Verizon is in discussions with EchoStar about buying the company’s AWS-3 spectrum, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks. AT&T announced an agreement in August to buy EchoStar’s 600 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses for $23 billion (see 2508260005). Dish Network, which is now part of EchoStar, was the third-highest bidder in the 2015 auction, with bids of more than $13 billion. Dish returned some of the licenses to the FCC, which will sell them in an upcoming auction.
FCC commissioners approved 2-1-- over dissents from Democrat Anna Gomez -- a declaratory ruling finding that school bus Wi-Fi is no longer eligible for E-rate support. Also approved over Gomez's dissent at Tuesday's meeting was an order canceling the funding of internet hot spots off school and library premises. Unlike other items voted on Tuesday, both were late additions to the meeting agenda, and drafts weren’t made public in advance.
FCC commissioners on Tuesday approved 3-0 a further NPRM seeking comment on whether correctional facilities should be allowed to jam cell signals, with an eye on curbing contraband phones. Commissioners also approved notices seeking comment on revamped wireless and wireline infrastructure rules and a direct final rule deleting other wireline rules.
While USTelecom and other industry groups generally supported the FCC’s push to enable faster retirement of copper lines, other organizations raised concerns, especially over the role copper lines have historically played in emergency calling. Comments were due this week in docket 25-208.
The FCC voted unanimously Tuesday to seek comment on relaxing local broadcast-ownership limits, even as protesters at the crowded meeting called FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “the censorship czar” and he continued to deny that his recent comments about Jimmy Kimmel were a threat.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr emphasized Tuesday that he was “ready to go” with what the commission said would be a suspension of “most operations” after midnight Wednesday if Congress couldn't reach a deal on a continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Tuesday night, as most observers expected. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said more than 77% of NTIA’s 600 staff will remain at work following an appropriations lapse, in part because of spectrum funding included in Republicans’ reconciliation package, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (see 2507030056).
Radio Communications Corp. (RCC) is seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of its challenge of the FCC’s implementation of the 2023 Low Power Protection Act (LPPA), which a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel unanimously rejected in June (see 2506270043). The FCC’s LPPA order allowed low-power TV stations fulfilling certain criteria set by Congress to upgrade to Class A status. Though the FCC’s order used nearly identical language to the LPPA, RCC has repeatedly argued that the FCC mistook Congress’ intent. RCC had argued the LPPA's requirement that eligible stations operate in a designated market area (DMA) with not more than 95,000 TV households was misinterpreted by the FCC, and it actually meant the upgrades should be available based on the size of a station’s community of license. The D.C. Circuit disagreed. “Nowhere in the statute does Congress reference ‘community of license,’ nor are communities of license equivalent systems to DMAs,” said the June opinion. “RCC’s convoluted reading of these statutory provisions is plainly incorrect.” In its petition for certiorari, RCC said the D.C. Circuit opinion and FCC order gave NAB and full-power broadcasters “speculative third-party regulatory relief” by not letting more LPTV stations upgrade to Class A status. The D.C. Circuit opinion “twists the LPPA into knots, ignoring basic statutory interpretive rules, for the improper purpose of protecting NAB’s Full Power clients, the entities the LPPA seeks to constrain,” RCC said. The petition accuses the FCC of acting on NAB’s behalf, though the agency’s order implementing the LPPA stuck narrowly to the text of the statute. “Federal agencies are not alter egos for trade associations,” RCC said.
An FCC order expanding the reach of the do-not-originate lists and strengthening call-blocking capabilities is effective Dec. 15, said a Monday notice by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Commissioners approved the order in February (see 2502270058).
Groups opposing an FCC order giving the FirstNet Authority control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027) Monday slammed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) challenges of part of the order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) and other groups filed a brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is scheduled to hear the case Nov. 24. The FCC and DOJ, meanwhile, defended the order.
CTIA Monday filed in support of a T-Mobile petition asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear en banc the August decision by a three-judge panel upholding the FCC’s data fines against it and Sprint, which it subsequently purchased (see 2509220056).