The focus of the third stage of NTIA’s Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund is to demonstrate the “real world capabilities” of open radio access networks and get more small players involved, Amanda Toman, director of the fund, said Friday. Toman spoke during a Network Media Group webcast. Applications were due in April on a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), under which NTIA will award as much as $450 million.
If Congress authorizes the full-power licensed use of the upper C-band, an FCC auction appears unlikely before 2026 at the earliest, industry experts told us. The conventional wisdom is that it takes about a year between the initial preparation stages and an auction. But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has promised to move quickly on spectrum and had put a notice of inquiry on the agenda for his first meeting as chairman, they also said (see 2502050057).
The FCC and DOJ on Thursday asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reject challenges to the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022, which reduces call rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039). The government said the order addresses the monopoly power of incarcerated persons communications services (IPCS) providers to set calling rates.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) approved two final reports Thursday, including one on threats that AI poses to networks. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told CSRIC members that AI has become a top focus for the agency, as it has for the rest of the Trump administration. The second report examines “Connecting Stalled 911 Calls Through Alternative Network Options.”
Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan said he remains worried about what the U.S. Supreme Court will decide on the USF's constitutionality, though he also expressed optimism that the program will survive the Consumers' Research challenge (see 2504140039). Donovan spoke during a Free State Foundation webcast this week, hosted by former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.
Public Knowledge and the Electronic Privacy Information Center urged the FCC to take privacy into consideration as the agency looks at wireless location accuracy for 911 calls (see 2506090022). Comments were posted this week in docket 07-114. “The Commission has presented acceptable proposals to make [enhanced 911] better, but has failed to properly consider in its proposals the importance of consumer privacy,” the groups said. Before adopting new E911 rules, the FCC should “seek further comment on how to protect subscriber information, including Customer Proprietary Network Information, as demands for sensitive location data increase.”
AT&T has the spectrum it needs for its wireless network for now but must be open-minded when any bands become available, AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said Tuesday at the Mizuho Technology Conference. Desroches also predicted that by the end of the current decade, nearly all economically viable locations will be reached with fiber, which is why the carrier is pushing hard on fiber today.
Telecom carriers started by using AI for “customer care” and sales, but AI use is spreading to networks and other parts of companies, said Tim Hatt, GSMA's head of research and consulting, during an RCR Wireless telecom AI forum Tuesday. “A lot is happening,” he said. There are regional differences, “but really we are [in] a commercialization phase.”
Satellite broadband providers, especially Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper service, are likely the big winners in the Commerce Department’s rewriting of the BEAD program rules, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Monday. Smaller providers that use unlicensed spectrum to offer broadband also won, he said. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, slammed the revised rules that the Trump administration released Friday (see 2506060052).
Wireless carriers are asking the FCC to trim old regulations and focus on flexible approaches in response to a March Further NPRM on wireless location accuracy. Public safety groups, including the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, want the FCC to put more emphasis on providing dispatchable location information (see 2506060031). Comments were due Friday in docket 07-114, and most were posted Monday.