NAB Chief Legal Officer Rick Kaplan said on an NAB podcast released Monday that he expects a relaxation of FCC broadcast-ownership rules “sometime in the next year or so” and that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and his staff “understand” the problems that broadcasters face. Kaplan predicted that the FCC will relax local radio and TV ownership limits, as well as the national TV ownership cap. “It's the only thing that makes sense. It's in line with what the chairman has talked about repeatedly, both when he was a commissioner and now as chair."
China’s CVC Testing Technology told the FCC that it welcomes the chance to speak with agency staff and answer questions as the commission examines revoking CVC's status as a certified testing lab (see 2509080058). “We note the positive momentum in U.S.-China relations, which has created an environment conducive to pragmatic dialogue and problem-solving,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 25-273.
A Michigan judge sentenced John Burkman and Jacob Wohl to one year of probation after they pleaded no contest to charges that they orchestrated a series of robocalls aimed at suppressing turnout from predominantly Black voters in Detroit in the 2020 general election. Judge Margaret Van Houten of the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County imposed the sentences, said a news release Monday.
REC Networks asked the FCC not to eliminate rules covering the use of unlicensed consumer-grade cordless phones in the 43.71-44.49, 46.60-46.98, 48.75-49.51 and 49.66-50.00 MHz bands as part of the agency’s “Delete” proceeding. The commission “provides absolutely no data that there are positively zero of these old phones, including the ‘46/49’ cordless phones marketed primarily in the 1980s and early 1990s in circulation,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 25-133. Some handsets for those phones “may use batteries that are still available to this day, including standard batteries that are not exclusively used by cordless telephone handsets.”
The U.S. will meet its spectrum goals only if DOD is forced to come to the table to give up spectrum, former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday in an opinion piece. “For historical reasons, [DOD] is sitting on some of the most desirable spectrum bands in the entire nation … based on decisions made half a century or more ago.” As policymakers push for the reallocation of federal spectrum, the DOD holds an estimated 80% of the government spectrum portfolio, O’Rielly wrote. “It’s as if the Interior Department was previously awarded almost all of Manhattan two centuries ago, then said no commercial development.”
The FCC's proposal to license submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) owners and operators is facing strong opposition from the industry, according to comments posted Friday in docket 24-523. The commission in August adopted a submarine cable licensing further NPRM that proposed SLTE blanket licensing (see 2508070037).
In what is seen as the final word, the ITU announced Monday that the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) and Radiocommunication Assembly will take place in Shanghai from Oct. 11 to Nov. 12, 2027. U.S. interests had tried to reverse that decision (see 2507010062). More than 4,000 delegates are expected to attend the meetings, ITU said.
The MVPD industry objections to loosening broadcast ownership rules are “self-serving,” said NAB in a letter posted in docket 12-318 Tuesday. Filings from DirecTV and other MVPDs “are part of the pay TV industry’s history of opposing any repeal or loosening of the broadcast ownership rules because pay TV providers prefer to compete against and negotiate retransmission consent agreements with competitively weaker broadcasters,” said NAB. The FCC should reject data submitted by DirecTV to support arguments that broadcast consolidation will lead to higher retransmission consent rates, NAB added.
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) objected to an FCC proceeding withdrawing its recognition as an accredited lab (see 2510170024). The academy also objected to instructions that it respond to an FCC complaint to the email address BadLabs25-267@fcc.gov. “In our view, the Commission’s move to revoke the accreditations of Chinese state-owned laboratories is primarily driven by political considerations rather than ‘security’ concerns” and is “unsupported by any evidence relating to quality or technical competence,” CAICT said in a filing posted Friday in docket 25-267.
Petitions to deny SpaceX's proposed acquisition of EchoStar's AWS-3, AWS-4 and AWS-H Block spectrum licenses are due Dec. 15, with oppositions due Dec. 29 and replies Jan. 8, an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice said. The docket is 25-302. EchoStar struck a spectrum deal with SpaceX and a similar spectrum rights sale deal with AT&T to end a pair of FCC investigations into its use of the 2 GHz band and the deadline extensions it received for its 5G network buildout (see 2505130003).