The FCC on Friday approved waivers for Ericsson and Samsung Electronics America to offer dual-band radios that operate across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum. Samsung filed its waiver request last year, and Ericsson, which already had a waiver, sought a second that parallels Samsung's request (see 2303170044). NCTA and WISPA raised concerns, which the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology addressed in the order.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Thursday that his “expectation” remains that President Donald Trump will move on minority party nominees to the FCC and other commissions, despite Democrats’ concerns that the administration will choose to leave such seats empty (see 2504010053). Several Senate Commerce Committee Democrats who voted Wednesday to advance Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty said they won’t back her final confirmation unless the Trump administration commits to maintaining Democratic FCC seats, including picking a party-affiliated nominee to succeed retiring Commissioner Geoffrey Starks (see 2504300047).

CTIA urged the FCC to move aggressively to promote full-powered licensed use of 4 and 7/8 GHz spectrum ahead of the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027. The Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC), EchoStar and Kuiper Systems also responded to an FCC notice seeking comment on positions that the FCC’s WRC Advisory Committee approved last month (see 2504150032).

Major communications trade groups filed a petition Thursday asking the FCC for a rulemaking on its enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision about whether federal regulatory agencies can bring in-house proceedings to enforce civil penalties. CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association filed the petition.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said in a podcast interview Tuesday that for the U.S. to compete effectively with China, it needs to remove regulatory barriers to industry. China has given companies such as Huawei “an open door” to acquire land, receive research and development grants, and hire non-Chinese workers, Simington said on Dinesh D’Souza's podcast. In 2024, D’Souza’s book and film questioning the 2020 election -- both called 2000 Mules -- were removed by publisher and broadcaster Salem Media from all platforms after their depictions of voter fraud were found to be false (see 2405310069).

The FCC listed freeing spectrum, facilitating the space application review process and sending warning letters to broadcast networks and tech companies as accomplishments in a news release Tuesday touting its work during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

CPB and Democratic board members Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan sued the Trump administration Tuesday, claiming their Monday dismissal was illegal. In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in docket 25-01305, they said Trent Morse, the White House deputy director-presidential personnel, emailed them Monday that President Donald Trump “had purportedly terminated their positions on the Board.” Morse’s email, included in the filing, told the three that they were “terminated effective immediately.” White House action against the board members came as Trump geared up to send Congress a spending rescissions package, which officials have said will call for rolling back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding (see 2504150052).

A journalist and public interest group have sued the FCC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the agency to release records related to the Department of Government Efficiency. Nina Burleigh, a contributor to The New Republic and The New York Times, and Frequency Forward jointly asked the court to require the FCC to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for records on DOGE’s activities at the agency. The FCC hasn’t answered the March 4 request, the complaint said, even though a response was due March 24. DOGE’s efforts could create a conflict of interest because FCC regulatee Starlink and DOGE are controlled by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the complaint said. Starlink has requested Rural Digital Opportunity Fund dollars, and information accessed by DOGE could give Musk an unfair advantage, it said. “No apparent effort has been made to segregate Musk from the FCC’s decision-making process.” Frequency Forward is a newly created group based out of the office of Smithwick & Belendiuk, which is representing the group in both the FOIA matter and a recent petition against Sinclair (see 2504150056).

Former FCC Chairmen Tom Wheeler and Al Sikes blasted the Trump administration in a Newsweek op-ed for upending 90 years of precedent in only two months and turning the agency into “a blatantly partisan tool.” Wheeler, a Democrat, and Sikes, a Republican, faulted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for attacking free speech and President Donald Trump for eliminating the FCC’s independence. Carr has said protection of the public interest is the rationale behind his attacks on broadcast networks and others but hasn’t defined the term, they said. “Using vague government policy as a tool of political coercion is a tactic historically associated with authoritarian regimes.” Carr has also said he would hold a proceeding to clarify the meaning of public interest, but “to his discredit, he has yet to follow through,” the chairmen said. “Instead, he has commenced investigations into supposed violations of a standard whose details only he knows.” It's “now up to Chairman Carr to prevent such abuse by clearly defining his construction of the public interest standard and its relationship to the First Amendment," the chairmen wrote. The FCC didn't comment.

The FCC needs to do more to ensure that its broadband map data is complete, accurate and reliable, and federal agencies broadly need to work together better to prevent duplication of their broadband program efforts, according to the Government Accountability Office. In a report Monday, the GAO called the accuracy of FCC broadband map data "uncertain" and said the agency must document or assess whether it does enough to ensure accuracy. It gave the FCC, NTIA, Department of Agriculture and Treasury Department -- which administer the bulk of federal broadband deployment funding -- a mixed report card for their coordination efforts with one another. There's more to be done among those agencies in such areas as defining common outcomes, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and bridging organizational cultures, the report said. They need to define their collaborations more clearly and document a formal process for avoiding duplicate funding, it added. The FCC didn't comment.