California’s plan to launch a home broadband pilot under its LifeLine program received mixed reactions from industry and consumer advocates. Groups were split over legal authority, service standards and who should be required to participate in the program, which was proposed by California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Commissioner Alice Reynolds and is expected to be considered during the agency's August 28 meeting.

While traditional and virtual MVPDs will always be "a critical pathway" for distributing its sports content, Monumental Sports & Entertainment sees the clear cord-cutting trend and has to be able to go direct-to-consumer (DTC) as well, according to Zach Leonsis, its president of media and new enterprises. The company, which had a 33% stake in NBC Sports Washington, D.C., bought out Comcast's 67% stake in the regional sports network (RSN) in 2022. A year ago, it launched its Monumental+ app.

The FCC NPRM looking at potential changes to the commission’s enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) has numerous changes between it and the draft Chairman Brendan Carr circulated. Industry officials expect the FCC to move quickly since NEPA reform has been a top focus of the Donald Trump administration, they said Friday.

The FCC’s new direct final rule process doesn’t give enough time and information to the public, provides too much authority to the bureaus, and is of questionable legality, said local governments, public interest groups and civil rights groups in filings in docket 25-133 last week. All the comments objected to the DFR process, rather than specific rules the process is being used to eliminate in orders voted at the FCC’s July (see 2507240055) and August (see 2508070037) meetings.

While SpaceX is challenging at least one state, saying it was unfairly precluded from BEAD locations it should have won, a Vernonburg Group analysis points to low earth orbit (LEO) satellites being able to serve at most 26% of BEAD-eligible unserved and underserved locations nationwide. That lines up with the concerns of fiber advocates and others about LEO networks' ability to meet the legislative definition of a priority project -- such as delivering 100/20 Mbps service -- at BEAD scale, former BEAD Director Evan Feinman told us.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC’s $80 million data breach forfeiture in a unanimous opinion handed down Friday (see 2508150014). T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. Judges appeared skeptical of T-Mobile's arguments when the case was heard in March (see 2503240048). T-Mobile is reviewing the decision, a spokesperson said Friday.

A White House executive order on regulation of novel space activities by the Commerce Department leaves uncertain what role, if any, the FCC will have in overseeing in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing, we're told. The EO, which President Donald Trump issued Wednesday, also looks to ease the regulatory hurdles for commercial space launches. The FCC commissioners unanimously approved an ISAM licensing framework NPRM 18 months ago (see 2402150053).

Industry will likely turn to the FCC to address a 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court decision on Wednesday upholding the agency’s 2024 data breach notification rules (see 2508130068). When the rules were approved, now Chairman Brendan Carr and former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented (see 2312220054).

Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.

The Canadian broadband market is similar to the U.S., with most people having internet service that’s at least 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads, experts said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. However, speakers noted that, as in the U.S., Canada still faces a digital divide. Similar to the $42.45 billion BEAD program, Canada is making about $4.4 billion available for broadband under its current fund, they said. The smaller fund reflects, in part, that the population of Canada is 41.3 million, versus 340.1 million in the U.S.