FCC leadership, including Chairman Brendan Carr, is already closely aligned with President Donald Trump's agenda, lessening the effect of the president's executive order about increasing White House control over independent agencies like the FCC, Davis Wright attorneys blogged Monday. Carr's FCC will likely follow Trump's agenda and priorities in practice, regardless of the theoretical independence of commissioners, Davis Wright said. But an issue could arise that sees Republican-appointed commissioners splitting with Trump on key issues, it said. In that case, the level of presidential control over the FCC's agenda and whether Trump can remove commissioners over policy disagreements "may have serious practical consequences."
Free speech and press groups joined with the unusual alliance of NAB, Public Knowledge, TechFreedom and Free Press in condemning the FCC’s news distortion complaint against CBS in comments filed by Friday’s deadline in docket 25-73.
As President Donald Trump's administration approaches the end of its second month, many questions remain about what it will do concerning the national spectrum strategy and the studies of the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz band started under former President Joe Biden. Most of the news out of NTIA so far has been about BEAD's future, with little on spectrum.
Globalstar's planned C-3 satellite system (see 2502280001) can't operate in the 1.6/2.4 GHz band, as the FCC has made clear it won't let new mobile satellite service systems there before updating the band's rules, SpaceX told the FCC Space Bureau last week. It said the agency had to dismiss Globalstar's "premature" application. SpaceX urged FCC action on its year-old petition to allow new entrants into the 1.6/2.4 GHz band (see 2402230027), saying that would be a good vehicle for updating the rules so Globalstar could then submit its C-3 application. SpaceX said Globalstar's proposed higher-power system in the band "would also fundamentally alter the spectrum environment [there] to the detriment of prospective competitors, such as SpaceX."
SiriusXM is planning to launch its SXM-10 satellite as soon as June 8 and is asking the FCC Space Bureau for permission to use it to replace its FM-6 satellite. In a bureau application posted Friday, it said SXM-10 was originally going to replace the XM-5 satellite, but the company now plans to replace XM-5 in 2026 with SXM-11, which is under construction.
The FCC's unanimous approval of the 2360-2395 MHz band for space launch communications goes into effect April 7, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. The commissioners at the end of 2024 approved reallocating the 2360-2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for space launch operations (see 2412310029).
Broadcast ownership rules are helping strangle local news and must go, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in an interview last week on Nexstar's NewsNation. "We need to let some of these broadcasters get to scale so they can hire the local reporters," Carr said. Asked about regulating Big Tech, he said the agency is "taking a look at a lot of different options," including reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The FCC could also play a role in "bring[ing] some greater transparency" to Big Tech, Carr added.
The National Consumers League (NCL) and four small business owners are at odds with the Insurance Marketing Coalition over whether the NCL parties should be allowed to seek rehearing of a federal court ruling on a 2023 FCC robocall and robotext order. In a docket 24-10277 reply Friday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the proposed intervenors said they sought permission to intervene as soon as it became clear the U.S. government wouldn't defend the FCC's 2023 order. They filed a motion to intervene last month (see 2502200004). The proposed intervenors said Friday they don't intend to relitigate the rule but "only seek to advance the case as the Government would if it was still defending the Rule." In its opposition last month, the coalition said the petition is untimely, and NCL can still advocate for its interests during proceedings before the FCC on remand.
The FCC has signed off on SpaceX's requested waiver of the aggregate out-of-band power flux density limits that the FCC adopted in its 2024 supplemental coverage from space order (see 2406180006). The FCC Space and Wireless bureaus said in an order Friday (docket 23-135) that supplemental coverage from space service "is at a nascent stage of development, and we find that strict application of the rule risks hindering the widespread deployment of this particular SCS network." The approval is conditioned on SpaceX addressing any harmful interference that occurs. The waiver covers only the five MHz band segments directly adjacent to the PCS G Block where SpaceX will operate.
Wireless ISP Association representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioners Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks to urge action on spectrum bands of importance to its members. WISPA members “agree with the position of the Spectrum for the Future coalition that the Commission should reject calls by some companies to substantially increase the power levels” for citizens broadband radio service devices or “substantially change the out-of-band emission levels,” said a filing posted Friday in 25-70 and other dockets. WISPA also weighed in on changes to the 10-10.5 GHz, lower and upper 12 GHz, 37.0-37.6 GHz and 42.0-42.5 GHz bands. In addition, it urged the FCC to finalize rules on unlicensed use of the 5.9 GHz band.