Wi-Fi advocates on Monday filed at the FCC a study by Plum Consulting countering a recent NextNav engineering study that found no interference concerns with the company’s proposal for the FCC to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2503030023).
With a 4-0 vote, FCC commissioners on Monday approved an order and Further NPRM aimed at spurring greater use of the 37 GHz band, which the Biden administration targeted for repurposing (see 2412030057). As expected, the FCC tweaked the item (see 2504250051), led by changes sought by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) slammed the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials’ request that the FCC launch an NPRM on rules for the 4.9 GHz band (see 2502070020), including increasing the equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) limits to make the band more attractive for 5G. AT&T, which stands to benefit through its partnership with FirstNet, strongly supported the change.
T-Satellite service will start in July at $10 per month, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said late Thursday on a call with analysts to discuss Q1 results for the carrier (see 2504240062). Sievert also expressed concerns about Trump administration tariffs and said that if they result in more expensive smartphones, consumers will have to pay the extra costs.
The U.S. government urged the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals not to look to the 5th Circuit decision overturning an AT&T data fine when it hears arguments Tuesday concerning a $46.9 million penalty the FCC levied against Verizon. The carrier hopes the 2nd Circuit will follow the 5th’s direction (see 2504180021). “The FCC forfeiture order AT&T challenged, which involved AT&T’s location-based-service program, is nearly identical to the order Verizon challenges here,” the carrier told the court. The government responded Friday in docket 24-1733.
Several changes are likely to be included in the 37 GHz order and Further NPRM set for a commission vote Monday, industry and FCC officials said. Limited changes are possible to the proposed robocall NPRM, which seeks to close a gap in the commission’s Stir/Shaken authentication rules. Both items are expected to be approved by a unanimous vote.
Public interest groups defended the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053) in briefs filed last week at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The order reduces call rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039). Parts of the order were challenged by Securus and Pay Tel, which provide incarcerated people’s communication services (IPCS), as well as by state and law enforcement interests led by the National Sheriffs’ Association (see 2502140049). Briefs were posted last week in 24-8028.
Carrier groups urged the FCC to move cautiously as it updates its Part 36 separations rules, which haven’t seen a major overhaul for more than 35 years. The rules remain important for many small providers, they noted in comments due Wednesday in docket 80-286. The FCC also has the ongoing “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding, which is examining eliminating rules of all kinds (see 2504140046 and 2504140063).
SI Wireless, a small wireless broadband provider, sued the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after the FCC blocked payments under its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. SI accused the FCC of retaliation. The program pays for the removal of unsecure Chinese gear, mostly from wireless networks. SI serves rural southern Illinois and parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.
AT&T CEO John Stankey warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could hurt the carrier, echoing Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg on Tuesday (see 2504220033). Unlike Verizon, which lost postpaid phone subscribers in Q1, AT&T reported 324,000 postpaid phone net adds in the quarter, buoyed by FirstNet.