Mongoose Works isn't entitled to an additional $69,686 for its relocation out of the lower C-band after all, according to an FCC order (docket 21-333) in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The agency said the administrative law judge's decision in Mongoose's favor (see 2407180049) wrongly held that it met the burden of proof to show the C-band relocation payment clearinghouse's reclassification of two earth station antennas was inconsistent with the FCC's C-band order. The ALJ decision had reversed an FCC Wireless Bureau decision that Mongoose was entitled to the additional sum.
The Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers (CWRC) this week sought reconsideration of the FCC’s August order launching a 5G Fund. The coalition agreed with the Rural Wireless Association (see 2501130024) that the FCC should hold off on a 5G Fund auction while BEAD unfolds. “BEAD-funded projects that move points of fiber interconnection closer to proposed new towers, or those towers currently using microwave backhaul, will stretch 5G Fund program dollars and benefit rural areas in need of improvement,” the group said in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 20-32: “When fiber moves closer to a new or proposed tower or fixed wireless access provides both home and mobile broadband to an area, 5G Fund auction bids will reduce, increasing the program’s efficiency and better serving the public interest.” CWRC also called for better broadband maps and an improved challenge process. “One CRWC member provided drive test data demonstrating that an area shown on the mobile availability map to have 5G service at 7/1 Mbps or better had almost no such coverage,” the filing said.
NTCA joined other industry groups in opposing a Fine Point Technologies' request (see 2411270048) that the FCC launch a rulemaking on standardized broadband speed testing protocols. USTelecom, NCTA and the Wireless ISP Association opposed the ask in initial comments last month (see 2412300034). “The final performance testing rules recognize the diversity of the marketplace and accordingly permit covered providers to select pathways toward performance measurements that best meet the individual needs of the company, whether based on company size, technology specifications, or other considerations as may be relevant to the provider,” NTCA said in reply comments this week in RM-11991. “The Petition’s request to impose ‘standardized broadband speed testing protocols’ is unnecessary and would moreover introduce vast and costly ramifications to a program that has demonstrated success in the half-decade since the rules were promulgated,” NTCA said.
Congress' oversight of broadband subsidy programs should include moving universal service funding from a surcharge to direct congressional appropriations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said Tuesday as it issued "a pro-growth agenda" for the 119th Congress. CEI urged a focus on reform and oversight of BEAD and reauthorization of the FCC's spectrum auction authority. The libertarian public policy organization also said Congress should oppose efforts at repealing or curtailing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The FCC issued a consumer alert, an enforcement advisory and a public notice warning about a spoofed mortgage relief call campaign in all 50 states it calls “Green Mirage.” The agency has classified the campaign as a consumer communications information services threat. The Enforcement Bureau “applies this classification to heighten awareness of these threat actors among our law enforcement partners and industry stakeholders,” said the public notice. Under the scheme, callers phone homeowners posing as their mortgage lender, threaten foreclosure but then offer relief if the homeowner makes payments that go to the scammer, the agency said. “The use of the real mortgage lender’s caller ID number, along with knowledge of the homeowner’s personal information, creates a persuasive guise of legitimacy,” the FCC’s public notice said.
Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth during his Tuesday Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing appeared to lean against repurposing portions of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band with commercial wireless use, an issue that stalled negotiations during the last Congress on spectrum legislation and is likely to be a flashpoint this year (see Ref:2501070069]). Senate Armed Services member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was the only panel member who mentioned DOD’s spectrum priorities in the incoming Donald Trump administration during the hearing, which was at times rancorous and primarily focused on the nominee’s past behavior and statements.
Holly Saurer has left her post as chief of the FCC Media Bureau, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday. However, Saurer remains at the FCC in a different role, the spokesperson said, without identifying it. A Monday order to pay or show cause aimed at Cobra Broadcasting over failure to pay delinquent regulatory fees was signed by Rosemary Harold, with the title “Acting Chief, Media Bureau.” Harold, who served as Enforcement Bureau chief under former Chairman Ajit Pai, is listed on the FCC’s website as a deputy chief of the Media Bureau. A longtime Media Bureau staffer under numerous FCC chairs, Saurer was chief since January 2022. She also spent time as media adviser to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
Several groups on Friday filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a rehearing of its December order denying a writ of certiorari regarding the FCC's classification of broadband. ACA Connects, USTelecom, CTIA, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, and the New York State Telecom Association cited the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court's narrow decision overturning the FCC's order (see 2501020047). That decision "establishes the [2nd] Circuit’s decision as a conflicting outlier," they said.
Boomerang Wireless asked the FCC to overrule a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision that it violated the Lifeline program’s supposed one-benefit-per-household rule by enrolling too many applicants at a single address. The FCC’s Lifeline rules “do not set household limits at an address so long as the prescribed process of obtaining a signed Independent Economic Household (IEH) worksheet is followed,” Boomerang said in a filing posted Monday in docket 11-42. USAC “appears to have created and applied a limit on the number of eligible Lifeline households that may reside at a particular address,” the company said. But the commission “has never set a cap on the number of Lifeline households that may reside at a particular address and even specifically rejected a one benefit per address rule in the 2012 Lifeline Reform Order.”
Progeny asked the FCC for a waiver of the buildout requirements for parts of its 900 MHz multilateration location and monitoring service licenses (M-LMS). Parent NextNav proposed a reconfiguration of the 902-928 MHz band in April (see 2404160043). The extension request covers 36 “mostly rural and generally least-populated” markets, said Progeny's filing Friday in docket 12-202. It sought an extension of deadlines until April 3, 2028, or 18 months after resolution of the NextNav petition for rulemaking to use the spectrum for an alternative to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services.