FCC Chairman Brendan Carr this week circulated revised incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) rules that could drive up the price of calls by as much as 80% or more, said industry officials engaged in the proceeding. In interviews Thursday, they also questioned how they can even raise concerns ahead of the Oct. 28 open meeting, given the federal government’s partial shutdown.
DOJ and the FCC asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that rejected a $57 million FCC fine against AT&T for violating the agency's data protection rules. The 5th Circuit ruled in April that the fine was unconstitutional because it denied AT&T's Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. The 2nd Circuit later upheld a similar fine against Verizon, while the D.C. Circuit upheld one against T-Mobile (see 2509100056).
Innovation in wireless and 6G is dependent on whether carriers deploy open, cloud-based, disaggregated networks, said Milap Majmundar, director of advanced radio access network technology, standards and spectrum at AT&T Labs, at an RCR Wireless 6G conference Wednesday. Open radio access networks (ORAN) “are here to stay,” he said.
Americans want the broadband speeds that come with fiber everywhere, but satisfying that demand isn’t possible, said telecom consultant Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of the Carmel Group, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. Other speakers said the U.S. should keep focusing on deploying fiber to as many locations as possible.
In Verizon’s first big move under new CEO Dan Schulman, the carrier announced Wednesday that it plans to acquire Starry, a company that offers next-generation fixed-wireless broadband. Industry experts said regulators are unlikely to ask too many questions about the deal.
Telecom networks are seeing fundamental changes as they're upgraded to 5G and eventually 6G, telecom executives said during an RCR Wireless 6G forum Tuesday. Experts stressed that more than ever, networks must be agile and able to change quickly to address evolving customer demands.
A coalition of 24 members of Congress, led by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., urged the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear en banc an August decision that upheld the FCC’s data breach notification rules, despite a Congressional Review Act action in 2017 that overturned similar requirements in other privacy rules (see 2508140052). Right-leaning interest groups also asked for rehearing, as sought by ISPs (see 2509290066). Briefs were filed Monday in case 24-3133.
Providers of incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) insisted Tuesday at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the court shouldn’t even be hearing the case challenging a 2024 FCC order -- the 5th Circuit should. Oral argument in the case came the same day that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr circulated a draft order and Further NPRM that would make sweeping changes to IPCS rules approved last year.
Industry experts are criticizing the Trump administration’s decision last week to ax the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, which has long worked on more complicated spectrum issues, including sharing (see 2509300065). A CSMAC member said the decision was unexpected since potential members of the reconstituted group had undergone enhanced security and background checks, even more than was done for previous CSMACs. NTIA decided to dedicate its resources to other issues, a spokesperson said last week about the CSMAC decision (see 2510010034).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is proving to be “a very consequential chairman,” New Street’s Blair Levin said in a new webcast with former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, part of a series for the Free State Foundation. Levin also said he doesn’t view President Donald Trump as a true advocate of free markets.