NextNav appoints Renee Gregory, ex-Google, as vice president-regulatory affairs ... FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson adds David Shaw, formerly Morrison & Foerster, as principal deputy director, and Kelse Moen, ex-Senate Judiciary Committee, as deputy director, Bureau of Competition; promotes Douglas Geho to deputy director, Bureau of Consumer Protection … Wiley names Ian Barlow, ex-FTC, as of counsel.
UScellular filed a response to a December data request from the Wireless Bureau (see 2412270031) probing T-Mobile’s proposed purchase of much of UScellular’s wireless business, including some spectrum. Parts of the response were redacted. “UScellular’s spectrum and network cost challenges have limited UScellular’s relative competitive presence in its footprint,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-286. “These limitations have resulted in UScellular lagging behind its competitors and being increasingly unable to catch up to the network quality they offer.” The carrier noted that it has “substantially less spectrum depth than its competitors within its footprint,” with about 70 MHz “of aggregable spectrum below 4 GHz -- half or less than” than its biggest rivals. The company’s 600, 700 and 850 MHz licenses “cannot be aggregated and used as efficiently as possible due to mobile device limitations,” the filing said. While its devices “have the hardware to support the 600 MHz, 700 MHz, and 850 MHz bands individually, they generally lack the hardware (such as more antennas) to support spectrum aggregation.” The company said it also holds “substantial non-contiguous blocks of spectrum, particularly in the 700 MHz, AWS, and PCS bands.”
The FCC demanded a response from Luminys within 10 days to its determination that the company was selling equipment from Dahua, which is on the FCC’s “covered list” of providers of unsecure gear. Luminys faces revocation of equipment authorizations the FCC previously approved. Luminys Systems describes itself as the U.S.-based subsidiary of Foxlink, a Taiwan-based company, the agency said Thursday. Foxlink announced its acquisition of Dahua Technology USA last month from a Chinese company, Zhejiang Dahua Technology, the notice said. “By Luminys’s own public statements, Luminys is marketing products that were produced by Dahua, does not expect that these products will be manufactured through Foxlink’s own supply chains until March 2025, and does not expect to stop selling Dahua-manufactured products entirely until December 2025,” the FCC said: “That Luminys had not sought equipment authorization from the Commission prior to Foxlink’s acquisition of Dahua Technology USA also supports the tentative conclusion that the ultimate source of the equipment is Dahua Technology Company, an entity identified on the Covered List.” The “show cause” order, by the acting chiefs of the Public Safety Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, was posted in Friday’s Daily Digest.
Startup Starfish Space is eyeing a January 2026 launch for its Otter 24A in-space servicing vehicle, it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application filed Wednesday. Starfish said the mission would involve inspecting and docking with an Intelsat satellite in the "graveyard orbit" for retired non-geostationary orbit satellites, as well as providing life-extension services for Intelsat-17.
The Senate Commerce Committee said Wednesday night it plans a Feb. 19 hearing on spectrum legislative issues. Lobbyists expect panel Republicans will focus on party leaders’ proposals to move spectrum legislation as part of an upcoming budget reconciliation package (see 2501070069). House Communications Subcommittee Democrats said during a January hearing that they strongly object to using reconciliation as a spectrum vehicle because it would allocate future license sales revenue to fund tax cuts instead of telecom priorities (see 2501230064). “As our adversaries wage a war to control global communication networks, America’s spectrum leadership has become both an economic and national security imperative,” said Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “This hearing will expose how the ongoing lapse in [the FCC's] auction authority and the lack of a clear commercial spectrum strategy have cost America jobs and weakened our global standing.” Cruz indicated that he's tiring of DOD backers’ objections to repurposing portions of military-controlled bands, which was a major factor in stalled legislative talks during the last Congress. “We can no longer allow Pentagon bureaucratic inertia to hold back innovation and economic growth,” he said: “Restoring American leadership in spectrum policy means unlocking billions for job creation, domestic investment, and the federal resources needed to pay for a secure border and stronger military.” The hearing will begin at 10:15 a.m. ET in 253 Russell.
Consumers’ Research, the conservative group that is a self-described opponent of “woke” culture, told the U.S. Supreme Court that the way the FCC assesses payments for the USF is “a historic anomaly at odds with 600 years of Anglo-American practice.” SCOTUS will hear FCC v. Consumers' Research March 26, challenging the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program (see 2501090045), in part because the FCC delegated authority for overseeing the program to the Universal Service Administrative Co.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s plan to investigate agency regulatees over diversity, equity and inclusion programs causes Commissioner Geoffrey Starks “grave concern,” he said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “From what I know, this enforcement action is out of our lane and out of our reach,” Starks said. “I have asked for a briefing to understand the Enforcement Bureau’s theory of the case, the authority relied upon, and any prior precedent.” In a letter Tuesday to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Carr said the FCC “will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act and the agency’s [equal employment opportunity] rules, including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” Starks pointed out that as a commissioner, Carr excoriated the prior FCC’s digital discrimination proceeding as “a framework that gives the FCC a nearly limitless power to veto private sector decisions.” At the time, Carr said the FCC’s restrictions on digital discrimination were “motivated by an ideology of government control that is not compatible with the fundamental precepts of free market capitalism.” In a post Wednesday on X, he said, “I expect that every entity the FCC regulates will be complying with our civil rights laws.”
Northrop Grumman's Space Logistics is planning to dock its Mission Extension Vehicle 1 with an Optus D3 satellite for in-orbit mission extension services. In an FCC Space Bureau application Monday, SL said that after seven months of service with Optus, the MEV-1 would undock and then move to its next client. SL said the spacecraft has been operating with the Intelsat 901 satellite, doing mission extension services for it, and the company's contract with Intelsat ends March 30.
Conservative group the Center for American Rights has joined with Fuse Media and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in asking the FCC to “avoid rubber-stamping Skydance’s proposed $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global and hold Skydance accountable for keeping its public interest commitments,” according to a joint ex parte filing Tuesday. CAR President Daniel Suhr and attorney David Goodfriend -- who represents Fuse and the Teamsters -- met with Commissioner Nathan Simington, acting Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone, and aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez in a call Tuesday. “Each of us filed comments addressing very different issues in this transaction but with the same goal: making sure that Skydance lives up to statements it made to the FCC,” said the filing. CAR and Goodfriend’s clients said they believe Skydance should provide more details to the agency and be held accountable, the filing said. Both groups in the ex parte filing listed possible conditions the FCC should impose on Skydance. CAR, which filed the news distortion complaint against CBS, wants Skydance held to commitments on unbiased news and said the FCC should require more viewpoint diversity on the New Paramount board, editorial staff located in cities besides New York and Los Angeles, and a well-funded oversight board or ombudsman. The Teamsters and Fuse want the agency to require collective bargaining agreements with all employees and reserve programming services on PlutoTV and other streaming platforms for independently owned content providers.
EchoStar Chief Technology Officer Eben Albertyn and others from the company met with FCC staff to urge the agency to increase citizens broadband radio service power levels and align other rules with global 3 GHz standards. EchoStar engineers discussed technical studies that the company has already submitted and that justify each of the changes proposed, said a Tuesday filing in docket 17-258. The EchoStar representatives said they met with staff from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. A broad group of companies and associations last week urged new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr not to make sweeping changes to the rules for the band (see 2502060050).