Providers are pushing back on a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) proceeding that suggests regulating how much wireline and wireless carriers and ISPs can rely on portable generators to guarantee network resiliency. The proceeding, initiated this summer, asks about the right ratio of mobile generators to network facility sites to ensure system resilience, as well as where the mobile generators need to be stored to ensure that they're deployed in a timely fashion during disasters.

Wednesday was the start of the first fiscal year in over 50 years without federal funding for public broadcasting stations, and public broadcasters are starting to cut programming and even making plans to eventually go dark in some parts of the country, said America’s Public Television Stations CEO Kate Riley in interviews. “It feels like every day an announcement comes from another station talking about the services that they're having to cut, the layoffs they're having to make,” Riley said. “Our sense is that this is really just the beginning, and that this is going to be a rolling wave of these types of station cuts and reductions in services over the coming months.”

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

Given the deluge of financial scam calls, texts and emails that Americans constantly receive, Congress needs to clarify the enforcement authority that the FCC and other agencies have over abuse of communications channels, said the National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention. The task force, convened by the Aspen Institute, issued a report Wednesday that proposes a national public-private strategy to prevent scam calls.

Public Knowledge (PK) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) warned that the FCC would violate the Communications Act if it abandons universal service in favor of speeding copper retirement. In a joint filing posted Tuesday, the groups reminded the FCC that in the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2017, Congress found that “maintaining quality voice service to rural America remains essential even in the Internet Age.”

The Trump administration is making its support increasingly clear for dedicating the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi, WifiForward Executive Director Mary Brown said Wednesday. The FCC dedicated the band to unlicensed use during the first Trump administration and has indicated continued support for that position, but that doesn’t mean issues have gone away, she said. Brown and other officials spoke during a Broadband Breakfast webinar on the outlook for the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027.

The FCC suspended most of its operations early Wednesday when federal appropriations lapsed, as expected (see 2509300060). The agency furloughed 81% of its 1,288 staff members, less than the 88% it planned for ahead of a March shutdown that was averted when Congress agreed on its now-lapsed funding extension (see 2503140069). More than 77% of NTIA’s 600 employees remain at work, in part because of spectrum funding included in the Republicans’ reconciliation package, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (see 2507030056). The shutdown is also already affecting at least one telecom-related case in federal court, although the overall judicial system remains open for now.

FCC commissioners approved 2-1-- over dissents from Democrat Anna Gomez -- a declaratory ruling finding that school bus Wi-Fi is no longer eligible for E-rate support. Also approved over Gomez's dissent at Tuesday's meeting was an order canceling the funding of internet hot spots off school and library premises. Unlike other items voted on Tuesday, both were late additions to the meeting agenda, and drafts weren’t made public in advance.

FCC commissioners on Tuesday approved 3-0 a Further NPRM seeking comment on whether correctional facilities should be allowed to jam cell signals, with an eye on curbing contraband phones. Commissioners also approved notices seeking comment on revamped wireless and wireline infrastructure rules and a direct final rule deleting other wireline rules.

While USTelecom and other industry groups generally supported the FCC’s push to enable faster retirement of copper lines, other organizations raised concerns, especially over the role copper lines have historically played in emergency calling. Comments were due this week in docket 25-208.