Logista asked the FCC to overrule a Wireline Bureau decision rejecting the company’s pursuit of a waiver on a deadline for filing a Form 499-A revision, as well as late filing fees, penalties and interest. The form reports actual revenue billed during the prior calendar year, in this case for interconnected VoIP service. Logista also asked that parts of its filing remain confidential. The company said it filed its Form 499-A for 2023 in March and then in June sought to file a revised form. “Logista respectfully submits that it is not in the public interest to require it to pay an assessment calculated on the basis of a clerical error,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 06-122. The clerical error placed "a revenue amount in the wrong column,” which “significantly overstated Logista’s assessable telecommunications revenue.”
Brightspeed is more than halfway to its commitment to a 17-state fiber network that passes 3 million homes and businesses by fall 2027. In a docket 21-350 status report posted Monday, Brightspeed said that as of the end of 2024 the number of premises passed represented "more than half of the total commitment, in less than half the time." Data about states reached and the number of premises passed were redacted. The 17 states/3 million locations commitment was part of the FCC's 2022 approval of Brightspeed buying Lumen's incumbent local exchange carrier business (see 2208220049).
AST SpaceMobile's L-band spectrum access agreement with Ligado comes as the booming interest in direct-to-device service is running into limited spectrum availability, spectrum consultants and analysts tell us. Some see a similar deal with a satellite operator getting access to EchoStar's 2 GHz band spectrum for D2D as possible. The federal bankruptcy court overseeing Ligado's Chapter 11 plan signed off last week on the financial breakup terms of the Ligado/AST deal (see 2501270026). Ligado has said the AST deal is key to it emerging from bankruptcy (see 2501060026).
Lawyers for the government and AT&T faced questions from a panel of judges on the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals as the bench heard arguments concerning the FCC’s $57 million fine against the carrier for inadequately protecting customers’ location data. T-Mobile has also challenged more than $92 million in fines in the D.C. Circuit, and Verizon disputed a $46.9 million penalty in the 2nd Circuit, but the 5th Circuit case was the first where a panel of judges heard oral argument.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr expected CBS to give in to the agency’s request for an unedited transcript of a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris by the end of day Monday, he said in a Monday morning Fox interview. “It's due today, and I expect CBS to provide it by the end of the day, to see what in fact was said as part of our own news distortion investigation,” Carr said.
House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pressed NPR and PBS executives Monday to testify at a March hearing on “federally funded radio and television, including its systemically biased content.” Greene’s request followed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s call last week for the Enforcement and Media bureaus to investigate PBS and NPR member stations over possible underwriting violations (see 2501300065). President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency advisory group has eyed NPR and PBS funder CPB as a potential target (see 2411220042).
Law professor Adam Candeub, who was an attorney in the FCC's Media and Common Carrier bureaus as well as acting NTIA head, is returning to the commission as general counsel. Candeub brings with him strong criticisms of Big Tech. In response to a post on X about Candeub not being the GC that Big Tech executives would have preferred, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr replied that the agency "will work to dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights to everyday Americans." He added: "I look forward to Adam Candeub serving as the FCC's General Counsel. He is going to do great things!"
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington promotes Adam Cassady from legal adviser to chief of staff ... NARUC President Tricia Pridemore taps for board Katie Anderson, Arkansas Public Service Commission, succeeding Lillian Mateo-Santos, Puerto Rico Energy Bureau; for subcommittee-education and research, Erik Helland, Iowa Utilities Commission, and Doyle Webb, Arkansas PSC, replacing Pridemore and succeeding John Betkoski, Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority; for Gas-Electric Alignment for Reliability (GEAR) Task Force, Josh Byrnes, Iowa Utilities Commission.
AST SpaceMobile received FCC signoff to test its supplemental coverage from space service. A pair of FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approvals received in January cover use of AT&T's lower 700 MHz and 850 MHz band spectrum, and of Verizon's 850 MHz spectrum with the satellite operator's BlueBird low earth orbit satellites. The approvals "represent a pivotal moment for AST SpaceMobile as we advance toward delivering seamless space-based cellular broadband connectivity,” Global Head-Regulatory Affairs Vikram Raval said Friday.
UScellular, in a heavily redacted filing at the FCC, told the agency that negotiations with T-Mobile before last year’s purchase agreement took place over seven months. The companies announced in May an agreement under which T-Mobile will buy “substantially all” of the smaller carrier’s wireless operations, including some of its spectrum, in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt (see 2405280047). On Oct. 4, 2023, Citigroup Global Markets, lead financial adviser on the sale, “started conversations with potential interested parties,” and UScellular’s parent, TDS, entered into a nondisclosure agreement with T-Mobile, said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. “Over the next several months, a competitive bidding process was held to solicit proposals from multiple parties, including T-Mobile,” it said. The talks resulted in an agreement reached May 24, UScellular said. The filing was a partial response to a December letter from the Wireless Bureau asking a battery of questions on the deal (see 2412270031).