T-Mobile wants to sell hundreds of 800 MHz licenses to Grain Management, partially in exchange for 600 MHz spectrum. Grain, in turn, plans to work with utilities and others to deploy services on the 800 MHz spectrum.
CTIA sought extensive tweaks to a draft Further NPRM on 911 wireless location accuracy, set for a vote by the FCC on March 27 (see 2503060061). Representatives spoke with an aide to Chairman Brendan Carr. CTIA is the only party to file an ex parte in docket 07-114 since the FNPRM was circulated.
Gigabit Fiber, a Dallas-based ISP, appeared to call on the FCC to scrap the USF in response to the commission’s “Delete Delete Delete” notice (see 2503140049). “The current USF system is outdated, economically burdensome, and unconstitutional,” the company said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-133. “It has a storied history of waste, fraud and abuse and is a tax and spend fix to a problem that no longer exists. Some of this legal framework dates to the era of the Pony Express, telegraph lines and subsidized railroads.” Gigabit Fiber said it imposes USF fees on some of its services and then doesn’t know what happens to the money. “We assume the money finds its way to the US Treasury and then in turn some is used to fund dubious programs with the balance lost to waste, fraud and abuse.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday turned down requests to stay parts of the FCC’s October order on the 4.9 GHz band. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the National Sheriffs' Association and the California State Sheriffs' Association asked for a stay (see 2503070024). But an order by a three-judge panel denied the motions, saying: “Movants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review.”
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases since the last update are marked with a *.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and SpaceX are assessing how to limit RF interference coming from Starlink satellites that causes issues with the Very Large Array (VLA) observatory in New Mexico, according to NRAO Deputy Spectrum Manager Chris De Pree. In addition, NRAO is considering implementing those methods with its additional telescopes and sharing successes with other U.S. observatories.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council held its first meeting under new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday, hearing updates on 6G and from its two other working groups. CSRIC last met in December (see 2412180041).
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges didn’t appear to greatly favor either side in arguments Wednesday on the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order, but broadcast industry officials and attorneys said they saw it as a positive sign that the panel apparently embraced the idea that broadcasting is under threat. Aren’t FCC rules intended to promote viewpoint diversity “short-sighted” if they lead to broadcasters going out of business and no longer offering news? asked Judge Duane Benton of FCC attorney James Carr. “Isn’t AM radio dying?” Benton asked at another point. “I hear they’re not even going to put it in new cars.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's administration plans to defend his Tuesday firing of Democratic FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter (see 2503180067). The Trump administration is seeking U.S. Supreme Court reversal of Humphrey's Executor v. U.S., a unanimous 1935 high court decision that set a precedent preventing the president from firing members of commissions like the FTC (see 2503040019). The firings drew swift opposition from congressional Democrats.
Lawyers for the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society were cautiously optimistic Wednesday that their side would prevail at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the FCC and the USF contribution factor in FCC v. Consumers’ Research. But they also expect a divided decision. SCOTUS is to consider the case March 26.