Representatives of the 5G Automotive Association met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty on the group’s concerns about interference caused by out-of-band emissions (OOBE) from very-low-power and potential new geofenced variable-power devices in the 6 GHz band to cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) operations in the 5.9 GHz band.
The FCC should consider narrowing its proposed presumption that a violation of the Cable Landing Licensing Act should disqualify a party from future licenses, the North American Submarine Cable Association said. In a docket 24-523 filing posted Thursday, NASCA said the presumption in the draft subsea cable order on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda (see 2507170048) would disqualify parties from future licenses, even though in the past, parties haven't lost licenses after entering into consent decrees for admitted violations. The presumption should be limited to instances where the violation wasn't remediated with a consent decree or compliance plan, resulted in a lost license or authorization, or was found by the FCC to be intentional, said NASCA. The group's filing recapped a meeting with counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, while a nearly identical filing documented a meeting with Commissioner Anna Gomez's office.
AI-driven growth in fiber capacity points to a clear need "to rapidly expand both route miles and fiber miles to meet the new needs," the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and consultancy RVA said in a white paper Thursday. They forecast that roughly double the route miles of fiber will be needed by 2029, from 95,000 today to 187,000, and more than double the fiber miles, from 159 million last year to 373 million by 2029. "Meeting this need will be far from easy," the FBA and RVA said, adding that it will require such steps as permitting relief, as well as fiber and power providers collaborating on joint easements.
The FCC Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on a waiver allowing the creation of a study area for UP Fiber as part of the company’s proposed acquisition of 40 wire centers in 42 exchanges and the associated customers from AT&T’s Michigan Bell. Comments are due Sept. 2, replies Sept. 17 in docket 25-181, said a notice Thursday. The companies said in a May application that the assets in the deal include more than 9,000 miles of copper lines and 1,500 miles of business fiber and network infrastructure providing voice and internet service to more than 9,000 residential and business customers.
A collection of operators hope to start commercial operations on a submarine cable system connecting Boca Raton, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, with multiple other Caribbean locations starting in Q4 2027, they said in an FCC application posted Wednesday. The Celia system would also go to Martinique, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Barts, Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, the filing said. The applicants -- Telxius, Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Orange Carriers USA and Servicio di Telecomunicacion di Aruba -- said they would operate the Celia system on a non-common-carrier basis.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., on Thursday filed the Modernization, Accountability and Planning for Broadband Funding Act in a bid to increase oversight of the FCC's broadband funding map. The bill would direct the FCC to conduct a notice of inquiry on the map’s function and the data it displays for maximum usability. The notice would assess whether there need to be updates to the map based on user feedback. The measure would also direct the Government Accountability Office to evaluate whether federal agencies are providing data for the map in compliance with current law and would identify any reporting gaps.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision limiting the scope of environmental reviews in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado is very broad in its impact, said Venable’s Jay Johnson, who represented the coalition in the case. The decision (see 2506180059) doesn’t apply only to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) enforcement in regard to new railroad projects, “this applies to NEPA as a whole,” Johnson said during an Incompas webinar Thursday. “The court made that exceptionally clear.”
The FCC hasn’t experienced a large-scale workforce reduction and can still operate despite a roughly 6% decrease in staff between October and May, Chairman Brendan Carr said in letters to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Sent at the beginning of May, the letters were posted Thursday by the FCC. Carr was replying to March letters from Cantwell and Hoyer expressing concern about the effects of staff cuts and the involvement of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the FCC.
Groups representing prisoners and their families on Thursday asked the FCC to rescind a Wireline Bureau order delaying some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027. The prisoner advocates told us previously that they were weighing their options following the bureau order (see 2507030024).
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) adopted two resolutions at its Summer Policy Summit in Boston this week, calling for enhanced federal-state collaboration on telecom policy, particularly in phone number management and universal service funding. NARUC’s telecom committee passed both Monday, and the full board of directors adopted them Wednesday.