AST SpaceMobile has received the go-ahead to put more satellites in orbit but not to begin offering supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service with them. In an order dated Aug. 29 and posted Wednesday, the FCC Space Bureau said it was allowing AST to launch an additional 20 satellites and to perform telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) operations with them once they're in orbit. The bureau deferred consideration on the other 223 satellites AST has requested while it continues to review the company's request to provide SCS service. The FCC previously authorized the launch of five satellites and TT&C operations with them 13 months ago (see 2408050026). The latest order said that while commenters have claimed there already has been harmful interference from AST's already-operational satellites, the bureau hasn't received any complaints of that.
The FCC should investigate ABC over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s donations to and fundraising for politicians who have appeared on his show, said the Center for American Rights in a complaint filed Thursday.
Dish Network disagrees with, but will comply with, a Better Business Bureau National Advertising Division recommendation about ad claims challenged by DirecTV, NAD said Tuesday. It said the Dish ad claims about customers' savings when switching from Dish to DirecTV didn't make clear enough that the price comparisons were between specific plans and not DirecTV's entire line of offerings. The ads also didn't disclose material differences between the plans that were being compared, NAD said. Dish indicated it would follow NAD's recommendation to modify its ad claims, the organization added.
The FCC Media Bureau will gradually lift a freeze on major changes for low-power TV, Class A stations and translators through a phased process that involves temporarily reimposing modification freezes, said a public notice Wednesday. The notice also announced that there will be a 121-kilometer limit on station relocations and that new station applications will be accepted.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr signaled his support for the ATSC 3.0 transition in a release Tuesday on a Media Bureau public notice clarifying 3.0 application procedures. “Americans across the country will benefit from Next Gen TV and the improved viewing experience that it enables,” Carr said in the release. “That is why the FCC is working to support and encourage a timely transition. As the broadcast industry continues to evolve, we want to be sure that they can do so while maintaining their core public interest obligations.”
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners spoke with FCC staff about the group's opposition to a NumberBarn application for authorization to obtain numbering resources (see 2412090055). Association representatives met with an aide to Commissioner Olivia Trusty, Wireline Bureau Chief Joseph Calascione and other bureau staff, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-99.
Incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) providers and some public safety groups are leaning on the FCC not to rescind a Wireline Bureau order delaying some prison-calling deadlines until April 1, 2027. In a surprise move, the bureau postponed implementation deadlines that took effect in January and had been approved by commissioners last year (see 2506300068).
Comments are due Sept. 12, replies Sept. 19, on Vero Broadband’s proposed purchase of BendTel, a locally owned and operated telecom provider in central Oregon. Comments should be filed in docket 25-188, said a Friday notice from the FCC Wireline Bureau. Vero, a fiber-to-the-premises provider, announced plans to buy BendTel in June. The purchase “complements Vero's ongoing organic expansion in Central Oregon and establishes a key foothold in one of the fastest-growing markets in the Pacific Northwest,” the company said at the time.
The FCC unanimously approved an FY 2025 regulatory fee order Thursday that hewed closely to the agency’s June NPRM. The order, released Friday, reclassifies 61 indirect full-time equivalents (FTEs) as direct FTEs but rejects calls to create new categories of regulatory fee payors. The FCC will add a new fee category only when “significant FTE resources of a core bureau are being spent on oversight and regulatory activities with respect to a specific service,” the order said. “Such circumstances have not been presented here.” The order will take effect upon publication in the Federal Register, and fees will be due by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Automakers were united in raising concerns about an FCC proposal to update its “covered list” of unsecure companies to reflect a January finding by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on connected vehicles (see 2505270059). Many groups have already opposed the proposal (see 2506300052). In filings Thursday and Friday, four automakers weighed in separately in docket 18-89, arguing that the proposal works against the Trump administration's goal of reinvigorating U.S. auto manufacturing.