Telecom providers largely welcomed FCC proposals to streamline the agency’s slamming and truth-in-billing rules, according to their responses to an NPRM that commissioners approved in July (see 2507240055). Consumer and public interest groups disagreed, calling for some protections to remain in place. Comments were due Monday and mostly posted Tuesday in docket 17-169.
In light of the streamlined earth station licensing requirements that the FCC adopted in August (see 2508070037), its Space Bureau gave guidance Monday on adding a point of communication for an earth station license. In a public notice in docket 22-411, the bureau explained how licensees should identify that they're filing to add a point of communication, how pending applications can use the new procedures, and the form of content of the notices to add a point of communication.
Venturi Astrolab hopes to launch its lunar rover as soon as early December for a technology demonstration mission on the moon's surface. In an application filed Friday with the FCC Space Bureau, Astrolab said the mission carrying the rover is expected to launch between Dec. 4 and March 4. The rover will attach to an Astrobotic Technology lander as part of a NASA-funded mission, it said. The company will use the S and X bands for communications and a local 2.4 GHz support link for communications with the lander, it added.
The FCC, which previously shot down SpaceX's plans to operate in the 2 GHz band, will likely think differently now, satellite spectrum experts said. The company applied Friday to launch and operate as many as 15,000 satellites to provide direct-to-device (D2D) service globally. The constellation would use spectrum that SpaceX is buying from EchoStar, including the 2 GHz band.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered Andrew Mart of Naperville, Illinois, to explain within 10 days his operation of an amateur radio that was found to be transmitting at 20.8 MHz, outside permitted bands. No amateur radio license, issued by the U.S. or another country with reciprocal U.S. operating privileges, “allows transmissions on frequencies outside the authorized amateur bands, including the transmissions you admitted making,” the letter said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Friday reminded carriers with supplemental coverage from space “arrangements” that they must file annual reports by Oct. 15. The reports must cover “911 voice calls, text messages and emergency call center data,” said the notice in docket 24-318. The commission “adopted these reporting requirements in 2024 as part of interim 911 requirements for terrestrial providers that use SCS arrangements to extend their coverage service areas.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chastised FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday for comments earlier in the week against ABC and parent Disney, which were widely perceived as bringing about the network’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air indefinitely (see 2509180066). Carr threatened ABC in a podcast interview, saying the network should discipline Kimmel for comments about the Make America Great Again movement's reaction to the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (see 2509170064) or face FCC action.
With the FCC contemplating an upper C-band auction, its Space Bureau on Thursday issued an updated list of fixed satellite service earth stations in the 4-4.2 GHz band in the contiguous U.S. The notice in docket 20-205 also reminded earth station operators that they must maintain an up-to-date registration with the FCC of incumbent earth stations that continue to operate in the 4-4.2 GHz band.
Opponents of T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, including spectrum, met with Arpan Sura, an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, about their application for review of the transaction (see 2507310041). Representatives of the Rural Wireless Association, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Communications Workers of America attended, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-286. The transaction was approved by the Wireless Bureau and the Office of International Affairs without a commissioner vote.
NCTA and WISPA said the FCC should think twice before quickly agreeing to give Viaero a waiver of a rule that limits a single party to owning four citizens broadband radio service priority access licenses (PAL) in any market. Comments were due Wednesday to the Wireless Bureau on Viaero's proposal to buy 10 priority access licenses from Citizens Band License Co., which would result in it exceeding the limit in seven counties in Colorado (see 2509050021).