Consideration of license transfers from Intelsat to SES as part of SES' planned $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2405310004) is on hold pending a review by Team Telecom, the FCC Space Bureau said. The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector is Team Telecom's formal name. In docket 24-267 comments this week, cable and satellite interests raised the idea of conditions related to New SES' C-band assets on the requested license transfers. Cable operators and programmers distribute video programming using Intelsat’s and SES’s C-band downlinks, and the FCC should ensure that they continue providing the same quality of service in the C band, said NCTA. It said SES and Intelsat assertions that cable operators can use terrestrial fiber for distribution are "untrue." The FCC, NCTA added, shouldn't accept commitments about New SES' use of C-band licenses that would jeopardize video distribution in that spectrum. SES and Intelsat each control just shy of 50% of the video content distribution by satellite market in the U.S., said Eutelsat/OneWeb, and the FCC should consider whether conditions are needed on SES/Intelsat to address competitive impacts. Eutelsat/OneWeb didn't suggest possible conditions. The SES transaction would seem to help ensure Intelsat can continue following the core principles set out in its 2001 reorganization from an international organization to a private company, said the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, which owned and operated Intelsat pre-2001. ITSO said Intelsat in recent years hasn't provided sufficient funding to the organization, and a better funding approach needs to be established.
Several local governments support an FCC proposal that would exempt video programmers whose content is shown exclusively on a public, educational and government (PEG) channel from requirements to file contact information or captioning compliance with the agency, according to a filing in docket 05-231 Tuesday from Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and Bowie and Howard County, Maryland. The Texas Coalition of Cities for Utility Issues also signed onto the filing. PEG channels are already exempt from captioning requirements, the governments noted. “Exempting registration and captioning compliance certifications by individual programmers of exempt PEG programming does not prejudice the Commission’s pursuit of ensuring the accessibility of all video programming,” the filing said.
Disney says it was "surprised and disappointed" by DirecTV's good-faith negotiation complaint regarding the parties' retransmission consent agreement that expired Sept. 1 (see 2409090003). In docket 24-280 this week, Disney said DirecTV "misunderstood" Disney's clean slate proposal. In addition, Disney said it has clarified that the clean slate proposal wasn't intended to preclude either party from filing an FCC complaint. It urged dismissal of the DirecTV complaint.
Select Spectrum supported Ligado arguments that the FCC should reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared commercial use, limited to uplink-only use (see 2409240008). “As a company with direct experience in the marketplace for spectrum, Select Spectrum can attest that this band will help meet the growing need for lower mid-band spectrum,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-116. “This reallocation will serve the public interest by both strengthening planned networks, which are often mission-critical in nature, and reducing costs, which may be passed to the consumer,” Select Spectrum said.
Summit Ridge, the 3.45 GHz Clearinghouse, told the FCC it’s still waiting for NBCUniversal to complete its “relocation activity” and submit final invoices. “Total Clearinghouse costs and clearing costs are running very close to their original estimated costs,” Summit Ridge said in a report filed Monday in docket 19-348. “However, due to costs that the Clearinghouse will incur while it continues its operations, the longer the Clearinghouse exists in operations, the less likely it is that the Clearinghouse will be able to stay within its initial budget,” the firm said. Summit Ridge made similar points in its last quarterly report in July (see 2407030063).
Spectrum Advanced Services notified the FCC of its intent to acquire the customer base of 2125 Cable Co., though Spectrum Advanced said it doesn’t believe the notice is necessary. “The Commission has not determined whether interconnected VoIP services are telecommunications services, nor has it yet ruled that its carrier change rules apply to interconnected VoIP services,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 00-257. Spectrum said it also complied with FCC customer notification rules “out of an abundance of caution.”
The FCC narrowed the scope of outage reporting for Hurricane Helene, said a public notice late Monday. The PN removes numerous counties in Georgia and all counties in Florida but Hamilton County from the affected area. The disaster information reporting system and the mandatory disaster response initiative are also still active for 46 counties in Georgia and portions of Tennessee, Virginia and both Carolinas.
Universal service "has been an essential component" of federal telecom policy since the FCC's creation, the agency argued in a petition for writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court. Filed Monday (docket 24-354), the FCC's petition said the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in favor of Consumers' Research's challenge of the Universal Service Fund contribution methodology was "incorrect." Moreover, the agency said it "did not delegate governmental power" when it designated the Universal Service Administrative Co. as USF administrator (see 2407240043).
Space sustainability advocates are pessimistic about the chances that the FCC will require environmental reviews for proposed satellites and constellations anytime soon. Such reviews were a central part of the International Dark-Sky Association's (ISDA) unsuccessful legal challenge of the FCC's approval of SpaceX's second-generation satellite constellation (see 2407120031). Last month, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) launched a letter-writing campaign urging environmental reviews of satellite mega constellations (see 2408280002).
While expectations are that 6G will be commercialized by 2030, large scale deployments will likely come later, Milap Majmundar, AT&T director-advanced radio access network technology, standards and spectrum, said Tuesday at RCR Wireless’ 6G Forum. In addition, other speakers warned that finding new licensed bands for 6G could prove difficult.