Velocity Communications asked the FCC to extend by six months the deadline to remove Chinese components from its networks to comply with the agency's rip-and-replace program. The company warned that its future is at stake and it needs more funding to proceed. Congress recently allocated an additional $3.08 billion to close the funding shortfall in the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412240036). “What started as a 1-year project timeline to complete the network overhaul has turned into a multi-year effort to save the business from becoming insolvent,” a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89 said.
Axon Networks told the FCC that because it agreed to use the common testing portal, the Office of Engineering and Technology was justified in allowing the company to conduct a 20-day public test of its 6 GHz automated frequency coordination (AFC) system. Axon responded to the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition, which said the usual 45-day period should have been required (see 2501140078). Axon noted that OET also allowed a 20-day period for tests by C3Spectra last year and no one objected. “Lack of prior objections notwithstanding, OET’s decision to give the affected applicants the option of a shortened public testing period where a common testing portal would be leveraged was both ‘reasonable and reasonably explained,’” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-352. In the 2023 testing procedures public notice, “OET highlighted the expected benefits of a single point of entry for testing all AFCs, and it gave applicants the option of using a common Internet-based test portal with other AFC systems in lieu of setting up their own public trial test portal,” Axon said.
FCC commissioners unanimously adopted an NPRM seeking comment on rules designed to provide more spectrum for uncrewed aircraft systems. Commissioner Anna Gomez recused herself from voting on the 450 GHz portion of the notice. The NPRM proposes changes in service rules for 650 kHz in the 450 MHz band. “In their current form, these site-based rules confine air-ground communications in the band to voice communications with aircraft traveling at high altitudes,” the NPRM said: “We propose to replace the current rigid framework with rules that embrace more flexible use of the band while minimizing the possibility for harmful interference by creating a single nationwide license.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Friday sought comment on the application of Solen Ventures and NexTalk for conditional certification as providers of IP-captioned telephone service (IP CTS). Solen acquired majority ownership and control of NexTalk in December, the bureau noted. The companies recently asked the FCC to grant conditional certification, allowing NexTalk to remain eligible for compensation from the interstate telecommunications relay service fund (see 2412310047). Comments are due Feb. 7, replies Feb. 18, in docket 03-123.
John Strand of Strand Consult emailed that he agreed with Commissioner Brendan Carr’s sharp criticism of the FCC’s order on the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks, approved 3-2 with Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2501160041). “The division of roles between the various authorities is always decided by the national parliaments,” Strand emailed: “National regulators are not the ones who interpret the rules, but the ones who execute the rules that the political system makes.” Strand said the Secure Equipment Act, which was quickly enacted in 2021, shows how the system should work: “The FCC finds a thing it needs to do; it checks the books on whether it has the authority to do it. If not, it goes to Congress and asks permission. Permission is granted in a matter of weeks, nearly unanimously. There is no reason why that process should not be pursued here with Salt Typhoon.”
Eight former FCC commissioners filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court last week urging the justices to overturn the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program. Meanwhile, likely Senate Communications Subcommittee leaders Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., led an amicus brief with 27 other House and Senate lawmakers defending the funding mechanism.
BEAD-related construction in Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada should start as soon as Q2, according to state officials, some BEAD subgrantee award winners and BEAD experts. The three states last week received NTIA approval of their final proposals, the first to do so. Unclear is whether other states will get started this year due to questions surrounding the change in administration possibly causing delays, we're told.
Federated Wireless CEO Iyad Tarazi expects relative stability on spectrum issues with the change in administrations, though he noted there are always questions. In a wide-ranging interview with us, he predicted that sharing in some form will be part of the rules for the lower 3 GHz band, one of the top focuses of carriers for exclusive, licensed use. A former Sprint executive, Tarazi became CEO of Federated in 2014.
Incoming President Donald Trump said Friday he has tapped former Special Assistant to the President-Technology, Telecommunications and Cybersecurity Policy Robin Colwell as National Economic Council deputy director. Meanwhile, additional communications industry entities hailed Thursday night and Friday Trump’s choice of Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty as his intended nominee for the FCC seat that then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel planned to vacate Monday (see 2501160077).
Altice USA and its critics are raising the idea that refunds are owed to Altice subscribers as a result of MSG Network's blackout (see 2501130068). Accordingly, Altice said Thursday that MSG owes its cable subscribers some $125 million in refunds. Altice said the refund figure represents the $10 per month per subscriber that MSG says its sports programming is worth and that Altice subscribers paid for but didn't receive last year. It added that MSG "continues to play games with our customers while refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations." Meanwhile, two Republican House members representing parts of the New York City metro area wrote FCC leadership, saying Altice's handling of talks with MSG and Nexstar involving carriage of WPIX New York (see 250114004) "appears inconsistent" with FCC guidance. "Consumers should not pay the same fees for diminished service, and providers should proactively issue rebates when significant content, such as sports or local news, is removed," said the letter dated Thursday from Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Chairman-designate Brendan Carr. Pointing to the agency's new retransmission consent blackout reporting requirement (see 2501060032), the lawmakers said it "will provide valuable data to inform solutions [to such blackouts], and we stand ready to collaborate with the FCC and consider legislative remedies to address these issues."