Many questions remain about how the U.S. Supreme Court will decide FCC v. Consumers’ Research, lawyers involved in the case said Tuesday during an FCBA webinar. The USF case is expected to be heard in the spring. SCOTUS decided last month to hear a challenge to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which found the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.
FCC commissioners appear likely to approve, with few changes, a draft order that would expand parts of the 6 GHz band where new very-low-power (VLP) devices are permitted to operate without coordination. One wrinkle, industry officials said, is that Commissioner Nathan Simington appears sympathetic to concerns NAB raised earlier. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the order at their open meeting Wednesday.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and some other congressional leaders are objecting to a compromise version of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) released Saturday night with language allocating $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412070001). The leaders’ concerns complicate plans for HR-5009's passage. House leaders are eyeing a vote on the measure this week. Meanwhile, some lawmakers want to attach the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-8449) and permanently lift some telehealth restrictions via other end-of-year measures.
FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council members are concerned the advisory committee won’t be allowed to continue its work once Commissioner Brendan Carr takes over the agency, and the group used its final 2024 in-person meeting Friday to present arguments for its continued operation.
AT&T and CTIA urged that the FCC rethink citizens broadband radio service rules and questioned the band's success, filing reply comments to an August NPRM (see 2411070032). But most commenters said the FCC should only tweak the band. CBRS advocates largely defended the model as a sharing success story. Interest in the proceeding was strong, with more than two dozen reply comments posted as of Friday.
The FCC’s Precision Ag Connectivity Task Force held its final meeting Thursday, approving the group's comprehensive final report. Summarizing the task force's working groups' findings, the report wasn’t released Thursday. Task force Chair Michael Adelaine said during a virtual meeting that the work must continue even as the group’s charter expires.
Faced with an increasingly vulnerable GPS system that rival global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are eclipsing, the U.S. must align positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) policy with where the commercial sector is headed, PNT experts said during an FCBA panel in Washington Thursday. The lack of a national backup to GPS “is quite shocking,” but no one solution will address all needs, said Ed Mortimer, NextNav vice president-government affairs. He said a variety of commercial solutions are near but they require a policy environment open to competition.
Some congressional backers of the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program are beginning to see momentum turn toward including an additional $3.08 billion that will fully fund the initiative in an end-of-year legislative package (see 2411190064), but they aren’t guaranteeing success yet. Lawmakers and other rip-and-replace boosters hope congressional scrutiny of the Salt Typhoon Chinese government-affiliated effort at hacking U.S. telecom networks (see 2411190073) could be a tipping point for securing the funding after multiple spectrum legislative proposals, meant to pay for the program, stalled in recent years.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases since the last update are marked with a *.
NOAA is making plans with NASA for what could result in a high accuracy and robustness service (HARS) that augments GPS, members of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Board members also discussed a draft presidential transition issue paper urging the President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration to bolster reliable national PNT capabilities.