T-Mobile is urging the FCC to hold off on instituting a text-to-988 georouting requirement, saying it could disrupt collaborations between wireless providers and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline administrator. That view was expressed in docket 18-336 comments posted Friday, as the FCC is seeking input on 988 text georouting privacy issues (see 2503030002). The 988 call georouting order, which FCC commissioners approved in October, included an NPRM about text georouting (see 2410170026).
5G broadcast supporters say HC2’s petition to allow low-power TV stations to transmit in that standard and reach mobile devices could represent a lifeline for an LPTV industry in distress, while some critics say it appears to be aimed at allowing low-power TV owners to get out of the broadcast business.
DOD has floated a compromise to the wireless industry that vacates military-controlled bands to 420 MHz available for FCC auction while maintaining its grip on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, the main battleground in Capitol Hill’s protracted talks on a compromise airwaves legislative package. DOD’s proposal, first reported by Punchbowl News, circulated as the Senate prepared to move on an amended version of the House-passed budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 14), which will provide a blueprint for a coming reconciliation package that Republicans hope to use to move spectrum legislation (see 2501290057).
FCC commissioners will consider a long-anticipated order on sharing in the 37 GHz band at their meeting April 28, Chairman Brendan Carr announced Friday. In addition, the commission will vote on satellite spectrum sharing and an item designed to crack down further on robocalls. Foreign ownership rules round out the agenda.
A Project Rise Partners purchase of Paramount Global would mean fair and balanced news coverage, representatives told FCC acting Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone and other staffers, according to a docket 24-275 filing posted Thursday. It recapped a meeting at which PRP -- chaired by Daphna Edwards Ziman, head of independent network Cinemoi, and Moses Gross, managing trustee of Malka Investment Trust -- reiterated its arguments that Tencent's investment in Skydance Media raises national security concerns and that Skydance Media buying Paramount could mean higher consumer prices (see 2503060035). PRP told the FCC it "will seek a return to the vision and practice of CBS’s -- the Tiffany Network’s -- formative titans, Bill Paley and Walter Cronkite, free from bias, dedicated to excellence and presenting the news in the way that it is." It said it would return "to the principles underlying the dormant Fairness Doctrine [and] provide an organizational structure that allows and considers public input to capture all viewpoints and prevent news coverage distortion."
Counsel for Assist Wireless, enTouch Wireless, Easy Wireless and Access Wireless spoke with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to ask that the agency grant applications for review that they filed on upward revisions for reimbursement of services provided in the last month of the Lifeline COVID-19 waiver period. The Wireline Bureau rejected their appeals of the Universal Service Administrative Co.’s denials of the upward revisions to their Lifeline reimbursement claims, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 11-42. The bureau “wrongly found that the revisions would violate the FCC’s rules by providing reimbursements for Lifeline subscribers who were not eligible for reimbursement based on when the Bureau’s final waiver of the Lifeline usage rule ended.”
NextNav envisions itself providing backup to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) as part of a “system of systems” that includes space- and terrestrial-based solutions, said Renee Gregory, its vice president-regulatory affairs, during an FCBA webinar Wednesday (see 2504020062).
Pointing to the Quintillion subsea fiber cut in the Beaufort Sea (see 2501220001), Alaska's Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative is asking the FCC to waive penalties this calendar year for not complying with some of its obligations in exchange for Alaska Plan funding. In a docket 16-271 waiver petition Thursday, ASTAC said it's failing Q1 speed/latency requirements due to a service outage stemming from the Quintillion fiber cut -- Quintillion being the middle-mile fiber backhaul provider for ASTAC. It's asking for a waiver of penalties through 2025 to give it time to repair the cut.
The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative in response to communications impacts from severe weather and flooding in 17 counties in Kentucky, said a public notice Wednesday. A DIRS update released Thursday showed no cellsites or broadcasters down, with 793 cable and wireline subscribers without service in the affected areas. The FCC also issued public notices on priority communications services, FCC assistance availability and emergency communication procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.
More than 100 state legislators from 28 states on Thursday urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and NTIA to ensure that states have the final say over their BEAD programs. In a letter backed by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the bipartisan group of lawmakers raised concerns about reported changes to the program that could cause delays to broadband deployment and states' authority over state programs. As of Thursday, 115 lawmakers had signed the letter and encouraged others to sign.