Hawaiki Submarine Cable wants to add a Tonga branch to its submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Australia; Mangawhai Heads, New Zealand; American Samoa; Oahu, Hawaii; and Pacific City, Oregon, it told the FCC in a letter posted Thursday.
Sanford Williams, deputy chief of staff for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, will address the Communications Equity and Diversity Council on behalf of the chairwoman's office (see 2412040036).
The FCC’s Precision Ag Connectivity Task Force held its final meeting Thursday, approving the group's comprehensive final report. Summarizing the task force's working groups' findings, the report wasn’t released Thursday. Task force Chair Michael Adelaine said during a virtual meeting that the work must continue even as the group’s charter expires.
Faced with an increasingly vulnerable GPS system that rival global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are eclipsing, the U.S. must align positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) policy with where the commercial sector is headed, PNT experts said during an FCBA panel in Washington Thursday. The lack of a national backup to GPS “is quite shocking,” but no one solution will address all needs, said Ed Mortimer, NextNav vice president-government affairs. He said a variety of commercial solutions are near but they require a policy environment open to competition.
Some congressional backers of the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program are beginning to see momentum turn toward including an additional $3.08 billion that will fully fund the initiative in an end-of-year legislative package (see 2411190064), but they aren’t guaranteeing success yet. Lawmakers and other rip-and-replace boosters hope congressional scrutiny of the Salt Typhoon Chinese government-affiliated effort at hacking U.S. telecom networks (see 2411190073) could be a tipping point for securing the funding after multiple spectrum legislative proposals, meant to pay for the program, stalled in recent years.
The FCC order allowing use of 17.3-17.7 GHz downlinks by non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service satellites is effective Jan. 6, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the order 5-0 in September (see 2409270059).
The FCC under presumed next Chairman Brendan Carr will scrutinize the Skydance/Paramount deal but also remove restrictions on broadcast ownership and “rebalance the scales in favor of business,” former FCC aide Adonis Hoffman wrote in a blog post for The Media Institute Wednesday. Although the FCC would “normally” review only the transfer of broadcast licenses connected with Paramount/Skydance, Hoffman said Paramount has issues with audience measurement and minority shareholders questioning the deal and that could merit the FCC conducting a more thorough examination. A complaint filed against CBS about editing a 60 Minutes interview “is unlikely to pass legal muster” but is also likely to lead Carr to look more closely at the transaction, Hoffman said. Though Hoffman expects scrutiny of the Paramount deal, the agency also will be friendlier to other broadcast acquisitions. “The new FCC promises to be much less hostile to companies seeking to consolidate,” he wrote. “That alone should encourage the mergers and acquisitions deals that have been sitting on the sidelines awaiting a more favorable regulatory environment.” He said Carr is likely to “reconfigure the vast amount of power that FCC bureaus now have and to centralize that decision-making in the office of the chairman.” That will make it more difficult for bureaus to levy fines and derail deals, Hoffman said, adding Carr will also likely streamline or sideline the agency’s advisory committees. Carr’s FCC “can be expected to function more like an activist SEC,” with regulations always changing to reflect shifting market dynamics. “Having served at the FCC as a legal adviser, Commissioner and now Chairman Carr has the institutional credibility to be politically courageous in consolidating power and effecting change.”
Representatives of the Insurance Marketing Coalition spoke with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington about the group’s opposition to the agency’s December 2023 robocall and robotext order, which clamps down on the lead generator loophole (see 2312130019). Simington was the sole dissenter. “We discussed the adverse consequences the Commission’s ‘one-to-one’ and ‘logically and topically associated’ consent requirements will have on small businesses,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-402. The 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court will hear a challenge of the order Dec. 18 in Atlanta (see 2410100011).
Comments are due on Feb. 3, replies March 4, on a Further NPRM that FCC commissioners approved as part of an item last month establishing the Alaska Connect Fund (ACF) (see 2411050002), said a notice in Wednesday’s Federal Register. The FNPRM asks about mobile issues. The commission is seeking comment on “a methodology to determine a support amount for areas where more than one mobile provider had been receiving support for overlapping service areas.” It asks about “ACF Mobile Phase II service requirements, as well as how to eliminate duplicative support in ACF Mobile Phase II so that only one provider would continue to receive funding in duplicate-support areas,” among other issues. Comments should be posted in 10-90 and other dockets, the notice said.
Anterix representatives spoke with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, seeking action on a rulemaking authorizing 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2405210041). The representatives discussed the interest of utilities and other critical infrastructure companies in using band. “The FCC decision to create a 900 MHz broadband segment has already enabled utilities across the nation, including rural areas, to design, deploy, and operate private broadband networks tailored to their highly demanding specifications,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-99. “These networks are supported by an ecosystem of more than a hundred equipment vendors and other suppliers, an ecosystem launched in response to the FCC’s action and essential for addressing the nation’s need for a reliable, efficient, secure electric grid,” Anterix said.