Ligado and Inmarsat contractually agree to use different parts of the L band for mobile satellite service (MSS) operations, but they were at loggerheads during oral argument Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court over whether that contract constitutes a lease. Inmarsat is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware overseeing Ligado's Chapter 11 reorganization to rule that federal bankruptcy law requires Ligado to make its quarterly lease payment to Inmarsat (see 2502070026).
ACA Connects CEO Grant Spellmeyer and two other communications industry executives set to appear at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Wednesday urge lawmakers in written testimony to revamp the NTIA-administered, $42.5 billion BEAD program. Some also say they want quick congressional action on a potential U.S. Supreme Court overturn of USF’s funding mechanism. Sarah Morris, acting deputy NTIA administrator during the Biden administration, is also set to testify. Her written statement wasn’t available Tuesday afternoon. The panel will begin at 2 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
The FCC shouldn't act as a “Ministry of Truth,” and there isn't a constitutional basis for the agency to go after local broadcasters, said Commissioner Nathan Simington during an interview Tuesday that seemed aimed at soothing broadcasters' concerns about the FCC's new direction. “I’m not in the business of deciding who’s telling the truth and who’s not,” Simington said onstage at the NAB State Leadership Conference. “And what’s more, [FCC Chairman Brendan] Carr thinks the same way." Carr said last week that FCC precedent set by the previous administration supports proceedings he has opened against broadcast networks over their programming and news content.
NextNav filed at the FCC a new engineering report on interference issues raised by the company’s proposal that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2404160043). “NextNav undertook this analysis in response to claims in the record that allowing 5G deployment in the 902-928 MHz band could cause unacceptable levels of interference to unlicensed Part 15 devices,” said the report, filed last week in docket 24-240.
The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance and other petitioners asked the FCC to issue a declaratory ruling finding that people who provide prior express written consent to receive text messages cannot claim damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for messages received outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. “The TCPA, while intended to shield consumers from unwanted calls and texts, has become a weapon for opportunistic litigators,” said a petition posted Monday in docket 02-278. A single law firm based in Florida, “through aggressive social media campaigns, actively recruits plaintiffs to file TCPA lawsuits based on a misapplication of the law,” the petition said: “They lure individuals with promises of money and false claims that all messages delivered during Quiet Hours are ‘illegal texts’ and boast about recovering ‘millions of dollars’ under the TCPA.” Among those signing on to the petition were Sand Cloud Holdings, Spyder Lifestyle Strategies and ModWash.
Comments are due at the FCC April 3 regarding privacy issues stemming from potential georouting of texts being sent to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. In a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register, the FCC Wireline Bureau said that feedback it received in the 988 text georouting proceeding (see 2501100033) raised privacy issues. It said it wanted to obtain a more comprehensive record and was seeking comment on such issues as privacy implications raised by the different text-to-988 georouting solutions discussed in the proceeding. Reply comments are due April 18. Filings are to be made in docket 18-336.
The Wireline Bureau has dismissed Sonic Telecom’s 2021 petition for reconsideration of portions of the FCC's unbundling network elements rules, said an order on reconsideration Friday. “We find that Sonic fails to show any material errors or omissions, raise any new or additional facts or arguments it could not have raised during the original proceeding, or provide any reason otherwise warranting reconsideration,” the order said. Sonic had argued that the FCC’s UNE rules were based on unsubstantiated predictions and untrustworthy data (see 2102090077). “Sonic’s Petition merely restates arguments the Commission has already rejected, and to the minimal extent it may raise new evidence or arguments, such evidence or arguments could have been raised earlier,” the bureau said.
The House Commerce Committee said Saturday that it plans a vote Tuesday on the Precision Agriculture Satellite Connectivity Act (HR-1618) and six other telecom bills as part of a markup session.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington wants his colleagues to speak only English during FCC proceedings in the wake of a White House executive order declaring it as the U.S.’s official language, he said in a post on X Monday. The post seemed aimed at fellow FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who sometimes reads a Spanish version of her meeting statements. During last week’s FCC open meeting, Simington -- who was born and raised in Canada -- read out one of his statements in Romanian, seeming to mock Gomez.
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and other users of the 1675-1680 MHz band raised interference concerns in response to a January notice from the FCC (see 2501080067). The agency is seeking to refresh the record on the future of the band for shared use between federal incumbents and nonfederal fixed or mobile operations. It initially received comment in 2019 on reallocating the band for 5G, as urged by Ligado (see 1905090041). Comments were posted Monday in docket 19-116.