The three U.S. tower companies said their industry's outlook appears positive, with the big three major carriers continuing to expand their networks. SBA Communications became the last to report on Monday.
The already-high USF contribution factor is expected to rise, based on a Friday filing at the FCC by the Universal Service Administrative Co. The factor is projected to increase from 36% in Q3 to 39.3% in Q4. Congressional leaders recently relaunched a bipartisan working group to study a USF legislative revamp (see 2508010051), but experts warned Monday that addressing USF won’t be easy.
The FCC’s draft NPRM on changing how the agency enforces the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) has led to only one ex parte meeting at the FCC (see 2507170048); however, that doesn’t mean the changes aren’t controversial, industry and agency officials said. They predicted approval when commissioners vote Thursday, but potentially with at least a partial dissent from Commissioner Anna Gomez.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision limiting the scope of environmental reviews in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado is very broad in its impact, said Venable’s Jay Johnson, who represented the coalition in the case. The decision (see 2506180059) doesn’t apply only to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) enforcement in regard to new railroad projects, “this applies to NEPA as a whole,” Johnson said during an Incompas webinar Thursday. “The court made that exceptionally clear.”
Groups representing prisoners and their families on Thursday asked the FCC to rescind a Wireline Bureau order delaying some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027. The prisoner advocates told us previously that they were weighing their options following the bureau order (see 2507030024).
Opponents of T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, including spectrum, filed a challenge to an FCC bureau order approving the deal (see 2507110045). They asked the agency to review the decision before it closes, which is expected Friday. Commissioner Anna Gomez said in an email she agreed that commissioners should have been asked to vote on the transaction.
International Center for Law & Economics Senior Scholar Eric Fruits on Wednesday criticized a NATE report by the Brattle Group, which found that the U.S. infrastructure market is a “monopsony” dominated by three mobile network operators (see 2507280064). “While the Brattle Group report effectively documents the business challenges some tower contractors face, its diagnosis of monopsony and market failure [is] incorrect,” he said in a post.
The Trump administration has so far raised many questions about its approach to tackling cybersecurity, former acting NTIA Administrator Evelyn Remaley said during a USTelecom webinar Tuesday. Other experts said the administration is mostly on the right track, though they conceded its policies remain a work in progress.
Groups and companies urged the FCC to move forward to complete rules for the lower 37 GHz band, including adopting a dynamic spectrum management system (DSMS) based on experience in other shared bands. Reply comments were due Monday and mostly posted Tuesday in docket 24-283. In a 4-0 vote in April, FCC commissioners approved an item aimed at spurring greater use of the 37 GHz band, which the Biden administration had targeted for repurposing (see 2504280032).
There's a wide gap between what carriers will pay to construct wireless infrastructure and the costs builders face, NATE said in a report released Monday. The report comes as NATE negotiates framework agreements resetting the relationship between members of the group and the major carriers (see 2507140033).