The U.S. was premature in creating a supplemental coverage from space (SCS) rules framework, and other nations ought to wait until after the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, when there's a more globalized framework to follow, said Mindel de la Torre, Omnispace chief regulatory and international strategy officer, Thursday at Access Intelligence’s Satellite 2024 conference in Washington. Multiple 2023 WRC attendees said there was far greater focus on future agenda items than at past WRCs.
Senate Commerce Committee Democrats and Republicans who back allocating an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and stopgap funding for the commission’s ailing affordable connectivity program used a Thursday spectrum-focused hearing (see 2403210063) to vent about the Hill's failure thus far to address either priority. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending bill, which congressional leaders released early Thursday morning as an amendment to legislative vehicle HR-2882, as expected (see 2403190062) includes neither ACP nor rip-and-replace funding.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she hopes to soon file legislation on a five-year renewal of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority without language authorizing sales of specific bands, despite Republican criticism during a Thursday hearing about omitting an airwaves pipeline. Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as an antidote to concerns about the Biden spectrum strategy, as expected (see 2403200001). The hearing also revealed clear divisions among panel Republicans about continuing to explore 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which has drawn opposition from DOD and top Capitol Hill allies (see 2403200061).
ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development announces new commissioners, including FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel; Abel Avellan, CEO-AST SpaceMobile; Mark Dankberg, CEO-Viasat; Shameel Joosub, CEO-Vodacom; Isabelle Mauro, director general-Global Satellite Operator’s Association; and Deemah AlYahya, secretary general-Digital Cooperation Organization... Phillips Lytle names partner Richard Marinaccio to lead law firm’s newly launched AI practice team ... Brown Gibbons Lang investment bank and financial advisory firm adds Stifel’s Jason Myler as a managing director within its tech team.
Eutelsat expects to put its Eutelsat 113 West B satellite into geostationary orbit in 2027, it told the FCC Space Bureau in a petition posted Wednesday seeking U.S. market access in the Ku, Ka, Q and V bands. The French- and Mexican-flagged satellite will provide fixed service and mobility applications in the Americas, Eutelsat said. The company said that while it has U.S. market access for the Eutelsat 113 West A satellite in the same orbital location, that market access grant is being surrendered.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau wants comments by May 1 on the state of private-led robocall traceback efforts in 2023, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 20-195. The commission needs feedback for an annual report to Congress as required under the Traced Act.
The Maine legislature approved a telecom bill Tuesday that would allow the Maine Public Utilities Commission to designate wireless companies as eligible telecom carriers for the federal Lifeline program. Like some states, Maine currently relies on the FCC to designate mobile phone providers as ETCs. The bill (LD-2193) needs Gov. Chris Sununu's (R) signature. Florida's legislature passed a similar bill earlier this month (see 2403050070).
Time is ripe to examine in a broader context FCC requirements for handset unlocking, Verizon told the agency in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-171. Requiring providers to unlock their devices, “which often contain software that prevents them from operating on another carrier’s network … allows consumers to switch providers more easily,” Verizon said. But “an unlocking requirement may discourage a carrier from deeply discounting a phone because it cannot recoup its subsidy if a customer immediately moves to another carrier.” Verizon noted the rules have been inconsistent. The FCC adopted handset unlocking and other open platform requirements on carriers buying licenses in the 700 MHz upper C-block auction, Verizon noted. The carrier bought the 700 MHz licenses in an auction that ended in 2008, giving it low-band spectrum nationwide (see 0803250101). More recently, public interest groups urged handset unlocking requirements as a condition of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2402220032), Verizon said: “Regardless of whether the Commission requires T-Mobile to accept some or all of the handset unlocking conditions requested, it should pursue a more considered and uniform approach to unlocking.”
Two retired senior military officials on Wednesday urged collaboration between the wireless industry and the DOD on opening the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands for licensed use. While the U.S. “has been the established global leader in wireless, a new technology superpower -- China -- is emerging with astonishing speed,” said Mike Rogers, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former director of the National Security Agency, and Bruce Crawford, retired lieutenant general and former Army chief information officer. “Both our military and commercial sectors need access to spectrum -- but today our national spectrum policies are struggling to keep up with critical needs,” they said in a Stars and Stripes essay. The lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands align “with our allies around the globe and should be our priority,” they added. “We should explore all opportunities for full-power commercial access to these bands while ensuring that the needs of federal missions are fully met.” In addition, DOD needs clear direction and a schedule of auctions from the FCC, Rogers and Crawford wrote: “Too often our military is forced to respond to band-by-band spectrum access requests without any global view of the policy objective or insight into when or where the next request will be received. That is not how the military works.”
Mongoose Works failed to show that the FCC Wireless Bureau erred in siding with the C-band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse's classification of two of the company's antennas, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in a docket 21-333 brief Wednesday. Mongoose is appealing a Wireless Bureau decision upholding the Clearinghouse's reduction of Mongoose's C-band clearing lump sum claim amount by $69,686 (see 2309180019). The Enforcement Bureau said the earth station operator failed to cite an FCC rule or policy or otherwise support the argument that the two antennas should be categorized as large multi-beam earth station antennas. Instead, Mongoose states that its arguments are consistent with the C-band clearing order "without offering anything more," the bureau said.