BEAD won't close the digital divide and should be seen "as the new floor to work from, not the finish line," Connect Humanity wrote last week. Flawed FCC broadband maps and locations removed from BEAD eligibility due to coverage by unlicensed fixed wireless have meant that numerous homes "slipped through the cracks." The locations receiving satellite broadband "are not getting the digital foundations for business development and industrial investment," the group said, noting that BEAD's 100/20 Mbps speed target runs the risk of being out of date and inadequate before networks are built. BEAD also doesn't address affordability, which is a huge barrier to adoption, it said.
An array of faith-based organizations are lobbying the FCC's 10th floor to get it to reverse or alter course on the prison-calling draft order and Further NPRM that are before commissioners. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr circulated the draft order earlier this month (see 2510070044), proposing to change the agency's rate-cap-setting methodology and include security and surveillance costs in the rates. "Deeply held Catholic beliefs show that the lowest possible rates should be offered to families and incarcerated people," the faith groups said in a docket 23-62 filing posted Friday to recap meetings with FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty and staffers for Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez.
Some Chinese testing labs are urging the FCC to reconsider its revocation of their recognition. The agency started proceedings in September to remove the recognition from some labs it said were controlled by the Chinese government (see 2509080058), and it denied recognition renewal applications for others (see 2509260036). In filings posted Friday, several argued that there's no ground for them to lose recognition.
Eric Tamarkin, Samsung's public policy counsel, called on the FCC to move forward to fully implement the voluntary cyber trust mark program, approved by FCC commissioners 5-0 in March 2024 (see 2403140034). Tamarkin spoke during the final policy panel of the Mobile World Congress last week in Las Vegas.
The ongoing federal shutdown is causing anxiety and a lack of clarity for both FCC staff and industry attorneys, they told us in interviews. The FCC’s expectations for required filings during the shutdown are unclear, agency staffers are uncertain about when or if they will be paid, and less than two weeks remain before the Oct. 28 open meeting, which has the longest agenda the FCC has seen in years. Industry officials told us the shutdown could lead to some items being taken off the October agenda, but all three commissioners told us they're still taking meetings and calls on the planned items.
The FCC shouldn’t repeal company-specific do not call rules and requirements that prerecorded calls include an automated opt-out mechanism, said the National Consumer Law Center, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other consumer groups in an ex parte filing Thursday. Proposals to repeal the rules are on the agency’s Oct. 28 meeting agenda. “If adopted, the Commission’s proposals will unleash unstoppable telemarketing calls as well as unwanted robocalls such as unasked-for reminders, survey robocalls, and customer satisfaction robocalls,” the filing said. “As is evident from multiple comments from individuals and small businesses to the FCC in recent years, more protections are needed against unwanted and illegal calls, not fewer.”
Pole owners with poles already slated to be replaced can't charge a new attacher all the costs to do that replacement, the West Virginia Public Service Commission ordered Thursday. The order was in response to petitions by the West Virginia Internet and TV Association and Citynet, which asked for clarification of the commission's August order clarifying its pole attachment rules. The state agency said its rules require that an attacher pay for an "appropriate portion" of the poles they need and not the entire cost of replacements. That's in line with FCC interpretations of its own rules, the PSC said.
FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty told the Mobile World Congress this week that the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding remains a key focus for the agency. She said that as a former Senate staffer, she understands that making more spectrum available for carriers is a national security issue. Commissioner Anna Gomez noted that the FCC has a lot of work to do to move forward on spectrum auctions. Trusty and Gomez didn't attend the conference because of the federal government shutdown, but both offered recorded remarks.
The FCC was right to eliminate programs that provided school bus Wi-Fi and internet hot spots to schools and libraries because they went beyond the agency's authority, wrote Daniel Lyons, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in a blog post Thursday. Supporters of the programs say that on a practical level, halting the programs puts schools and libraries in a financial bind (see 2510150047).
Deborah Collier, vice president of policy and government affairs for Citizens Against Government Waste, urged House lawmakers involved in reaching a conference compromise on the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-3838) to strongly oppose language in the Senate's alternative bill (S-2296) that gives Pentagon leaders authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2510090048). HR-3838 doesn’t include similar language. The Senate voted 77-20 earlier this month to pass S-2296 with the Section 1564 military spectrum veto language intact, despite opposition from Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas (see 2510070037).