The Telecommunications Industry Association filed comments on the FCC's proposal for submarine line terminal equipment licensing (see 2512010043).
A three-commissioner FCC is likely going to be the norm for the foreseeable future, though being two members down isn't hurting the agency's output, former Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Wednesday. "The work gets done," he told the audience at a vCon Foundation conference about AI and telecom issues (see 2512030030). However, if a minority commissioner "decides to play hardball" and not show up for meetings, meaning there's no quorum, "then you have got a problem." O'Rielly said five "makes more sense" because it's easier to work around the potential of "one kook on the FCC [bottling] things up.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Wednesday terminated 2,048 inactive proceedings while leaving open nine that had been looked at for possible closure. An FCC proposal to delete dormant dockets got support from many commenters earlier this year, though with scattered calls to preserve several of them (see 2507100018). Most of the dockets spared have had little recent activity.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
California’s continuing interest in VoIP regulation is a concern, and the lack of FCC preemption of state VoIP oversight is proving to be a problem, speakers said Wednesday at a vCon conference about AI and telecom issues. Also at the event, Ecommerce Innovation Alliance (EIA) President David Carter said the e-commerce industry, faced with rocketing amounts of “shakedown litigation" about texts sent during quiet hours, is anxiously hoping that the FCC will act soon on the group's 9-month-old petition for a declaratory ruling (see 2503030036). An agency affirmation that prior consumer consent means those texts don’t violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “should have been a no-brainer,” Carter said.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Wednesday that he's demanding that CBS News Ombudsman Kenneth Weinstein investigate whether President Donald Trump improperly influenced and coerced the network’s editing of a 60 Minutes interview that aired in early November.
The House Commerce Committee advanced the American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) Wednesday by a closer-than-expected 26-24 party-line vote, with unified Democratic opposition and a smattering of Republican absences at that point in the markup session. The panel also unanimously advanced the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046) and five other bipartisan connectivity bills, as expected (see 2512020063).
The FCC will be expanding its rule deletion efforts in 2026, tackling more items at open meetings and focusing on churning out orders stemming from the many NPRMs it issued in 2025, said Chairman Brendan Carr and bureau and 10th-floor staff at a Practising Law Institute event Wednesday. “I think you’re going to see even more results in getting to orders here in the second year” of his chairmanship, Carr said during a Q&A.
Comments are due Jan. 2, replies Feb. 2, on an FCC NPRM aimed at more intense use of spectrum in the 24, 28, upper 37, 39, 47 and 50 GHz bands, said a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. The item was approved by commissioners 3-0 in October (see 2510280024).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “acted responsibly in reminding broadcasters of their public interest obligations” when he urged stations to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September, said the Center for Renewing America in a paper filed in docket 22-459 and posted Tuesday.