The Trump administration is making its support increasingly clear for dedicating the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi, WifiForward Executive Director Mary Brown said Wednesday. The FCC dedicated the band to unlicensed use during the first Trump administration and has indicated continued support for that position, but that doesn’t mean issues have gone away, she said. Brown and other officials spoke during a Broadband Breakfast webinar on the outlook for the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027.
China is on the verge of eclipsing U.S. leadership and commercial dominance of space, according to the Commercial Space Federation (CSF). The Asian nation is on a campaign "to define norms, capture markets, and build international coalitions across all segments of the space ecosystem,” the group said in a report released Tuesday about China's growing commercial space activity.
The FCC should investigate ABC over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s donations to and fundraising for politicians who have appeared on his show, said the Center for American Rights in a complaint filed Thursday.
LiveVideo.AI is fighting a magistrate judge's recommended dismissal of its claims against National Amusements and its president, Shari Redstone, related to Skydance Media's purchase of Paramount Global. In an objection last week (docket 1:24-cv-06290), LiveVideo.AI told the U.S. District Court for Southern New York that U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses' report and recommendation -- which, along with dismissal of the suit, called for LiveVideo.AI and its counsel to face monetary sanctions and for an injunction to prevent LiveVideo.AI from further "frivolous" claims (see 2508130001) -- omits antitrust violations and acts of security fraud that have come to light recently. It said the recommendation wrongly turns "harmless docketing issues into case-ending defaults" and recommends sanctions "despite colorable, good-faith arguments."
Automakers were united in raising concerns about an FCC proposal to update its “covered list” of unsecure companies to reflect a January finding by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on connected vehicles (see 2505270059). Many groups have already opposed the proposal (see 2506300052). In filings Thursday and Friday, four automakers weighed in separately in docket 18-89, arguing that the proposal works against the Trump administration's goal of reinvigorating U.S. auto manufacturing.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) disputed proposals in the FCC’s “bad labs” Further NPRM in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-136 (see 2508190051).
States face a challenge getting their BEAD final proposals to NTIA by the Sept. 4, but most will meet the deadline, Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter said Tuesday at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum. Large states like Texas and California will probably need extensions, she told us. Reitter said she was fairly confident NTIA in turn would meet its deadline for reviewing the final proposals within 90 days of receiving them.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses on Tuesday recommended dismissal of claims brought by LiveVideo.AI against National Amusements and its president, Shari Redstone, related to Skydance Media's purchase of Paramount Global. In a report and recommendation (docket 24-CV-6290) to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, Moses said LiveVideo.AI's complaint that National Amusements, Paramount's majority holder, ignored its rival bid for Paramount was frivolous. Moore said that following its complaint, LiveVideo.AI has "flooded the docket with meritless, repetitive, and frequently incoherent filings."
An FCC order couched as being about deleting outdated rules but outlining a new agency process that does away with notice-and-comment drew Anna Gomez’s first dissent as a commissioner. The direct final rule (DFR) order was approved at the agency’s open meeting Thursday over her objections, 2-1. The commissioners also approved items on auctioning AWS-3 spectrum, georouting 988 texts, and slamming rules. “The way we do things matters,” Gomez said. “The fact that the process adopted today effectively evades review by an informed public is a feature not a bug.”
The FCC posted on Thursday the drafts for all the items teed up for votes at the commission’s Aug. 7 open meeting. Most have a deregulatory bent.