Three former Republican FCC commissioners agreed Thursday that the Trump administration will likely focus on making more spectrum available for 5G and 6G, but conceded that the bands targeted by wireless carriers won’t be easy to address. Harold Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for the Economics of the Internet, joined Cooley’s Robert McDowell and Mike O’Rielly, now a consultant, during a Hudson forum.

Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New suits since the last update are marked with an *.

A commercial in-space servicing industry -- long discussed -- is coming, but when remains a big question mark, Chris Blackerby, Astroscale chief operating officer, said Wednesday. Speaking at the annual Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations (CONFERS) conference in Arlington, Virginia, he said there's demand for such services in geostationary orbit but not to expect a market for in-space servicing in low earth orbit anytime soon. Blackerby said governments are the likely customers for in-space servicing in the near term, though eventually the bulk of the marketplace will be commercial operators contracting for services. Mark Quinn, head of insurance broker Willis Towers' space division, said some space insurers no longer provide coverage after a spate of huge claims during the past two years.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr posted his support Wednesday of President-elect Donald Trump's announcement that Space-X CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” “Delete, delete, delete,” commented Carr on a post from Musk about the new department.

The broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program will likely survive despite speculation the next Congress will seek to claw back money from the $42.5 billion initiative (see 2410210043), state broadband officials said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. Some also speculated that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s role in President-elect Donald Trump's administration will mean a shift in BEAD away from a focus on fiber over other ways of reaching consumers (see 2411080033).

Charter Communications' plans to buy Liberty Broadband should give it much more flexibility, rather than having to take into account what Liberty -- which is a blocking minority shareholder in Charter -- wants, Recon Analytics' Roger Entner told us in an email. Under the deal Charter announced Wednesday, it's buying Liberty Broadband's stake in Charter, while Liberty Broadband spins off GCI into an independent company.

Attorneys general of 46 states and the District of Columbia urged the FCC to proceed with its proposed revisions to the robocall mitigation database (RMD). In reply comments posted Wednesday in docket 24-213 (see 2410160037), several industry groups also backed the proposal and sought some changes that will ensure information filed by providers is as accurate as possible.

Members of the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance cast the FCC’s recent order allowing FirstNet to use unassigned parts of the 4.9 GHz band as a win for public safety agencies. Industry experts said the order is unlikely to be reversed in the Donald Trump administration since it was approved with the support of FCC Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. Opponents have threatened litigation (see 2410220027).

The move to open radio access networks is accelerating, and may prove inevitable, experts said Tuesday during an Informatech 5G transport and networking strategies webinar. But carriers have options, speakers said. Meanwhile, Ericsson posted a progress report on moving to ORAN.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- An executive from a phone number warehouse defended his company’s practices Tuesday during the NARUC conference. However, the executive, NumberBarn Chief Technology Officer Brian Scott, seemed to heighten concerns for state officials and telecom attorneys who attended the panel. North American Numbering Council Chair Karen Charles, also a Massachusetts commissioner, said she planned to mention warehouse issues at a future NANC meeting.