Northstar has agreed to pay $15,000 and implement a compliance plan as part of a settlement with the FCC Enforcement Bureau over allowing its license to operate a submarine cable system to expire and failing to maintain current information in the FCC’s records, said a consent decree Monday. Northstar’s license expired Oct. 1, and the company continued to operate it without FCC authorization before requesting at the end of that month special temporary authority to operate without a license. Northstar’s STA grant expires Aug. 25. Under the compliance plan, Northstar has to create a compliance manual and training program and file compliance reports with the FCC for three years.
AT&T sought permission from the FCC to stop accepting applications for special access DS3 services wherever they’re still offered to new customers throughout the company’s 21-state legacy wireline footprint. AT&T “previously applied for and received authority to grandfather the Affected Services in certain wire centers within its footprint,” said a filing posted by the FCC Monday.
The FCC wasted no time seeking comment on an NPRM looking at potential changes to the commission’s enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which was released last week (see 2508150050). The FCC is set to publish the notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register. That means comments will be due Sept. 18, replies Oct. 3.
Industry groups pressed the FCC to avoid imposing new rules designed to close a “gap” in the commission’s Stir/Shaken authentication rules, making it harder for scammers to hide their identities. Some said the wrong rules could slow the IP transition. Commissioners in April approved an NPRM (see 2504280038) addressing the issue. Reply comments were due Friday in docket 17-97.
The FCC’s top telecom priorities include the components of Chairman Brendan Carr’s “Build America Agenda,” stabilizing USF and deregulation, agency Chief of Staff Scott Delacourt said. NTIA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Adam Cassady said finishing BEAD "is job one," but other tasks include space policy revisions and identifying spectrum for commercialization. The two spoke Monday at Technology Policy Institute’s annual Aspen Forum.
AST SpaceMobile is clarifying to the FCC that its activities in the 430-440 MHz band will be limited largely to emergencies when other frequency bands are unavailable. In a letter Friday to the agency's Space Bureau, it said the one exception is its FM-1 satellite, in which it will use 430-440 MHz for emergencies; for telemetry, tracking and control; and for launch and early orbit operations. It told the commission much the same earlier this month (see 2508060048). AST is seeing pushback from amateur radio interests to its request to use the band since they also use parts of it (see 2507210031). Pointing to an interference analysis it submitted, AST said it's "extremely unlikely" there will be interference to ham radio operations in the 430-44 MHz band.
Representatives of T-Mobile and Grain said they met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff to discuss their pending low-band transaction. Grain Management agreed to buy T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). Grain plans to work with utilities and others to deploy services using the 800 MHz spectrum.
Small carrier SI Wireless on Friday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to compel the FCC to address its claims over blocked payments under the agency's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program.
T-Mobile defended the FCC's bureau-level order approving the company’s buy of spectrum and other wireless assets from UScellular. Along with Array Digital Infrastructure, the new name for UScellular, T-Mobile asked the FCC to reject an application for review filed by the Rural Wireless Association, the Open Technology Institute at New America, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Communications Workers of America (see 2507310041).
An NTIA policy change to make it easier for internet service providers to obtain bank letters of credit so they can participate in the BEAD program will take effect Aug. 24, mimicking a similar policy change at the FCC. The FCC adopted an order in December (see 2412110050) dropping the requirement that banks qualified to issue such letters of credit have a minimum safety rating under the Weiss rating system, requiring only that they be “well capitalized.” An NTIA waiver update released late last month mirrors the FCC policy for the BEAD program, and takes effect at the same time as the FCC rule change. In addition, NTIA will allow financial institutions rated as safe by ratings organizations recognized by the SEC to issue letters of credit for the BEAD program, the update said.