An upper C-band auction is unlikely to start in FY 2026, the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics said in an annual update on projected auction activity in the next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. The report projected that the AWS-3 reauction will get underway but didn’t provide additional timing details. The report was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest. “In the next twelve months, the Commission will also consider competitive bidding for licenses for spectrum in other services in its inventory that is well-suited for 5G and has been licensed in prior auctions, such as, without limitation, 600 MHz spectrum,” the report said.
The Telecommunications Industry Association Monday asked the FCC to act quickly on rules that could speed up the transition by carriers away from legacy copper networks (see 2507240048). Comments were due Monday in docket 25-208. The FCC also continues to hear from consumers on what they see as the advantages of traditional wireline phones (see 2509250045).
Incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) provider Pay Tel asked the FCC for a waiver of a rule against charging prisoner families ancillary fees. The ban was adopted as part of the 2024 order (see 2407180039) implementing changes required by Congress in the Martha Wright-Reed Act. In late June, in a surprise move, the Wireline Bureau delayed some deadlines in the order until April 1, 2027 (see 2506300068).
Disability Belongs, a nonprofit led by people with disabilities, urged the FCC to reach out to all those affected before eliminating a requirement that telecommunications relay services providers support the largely obsolete ASCII transmission format. Other commenters saw little risk from permanently deleting the requirement.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and dozens of other congressional Democrats spoke Monday against FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s proposals to undo the commission's July 2024 order allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and another to fund Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2509030064). The commission is likely to approve the orders’ rescission during its Tuesday meeting along party lines over E-rate advocates’ misgivings (see 2509260046).
The FCC Office of Managing Director has revised on delegated authority its manner of ruling on regulatory fee waiver requests, according to a public notice in docket 25-219 Monday. In the past, OMD has resolved such requests by issuing individual letter decisions, but going forward, OMD will periodically issue public notices that list actions on all requests for waiver, reduction and/or deferral of fees, the PN said. “This change to our customary procedure implements the Commission’s goal of streamlining internal review processes and will enable OMD to more quickly resolve those matters while fulfilling its obligation to thoroughly review the record for each request and petition for reconsideration,” the PN said. More novel and controversial requests will still get letter decisions, OMD said. Monday’s PN included a list of OMD decisions on regulatory fee waiver requests for a host of entities, some from as far back as 2019. In a separate order, OMD also provided more detailed denials of a number of requests for financial hardship regulatory fee waivers. Petitions for reconsideration or applications for review of the decisions must be filed within 30 days, the order said.
Groups representing ISPs Monday asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear en banc an August decision upholding the FCC’s data breach notification rules, despite a Congressional Review Act action overturning similar requirements included with other privacy rules in 2017 (see 2508140052). Judge Jane Stranch wrote the 2-1 decision. Judge Richard Griffin dissented, saying the order was unlawful and should be set aside.
The Benefit of the Bargain (BoB) version of BEAD is shaping up to be "a tremendous success," with state plans to date coming in $15 billion under what they were allocated, NTIA head Arielle Roth said Monday. Speaking at SCTE's TechExpo event in Washington, Roth said NTIA is also pressing states in some cases to submit cheaper final proposals.
Wireless carriers have traditionally opposed the jamming of wireless signals at correctional facilities and supported managed access systems, but with FCC commissioners set to approve on Tuesday a Further NPRM proposed by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, the industry has had little to say in recent weeks (see 2509050055). Industry observers said the draft FNPRM is likely to be approved largely as proposed.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and other Hill Democratic leaders castigated FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during what amounted to a one-party bicameral hearing Monday for his mid-September comments against ABC and parent Disney widely perceived as influencing the network’s since-reversed decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air (see 2509180066). Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast stopped preempting Kimmel Friday night, as expected (see 2509260054). The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing potential dates soon for an FCC oversight hearing that ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democrats have been requesting to confront Carr (see 2509220059), lobbyists told us.