The FCC asked for comment by April 9 on an application by AM Communications Labs for authorization to obtain North American Numbering Plan phone numbers directly from the Numbering Administrator. The company is an interconnected VoIP provider and “indicates that it intends to initially request numbers in the States of Texas, Georgia, and Florida,” the Wireline Bureau said in a Tuesday notice. Comments should be filed in docket 24-628. The bureau also sought comment by April 9 in docket 24-135 on a similar application by Allo Communications, which plans to request numbers for Nebraska.
The FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program helped expand telehealth-based treatments related to the COVID-19 pandemic for health care providers, said a final report Tuesday on the program from the Wireline Bureau. The program operated from 2020 until 2023 and provided reimbursements to heath care providers to aid in the delivery of telehealth services to patients in their homes and mobile locations.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez defended the USF program during a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court argument in FCC v. Consumers’ Research (see 2503260061).
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
House Oversight Committee members in both parties appeared not to move from their existing positions on cutting federal CPB funding after a dramatic Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee hearing on perceived public broadcasting bias Wednesday (see 2503210040). GOP lawmakers appeared to still favor zeroing the money, with some telling us they want to push it through via a coming budget reconciliation package rather than wait for the FY 2026 appropriations process. Democrats backed maintaining the CPB appropriation and mocked Republicans for holding the hearing instead of probing perceived Trump administration abuses. CPB funding opponents got a boost when President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he “would love to” see Congress defund public broadcasters.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, drew some colleagues’ incredulity Wednesday after his office released a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeking documents that could support his claim that military officials during the Biden administration circumvented federal lobbying restrictions by pressuring defense contractors to lobby against spectrum legislation.
Trent McCotter, the lawyer for Consumers’ Research, faced tough questions during lengthy oral arguments Wednesday at the U.S. Supreme Court on the group’s challenge of the USF contribution factor and the USF in general. Sarah Harris, acting U.S. solicitor general, vigorously defended the USF on behalf of the government. Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy, a high-profile conservative appellate lawyer, represented industry defenders of the USF.
With SES and Intelsat hoping to close the former's purchase of the latter by June, the companies met with FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz to discuss the deal's rationale and benefits. In a docket 24-267 filing Tuesday, they recapped a meeting with Schwarz where they said that building scale is necessary to compete in the satcom marketplace.
EchoStar disagreed sharply with a recent NCTA study that raised concerns about proposals to relax in-band emissions limits in the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2503060016). Other technical studies “disprove NCTA’s arguments that there is a binary choice between high power use and protecting [general authorized access users], sharing, and incumbents,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-258. EchoStar’s studies show that power levels and “updating the in-band and out-of-band emission limits will increase spectrum utility without harming federal or commercial incumbents,” EchoStar said, recapping its meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
Deregulation of the telecom industry “is key” to making the industry more competitive and reducing the price of service, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. Hudson said his goals are to also “modernize and streamline rules so that the telecom industry in America can thrive.” BEAD and other federal programs were supposed to help close the digital divide, “but they’re being slow-rolled over onerous requirements and regulations.”