AI is increasing the gap between the demand and availability of submarine cable connectivity, Telecom Italia Sparkle CEO Enrico Bagnasco said Monday. Also speaking at International Telecoms Week at National Harbor, Maryland, Chandler Vaughan, associate director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development's Office of Broadband, said pole attachments, railroad crossings and federal land permitting issues remain infrastructure "project killers."
NAB’s FCC petition on allowing broadcasters to use software in place of physical emergency alert system (EAS) equipment is “premature,” and granting it would be a “sweeping regulatory shift without the necessary technical, legal, or operational foundation,” said major EAS box manufacturer Digital Alert Systems in comments filed in docket 15-94 by Friday’s deadline. Nearly every other commenter in the docket -- including broadcasters, NCTA and the Society of Broadcast Engineers -- strongly endorsed NAB’s petition.
A petition by major trade associations asking the FCC for a rulemaking on the commission's enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision, raises interesting issues for the agency under Chairman Brendan Carr, industry experts told us. The groups on the petition are CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 2505010058). Experts said they’re watching closely what the FCC does next.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us in recent days that negotiations on potential compromise spectrum legislative language for a budget reconciliation package remain in flux. They emphasized it's still uncertain there will be a deal to obligate an airwaves pipeline as part of the measure. Their comments contrasted with the optimism that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., voiced in recent interviews about the prospects of a spectrum deal that would satisfy pro-DOD legislators, who have resisted reallocating military-controlled midband airwaves.
The FCC sought comment Friday on eliminating 2,057 docketed proceedings as dormant. A sampling studied by Communications Daily found many smaller, limited dockets, often in which few, if any, filings had been made. The FCC said it closed almost 100 other dockets “administratively” in advance of the release. The notice from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) isn’t tied to the ongoing “Delete” proceeding, the agency said. Comment deadlines will come in a Federal Register notice.
A proposal from FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to fight “fake news” by capping fees that broadcast affiliates pay networks could include provisions protecting Fox, broadcast and FCC officials told us. Simington described the idea in a Thursday op-ed, co-written with Gavin Wax, his new chief of staff, and published in The National Pulse. President Donald Trump reposted the proposal Friday morning on Truth Social.
President Donald Trump's executive order late Thursday instructing CPB to cease funding NPR and PBS may not have an immediate effect on stations and will likely be challenged as part of CPB’s existing lawsuit, which disputes executive branch jurisdiction over the private corporation (see 2504290067), attorneys told us. Trump followed up on the order Friday, again proposing eliminating federal CPB funding as part of his FY 2026 discretionary budget request. Meanwhile, some pro-CPB congressional appropriators are warily eyeing Trump’s pending request that Capitol Hill claw back $1.1 billion in advance funding for the entity (see 2504150052).
The federal government wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to block a lower court injunction staying a White House executive order ending collective bargaining arrangements for employees at numerous agencies, including the FCC, IRS and Food and Drug Administration. The order removed collective bargaining rights at roughly 40 agencies on national security grounds, affecting two-thirds of the federal workforce. The injunction was issued last week after a legal challenge brought by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers at the FCC. NTEU has said the order is an existential threat to the union (see 2504040037).
CTIA’s proposal that the FCC launch a rulemaking to update its rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is facing huge backlash from states and tribal groups (see 2503270059). CTIA also asked the commission to tackle restrictions under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The petition received support from industry. Comments were due Wednesday in RM-12003.
The FCC released the drafts of the three items set for a vote during the commission’s May 22 meeting, including the “bad labs” order and Further NPRM, which downplays some concerns raised by industry last year (see 2409050017). Also on the agenda are foreign-ownership rules and an NPRM looking at satellite broadband (see 2504300049).