T-Mobile’s buy of a stake in fiber-based provider Metronet as part of a joint venture with investment firm KKR closed Thursday, T-Mobile announced. T-Mobile closed its JV with Lumos in July. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, during a call with analysts Wednesday, highlighted the closing of the deals (see 2507230066). “With both up and running under the T-Fiber banner in the second half, we are poised to deliver 100,000 or more fiber nets on top of our planned 5G broadband nets this year,” Sievert said. “We are off to the races.”
Multiple personnel items that were added to the FCC's Thursday meeting agenda (see 2507170058) have been adopted and deleted, the agency said Wednesday.
Randolph May is president of the Free State Foundation (see 2507180048).
The FCC doesn’t have the authority to expand the base of regulatory fee payors, said a host of trade groups in reply comments on the agency’s proposed 2025 regulatory fees. Replies were due Monday in docket 25-190. NAB and Telesat pushed for the FCC to expand the payor base in their comments filed earlier this month (see 2507080044).
Consumers’ Research said the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should look more closely at an issue raised in the dissent and a footnote in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court’s decision in June upholding the legality of the USF. The FCC and DOJ last week asked the 5th Circuit not to require further briefing but close the case (see 2507170063).
Five personnel items have been added to the FCC's July 24 meeting agenda, according to the Sunshine Notice issued Thursday. One regards appointment of a defense commissioner in the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The defense commissioner oversees the agency's homeland security, national security and emergency preparedness activities. Also on the agenda are five promotions.
The FCC and DOJ on Thursday asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to require a briefing on a potential remaining issue after the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected a Consumers’ Research challenge to the way the FCC manages the USF (see 2507020049). The problem for the FCC has been a footnote in the majority opinion, which noted that several provisions in Section 254 of the Communications Act weren't challenged and which expressed no opinion about whether those posed any additional problems for the program (see 2507150081).
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Wednesday that votes are possible this week on NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth but said the chamber’s schedule remains in flux. Thune filed cloture on Roth Tuesday night, putting her on track for confirmation before the August recess, as expected (see 2505290053). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and lobbyists told us they expect the chamber to hold at least the initial cloture vote before the chamber leaves for the weekend. “I hope and believe it'll be this week,” Cruz said. The cloture motion on Roth ripens Thursday.
The News Media Alliance is looking to state laws, legal action and licensing deals to protect its news publication members from AI exploitation and tech company competition, said NMA President Danielle Coffey at a Media Institute luncheon Wednesday. “We are in the business of news. But no matter how important that news is, it's unsustainable if the business side is struggling, and right now, business is being impacted by difficulties in monetizing our content,” she said.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Wednesday that a case examining the legality of the FCC’s prison-calling order will proceed. The FCC had asked the court to hold the case in abeyance in light of the Wireline Bureau’s decision to delay some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027 (see 2507100061). Groups representing prisoners and their families want the case to be heard.