The FCC "will stay in touch" with the post-merger Paramount and track its compliance with conditions the agency placed on Skydance Media's acquisition of Paramount Global, Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday. Skydance Media closed on Paramount Global on Thursday, as expected (see 2507280007).
The FCC hacked away at licensing requirements for satellite and earth stations and slashed an array of broadcast rules in its August meeting Thursday. Four of the five items -- orders on submarine cable licensing and satellite and earth station licensing and NPRMs on improving emergency alerts and reviewing the commission's National Environmental Protection Act rules (see 2508070052) -- were approved unanimously. Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez partially dissented on an order repealing 98 broadcast rules and requirements.
The FCC is facing persistent calls from one unsuccessful bidder for Paramount Global to revisit the approval of the company's sale to Skydance Media, but we're told the commission is unlikely to heed them. The agency didn't comment Wednesday.
Under fire from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for its supposed warehousing of its AWS-4 spectrum, EchoStar unveiled a $5 billion plan Friday for a direct-to-device satellite constellation using that spectrum. CEO Hamid Akhavan said the low earth orbit (LEO) constellation would start commercial service in 2029 and provide a 5G level of service to mobile devices.
Trade groups are urging federal agencies to treat deliberate damage to communications networks, such as fiber-optic cable cuts, as domestic terrorism in some instances and increase investigative and enforcement resources in regions with more incidents. Widespread, organized attacks on communications networks represent "a significant and rapidly growing threat demanding urgent, coordinated federal, state, and local action," the groups said in a letter Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel.
SpaceX’s push for loosening up the spectrum-sharing rules between geostationary and non-geostationary orbit (GSO and NGSO) satellites in some bands is facing both opposition and support from satellite and terrestrial corners. Comments were due Monday in docket 25-157. Commissioners unanimously adopted the spectrum-sharing NPRM at their April meeting (see 2504280038). It resulted from a 2024 SpaceX petition urging changes to the GSO/NGSO sharing methodology for NGSO fixed satellite service (FSS) downlinks (see 2408120018). The company championed similar changes at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference.
The pole attachment item on the FCC's agenda Thursday is likely to be rewritten concerning the 60-day advance notice that attachers must provide utilities regarding midsize pole attachment orders, broadband infrastructure officials and experts tell us. In addition, we're told the draft order language about a 30-day timeline for utilities to approve attacher-proposed contractors could be moved to the item's Further NPRM. The pole attachment item -- a key part of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's Build America Agenda, unveiled in June (see 2507020036) -- has seen heavy lobbying from attacher and electric utility interests (see 2507160024 and 507180026).
NCTA is challenging some changes sought by utility company interests to the FCC's pole attachment item on its July agenda. The proceeding continues to attract significant lobbying from broadband and utility advocates (see 2507160024), particularly over contractor approvals.
Utility and broadband interests are pushing the FCC for changes to the agency's pole attachment item on its July 24 meeting agenda. In a speech earlier this month laying out his "Build America" agenda, Chairman Brendan Carr highlighted the pole attachment draft order and a copper line retirement draft NPRM, also on July's agenda, as prime examples of an intertwined focus on infrastructure deployment and deregulation (see 2507020036). Communications infrastructure deployment experts have mixed feelings about whether the pole attachment item notably eases pole attachment gripes. Commissioners' unanimous approval is expected, as pole attachment issues are generally nonpartisan.
Charter Communications' proposed $34.5 billion purchase of Cox Communications, announced in May (see 2505160060), isn't expected to raise anticompetitive concerns at the FCC. If it faces headwinds from the agency, they are more likely to come from the companies' diversity, equity and inclusion policies, cable executives, agency watchers and others tell us. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has repeatedly said the agency won't approve acquisitions involving companies practicing "invidious forms of DEI discrimination" (see 2503210049), which Carr has defined as cases "where people are discriminating based on race and gender."