Comments are due July 14 on a Further NPRM aimed at spurring greater use of the 37 GHz band, approved by FCC commissioners 4-0 in April (see 2504280032), said a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register. Replies are due July 28 in docket 24-243. Most parts of an accompanying order are effective July 14, said a second Federal Register notice. The FCC sought separate comments on the "Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis."
Technology company AltoNova asked the FCC to consider advances in spatial-intelligence technologies as it develops updated rules for wireless calls and texts to 911. “New geolocation technologies developed by the special-intelligence industry are poised to make transformative changes in horizontal and vertical location of indoor wireless 911 callers and texters,” said a filing this week in docket 07-114. Enhanced-911 location technologies “about to launch will help make the Commission’s longstanding goal of broad deployment of automated dispatchable location technically feasible.”
Verizon and the Rural Wireless Association clashed over whether third-party participants in the T-Mobile/UScellular proceeding should have access to information Verizon wants to keep private. Verizon in particular seeks to block disclosure of any mobile virtual network operator wholesale agreements between Verizon’s affiliates and third parties, including the wholesale agreement between Verizon and Mediacom Communications.
The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) urged the FCC to consider adding communications equipment and services associated with connected vehicle technologies to the “covered list” of unsecure equipment when it poses a risk to national security. Comments are due June 27 on the finding by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security that the provision of some connected vehicle hardware or software by Chinese- or Russian-controlled entities can pose “an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security and the safety and security of U.S. persons.”
The FCC agreed Wednesday to give Network Tool & Die (NTAD) more time to file data, which was due March 3, as part of the commission’s broadband data collection program. NTAD is a provider of fixed broadband services subject to the BDC filing requirements. The data is now due in 30 days.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Wednesday asked for a record refresh following up on a March 2020 NPRM (see 2003310039). Comment deadlines will come in a Federal Register notice. The bureau also asked whether “any market consolidation affected parties’ positions on the questions in the Notice,” which is part of the FCC’s efforts to “eliminate outdated and unnecessary regulations.”
NTIA and State Department representatives met with FCC staff to talk about tweaking the language regarding international waters in the commission's open proceeding on rewriting submarine cable rules. In a docket 24-524 filing posted Wednesday, NTIA said State clarified the language that it recommended instead of "international waters," since that isn't a term that has meaning under the international law of the sea. The FCC adopted the subsea cable NPRM unanimously in November (see 2411210006).
The FCC Office of Managing Director announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for Q3 2025 will be 0.360, or 36%. That’s slightly higher than analyst Billy Jack Gregg's projection of 35% (see 2505060009). The proposed rate is based on overall demand of $2.2 billion, with a contribution requirement of $2.1 billion.
Comments are due July 9, replies July 24, regarding the 2,000-plus docketed proceedings that the FCC wants to terminate as dormant, according to a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice (docket 25-165) in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The agency last month said the effort represented the largest number of dormant dockets it has ever sought to eliminate at one time (see 2505020063).
Former FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington is criticizing the agency's EchoStar probes as having the potential to be "seriously market-disruptive, and even to impair American national security." He wrote this week that the threat EchoStar faces of numerous spectrum license revocations "places every holder of a spectrum license in a riskier position and will raise consumer prices by forcing every licensee, not just EchoStar, to charge higher risk premiums." The commission is probing whether EchoStar is using the 2 GHz band for mobile satellite service consistent with its authorizations, while it also seeks comment on VTel Wireless' recon petition on an extension of EchoStar's 5G network buildout deadlines (see 2505130003). Given that EchoStar has claimed to meet its 5G network buildout commitments, "moving to threaten its licenses seems extremely market-disruptive out of proportion to any claimed offense," Simington said.