Comments are due Jan. 8, replies Feb. 9, on a waiver petition from New Florence Telephone to allow the merger of four commonly owned study areas in Missouri, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice posted Tuesday in docket 96-45. The merging study areas are those of the New Florence Telephone Co., New London Telephone Co., Orchard Farm Telephone Co. and Stoutland Telephone Co. “Petitioners state that merging the study areas will provide more efficient operations, accounting, and regulatory compliance and will result in more operating funds to provide high-quality service,” the notice said.
Securus wants the FCC to extend the deadline for a requirement that prison-calling providers bill for video on a per-minute basis, said a waiver petition posted Tuesday in docket 23-62. Previous FCC orders have extended the deadline to April, but Securus now seeks a further delay until April 30, 2027, due to technical and operational challenges. The company is working on a new platform to accommodate the per-minute billing and other FCC policies but needs more time to complete it, the petition said. “Based on current progress and logistical realities, Securus projects that its tablet-based systems will be fully transitioned by April 2026, while terminal-based systems will require until April 2027 for completion.” Without an extension, “Securus would face the untenable choice of offering video calling services for free at a financial loss or discontinuing them entirely, both of which would harm incarcerated persons and their families,” the filing added. “Securus has committed to maintaining current per-session rates consistent with the previous waiver order, and Securus will comply with Commission rate caps once per-minute billing is implemented.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr condemned Free Press as a “radical group” in a post Monday on X after the organization issued a report on President Donald Trump’s “war on free speech,” which called Carr a “sycophant” willing to act against Trump’s critics. The report “analyzes how President Trump and his political enablers have worked to undermine and chill the most basic freedoms protected under the First Amendment,” Free Press said.
Countries all over the globe are competing to advance in the fields of technology, and the U.S. needs to be engaged internationally and to be constantly working to win that race, said FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty in remarks Tuesday at the International Institute of Communications' North America Digital Communications & Media Forum. Trusty’s speech focused on what she learned by speaking with communications regulators from around the world while recently representing the U.S. at the World Telecommunication Development Conference. “These conversations reinforced for me that the work we do at the FCC has implications far beyond our borders, and that staying engaged internationally is not optional, it is essential,” she said. “These global lessons are a wake-up call: U.S. leadership in communications policy is not guaranteed. Initiatives like Delete, Delete, Delete show we are taking steps to modernize our rules and procedures, but we must continue to act with intention to remain the global benchmark.”
The space industry has good communication channels with the U.S. government, but the efficacy of discussions among its agencies about space policy and regulation are less clear, space experts said Tuesday at a seminar in Washington organized by ForumGlobal. Tahara Dawkins, Astroscale's policy director, called for one set of rules across agencies, noting that it’s unclear if, for example, the FCC is talking with NOAA when they craft their regulations. Commercial Space Federation (CSF) Executive Director Alicia Brown added that there must be greater efforts to avoid regulatory conflicts and duplication in areas like payload reviews.
In order to take advantage of a January launch opportunity, AST SpaceMobile is asking the FCC Space Bureau for permission to put one of its BlueBird satellites in a slightly lower orbit than its 520-kilometer authorization. In an application posted Friday, AST said that to meet the launch requirements with a quick turnaround, it was limited in the available orbital parameters. AST's next direct-to-device satellite launch is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Comments and petitions about SpaceX's proposed direct-to-device satellite constellation are due Jan. 5, said a public notice from the FCC Space and Wireless bureaus in Monday's Daily Digest. SpaceX submitted an application in September to operate as many as 15,000 satellites to provide D2D service globally, with the constellation using spectrum that the company is buying from EchoStar (see 2509220006). Responses to comments and oppositions to petitions in docket 25-340 are due Jan. 15, and replies to responses and oppositions are due Jan. 22, according to the notice.
Comments are due Jan. 5, replies Feb. 3, on the FCC’s NPRM on call branding (docket 17-59), said a public notice Monday. The NPRM, approved in October, seeks comment on proposed rules on caller ID and on requiring labels for calls that originate outside the United States (see 2510280024).
AT&T, Verizon and AST SpaceMobile haven’t provided enough information on their supplemental coverage from space (SCS) partnership to be granted waivers, and the proposed arrangement could lead to interference for other carriers, said T-Mobile, wireless groups and the Competitive Carriers Association in reply filings posted Monday in docket 25-201. “Commenters in this proceeding have expressed grave concerns about the missing information and significant flaws in AST’s application to provide SCS,” said T-Mobile. “Yet AST has either ignored those concerns or made merely performative attempts to convince the Bureaus to dismiss them.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau said three China-based voice providers have deficiencies in their Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) certifications, and allowing them to have access to those certifications could be a national security threat. The bureau gave China Telecom Global Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Operations Ltd. and China Mobile Hong Kong Co. Ltd. 14 days to explain why their inclusion in the RMD isn’t contrary to the public interest, according to orders issued Monday. The companies also must cure their RMD deficiencies or explain why they shouldn’t be removed from the database, the orders said. Removal of their certifications “would require all intermediate providers and voice service providers to cease accepting all calls” from the three companies that use North American Numbering Plan resources that pertain to the U.S. All three companies are tied to the Chinese government, the orders added. “The public interest is not served by allowing entities ‘subject to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government,’ that could ‘be forced to comply with Chinese government requests’ to maintain access to valuable Commission authorizations, such as an RMD certification.”