T-Mobile provided additional answers to the FCC in response to questions posed in December about the carrier's buy of wireless assets from UScellular (see 2412270031). The companies announced in May an agreement where T-Mobile would purchase “substantially all” of the smaller carrier’s wireless operations, including some of its spectrum, in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt (see 2405280047).
The FCC’s “In Re: Delete Delete Delete” proceeding could draw a huge number of response filings and is expected to require numerous subsequent rulemakings to lead to actual changes, said industry officials and academics. “Every single regulated entity will sit on Santa's lap and ask for presents,” said TechFreedom Senior Counsel Jim Dunstan. “It will take months just to sift through all the asks and determine how to proceed.”
Dish Wireless parent EchoStar is interested in leasing spectrum to smaller carriers and tribes, the Rural Wireless Association told members Thursday. Leases are available “on a first-come, first-serve basis” in the 600 MHz, 700 MHz, citizens broadband radio service, AWS-3, AWS-4 and AWS H-block bands, RWA said. “EchoStar is making its spectrum licenses available for lease pursuant to conditions imposed by the FCC in a granted extension request of its final 5G construction milestones,” the group said.
Satellite operators are “essentially flying blind” without an international protocol for sharing data about the location and position of objects in space and for planning maneuvers, said Kim Baum, Eutelsat/OneWeb vice president-spectrum engineering and strategy. Speaking at the Satellite 2025 show, she said there's a need for a universal directory of every satellite operator, including contact information, to deal with spectrum, as well as coordination of satellites possibly on collision courses. Multiple speakers mentioned the need for additional international coordination and agreement.
The National Consumer Law Center and Public Justice made their case Monday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an en banc hearing of the court’s decision on a 2023 FCC robocall and robotext order (see 2501240068). Intervenors sought permission to intervene when it became clear the U.S. government wouldn't defend the order (see 2502200004). A key issue before judges was the one-to-one robotext consent provisions in the 2023 order.
Representatives from Bandwidth met with FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Trent Harkrader and others from the bureau on interconnection problems that the company is experiencing. The cloud communications company “provided marketplace perspectives about how [public switched telephone network] interconnection is breaking in various ways as ILECs [incumbent local exchange carriers] and others are decommissioning facilities or pricing services to make them prohibitive for remaining customers to sustain,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-479. “Bandwidth explained that it would prefer to interconnect via IP, but there is no regulatory framework for such interconnection at this time.” The company said its efforts to move time-division multiplexing (TDM) to its commercial IP interconnection agreements “have so far been rebuffed and ILECs have not made IP interconnection available to Bandwidth for the exchange of voice calls with the ILECs’ customers who remain on TDM services or delivery of calls to a selective router.”
Free speech and press groups joined with the unusual alliance of NAB, Public Knowledge, TechFreedom and Free Press in condemning the FCC’s news distortion complaint against CBS in comments filed by Friday’s deadline in docket 25-73.
As President Donald Trump's administration approaches the end of its second month, many questions remain about what it will do concerning the national spectrum strategy and the studies of the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz band started under former President Joe Biden. Most of the news out of NTIA so far has been about BEAD's future, with little on spectrum.
Representatives of Public Knowledge and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance met with aides to three of the FCC commissioners on the importance of making low-cost broadband available for those who can’t afford current offerings. They discussed with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez support for a “reformed” USF “that creates a pathway to support a permanent broadband subsidy that mirrors the incredibly successful Affordable Connectivity Program.” They also discussed “affordability and reliability challenges in remote communities that depend on satellite broadband,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. Affordability remains an issue even as new satellite and fixed wireless options “put competitive, downward pressure on pricing,” the filing said.
The Fiber Broadband Association on Wednesday released an “Introduction to Passive Optical Network Splitter Architectures,” which was developed by the FBA Technology Committee. “The purpose of the guide is to demystify the terminology, configurations, and best practices associated with PON splitter deployment,” the group said. The report “explores how splitter architecture choices impact fiber counts, splicing, and customer connections while setting the stage for a more detailed follow-up analysis of centralized versus distributed splitting architectures.”