President-elect Donald Trump and Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr delivered additional bad news to broadcasters Tuesday about how the incoming administration may interact with them. Carr during an interview with Fox News that a news distortion complaint against CBS over its editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410170051) could affect the Skydance/Paramount Global deal. Carr said he planned to “reinvigorate” the legacy media by emphasizing broadcaster public interest obligations, and referred to the Skydance transaction as a possible example. “I'm pretty confident that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that's likely to rise in the context of the FCC review of that transaction,” Carr said (see 2411010044). Paramount didn’t comment. Carr listed conferring with Trump and the space economy as priorities for his upcoming chairmanship. “The first thing is to get together with the president's team and make sure that I 100% understand his agenda,” Carr said: “After all, it is going to be his administration, and his agenda we’ll be pushing.” He also listed tech censorship, rural broadband and accelerating permitting for the satellite industry as priorities. Carr repeated plans for ending the FCC’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion policies (see 2411180059). “The idea that the [FCC] listed its second-highest strategic priority as promoting DEI, there's no place for that,” Carr said. “And when the transition is complete, when we come in, the FCC is going to end its promotion of DEI.” Trump said he would nominate Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who heads the president-elect’s transition team, to be commerce secretary. Lutnick, just days before the Nov. 5 election, said the U.S. should auction broadcast spectrum to only outlets that “agree to be nonpartisan” (see 2410280037). Lutnick’s comments came amid Trump’s fights with several major broadcasters over election coverage. Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said: Lutnick as transition chief “has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.” USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said in a statement the group could work with Lutnick and the Commerce Department “to advance America’s global connectivity leadership by deploying more broadband, collaborating to prevent cyber threats, and spurring innovation throughout the economy.”
In a post-Chevron deference era, the FCC's space regulatory work beyond its spectrum bailiwick could be on shaky ground, space law experts said Tuesday during an FCBA CLE. Multiple speakers predicted "friendly chaos" for space policy from the incoming Trump administration, with it likely being friendly to commercial space but change being a constant. The Chevron doctrine, under which courts generally defer to regulatory agencies' expertise, was overturned this year by the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision, which gives agency expertise lesser weight.
Congressional GOP leaders are doubtful about lawmakers' chances of reaching a year-end deal on an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program even as some Democrats are softening their insistence that the funding move in tandem with stopgap money for the FCC's lapsed affordable connectivity program. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas and nine other Republicans wrote congressional leaders Monday to press for rip-and-replace funding in a bid to highlight the issue amid the lame-duck frenzy.
In what could be its last full meeting under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC on Dec. 11 will consider rules that would expand parts of the 6 GHz band where new very-low-power (VLP) devices can operate without coordination, beyond the initial 850 MHz commissioners approved last year (see 2310190054). Commissioners at the open meeting will also consider changing rules that govern letters of credit for USF programs and an item updating several broadcast radio and TV rules. Also on the agenda are various enforcement items, which will be released after the commission's approval.
Mercury Wireless Indiana notified the FCC it's unable to meet rural digital opportunity fund commitments to build out its service in 13 census tracts in Indiana. “This was a very difficult decision for Mercury to make, as we continually strive to deploy high-speed broadband throughout rural America,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-126. “Mercury took the time to put forth thoughtful analysis as we endeavored to find a way to make these broadband deployments feasible,” the provider said: “However, deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the RDOF reverse auction.”
RiverStreet Communications petitioned the FCC for a waiver on census block groups (CBGs) it won and surrendered through the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program Monday (see 2410250006). New Kent County, Virginia, awarded Cox Communications $16 million to "build out a broadband network totaling 566.7 fiber miles that will allow Cox to provide high-speed broadband services to every household and business in New Kent County," RiverStreet said in a petition filed in docket 19-126. RiverStreet said both companies agreed that RiverStreet would relinquish certain CBGs that duplicate the locations Cox plans to build out. "Because deduplication serves the public interest and so that RiverStreet will not be subject to the penalties set forth in the FCC’s rules for failure to meet certain buildout milestones, RiverStreet seeks a waiver of those rules," the company said.
Google subsidiary Starfish Infrastructure hopes to start commercial operations in Q3 2026 for the U.S. landing points for its proposed Bulikula submarine cable system, it said in an application posted Monday. It told the FCC the private, non-common carrier subsea cable system would connect Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Hawaii to Fiji and French Polynesia. Bulikula is the Fijian word for a rare shell found in the Pacific Ocean, it said. Starfish intends to install and test the Bulikula system in U.S. waters in Q2 2026.
Brattle Group officials and others representing NextNav met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on NextNav’s plan to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to enable a terrestrial complement to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). The Brattle representatives discussed their assessment of the potential economic benefits, said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-240. They “explained the conservative valuation methodology they employed in preparing their analysis, and they reviewed both the economically quantifiable benefits NextNav’s proposal would generate, which figured into their valuation estimate, and the potential for significant benefit in terms of lives saved, which did not,” the filing said.
An AT&T representative met with an aide to Commissioner FCC Geoffrey Starks to oppose a handset unlocking mandate as proposed in a July NPRM (see 2407180037). “This proposal is based on questionable legal authority,” the carrier said in docket 24-186: “AT&T offers an array of affordable options for handsets, including subsidized pricing and zero-interest rate financing” and “handset locking facilitates the offering of such options.” The company previously met with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez raising similar concerns (see 2411130008).
Spectrum for the Future Monday welcomed a NTIA report about usage growth in the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2411150021). The group said the report shows why the FCC shouldn't increase power levels available in the band (see 2411080032). “While some have suggested raising power levels or out of band emissions limits, that path would only jeopardize our ability to deliver greater innovation, wider-ranging use cases, and more consumer choice,” a spokesperson emailed: “The data shows that dynamic spectrum sharing is working, and we should maintain the unique properties that make CBRS the model for U.S. wireless leadership.”