Satellite broadband providers, especially Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper service, are likely the big winners in the Commerce Department’s rewriting of the BEAD program rules, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Monday. Smaller providers that use unlicensed spectrum to offer broadband also won, he said. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, slammed the revised rules that the Trump administration released Friday (see 2506060052).
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).
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., pressed the Trump administration Friday to immediately release the $42.5 billion Congress allocated to NTIA’s BEAD program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in March began a “rigorous review” of BEAD aimed at revamping the program (see 2503050067). Meanwhile, National Lifeline Association Chairman David Dorwart marked the one-year anniversary of the formal lapse of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program (see 2405310070).
The FCC asked for comment on whether it should update its “covered list” of unsecure companies to reflect a January finding by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. BIS found “that the provision of certain connected vehicle hardware or software by certain Chinese- or Russian-controlled entities poses an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security and the safety and security of U.S. persons.” The notice, published by the FCC Public Safety Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology in Tuesday's Daily Digest, asks for comments by June 9 in docket 18-89.
Keep the 25-year licensing term for submarine cable systems, and don't extend licensing requirements to non-owners such as cable capacity lessees, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the FCC Monday in docket 24-523. It said subsea cable licensees need a clearly established process for license revocation, and the agency should make clear that new cable landing license regulations won't retroactively apply to existing licenses.
After decades of work by federal agencies dealing with Ligado and its predecessors, still nothing has been invested in its proposed terrestrial L-band network, said aviation organizations and allies that opposed the FCC's 2019 Ligado authorization. They sent letters this week to President Donald Trump and congressional leadership. "Move on [and] put the issue to rest" by getting the FCC to grant the pending petitions seeking reconsideration of Ligado's authorization (see 2005210043), they said. Ligado's authorization poses an interference threat to GPS, satellite communications and weather forecasting services, said nearly 100 groups and companies, including AccuWeather, Airlines for America, American Farm Bureau Federation and American Meteorological Society. Congressional recipients included Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Ligado didn't comment Thursday.
The departure of Elon Musk as a top adviser to the Donald Trump Administration could have significant implications for telecom policy, depending on when he leaves and how that changes his relationship with Trump, experts said. Among Musk’s companies is SpaceX, parent of Starlink, which stands to benefit from pending changes to the BEAD program (see 2503170045). Musk called reports of his imminent departure "fake news."
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pushed back against a probe by Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., of eight investigations of broadcasters that the Enforcement and Media bureaus launched since Carr took over Jan. 20 (see 2503140055). The FCC probes thus far focus on broadcasters that have carried content critical of President Donald Trump or otherwise face claims of pro-Democratic Party bias. Carr has, in some cases, said the scrutiny is focused on other matters (see 2502110063). House Commerce Committee Democrats are also investigating Carr's broadcaster actions (see 2503310046).
The satellite industry hopes for a better reception from President Donald Trump's administration than it got under former President Joe Biden concerning satellite broadband as a part of the BEAD program (see 2412130011), Boston Consulting Group’s Mike French said Wednesday. His comments came as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick promised a “rigorous review” of the BEAD program (see 2503050067).
President Donald Trump’s latest norm-busting executive order (see 2502180069) directing the FCC, among other "so-called independent" agencies and executive branch bodies, to submit regulatory actions to the White House before they're published in the Federal Register could complicate Brendan Carr’s push to be an active chairman at the FCC, industry experts said Wednesday.