Lawmakers and officials expect that long-standing DOD objections to repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and other military-controlled frequencies will remain a flashpoint in negotiations during the new Congress as GOP leaders eye using an upcoming budget reconciliation package to move on spectrum legislation. Observers eyed potential friction from Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., if she succeeds in her bid to become Senate Communications Subcommittee chair (see 2412180052) given her well-known disagreement with new Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on DOD spectrum issues.

CTA urged President-elect Donald Trump's administration to move with care on proposals for imposing higher tariffs on imports, warning they could result in sharp declines in the purchases of smartphones and other devices. With CES beginning in Las Vegas, CTA also projected retail revenue in the consumer tech industry of $537 billion this year, up 3.2% over 2024.

Ligado will partner with AST SpaceMobile on direct-to-device (D2D) service, with AST compensating Ligado for access to Ligado spectrum. The arrangement comes as part of a Ligado restructuring of its debt announced Monday, a day after Ligado filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The FCC commissioners' unanimously adopting a retransmission consent blackout reporting requirement for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) likely doesn't mean the agency will also mandate rebates for subscribers due to those blackouts anytime soon, pay-TV and broadcast experts tell us. The blackout reporting order was released Friday. The FCC is unlikely to push rebates during the last days of outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's administration and incoming Chairman Brendan Carr is unlikely to consider rebates, some pay-TV watchers say. Neither Rosenworcel's nor Carr's offices commented Monday.

NTIA sent letters over the weekend to members of the newly reconstituted Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee saying they had been appointed to serve. The letters ask that members respond by Jan 15. CSMAC is unlikely to meet before the end of the Biden presidency in just two weeks, industry officials said Monday.

Petitions denying Skydance Media's proposed $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global lack standing, call for conditions that would violate the First Amendment, and also raise concerns that are outside FCC jurisdiction, said Paramount and Skydance in an opposition filing posted Thursday in docket 24-275.

NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee may have fallen by the wayside, with many questions about its future unanswered heading into the second Donald Trump presidency. Several CSMAC members told us they reapplied for membership but have heard little in response.

Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases are marked with an *.

California's top assemblymember on communications is concerned about the state's process for distributing broadband cash and what President-elect Donald Trump might do to its $1.86 billion federal BEAD allocation. In an exclusive Communications Daily Q&A ahead of Monday's opening of the new legislative session, Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee Chair Tasha Boerner (D) said she expects she will resurrect her proposal that creates a single state broadband office. And the committee will try again on a digital discrimination bill that failed to pass in the last session. Our conversation below with Boerner was lightly edited for length and clarity.

The FCC released this week its biannual Communications Marketplace Report, which commissioners approved 3-2 with Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting. Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, objected, as he has in the past, to the focus on market segments rather than on the converged market (see 2101040051).