Despite an array of federal broadband programs and billions of dollars spent on connectivity and access, a pressing need remains for high-quality national datasets on broadband pricing, network quality and consumers’ digital skills, Pew said Tuesday. A review of broadband literature between 2008 and 2024 showed that researchers identified holes in available data, including a lack of household-level information on broadband access and adoption, Pew said. The absence of data standardization has also led to inaccuracies in measuring coverage gaps, it added.
T-Mobile is adjusting its practices to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by the Trump administration, said Mark Nelson, the carrier's general counsel, in a letter to the FCC posted Wednesday. Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized T-Mobile for making the concessions.
The FTC failed to follow procedural requirements of the FTC Act when it adopted its "click-to-cancel" rule, an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said Tuesday as it vacated the regulation. NCTA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others petitioned the panel about the rule (see 2411220029), which is aimed at making it easier to cancel negative-option contracts, where consumers must actively opt out of monthly subscriptions.
The FCC shouldn’t take up a proposal to give broadcasters expedited waivers of media ownership rules in exchange for their promises to reduce retransmission consent rates by 50% over three years, said Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long in a post Monday. The proposal, from Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories and Hawaiian Telcom Services Co., was filed in the FCC’s “Delete” docket in June. It amounts to “forward-looking, government-imposed pricing mandates” on retransmission consent rates “that could persist for a decade or more,” Long wrote. The proposal would also use administrative contracts that couldn't be reviewed in court and would bind broadcasters and MVPDs, he said. “These so-called voluntary ‘social contracts’ would impose enforceable, multiyear pricing constraints -- effectively, rate regulation -- while circumventing judicial scrutiny.”
The Rural Wireless Association and other groups asked the FCC to examine AT&T’s proposed purchase of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from UScellular in the broader context of the U.S. wireless market. The groups met virtually with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to a filing posted Monday in docket 25-150.
Proponents of the 5G broadcast standard for low-power TV haven’t adequately shown that the new standard won’t cause interference to other services, said Sinclair Broadcast and NAB in reply comments filed in docket 25-168 in response to a petition from HC2 (see 2506030060). The petitioner “has not submitted a detailed engineering analysis or a technical study demonstrating that LPTV stations can operate using 5G Broadcast without interfering with existing television services,” said Sinclair.
AT&T said its network wasn’t to blame for problems on a call with faith leaders that provoked the fury of President Donald Trump (see 2506300060). “Our initial analysis indicates the disruption was caused by an issue with the conference call platform, not our network,” AT&T said on X late Monday. “Unfortunately, this caused the delay, and we are working diligently to better understand the issue so we can prevent disruptions in the future.”
T-Mobile unveiled new pricing plans Tuesday for its Ultra Mobile brand, which it acquired last year (see 2405010035). The entry-level plan now offers 500 MB of data at $15 per month, up from 250 MB. The $39-a-month plan now includes 24 GB of data, up from 15. T-Mobile is also offering additional international calling features, it said. “Starting today, Ultra plans now include more data, more international coverage and customers have more ways to save with multi-month plans -- all while keeping the same affordable pricing launched over a decade ago.”
The Wireline Bureau has extended several incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027, and the FCC could reevaluate aspects of the 2024 IPCS order, said an order and news release Monday. The new order waived the deadlines for complying with the rate cap, site commission, and per-minute pricing rules adopted in 2024 “to ensure sufficient funding for safety and security tools, while IPCS providers and the facilities they serve address the challenges of implementing these requirements.” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a release that the 2024 order “is leading to negative, unintended consequences” where prisons limit the availability of IPCS, and it “does not allow providers and institutions to properly consider public safety and security interests when facilitating these services.”
The FCC shouldn't accept or receive comments on AST SpaceMobile's plans to use the 700 and 800 MHz bands for supplemental coverage from space services until AST makes public its interference analysis on those bands, T-Mobile said. In a posting Friday (docket 25-201), T-Mobile said AST should also first provide more information about the spectrum it will use and the geographic area that its proposed SCS operations cover, including coverage maps for each block of spectrum it leases.