Counsel for Assist Wireless, enTouch Wireless, Easy Wireless and Access Wireless met with FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty, asking for the agency to grant the companies' applications for review on upward revisions for reimbursement of services provided in the last month of the Lifeline COVID-19 waiver period (see 2504030027). In June, Chairman Brendan Carr circulated an order that would deny the carriers’ requests (see 2506270060).
EchoStar, parent of Dish Network, said the FCC should use the same designated entity rules in the reauction of AWS-3 that it employed in the original 2014 auction (see 2504020017), according to a filing Tuesday in docket 25-70. EchoStar representatives met with aides to Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty. The agency is slated to vote on auction rules Thursday. Many of the licenses for sale were returned to the FCC by Dish. “If EchoStar will owe deficiency payments as part of the reauction, then the reauction should proceed under the same designated-entity rules as Auction 97,” the company said. “Doing so would avoid impermissible retroactivity and violating EchoStar’s due process rights while encouraging greater participation.”
The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee voted 9-6 along party lines Monday night to advance its FY 2026 budget bill, which proposes to maintain the FCC’s annual funding at $390.2 million (see 2507210064). The measure includes a set of riders that would bar the agency from using money to enforce certain policies that originated during the Biden administration and have been in Republicans’ crosshairs, including its 2024 digital discrimination order. House Appropriations previously included some of the riders in its FY 2025 funding bill, which didn’t get a floor vote (see 2406050067). House and Senate Republicans also bowed Congressional Review Act resolutions of disapproval last year that aimed to roll back the 2024 order (see 2403140070).
NTIA should set up procedures to help guide design of spectrum-sharing and interference studies as a way of reaching consensus with federal stakeholders, the Government Accountability Office told NTIA acting Administrator Adam Cassady. In a letter dated July 14 and posted Monday, the GAO brought a variety of its pending recommendations to Cassady's "personal attention." It also highlighted its call for NTIA to request that the State Department review and update guidance on working with other agencies "to prepare for international conferences where spectrum regulations are updated." These steps "would better position NTIA to reach agreement with other federal agencies regarding spectrum management issues." Another recommendation said NTIA, the FCC, and the Agriculture and Treasury departments should define and document their processes for addressing duplicative broadband funding.
The FCC doesn’t have the authority to expand the base of regulatory fee payors, said a host of trade groups in reply comments on the agency’s proposed 2025 regulatory fees. Replies were due Monday in docket 25-190. NAB and Telesat pushed for the FCC to expand the payor base in their comments filed earlier this month (see 2507080044).
President Donald Trump said in a post Tuesday that his settlement with Paramount over a 60 Minutes interview has been paid and includes $20 million in ads, public service announcements and programming, on top of the $16 million donation to his presidential library that Paramount previously announced (see 2507020053). The company had denied that the settlement included PSAs or any payout beyond the $16 million, and it appeared to reaffirm that denial Tuesday.
AST SpaceMobile is facing growing global opposition from the amateur radio universe about plans to use the 430-440 MHz band for telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) (see 2507170030). Since last Wednesday, docket 25-201 has received more than 2,100 submissions -- most from amateur radio advocates. Comments were due Monday on AST's request to use the band and operate an additional 243 satellites atop the five already authorized (see 2506200061).
New York will soon be the latest state to make incarcerated individuals' phone calls free in an effort to increase communication accessibility and improve prison safety. Five states -- California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Minnesota -- have already made phone calls free in their facilities. The New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) announced Tuesday that the change will take effect Aug. 1.
FCC commissioners are expected to approve, with a few tweaks, an NPRM designed to help major providers more easily retire aging copper networks. Industry officials said Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez appears likely to dissent on the item at Thursday’s open meeting. Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld told us Tuesday that the group has major concerns with proposals in the draft.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the FCC’s top-four prohibition and its extension to low power TV stations and multicast streams but upheld the agency’s other broadcast ownership rules in a unanimous opinion Wednesday on the 2018 quadrennial review. Petitioners Zimmer Radio, Nexstar, NAB, Beasley Media and Tri-State Communications challenged the order in October. In weighing whether to retain broadcast ownership rules, “the FCC properly considered all three of its public interest goals—competition, localism, and viewpoint diversity,” said the opinion. “In sum, Petitioners have not shown that the Commission’s decision was not reasoned or reasonable.” However, the agency’s justifications for retaining the Top Four prohibition were “counter to the evidence before the agency,” the opinion said. The court also vacated the FCC’s extension of the top four prohibition to multicast channels and LPTV, and ruled that Congress didn’t intend for the agency to use the quadrennial review process to tighten regulations. The court will wait 90 days before issuing the mandate in the case to give the FCC an opportunity to provide “adequate evidence to support any of its articulated justifications for retaining the rule. If the FCC fails to do so, upon further order the mandate will issue,” the opinion said.