'Bad Labs' and Other Items Cleared by FCC in Unanimous Votes

Compared with the initial meetings under Chairman Brendan Carr, Thursday’s -- which fell two days before the Memorial Day weekend -- was lightly attended. Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the meeting would be his last (see 2505220013).

There were “minimal changes on substance” to the lab item, said Ira Keltz, acting chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. The agency cleaned some language and added a full cost-benefit analysis, he noted. A few tweaks were expected (see 2505200045).

Carr said the lab item was part of an FCC effort to make networks safer. He noted that Huawei operated a lab that certified gear for use in the U.S. until last year.

“Before any electronic devices can be imported or sold in the U.S., they must be tested at a lab to ensure compliance with FCC regulations,” Carr said. “The commission certifies these labs, and historically, those labs focused on compliance with technical rules, like power levels and spectrum bands,” he added. “But the closer we looked at these labs, the clearer it became that they create a potential loophole in our national security efforts."

“This is a major step forward,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington, noting that the FCC’s telecommunications certification body program is 25 years old. “What we are now dealing with” is that “unprincipled, foreign adversaries may be exploiting a program that is intended to simplify trade in order to certify equipment that we would not actually approve for use in the United States were we to do a full FCC review.”

Telecom certification bodies, test labs and lab accreditation bodies are “lesser-known but critical players in the FCC’s equipment authorization programs, which make tens of thousands of wireless devices available to businesses and consumers” in the U.S. every year, said Commissioner Anna Gomez. The U.S. needs “an agile and secure program with trustworthy participants.”

Gomez said Carr agreed to add a question about how the rules will affect equipment makers whose devices are being reviewed by a lab that has lost FCC recognition.

The agency has found that a number of labs “have deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” said a news release. “These include entities that are connected to Chinese state-owned enterprises, involved in China’s Military-Civil Fusion apparatus through their apparent work with the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army, and even entities that are themselves Chinese state actors.” The Chinese labs “have tested thousands of devices bound for the U.S. market over the last several years,” the FCC said.

Satellite Spectrum and Foreign Ownership

The approved satellite spectrum FNPRM added a variety of spectrum bands for consideration atop 12.7 and 42 GHz. The item now also includes the 51.4-52.4 GHz, 92-94 GHz, 94.1-100 GHz, 102-109.5 GHz, and 111.8-114.25 GHz bands. SpaceX and Amazon were among those seeking use of 51.4-52.4 GHz (see 2505150006). The Commercial Space Federation had discussed with 10th-floor staffers the possibility of allowing non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service uplinks in the 92-94 GHz, 94.1-100 GHz, 102-109.5 GHz, and 111.8-114.25 GHz bands.

Those spectrum swaths are in neighborhoods ideal for satellite broadband, FCC Space Bureau Associate Chief Stephen Duall told commissioners.

Adding bands beyond 12.7 and 42 GHz shows that the FCC is “serious” about providing spectrum to further satellite industry growth, Starks said.

Carr said the 20,000 MHz of spectrum that the item tees up is more than the sum total of spectrum available for satellite use currently. That abundance puts the U.S. in a position to lead international discussions, he said.

The FNPRM starts proceedings "that could significantly expand satellite spectrum assets across multiple bands for current and next-generation space-based broadband connectivity,” said Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup.

The foreign-ownership NPRM saw only minor changes, said Wireline Bureau Chief Joseph Calascione. It now seeks further comment on individuals with dual citizenship and on due diligence for public companies. The FCC also now asks whether revocations should require commission-level action.

“For our national security strategy to succeed, we must identify risks before they can be exploited,” Carr said. “Up to now, the FCC and relevant stakeholders have had limited visibility into the ways that foreign adversaries might exert control over the entities we regulate.”

FCC Meeting Notebook

All the FCC employees who have left under his chairmanship have done so of their own volition, Carr told reporters. “We haven’t done any reductions in force; we haven’t [made] any mass personnel decisions,” he said. “Right now, it’s natural attrition." He told Congress this week that the FCC has 78 fewer employees as of April 28 than it did when FY 2025 began Oct. 1 (see 2505200058).

Gomez said “morale issues” and the Trump administration’s admission that it wants to “terrorize” federal workers probably motivated many retirement decisions. The administration wants workers to quit, she said: “That is the goal that has been stated quite forcibly” by OMB Director Russell Vought.

Carr noted during a news conference the agency’s announcement last week that the FCC has saved more than $567 million via cuts to contracts in an internal effort coordinated with the Department of Government Efficiency (see 2505140044). He clarified that the agency has “saved millions of dollars in the near term” and that the $567 million discussed last week related to a “ceiling” for contractor costs.

Many of the actions the Republican-led FCC is taking against companies so far can’t be appealed in court, Gomez said. “Threatening enforcement action, initiating enforcement action, is not appealable,” she said. “I do believe this is a campaign of harassment and intimidation in order to get parties to change their practices voluntarily,” she said. “The problem with that is capitulation breeds capitulation.”