AST SpaceMobile now has FCC approval to begin offering supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service and to launch and operate the majority of its constellation. But company watchers questioned its ability to ramp up its deployment quickly to compete in the direct-to-device (D2D) arena.
Gray Media is taking retransmission-related complaints against Dish Network to both the FCC and federal court. In an FCC complaint posted Monday in docket 12-1, Gray reported unauthorized retransmission of WVLT-TV Knoxville "and, presumably, other Stations owned by Gray" to hotel guests, multi-dwelling units and other commercial properties in designated market areas served by those stations.
While the FCC looks to improve internet-based telecommunications relay services (TRS), providers and others are split on whether human communications assistants (CAs) are needed and where those CAs should work, according to comments posted Friday in docket 10-51. The commissioners adopted an NPRM in January looking at an IP TRS rules update (see 2601290044).
Starcloud's plans for an 88,000-satellite space data center constellation (see 2602050002) are triggering concerns among space interests and other satellite operators. Starcloud and other orbital data center applications before the FCC raise "novel technical, environmental, and governance considerations" that go beyond routine FCC licensing expertise, Secure World Foundation said in comments filed this week with the commission's Space Bureau.
IRVING, Texas -- While major fiber and cable makers say there will be plenty of supply available for BEAD (see 2603190029), broadband executives speaking Wednesday at the Connected America 2026 conference here were notably more pessimistic. Materials and contractor costs are on the rise, and broadband providers that haven't already been locking down contractors and material for BEAD are behind, Utopia CEO Roger Timmerman said. "There's a shortage out there and a lot of projects coming."
IRVING, Texas -- Though many states are debating whether they will need their broadband offices post-BEAD, doing away with those agencies would be a mistake, state broadband officials and allies said Tuesday at Total Telecom's Connected America 2026 conference.
The FCC's recent move to add all foreign-made routers to the "covered list" of unsecure equipment (see 2603240006) could slow Wi-Fi 7 adoption and make it tougher for smaller manufacturers to compete, the Global Electronics Association (GEA) said in a report released last week. It said there's a finite inventory of previously authorized router models, and that could be consumed in six to 12 months if the conditional approval process, which will exempt routers from covered list restrictions, doesn't ramp up sufficiently. As a result, consumers and ISPs "will face constrained selection and delayed access to next-generation products at precisely the moment Wi-Fi 7 adoption should be accelerating." The FCC didn't comment Monday.
A growing number of satellite operators are asking the FCC to waive its surety bond requirements for their satellites, saying that the agency has expressed an intent to move away from using such bonds in many cases. A lawyer with space clients told us those waiver requests could face an uphill climb at the commission.
President Donald Trump is promising a federal investigation of CNN's coverage of the Iran war ceasefire after he and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr lambasted the cable news network in a set of social media posts Tuesday night, calling its reporting fraudulent. CNN and its defenders said its coverage was in fact accurate. Seth Stern, advocacy director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), told us there's no basis for a criminal investigation, and civil claims "would be absolutely frivolous."
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision about ISPs' liability for piracy by their subscribers could chill the prospects of such lawsuits in the future, intellectual property lawyers told us. Some said the Cox Communications ruling might also point to how courts will treat copyright infringement claims against generative AI platforms.