The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved a fiber deal proposed last year by T-Mobile, a venture with private equity firm EQT to buy fiber-to-the-home provider Lumos (see 2404250047). T-Mobile said it would invest $950 million for a 50% stake in the joint venture. “We find, upon consideration of the record, that a grant of the Application will serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” the bureau said. “The proposed transaction will not result in a reduction of competition.” Lumos provides telecom and other services to “more than 300,000 homes and businesses across Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina,” the order said.
Telecom carriers are under pressure from the FCC to end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, with Chairman Brendan Carr saying last week that the FCC won’t bless mergers by companies that have DEI policies in place. Carr sent a warning letter Friday to Disney on its DEI programs. Industry officials say companies have no choice to comply, though the FCC moves have created regulatory uncertainty. T-Mobile explained in a letter to the FCC how it’s getting rid of DEI.
A White House executive order issued Thursday ends federal employee union bargaining rights at a host of federal agencies, including the FCC, citing national security concerns. Laws that allow for collective bargaining enable “hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities,” said a White House fact sheet on the order.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced retirements, including: Carr’s longtime confidential assistant Drema Johnson; Wireline Bureau: Victoria Goldberg (22 years of service), Al Lewis (19), Todd Mitchell (30), Suzanne Yelen, Sue McNeil, Terri Natoli, Ted Burmeister (25); Public Safety Bureau: Nikki McGinnis (20), Rochelle Cohen; Wireless Bureau: Kevin Holmes; Enforcement Bureau: David Strickland (25), Jeremy Marcus (23), Jane Kelly, Kimberly Cook (24), Greg Hermes (25), Luke Kessinger, Brian Wondrack (24); Media Bureau: Bobby Baker (50), Dale Bickel (41), Radhika Karmarkar, Karen Kosar (42), Raelynn Remy (30), Gary Schonman (40); Space Bureau: Kal Krautkramer (34); Office of International Affairs: Francis Gutierrez (25), Sumita Mukhoty (30), Larry Olson (62).
Pointing to possible further limits on C-band capacity in the U.S., Eutelsat is seeking U.S. market access for its Brazil-licensed Eutelsat 65 West A geostationary orbit satellite as an alternate way of serving U.S. customers. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Thursday, Eutelsat said it wants to make use of the satellite -- launched in 2016 -- to receive uplinks in the 6725-7025 MHz band from U.S. earth stations and to downlink those transmissions in the 4500-4800 MHz band to a single earth station in Pittsburgh. The FCC commissioners in February approved an upper C-band notice of inquiry looking at ways of freeing up spectrum there for new services (see 2502270042).
The FCC Enforcement Bureau on Thursday asked voice service providers and USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group to file information by May 1 on “private-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls necessary for the Commission’s annual report.” The reporting period for the request is all of 2024. “Unlawful prerecorded or artificial voice message calls -- robocalls -- plague the American public,” the bureau said in a notice in docket 20-195. “Spoofed caller ID makes it more difficult to identify the source of the call.”
Comments are due April 10, replies April 17, on transfers related to the proposed purchase of Kansas telecommunication services provider IdeaTek Telecom by private equity funds Oak Hill Capital Management and Pamlico Capital Management, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Thursday (docket 25-129).
A wave of retirements has hit the FCC, likely owing to a combination of early retirement offers, the transition in administrations, return-to-office requirements and increased pressure on federal workers, according to interviews with FCC employees and union officials.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson appoints Taylor Hoogendoorn, ex-Susman Godfrey, as deputy director, Bureau of Competition; and Katherine White, ex-Kelley Drye, as deputy director, Bureau of Consumer Protection ... Mediacom promotes Tom Larsen to senior vice president and general counsel … Space launch provider Starfighters Space adds Michael Smith, formerly U.S. Air Force and Southwest Airlines, as vice president-operations … Mobile Communications America names John Navarro, ex-Stanley Security, president-security division.
Regulatory fees assessed on all authorized satellites and earth stations, not just operational ones, help better distribute the fee burden to everyone benefiting from FCC Space Bureau employee resources, the Satellite Industry Association said. In docket 24-85 comments posted Wednesday, SIA said this would also mean lower per-station and per-satellite fees. The group backs assessing satellite regulatory fees based on how much a particular type of operator likely benefits from "full-time employee resources" and constellation size. But it opposes alternative approaches that use a subjective analysis of a system's design and operations, it said. If the FCC takes a fee approach that looks at the number of authorized satellites in a fleet, it must use consistent methodology across satellite operators for what constitutes an authorized satellite, SIA added.