Industry commenters advised the FCC against handing down more regulation in response to a Further NPRM seeking comment on tougher call ID rules (see 2601070012). Numerous comments called the state of the call-branding market “nascent.” Reply comments were due last week in docket 17-59 on the FNPRM, which commissioners approved in October (see 2510280024).
Holding the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in Shanghai (see 2512010044) poses special challenges and the U.S. must make sure its management remains as neutral as possible, said Steve Lang, U.S. ambassador to the last WRC in 2024. Lang also said China likely pushed to hold the conference because officials there were concerned about growing U.S. influence at the ITU. Lang spoke on a Technology Policy Institute podcast posted late Thursday.
The Trump administration Thursday finalized a rule that will mean fewer protections for up to 50,000 federal workers. That could have significant implications for the FCC, the NTIA, the FTC and other federal agencies involved with communications policy, but the net effect may not be known for months, experts said Friday. The White House must still identify which employees fall under the new Schedule PC. The final rule is also expected to face a slew of legal challenges from federal employee unions and others.
Verizon this week filed a lawsuit against T-Mobile in federal court in Manhattan, accusing its rival of “intentional false advertising.” The case cites the Lanham Act, the main federal statute governing trademark law in the U.S., as well as state law. Verizon seeks injunctive relief and damages, including forcing T-Mobile to turn over some of its profits.
The battle continues over whether the FCC should further tweak its incarcerated people’s communications services rules in a way that’s more friendly to IPCS providers. Comments were due this week in docket 23-62 on a Further NPRM approved as an add-on to the October order that rolled back 2024 rates. Commissioners unanimously approved those rates following congressional direction in the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053).
Lawyers for the government and Ligado squared off Wednesday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard arguments on whether a lower court erred in not finding that the Communications Act displaced the trial court's jurisdiction over Ligado's takings claims. Ligado alleged that the DOD is infringing on the company's L-band property rights (see 2310130003). Judges appeared to direct the most pointed questions at DOD lawyer Nathanael Yale.
AI is quickly evolving from something that was entertaining to something employed by businesses for real-world “tactical uses,” former White House official Asad Ramzanali said Wednesday. At the same time, the public doesn't like the data centers that AI is spawning, he said. Ramzanali, director of AI and technology policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, spoke during a Fiber Broadband Association webcast with Gary Bolton, the group's CEO.
Industry groups urged the FCC to take a careful approach in imposing new rules in response to a further NPRM that was approved in October as part of a broader order that tightens the agency's equipment authorization rules (see 2510280024). Reply comments were due this week in docket 21-232, but many of those filed can’t be opened because of a glitch that occurred during the brief federal government shutdown. FCC officials said they're investigating the problem.
Julius Knapp, former chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, said the first lesson to limit interference in spectrum is to start with “a good set of rules.” The common refrain is that they should be based on “the engineering,” and “you can’t defy the laws of physics,” but the FCC must also weigh other considerations, he said late Monday during a Silicon Flatirons session in Boulder, Colorado. Knapp, who retired six years ago, rarely speaks at industry events.
Texting is “only the beginning” of what will be available to wireless consumers through direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service, Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner said Tuesday during a Technology Policy Institute webinar, the first in the group's winter spectrum series. Other experts said evolving D2D rules show that the FCC is allowing long-desired flexibility in spectrum rules.