AT&T CEO John Stankey said Monday the carrier will move aggressively to shutter more of its legacy copper network in coming months, filing applications at the FCC to stop selling legacy products in about 1,300 wire centers. That is about a quarter of AT&T’s footprint, officials said on a call discussing Q4 results. AT&T also announced that its growth is continuing, with 482,000 postpaid phone subscription net adds in the quarter and 307,000 AT&T Fiber adds.
New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s decision to pull all items on circulation for a vote by commissioners wasn’t a surprise, industry officials said. Since taking office a week ago, President Donald Trump has pushed a deregulatory agenda and issued a regulatory freeze among a slew of executive orders on his first day (see 2501210070). Among the FCC items withdrawn was a controversial NPRM that former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated in March on banning bulk broadband billing in multi-tenant environments (see 2408010064).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appoints: Tom Sullivan as acting chief, Office of International Affairs, replacing Troy Tanner; Catherine Matraves as acting chief, Office of Economics and Analytics; Katie Gorscak as acting director, Office of Media Relations, replacing Paloma Perez Christie … Salt Point Strategies names Anderson Helton, ex-staffer for Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Milla Anderson, ex-FCC, as vice presidents … FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks moves Wireline Bureau's Kiara Ortiz to acting legal adviser, replacing Anderson.
The FCC should consider blanket mission requests when it examines space launch frequency coordination, Virgin Galactic said in a filing posted Friday. It said it plans to launch every three days and asked that operators with high flight cadences of similar or identical profiles be allowed to submit requests that cover multiple missions. The agency is considering space launch licensing and frequency coordination procedures and data requirements (see 2501230025).
Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH) countered the arguments made against its request for a stay of the FCC's one-to-one robotext consent rules (see 2501230037). Absent FCC action, the rules become effective Monday. “Contrary to the National Consumer and Privacy Groups’ contentions, the request for a stay aligns with both executive authority and the [Administrative Procedure Act’s] legal framework,” REACH said in a filing posted Friday in docket 02-278. “The request also ensures a fair and thorough review of the Rule, taking into consideration important issues that may affect small businesses, consumers, and broader market dynamics.”
The Georgia Department of Corrections told the FCC that, during the last quarter of 2024, zero devices were “erroneously disabled” by the contraband interdiction system at the state's correctional facilities, in a filing posted Friday in docket 13-111. The Georgia department has been filing quarterly reports at the FCC on its interdiction efforts.
EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen met with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington on the need for the FCC to update its citizens broadband radio service rules, the focus of an August NPRM (see 2408160031). “EchoStar reiterated how harmonizing rules for the CBRS band with those of neighboring bands (i.e., the 3.45 GHz and 3.7 GHz bands) will maximize its utility and enable domestic carriers and vendors to participate in global economies of scale,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-258. “The majority of commenters in the record support proposals to update rules for the CBRS band,” and the commission “should move forward to enact such changes expeditiously,” EchoStar said.
The FCC approved the Bifrost subsea cable system, which will connect California, Oregon, Guam, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, said a notice in Friday's Daily Digest. The system is a joint effort of Meta, Indonesia's Telin and Singapore's Keppel.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will undoubtedly continue focusing on his core issues of deregulation, competition, infrastructure development and national security, Venable lawyers Craig Gilley and Liz Clark Rinehart wrote Thursday. How quickly he can steer the agency in that direction will depend on Congress' speed in confirming Olivia Trusty as the third Republican commissioner, giving him the majority he needs, they added. A Carr administration means the agency will change course on communications policy issues including net neutrality, broadband regulation, digital equity, spectrum, rationalizing federal infrastructure spending and BEAD, and content moderation online, they said. Carr will likely take a narrower view of the scope of FCC authority and use competition, rather than regulation, to protect consumers. However, he will be a more aggressive regulator on national security matters. GOP control of Capitol Hill and the White House makes net neutrality "a non-issue over the next four years," though whether the FCC can explicitly preempt state net neutrality regulations remains an open question, the lawyers said. If the FCC's digital discrimination rules survive the current challenge before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Carr's FCC would likely revisit and repeal them, they said. The Republican-controlled Congress isn't likely to restore Affordable Connectivity Program funding, "given where Congressional Republicans are on budget issues." They said they expect Carr's FCC to focus on streamlining rules for fiber and infrastructure deployment, such as limiting fees that states and local governments can charge for permit application reviews.
The FCC missed an opportunity by ignoring broader market competition in its most recent biannual Communications Marketplace Report, wrote Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation director-policy studies, on Friday. The report was approved 3-2, over dissents by now-Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington. As he has in the past, Carr objected to the focus on market segments rather than on the converged market (see 2501020033). “The Commission failed to fulfill its statutory duty to consider the effect of competition between services that use different broadband delivery technologies,” and “the 2024 report made zero advancements in analyzing cross-platform competitive effects,” Cooper wrote. “Under new leadership, the FCC should abandon viewing alternative broadband delivery technologies as entirely separate and recognize there is a broader broadband market characterized by competition among fixed and mobile broadband services.”