The FCC seems likely to move toward looser spectrum-sharing rules between non-geostationary and geostationary orbit satellites, allowing for NGSOs to operate at higher equivalent power flux density (EPFD) levels, satellite and spectrum experts tell us. That could mean big momentum for NGSO efforts to get similar changes made at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, we're told. The FCC chairman's office didn't comment.
EchoStar faces litigation from two tower companies over lease agreements from the now-ended nationwide wireless network buildout by its Dish Wireless subsidiary, but few if any other tower company suits are likely, said Ken Schmidt, president of Steel in the Air cell tower lease consultancy. American Tower and Crown Castle represented the vast bulk of Dish's wireless network deployment, and have substantially more to lose than other tower companies, Schmidt added.
A state law barring the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) from sharing information about Lifeline program subscribers with other government agencies, including immigration authorities, means the state can no longer do its own Lifeline subscriber verifications, according to the FCC. The Wireline Bureau ordered Thursday that the state could no longer opt out of using the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) federal verification system. "Going forward, federal processes will be used to conduct eligibility verifications and perform duplicate checks for federal Lifeline program applicants in California."
ORLANDO -- BEAD-related fiber deployments will face sizable data center competition for fiber-optic cabling, and the BEAD camp is likely to lose out, supply chain experts predicted this week at the Broadband Nation Expo.
Final BEAD proposals from 18 states and territories have been approved, NTIA said Tuesday. They are Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. One of those, Louisiana, has signed the National Institute of Standards and Technology award amendment, letting the state start accessing BEAD funds, NTIA added.
ORLANDO -- BEAD projects face an array of potential complications and hurdles, from unanticipated rising costs to persistent problems of underserved locations being left out, speakers said this week at the annual Broadband Nation Expo. Like previous subsidized broadband deployment programs, BEAD projects will inevitably face inflation of labor and supply chain costs, WISPA President David Zumwalt said Tuesday. He said that could be a challenge for operators in their BEAD deployment plans, as there's not an escalator in the program's funding.
ORLANDO -- This year has already seen multiple blockbuster mergers and acquisitions in telecom, and the relatively modest levels of BEAD-related consolidation should start to heat up in 2026, said Jonathan Adelstein, TWN Communications' chief strategy and external affairs officer, at the annual Broadband Nation Expo on Monday. Pointing to such activity as Verizon/Frontier, AT&T/Lumen and regional deals, the former Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO said mobile network operators are interested in fiber. The state of BEAD had been unclear going into 2025, but now the rules seem set, and BEAD activity is picking up, he added.
Numerous chambers of commerce and free-market advocacy groups have lined up at the FCC behind Charter Communications' proposed purchase of Cox Communications. The $34.5 billion deal was announced in May (see 2505160060). Submissions in docket 25-233 last week filed during the federal government shutdown saw numerous backers arguing for quick FCC approval. Ziply Fiber sought conditions.
Facing a "space Industrial Revolution," the FCC Space Bureau is trying to improve its throughput, Chief Jay Schwarz said Thursday at a New America event in Washington, D.C. Schwarz warned that some nations and satellite operators are trying to use the regulatory system to forestall competition from U.S. operators.
ACA Connects hopes to use the FCC's wide-reaching wireline deployment rules reform proceeding to pursue permitting reforms and stop local rate regulation efforts that Congress isn't currently tackling, President Grant Spellmeyer told reporters Wednesday. Brian Hurley, the group's senior vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, said that given the priority that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has put on speeding up deployment, ACA expects to see action in 2026 coming out of the wireline proceeding.