The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment by Aug. 25 on a multi-day May outage that prevented customers from making and receiving calls and sending text messages over Cellcom’s network. The outage apparently affected calls and texts to 911 and was caused by a cyber incident, the bureau said Friday. It asked for information about the Wisconsin-based carrier's handling of the outage, its impact and how problems were communicated to customers. Comments should be filed in docket 25-218.
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved two companies' applications using the commission’s streamlined procedures for interconnected VoIP numbering authorization, said a Friday notice. The companies were Ahoi and Cornfield Voice.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., are urging Republican FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty to “insist that the FCC conduct” its review of Skydance’s proposed $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global “with the utmost transparency, including holding a full Commission vote on any order to approve the merger.” Some observers believe Paramount recently agreed to a $16 million settlement of President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS, which challenged its editing of a 60 Minutes interview last October with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the election, to ease the path to FCC approval of the deal. Paramount has refuted those claims (see 2507020053).
Since its 2024 net neutrality rules have never gone into effect, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Friday it's restoring sections of its rules to the language they would use absent the net neutrality order. Chairman Brendan Carr said the move was part of his "Delete" agenda and called it "the latest step the FCC is taking to follow the Trump Administration’s effort to usher in prosperity through deregulation." The agency said the moves axed 41 rules or "utility-style burdens."
Congress should revamp the Communications Act to account for the “Digital Age,” doing away with the siloing of different industries at the FCC and replacing the public interest standard, wrote Free State Foundation President Randolph May in an op-ed Friday for Real Clear Markets. The FCC’s separation of industries into different bureaus -- which May called “the stovepipe regulatory framework” -- is “woefully outdated,” he said. “These regulatory stovepipes don't make sense in today's digital environment characterized by relentless technological innovation and marketplace convergence” and “impede efforts to allow comparable services to compete with each other without unfair advantages conferred by outdated regulatory distinctions.”
The FCC could investigate public media stations for running ads against legislation that would rescind federal funding from NPR and PBS, said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a post on X Thursday night. Carr’s post came a little more than an hour after President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he wouldn’t endorse Republican lawmakers who voted to support funding for PBS and NPR.
T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, which has been pending since May of last year, got two key clearances in two days. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced Friday (see 2507110065) that the Wireless Bureau approved the transaction. Late Thursday, DOJ announced it won’t oppose the deal, which includes about 30% of UScellular's spectrum and all its wireless customers and stores.
In light of Congress restoring FCC auction authority, Ligado said on Thursday it’s time for the commission to address the 1675-1680 MHz band, the topic of a record refresh this year (see 1905090041). “Since 2019 the Commission has studied how to reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared federal and commercial use, and recent submissions by [NTIA] clearly establish that the band can be used for both uplink and downlink and shared with Government users,” Ligado said in docket 19-116. The opportunity to make the band available for shared use “is the fruit” of the Wireless Bureau’s “diligent efforts to refresh the record in this proceeding over the first half of this year.”
The FCC on Friday approved T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt, Chairman Brendan Carr announced. The transaction includes about 30% of UScellular's spectrum and all of its wireless customers and stores. The approval came from the Wireless Bureau with no commissioner vote.
T-Mobile is adjusting its practices to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by the Trump administration, said Mark Nelson, the carrier's general counsel, in a letter to the FCC posted Wednesday. Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized T-Mobile for making the concessions.