FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order to OK with conditions Ligado’s application for a low-power terrestrial nationwide broadband network, the agency confirmed Thursday morning in a long-anticipated move. The L-band operations could support 5G and the IoT, the regulator said. “This draft order would both promote more efficient and effective use of our nation’s spectrum resources and ensure that adjacent band operations," including GPS, "are protected from harmful interference,” it added.
The California Public Utilities Commission reasserted authority to review T-Mobile/Sprint, while tweaking some conditions the carriers opposed, in a revised proposed decision released Wednesday. Commissioners plan to vote Thursday.
COVID-19 effects continue to be felt in media, telecom and technology. NAB won't move when planned, we were told Tuesday afternoon.
Frontier Communications is the latest telco to file for bankruptcy. Bondholders representing more than 75% of the carrier's approximately $11 billion in unsecured bonds agreed to support the plan that's expected to reduce the company’s debt by more than $10 billion, said an email we received at around 11 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The company said it and subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The Technology Policy Institute is the latest organization in media, technology and telecom to reschedule an event due to COVID-19. TPI moved its annual conference from Aug. 16-18 in Aspen, Colorado, across the country to Boar's Head Resort in Charlottesville on Oct. 16-18, we were told this week. It's one of the farthest out on the calendar events to be rescheduled due to COVID-19.
The FCC’s move to new headquarters near Union Station has been delayed at least two months due to COVID-19, a spokesperson told us Monday afternoon. The move had been slated to happen in late June.
The FCC Office of General Counsel and Media Bureau won't investigate any allegedly inaccurate statements by President Donald Trump on COVID-19 that broadcasters carried. FCC staff "today wholly rejected a petition by Free Press demanding a government investigation into broadcasters that have aired" such statements during White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings and related commentary "regarding the coronavirus pandemic by other on-air personalities." That's per a letter/order the commission announced Monday.
Lacking California OK, T-Mobile completed the purchase of Sprint. The deal completion was announced Wednesday morning by T-Mobile, which earlier this week and as we previously reported signaled its intention to complete the multibillion-dollar deal without California Public Utilities Commission approval.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai confirmed Wednesday he will seek a vote at the commissioners' March 23 meeting on making 1,200 megahertz available for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use in the 6 GHz band. The draft rules are to be posted Thursday.
FCC commissioners OK'd rules for a $200 million COVID-19 telehealth program late Tuesday, after remaining members voted, agency officials told us. It directs the funds appropriated in the Cares Act. Also OK'd, but without unanimous support, was a three-year, $100 Connected Care pilot funded by USF, agency officials said.