Congress should create a new USF-funded broadband affordability benefit program that includes data, voice and text services, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance wrote Monday. Citing comments that it submitted in September to the USF bicameral working group, NDIA said it shouldn't be a direct replication of the affordable connectivity program or Lifeline but instead should incorporate facets of both. The program should apply to mobile and/or home broadband and to all plans that ISPs offer, providing at least $40 a month minimum for non-tribal households and $110 a month for tribal households, the alliance said. The design of such a program should be specifically about affordability, "ensuring households whose primary barrier to broadband adoption is affordability can get and stay online."
The FCC on Tuesday reminded recipients of money through the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program that their quarterly updates are due to the commission Dec. 29. The status updates keep the Wireline Bureau apprised of recipients’ progress "toward meeting their obligations under the Rip-and-Replace Program.”
Brownsville, Texas, is seeking a waiver from the FCC to operate a city network that uses the citizens broadband radio service band at +60 dBm effective isotropic radiated power, which is higher than the +47 dBm allowed by agency rules. In a filing posted Monday, the city emphasized that it’s located on the Mexican border and uses the network for border security. The higher power levels would mean the city needs about a third as many nodes to operate the network, it said. “The City’s planned outdoor applications -- spanning public safety, border security, and critical infrastructure operations -- require broader signal reach and fewer network nodes than the existing limits allow.”
T-Mobile asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to act on its petition for rehearing of a decision by the court upholding an $80 million data breach fine by the FCC (see 2508150014). T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for actions by Sprint, which it later acquired. The FCC has asked the court to hold off on a decision while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to hear appeals by Verizon and AT&T challenging similar fines (see 2511170035).
The FCC's order to overturn a January ruling and NPRM addressing the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks, approved 2-1 last week (see 2511200047), benefits WISPA members, the group said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “This is an important development that removes an unnecessary regulatory burden from all commercial broadband providers irrespective of the technology you use to serve your communities.”
AT&T told the DOJ that it needs to buy “unused 3.45 GHz and underutilized 600 MHz Spectrum” from EchoStar to compete in an increasingly competitive wireless market, according to documents filed at the FCC. AT&T's arguments to DOJ were submitted to the FCC at commission staff’s request and posted Tuesday in docket 25-303. The company recently said it has already started to deploy the 3.45 GHz licenses it bought from EchoStar (see 2511170023), adding coverage to nearly 23,000 cellsites in a matter of weeks.
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment this week on a request by Amherst Telephone Co. to transfer control of the company to the Amherst Communications Employee Stock Ownership Trust. The local exchange carrier provides service in the Amherst, Polonia and Rosholt exchanges in parts of Portage, Marathon and Waupaca counties in central Wisconsin. Comments are due Dec. 8, replies Dec. 15, in docket 25-309.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) urged the FCC to back off its review of how the commission can further reduce wireless red tape and instead address the Environmental Health Trust’s August RF safety petition (see 2508070032). The group's filing came as the FCC is hit with hundreds of submissions -- ahead of any comment deadline -- opposing changes in a wireless infrastructure NPRM that commissioners approved at September's meeting.
Three House Commerce Committee Democratic leaders pressed NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth on Tuesday to follow “the letter” of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as the agency rolls out funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD program, citing “significant concerns” about the Trump administration's implementation of the initiative. They in part objected to President Donald Trump's draft proposal to require NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment BEAD funding for states that the administration determines have AI laws that are overly burdensome (see 2511200057).
The FCC on Tuesday released the three items teed up for commissioner votes at the next meeting Dec. 18, led by another FCC attack on illegal robocalls and unsecure networks, possibly with Chinese ties. Commissioners will also take up low-power TV (LPTV) and TV translator rules. The December agenda is much lighter than those in recent months (see 2511240045).