UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and agency staff to make the case for T-Mobile’s proposed buy of “substantially all” of his company’s wireless operations, including some spectrum (see 2405280047), a deal announced in May. Therivel and others company officials also met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and top officials in the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. By total handset connections nationwide, UScellular is “the seventh-largest wireless provider and accounts for approximately one percent of connections,” the filing said. Competitive pressures are ramping up in its markets, and it’s losing subscribers “despite deploying a variety of strategies to attempt to arrest that decline,” the carrier said: “Subscriber losses accelerated in 2022, a year that UScellular invested heavily on promotions. UScellular anticipates that it will continue to lose subscribers going forward.” It assumed “significant debt to purchase the mid-band spectrum needed to compete in 5G,” it said. “While UScellular has been pulling back on its network investments, its competitors have been spending more to expand their networks and enhance their network quality and customer experience in UScellular’s footprint.”
Gogo Business Aviation updated the FCC on its struggles meeting requirements of the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, in a heavily redacted filing. Under the program, providers must remove, replace and dispose of Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks. The company has already received one extension through Jan. 21 (see 2403290040). “Gogo’s use case is unique not only because it must replace its ground-based terrestrial [air-to-ground] network to remove the targeted ZTE equipment, but … must also replace the airborne equipment installed on customer aircraft that connects to the ground-based ATG network to provide inflight connectivity to passengers,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89. Gogo said it faces “supply chain constraints and labor shortages” typical in the current aviation market.
During a meeting with FCC Wireline Bureau staff (see 2409230038), Verizon disputed Wide Voice's claim that it discontinued time division multiplexed (TDM) service without complying with certain regulations. The carrier, in an ex parte filing Friday in docket 01-92, said it "followed the appropriate process to notify its wholesale customers of its planned discontinuance and to obtain FCC authority to discontinue its services to retail customers." Verizon detailed its discontinuance process, saying it filed an application with the commission and notified carrier customers in 2021. "Wide Voice's contrary assertions ignore Verizon's public filings and statements demonstrating that it followed the commission's discontinuance and notice processes," it said. It's "Wide Voice’s apparent insistence on receiving local traffic at its switch in this manner – and not anything that Verizon did or is doing – that is preventing local calls from ILEC customers from reaching Wide Voice."
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr “has gone full-on Fox News fire-breather in a despicable-if-calculated attempt to get a promotion,” wrote Free Press co-CEO Craig Aaron in an op-ed for nonprofit news outlet Common Dreams Thursday. Carr’s “actions and associations should disqualify him from ever serving as FCC chairman, no matter who the president is in 2025,” Aaron added. Carr is widely seen as the likely chair if Republicans win the White House in the election. Carr’s office didn't respond to a request for comment. In the column, Aaron says Carr’s authorship of a chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 book "Mandate for Leadership" is unethical. He notes Carr is the only in-office federal official to do so. By working with Project 2025, Carr has associated himself with “an array of anti-abortion zealots, anti-vaxxers, Big Liars, book banners, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists, immigrant bashers and other assorted haters,” Aaron said. The Heritage Foundation didn’t comment. The post also describes Carr as “fawning over” Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump and “buttering up” Space X CEO Elon Musk. Carr is “too busy licking Musk’s cybertruck shoes to worry about his hypocrisy,” Aaron wrote. The column, Digital First Project Executive Director Nathan Leamer said, is “par for the course with that organization," which "routinely pushes myths and hyperbole to their far left activist audience.” Leamer, like Carr, served as an aide to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Aaron’s post has the “same energy” as a 2021 Free Press petition submitted to the FCC (see 2109150060) that included comments about shooting Republicans, Leamer said. “Carr’s record," Aaron wrote, "is beginning to get some attention from members of Congress — but more need to speak out about his dalliances with the far right and his trouble telling the truth.”
Privacy and mental health advocates are largely supportive of the privacy protections in the 988 call georouting draft order, which is on the FCC's October meeting agenda (see 2409260047). An FCC official told us 5-0 approval is likely.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated on Friday for a commissioner vote rules that would expand parts of the 6 GHz band where new very-low power (VLP) devices can operate without coordination, beyond the initial 850 MHz commissioners approved last year (see 2310190054). When the FCC took comment earlier this year, Wi-Fi advocates and 6 GHz incumbents disagreed sharply on whether to expand VLP use of the band (see 2404290035).
Congressional Democratic leaders remain intent on attaching funding to restore the FCC’s lapsed affordable connectivity program to a year-end legislative package (see 2409170066). Some lawmakers acknowledge the push faces long odds in what’s likely to be a fraught lame-duck session. Some ACP boosters believe Capitol Hill’s lame-duck dynamics could change depending on the outcome of the Nov. 5 election. GOP lawmakers aren’t enthusiastic about attaching ACP money to a legislative vehicle this year, in part citing their longstanding demand for a major overhaul of the program in conjunction with additional funding.
FCC veteran Ira Keltz named agency’s acting chief engineer ... Verizon appoints Santiago Tenorio, ex-Vodafone, chief technology officer and senior vice president-strategy and technology enablement, starting Oct. 28 … FCC Enforcement Bureau names Andy Hendrickson, ex-Verizon, CTO.
AST SpaceMobile Chairman/CEO Abel Avellan met with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to discuss the company's near-term plans for testing direct-to-device commercial satellites, potential timing of full commercial deployment of D2D service and regulatory approvals needed, said a posting Thursday in docket 20-32.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Miami office sent a warning to two North Miami, Florida, landowners over pirate radio broadcasts from their property, said an agency notice of violation issued to Toussaint Orius and Marie Orius in Thursday’s Daily Digest. EB agents found unauthorized radio broadcasts coming from the Orius’ property in March. The notice said the landowners could face a fine of up to nearly $2.4 million for hosting an unauthorized radio broadcast.