Comments are due Jan. 28 in docket 26-8 on CenturyLink’s application to discontinue legacy voice service in portions of Kenansville, Florida, after March 31, according to a public notice from the FCC Wireline Bureau in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The application will be automatically granted Feb. 13 unless the FCC notifies CenturyLink that it won’t be, the notice said.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., on Wednesday refiled the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act to revamp the FCC’s licensing processes. The bill would set a one-year deadline for the FCC to fully evaluate a satellite license application. It would also direct the FCC to issue performance requirements for satellite licensees to meet on space safety and orbital debris, as well as cap the length of foreign satellite systems’ U.S. licenses at 15 years. The House failed to pass a previous version of the measure during the last Congress amid a jurisdictional fight between the House Commerce and Science committees (see 2307260037).
The FCC fining Marlink over its non-U.S. employees' access to its domestic infrastructure and customer data (see 2601080025) shows that the agency will pursue robust enforcement "when a clear national security nexus exists," Proskauer foreign investment lawyer John Ingrassia and national security lawyer Eric Johnson wrote this week. The fine and mandatory compliance plan are signs that the FCC and the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector ("Team Telecom") see regulatory commitments about critical communication infrastructure and access to sensitive customer data as "binding and non-negotiable." Companies with obligations under Team Telecom national security mitigation agreements should view them as enforceable commitments and make sure internal compliance procedures are thoroughly resourced, the lawyers said.
DOJ asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to realign parties in the case that the justices agreed to hear about FCC enforcement and data privacy rules (see 2601120047). With multiple challenges to decisions by courts of appeal, the realignment would ensure “that the same parties are not treated as petitioners in one case and respondents in another, overlapping case,” the department said in docket 25-406.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
House Communications Subcommittee Democrats fulfilled expectations (see 2601130067) that they would spend much of a Wednesday FCC oversight hearing criticizing commission Chairman Brendan Carr over his media regulatory actions and his perceived devotion to only pleasing President Donald Trump. Republicans avoided those topics almost entirely and instead focused on praising Carr’s FCC tenure. Meanwhile, Carr continued to dodge what ended up being a bipartisan push to pin down his position on proposals to eliminate or ease the national TV station audience reach cap (see 2601140071).
Supporters of the American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) are optimistic about its prospects for passing this year amid unified GOP control of the White House and Congress, but opponents believe political dynamics on and off Capitol Hill will continue to be a significant speed bump in the months ahead. The House Commerce Committee in December advanced HR-2289, which combined language from 22 GOP-led connectivity permitting bills, by a closer-than-expected 26-24 party-line vote (see 2512030031). The panel cleared a similar version of the package during the last Congress, but it never reached the floor due to Democratic resistance (see 2305230067).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr continued during and after the House Communications Subcommittee’s hearing Wednesday to dodge what ended up being a bipartisan push to pin him down on his position on proposals for the agency to eliminate or ease the existing 39% national TV station audience reach cap. During the hearing, Carr faced continued criticism from Democrats about his media regulatory actions since taking the helm last year. Meanwhile, he encountered universal praise from Republicans, including for implementing the 800 MHz spectrum pipeline Congress passed as part of the 2025 budget reconciliation package (see 2601140064).
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and the Consortium for School Networking told the FCC this week that they support the preservation of broadband labels for mass-market services offered to anchor institutions. “Mass-market service plans might be the sole or only viable means of connectivity for many schools, libraries, and health care providers,” the groups said in a filing Monday in docket 22-2. Comments are due Friday on a further NPRM proposing various changes to the agency's broadband label rules (see 2512290038).
Radio astronomical uses of the upper C-band spectrum are “diverse,” the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) said as it provided data to the FCC related to an NPRM that commissioners approved in November (see 2511240048). The NPRM asks about coordination between radio astronomy sites and wireless operations in the band. Initial comments are due next week in docket 25-59.