proposal for the FCC to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to enable a “terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services met with Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The filing was by the RAIN Alliance, LoRa Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-SUN Alliance and Z-Wave Alliance, which earlier questioned a NextNav study on potential interference (see 2504280045).
The FCC is launching an effort to encourage operators of multiline telephone systems (MLTS) to bring their systems into compliance with agency rules for calls to 911, Zenji Nakazawa, acting chief of the Public Safety Bureau, said in a Monday blog post. In 2019, the FCC adopted rules to ensure that MLTS users can call 911 and obtain assistance from first responders (see 1908050045).
There's a wide gap between what carriers will pay to construct wireless infrastructure and the costs builders face, NATE said in a report released Monday. The report comes as NATE negotiates framework agreements resetting the relationship between members of the group and the major carriers (see 2507140033).
FCC retirements: Deborah Kline from the Media Bureau; Dion Butler, Beverly Davis and Rafael Fernandez from the Office of Managing Director ... FCC Chairman Brendan Carr names 2025 winners of the FCC Chairman's Awards for Advancement in Accessibility: Victoria Bond, Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs; Greg Hlibok, ZVRS and Purple Communications; Nikolas Kelly, Sign-Speak; and Christian Vogler, Gallaudet University.
The FCC Space Bureau has rejected a June 2024 waiver request from Theia Holdings for a retroactive waiver of a bond requirement connected with its nongeostationary satellite orbit license, saying in an order Friday that the full $4.3 million value of the bond is due and must be paid to the U.S. Treasury. “Theia’s license was conditioned upon Theia posting, and thereafter maintaining in the Commission’s files, a surety bond with a specified penal amount sufficient to cover its potential liability in the event of default under the Commission’s escalating bond liability formula,” the order said. Theia’s potential liability under the escalating bond liability formula exceeded the value of its bond on file in May, and Theia requested the waiver in June to allow it to sell its assets to Emtech Global International. “After review of the record, we conclude that Theia has failed to demonstrate good cause for waiver of its bond requirement,” the order said. “Rather, Theia’s license became null and void on May 16, 2024, without further Commission action. Accordingly, the full $4,340,000 value of Theia’s bond must be paid to the U.S. Treasury upon written notice from the Commission’s Office of Managing Director.”
FCC Media Bureau revisions to cable rate regulation become effective Aug. 13, said the bureau in a public notice Friday. The order exempts small cable systems and cable equipment used for anything other than delivery of the basic service tier from rate regulation.
Concerns about ATSC 3.0 encryption of broadcast signals are “overstated," said NAB in an ex parte filing and presentation to FCC Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone, who is also an aide to Chairman Brendan Carr. In the presentation, NAB urged the FCC to act quickly to require a transition to 3.0. “Viewers can still watch/record programming for free. A3SA [the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority] has adopted encoding rules to ensure this remains the case,” said one slide in the presentation. Concerns about encrypting broadcast TV have been raised in docket 16-142, and recently ATSC 3.0 device maker SiliconDust accused the A3SA of seeking to block independent device manufacturers (see 2507220075). “To the extent that discrete implementation questions remain, those issues can be appropriately and effectively addressed through the rulemaking process and should not be treated as a barrier to initiating the process,” NAB said. “Further delay only deepens regulatory uncertainty, slows manufacturer investment, deprives consumers of the full benefits of ATSC 3.0 and undermines the broadcast industry’s ability to compete in a rapidly evolving video marketplace.” An order from the FCC “is needed now, before content owners make decisions on long-term rights contracts and in time for manufacturers to make decisions about their 2027 product lines,” the filing said.