The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Thursday on a petition by Oxio seeking a waiver of a requirement in the commission’s numbering assignment rules. Those seeking initial numbering resources must include in their applications evidence that they're authorized to provide service in the area for which the numbering resources are requested. Oxio argues that it needs to “ensure that it has access to telephone numbers for its innovative hybrid wireless service,” the bureau said. Comments are due July 7, replies July 22, in docket 13-97.
Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar, Comcast and Altice made filings at the FCC in response to letters from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics as the agency examines the broader wireless market in light of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular (see 2504230019). The filings, posted this week in docket 24-286, were fully redacted.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau will conduct a voluntary exercise of the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for all communications providers June 16-18, according to a public notice Thursday. The test will begin June 16 with a mock activation letter to all registered DIRS participants from the Public Safety Bureau, it said. The letter, which "will clearly state that this is only an exercise,” will include a list of preselected counties that form the affected area for the mock DIRS activation, and providers will be asked to report data on any communication assets they have in those counties. "Since this is an exercise, the FCC does not expect to receive actual outage data," the notice said. Providers that don’t have communications assets in the affected counties can still participate in the exercise by reporting mock data for the counties. The agency wants initial data by 10 a.m. ET June 17 and an updated report by the same time June 18. The bureau will send a deactivation letter by 3 p.m. ET June 18 to let participants know that the exercise is over.
Comments are due July 7, replies July 21, on the FCC’s proposals for FY 2025 regulatory fees, said an NPRM released Thursday. The agency on Wednesday unanimously approved the NPRM, which seeks comment on a proposal to reclassify 61 indirect full-time equivalents (FTEs) as direct FTEs, as well as on the $390,192,000 in proposed fees. The costs of indirect FTEs are borne by all FCC regulatory fee payors, while direct FTEs are paid only by the licensees serviced by the bureau or office to which they are assigned. The reallocation is based on the FCC determining “that certain FTE work in the Office of General Counsel, the Office of Economics and Analytics, and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is sufficiently linked to the oversight and regulation of regulatory fee payors in a core bureau.” Among the proposed changes to FTEs, the Wireless and Wireline bureaus' payors would see their direct FTEs increase by 23 each, while Media Bureau payors would see an increase of 13 FTEs. The regulatory fee NPRM doesn’t seek comment on proposed changes to the way fees for space and earth stations are calculated, because the proceeding for a recent Further NPRM on that subject (see 2502260017) is still open, Thursday’s NPRM said.
Police have arrested Jeffrey Gary, formerly an assistant division chief in the FCC Enforcement Bureau, for allegedly assaulting a woman. The attack occurred Friday evening near the Braddock Metro Station in Alexandria, Virginia, per a release this week from the Alexandria Police Department. Gary is being fired from the FCC, where he had served in the Enforcement Bureau's Telecommunications Consumers Division. Police said Gary has been linked to at least one other attack.
Blue Origin is now aiming for an August launch for its Moon Lander MK1 Pathfinder mission, it told the FCC Space Bureau in a filing posted Wednesday. The proposed mission was originally expected in Q1 2025 (see 2408020001). The company told the bureau this week that once the lander touches down on the moon's surface, its mission there should take about 24 hours. Blue Origin anticipates using the S band for mission uplinks and downlinks, with the X band as a backup, it said.
President Kris Hutchison and others from Aviation Spectrum Resources Inc. met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff on a request the company made as part of the “Delete” proceeding. In that proceeding, ASRI asked the commission “to eliminate an outmoded rule specifying a geographic restriction for the aeronautical VHF channel of 136.750 MHz, which limits the efficient and constructive use of the aeronautical VHF band by the aviation industry.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday approved a request from the C-band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse (RPC) to end operations at the end of June (see 2505140034). The bureau also designated Verizon, “on behalf of all the 3.7 GHz Service licensees, to directly assume responsibility for the RPC’s last outstanding program cost ‘in the event of a favorable Commission or favorable final court ruling regarding the pending appeal.’” That step was at the request of the RPC.
Top Senate Republicans told us Wednesday that they're likely to prioritize confirmation votes for GOP FCC nominee Olivia Trusty much earlier than expected as a result of Commissioner Nathan Simington’s abrupt exit. Simington said Wednesday he plans to depart the FCC “at the end of this week,” as we reported (see 2506030069). Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said he will resign Friday, also as expected (see 2505220043). The departures mean the FCC's party makeup will stand at a 1-1 tie by week’s end. That will also leave the commission below the statutory three-commissioner quorum, posing potential problems for Chairman Brendan Carr’s agenda heading into the commission’s planned June 26 meeting (see 2506040061).
The Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council asked the FCC Wireless Bureau to revisit some coordination procedures for commercial space launch service laid out in a public notice the bureau issued in March (see 2503260003). In a reconsideration petition posted Tuesday (docket 13-115), the organization challenged a limit on coordinating with primary aeronautical mobile telemetry operations that support flight testing in the 2360-2395 MHz band. The bureau decided to restrict the scope of coordination because there have been no complaints of harmful interference to date, which AFTRCC said ignores the fact that there have been few launches where using the 2360-2395 MHz Band was even a possibility. The group also asked for reconsideration of the decision not to require suborbital launch coordination requests to include duration of transmission information. In addition, it requested that the FCC reconsider the decision not to require space launch operators to make initial coordination requests at least 60 days before prospective launch windows. The bureau should clarify that new coordination is needed if the timing of a proposed launch changes to fall completely or partially outside a previously coordinated launch window, it said.