The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday approved AT&T’s proposed purchase of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from the former UScellular for $1 billion. The approval came after AT&T agreed to end any trace of diversity, equity and inclusion in its hiring and other practices and made concessions to NATE (see 2512020061). The FCC has also quickly moved on proposed transactions from Verizon and T-Mobile after they offered similar concessions. In each case, approval has been through staff orders rather than commissioner action.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Wednesday terminated 2,048 inactive proceedings while leaving open nine that had been looked at for possible closure. An FCC proposal to delete dormant dockets got support from many commenters earlier this year, though with scattered calls to preserve several of them (see 2507100018). Most of the dockets spared have had little recent activity.
The FCC will be expanding its rule deletion efforts in 2026, tackling more items at open meetings and focusing on churning out orders stemming from the many NPRMs it issued in 2025, said Chairman Brendan Carr and bureau and 10th-floor staff at a Practising Law Institute event Wednesday. “I think you’re going to see even more results in getting to orders here in the second year” of his chairmanship, Carr said during a Q&A.
Senate Communications Subcommittee members alternated Tuesday between debating the FCC’s rollback last month of its January response to the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks and making bipartisan calls to renew the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr led the push for the agency to reverse January's declaratory ruling from the closing days of former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s administration, which said the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Section 105 requires telecom carriers to secure their networks against cyberattacks (see 2501160041). The FCC in November also withdrew an NPRM on cybersecurity requirements that the commission issued along with the declaratory ruling (see 2511200047).
The FCC’s audio description rules will apply to MVPDs and TV broadcasters in 10 additional markets starting Jan. 1, said the Media Bureau in a public notice Monday in docket 11-43. The change stems from a 2023 order (see 2310160038) that expands the rules to 10 additional designated market areas every year until all DMAs are included, which is expected to happen by 2035. The new markets affected include Youngstown, Pennsylvania; Fargo, North Dakota; and Lansing, Michigan.
The FCC Media Bureau has kicked off the pleading cycle for Nexstar’s proposed $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna, said a public notice Monday. Petitions to deny the transaction are due Dec. 31, opposition filings Jan. 15, and replies Jan. 26. Under FCC rules, the combined company would reach 54.5% of U.S. households, so Nexstar has asked the agency to waive the 39% national ownership cap (see 2511190056).
Petitions to deny SpaceX's proposed acquisition of EchoStar's AWS-3, AWS-4 and AWS-H Block spectrum licenses are due Dec. 15, with oppositions due Dec. 29 and replies Jan. 8, an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice said. The docket is 25-302. EchoStar struck a spectrum deal with SpaceX and a similar spectrum rights sale deal with AT&T to end a pair of FCC investigations into its use of the 2 GHz band and the deadline extensions it received for its 5G network buildout (see 2505130003).
Industry groups are concerned about FCC proposals to relax restrictions on sharing disaster reporting information with public safety authorities and the public but are broadly supportive of agency plans to streamline the disaster information reporting system (DIRS), according to comments filed in docket 21-346. Public disclosure of outage reporting data “could compromise public safety and network security, particularly at a time when vandalism of communications network infrastructure is on the rise,” said ACA Connects. The FCC should focus on more education and engagement with state public safety officials, “not a lowering of standards for protecting sensitive information from public disclosure.” But Public Knowledge said wider dissemination of outage data could improve public safety and enhance competition by giving the public another category in which to compare providers.
The FCC seems likely to move toward looser spectrum-sharing rules between non-geostationary and geostationary orbit satellites, allowing for NGSOs to operate at higher equivalent power flux density (EPFD) levels, satellite and spectrum experts tell us. That could mean big momentum for NGSO efforts to get similar changes made at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, we're told. The FCC chairman's office didn't comment.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau has issued a public notice reminding broadcasters that they're responsible for securing their networks against cyberattacks after a series of hacking incidents led to “obscene materials” and EAS tones being broadcast by stations in Texas and Virginia. WVTF Roanoke said its feed was hacked Nov. 19, broadcasting music with obscene, racist phrases to listeners in Richmond. “We had some dead-air that triggered the switch to back-up audio where an unauthorized audio loop was placed by the hacker,” said the station. In Mont Belvieu, Texas, KFNC's feed was reportedly hacked to play a loop of EAS tones during an NFL broadcast.