Incompas President Angie Kronenberg has left the group, she said Monday on LinkedIn. "I recently resigned to pursue new career opportunities," she said. "It's been a great ride advocating on behalf of the competitive tech and telecom industry." She joined Incompas in 2013 as chief advocate and general counsel. An Incompas spokesperson told us CEO Chip Pickering would continue to head the organization as CEO and that the association will fill the position with someone versed in the issues Kronenberg handled.
The FCC's 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining T-Mobile for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations should be overturned, the carrier said in a brief filed Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “The FCC concluded that essentially the entire wireless industry had violated the law by continuing to operate location-based service (LBS) programs” based on actions by a “single, rogue actor” who “misused those programs,” T-Mobile said in docket 24-1224. T-Mobile was assessed the largest fine of the major carriers, more than $91 million, plus $12 million for Sprint's violations, which it subsequently acquired. Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented, even though the FCC four years ago, under Republican Chair Ajit Pai, approved the initial notice of apparent liability. T-Mobile noted that it and Sprint ended their LBS programs months after reports of potential abuse surfaced. Moreover, it argued that the FCC lacks authority over LBS data under the Communications Act: “The FCC based its retroactive punishment on an utterly novel construction of the governing statute, holding, for the first time, that the mobile-device-location information used in those LBS programs was ‘customer proprietary network information" (CPNI). T-Mobile said the “FCC’s unilateral imposition of tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties violates the Companies’ jury-trial rights under the Seventh Amendment and Article III.” It cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, which questioned administrative penalties handed down absent a jury trial (see 2406270063). The fines also violate principles of fair notice, the brief said. “The FCC adopted its broad view of CPNI for the first time in these enforcement proceedings, after the conduct had already occurred.” The FCC’s “hindsight-based liability findings” are also “arbitrary and capricious,” the provider said. “Among other safeguards, the Companies limited the number of entities with direct access to device-location information, ensured that LBS providers were vetted before allowing them to participate in the LBS programs, and required express customer consent before sharing device-location information.” The government is scheduled to respond Dec. 26. Verizon challenged the FCC’s fine in the 2nd Circuit, AT&T in the 5th Circuit (see 2411060008).
The federal government defended the FCC’s decision denying petitions for declaratory ruling on the agency’s over-the-air reception device (OTARD) rules in response to Indian Peak Properties' challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405060035). The FCC declined to step in following a dispute between the company and Rancho Palos Verdes, California (see 2410290011). “The Commission correctly construed the Rule to require a regular human presence at an antenna’s location,” the government said. “This requirement is evident from the Rule’s text and the Commission’s historic treatment of the Rule, and is consistent with Congress’s original purpose of protecting viewers’ access to video programming.” The pleading discussed the dispute's long history. After a city inspection revealed at least 11 antennas on the property in question, “plus other equipment on the roof, the City ordered Indian Peak to remove all but five antennas, and the parties began several years of discussions,” the pleading said, noting that in 2020, after suing the city, Indian Peak sought FCC review. The pleading said the commission’s determination “that Indian Peak failed to adequately allege that its antenna use fell within the Rule’s scope was supported by substantial evidence: Indian Peak repeatedly told the Commission that no one lived at the Property, emphasized the importance of remote access, and offered vague and inconsistent descriptions of how the Property was used.” From its origins protecting viewers’ access to satellite video at their homes, the OTARD rule “has always contemplated that a protected antenna serve a human end user at the antenna’s location,” the government said. “Indeed, if the Rule did not contain a human-presence requirement, it would necessarily extend to antennas on unoccupied buildings -- a result which nothing in the Rule’s history supports.”
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology, met with U.S. telecom executives Friday to discuss China’s “significant cyber espionage campaign targeting the sector,” the White House said. Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., last week called for an FCC investigation of a Chinese hacking campaign, which in part allegedly targeted communications from Vice President-elect JD Vance and the presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2411190073). “The meeting was an opportunity to hear from telecommunications sector executives on how the U.S. Government can partner with and support the private sector on hardening against sophisticated nation state attacks,” the White House said. Officials didn’t disclose what companies’ executives attended the meeting.
DirecTV's planned purchase of EchoStar's Dish Network (see 2409300009) is off, EchoStar said in an SEC filing Friday. EchoStar said it received notice from DirecTV last week that it was ending the purchase agreement effective 11:59 p.m. Friday because the deal's financial terms weren't being met. EchoStar said no termination fee or other payment is due from either party.
The FCC will hold its first meeting of 2025 on Jan. 15, said an FCC announcement Friday. "The rest of the 2025 Open Meeting schedule will be announced at a later date," the agency said. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday that her final day at the FCC will be Jan. 20.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted the FCC's cert petition challenging the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in favor of Consumers' Research's challenge of the USF contribution methodology (see 2410010024). In a docket 24-254 notation Friday, SCOTUS said that along with the questions raised in the petitions, it wanted the parties to brief and argue about whether the case is moot given the challengers' not seeking preliminary relief before the 5th Circuit. NTCA, Competitive Carriers Association and USTelecom in a statement said they were "grateful" SCOTUS was taking up the petition. "The Fifth Circuit’s decision is contrary to Supreme Court precedent and the decision of several other circuit courts of appeals, and it threatens to undermine universal service programs that, for many decades, have served to promote the availability and affordability of critical communications services for millions of rural and low-income consumers, rural health care facilities, and schools and libraries across the nation," they said. "We look forward to presenting arguments in defense of the USF contribution mechanism as the case moves forward, and ultimately to dispelling the uncertainty that these challenges have created in furthering our nation’s mission of universal service.” Also applauding the high court's move, the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition said the 5th Circuit decision "has no precedent in prior Supreme Court jurisprudence." It said it's "further encouraged by the Supreme Court's request that parties brief the question whether the Consumers' Research challenge is moot."
The current technology market is easy to characterize, Mark Bagley, managing director at Woodside Capital Partners, said during a Wireless Communications Association webinar Thursday. “What’s hot” is AI and generative AI “and what isn’t hot is whatever is not gen-AI -- that’s where we are at this stage.” The wireless sector is becoming more interesting for investors, partly because of SpaceX’s push to put more satellites into low earth orbit, offering satellite broadband with much lower latency than the two or three seconds users experienced in the past, he said. The latency and bandwidth from satellites means a service that offers more than just data, “which is what we thought it was going to be.” Venture capitalists are also interested in federal programs like BEAD and are investing, Bagley said. Carrier assumptions about 5G were wrong, he said: “They expected that everyone would be using continuously” 200 Mbps “or some ridiculous amount. That has not been the case.” Henry Huang, investment director at Micron Ventures, said he’s not very interested in investing in 5G. “If there’s anything related to wireless that’s interesting it’s going to be in the sky,” Huang said. “LEO is a big thing.” One big change for satellite is a tenfold reduction in launch costs, he noted. “You are able to launch a smaller satellite at a lower altitude and those satellites are much cheaper than the previous ones” and use “off-the-shelf components." SpaceX’s Starlink “is obviously the leader here, but there are a bunch of startups coming up.” The challenge will be trying to compete with the big players like Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper, but some smaller players will likely benefit from federal spending programs or may target the IoT rather than broadband consumers, he said. Huang mentioned he predicted three years ago that millimeter-wave frequencies would be increasingly important for U.S. carriers, but he was wrong. “If there is spectrum available at lower frequencies, then its propagation characteristics are just way better” and it doesn’t make sense to use mmW in satellite or terrestrial networks. High-band could still “take off” but that will take a long time because deployment costs are so high. There “could be opportunities in 5G, but it’s going to be in some large, emerging economies, for example, India.” Said Laura Swan, managing partner at Silicon Catalyst Ventures, five years ago investors got into 5G and that market remains slow. “How do we get data from the satellites?” For a country like India, the cost of fiber deployment is “too high” and fixed wireless access offers an alternative. “We have started to see" an opportunity in FWA, “but as we have seen with all 5G, is it actually going to take hold?” Lisa Oshima, managing consultant at Socialize Mobilize, said, the “really flashy stuff,” like launching satellites, is “always sexy and cool.” Getting data speeds on the ground “is really complicated.” Yet it seems "like some of the boring tech … is actually becoming important to the way the world is evolving.”
If the incoming presidential administration enacts the broadband regulatory suggestions in Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, it will bring "a new era of wild West-style deregulation for broadband," Penn State doctoral student Abby Simmerman blogged Tuesday at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Project 2025's urges deregulation and public spending cuts. Simmerman said deregulation could benefit satellite broadband operators, such as SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper and incumbent internet service providers, easing the path to potential acquisitions. Project 2025 also criticizes inefficiency in U.S. broadband programs, arguing that a lack of a national strategy has created redundancies and waste, Simmerman wrote. The comprehensive program review it recommends would attempt to eliminate programs deemed duplicative. The USF undoubtedly would see a reduction in spending, given how Project 2025 urges “right-sizing the federal government’s existing broadband initiatives," she added. The next FCC is also unlikely to initiate affordability programs, Simmerman predicted.
President-elect Donald Trump and Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr delivered additional bad news to broadcasters Tuesday about how the incoming administration may interact with them. Carr during an interview with Fox News that a news distortion complaint against CBS over its editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410170051) could affect the Skydance/Paramount Global deal. Carr said he planned to “reinvigorate” the legacy media by emphasizing broadcaster public interest obligations, and referred to the Skydance transaction as a possible example. “I'm pretty confident that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that's likely to rise in the context of the FCC review of that transaction,” Carr said (see 2411010044). Paramount didn’t comment. Carr listed conferring with Trump and the space economy as priorities for his upcoming chairmanship. “The first thing is to get together with the president's team and make sure that I 100% understand his agenda,” Carr said: “After all, it is going to be his administration, and his agenda we’ll be pushing.” He also listed tech censorship, rural broadband and accelerating permitting for the satellite industry as priorities. Carr repeated plans for ending the FCC’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion policies (see 2411180059). “The idea that the [FCC] listed its second-highest strategic priority as promoting DEI, there's no place for that,” Carr said. “And when the transition is complete, when we come in, the FCC is going to end its promotion of DEI.” Trump said he would nominate Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who heads the president-elect’s transition team, to be commerce secretary. Lutnick, just days before the Nov. 5 election, said the U.S. should auction broadcast spectrum to only outlets that “agree to be nonpartisan” (see 2410280037). Lutnick’s comments came amid Trump’s fights with several major broadcasters over election coverage. Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said: Lutnick as transition chief “has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.” USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said in a statement the group could work with Lutnick and the Commerce Department “to advance America’s global connectivity leadership by deploying more broadband, collaborating to prevent cyber threats, and spurring innovation throughout the economy.”