Consolidated Communications is planning to end legacy voice service for more than 36,000 subscribers in six states as soon as Jan. 27. In a series of FCC applications posted Thursday, Consolidated said that in each case, it has overbuilt its copper network with fiber and will transition residential subscribers of its basic local exchange services to a VoIP replacement. To be transitioned are 4,176 subscribers in six exchanges in Pennsylvania, 13,624 subscribers in 11 exchanges in Texas, 4,701 subscribers in five exchanges in Illinois, 8,490 subscribers in 38 New England exchanges in Maine and New Hampshire, and 5,147 subscribers in 17 Vermont exchanges, Consolidated said.
Alphabet's Starfish Infrastructure is planning a private, non-common carrier subsea fiber-optic cable system connecting the U.S. to Bermuda, the Azores and Spain. Sol would be the first cable system connecting Florida to Southern Europe and the second directly connecting the U.S. to the Azores, Starfish told the FCC in an application Wednesday. It said demand for additional capacity between the U.S. and Southern Europe "continues to increase substantially each year."
Top NTCA officials met with FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty on the group’s regulatory agenda, said a filing Thursday in 13-5 and other dockets. “NTCA highlighted association priorities … including the importance of effective universal service programs and regulatory certainty in serving rural America and the need for further enhancements and refinements to the National Broadband Map,” it said.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) will meet Sept. 25, as expected (see 2506120070), the agency said Thursday. The meeting will start at 1 p.m. at FCC headquarters. CSRIC members are scheduled to vote on a report about recommended best practices on the ethical and practical use of AI and machine learning, the notice said, as well as hear updates on other reports.
NTIA may require states to conduct an additional round of subgrantee selections for the BEAD program, warned Christopher Mitchell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's community broadband networks initiative. In a blog Tuesday, Mitchell said NTIA added a "new step in the BEAD process to further reduce new investment in the areas that currently only have access from satellite providers."
Competitive Carriers Association membership is shrinking, but the remainder are hopeful about future spectrum auctions and policy calls that could mean the difference between life and death for many small players, CEO Tim Donovan said in an interview Thursday.
SpaceX’s $17 billion purchase of EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum rights is a disruptive hit to L- and S-band satellite operators and their direct-to-device (D2D) plans, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said Thursday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aerospace and space event in Washington. Also at the event, Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said overregulation is one of the chief issues facing the commercial space industry.
Ten Senate Republicans want to mitigate parts of the GOP’s compromise on a spectrum pipeline framework, adopted in July via the budget reconciliation package, amid an ongoing push to excise language in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (S-2296) that would give the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45, 7 and 8 GHz bands (see 2509100064).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the FCC will help the U.S. beat China in “Space Race 2.0” and praised SpaceX’s purchase of EchoStar’s AWS-4 spectrum in remarks Tuesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Aerospace Summit. “That deal is a potential game changer for the American consumer -- it promises to light up new spectrum and bring new sources of competition to the wireless and connectivity market.” The U.S. needs to deploy more satellites than China because the latter suppresses information, Carr said. “A world where [China] is providing internet access and controlling the access of information to billions across the globe would be less prosperous and more dangerous.”
The FCC unanimously approved a $920,000 forfeiture and a $60,000 notice of apparent liability against pirate broadcasters, according to items in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The forfeiture order was against Masner Beauplan of Middetown, New York, for operating an unauthorized station called “Radio Leve Kanpe” in Irvington and Maplewood, New Jersey, from November 2023 until January 2024. The NAL targets Radio Energy Inc. and its owner Pelege Marcellin for operating unauthorized AM stations near Boston called Radio Energy Boston in 2024. The stations stopped operating after they were inspected by FCC field agents, the NAL said. While searching for information on Radio Energy Boston, field agents found a news article announcing Marcellin’s purchase and renovation of a broadcast studio to establish a local radio station. Marcellin has 30 days to reply to the NAL.