The Rural Wireless Association will ask the full FCC to review an order passed by the Wireless Bureau's and Office of International Affairs' acting chiefs Friday approving T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular (see 2507110045), the group said Monday in an emailed statement. But new Commissioner Olivia Trusty indicated her support for the three merger orders handed down last week, suggesting that Chairman Brendan Carr would likely have a majority for approval if he sought a commissioner vote.
Citing the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' finding against the FCC on its 2023 one-to-one robotext consent policy order (see 2501240068), the agency said it has removed the order's language from its rule book. The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order Monday to eliminate the rule marked the second time in days that the agency has reset its regulations to an earlier version due to a court decision; the Wireless Bureau said last week that it was restoring the agency's rules to language dating to before the 2024 net neutrality order, which was ultimately shot down by the 6th Circuit (see 2507110016). As with Wireless' net neutrality order, Consumer and Government Affairs said the FCC didn't have to conduct a notice-and-comment proceeding for the amendment because it's implementing the 11th Circuit's mandate, and the agency doesn't have discretion to depart from that.
Since its 2024 net neutrality rules have never gone into effect, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Friday it's restoring sections of its rules to the language they would use absent the net neutrality order. Chairman Brendan Carr said the move was part of his "Delete" agenda and called it "the latest step the FCC is taking to follow the Trump Administration’s effort to usher in prosperity through deregulation." The agency said the moves axed 41 rules or "utility-style burdens."
Congress should revamp the Communications Act to account for the “Digital Age,” doing away with the siloing of different industries at the FCC and replacing the public interest standard, wrote Free State Foundation President Randolph May in an op-ed Friday for Real Clear Markets. The FCC’s separation of industries into different bureaus -- which May called “the stovepipe regulatory framework” -- is “woefully outdated,” he said. “These regulatory stovepipes don't make sense in today's digital environment characterized by relentless technological innovation and marketplace convergence” and “impede efforts to allow comparable services to compete with each other without unfair advantages conferred by outdated regulatory distinctions.”
The FCC Technology Advisory Council will hold its first meeting under the current administration Aug. 5, starting at 10 a.m. at FCC headquarters, the agency said Thursday. The group, which last met in December (see 2412190065), “will consider and advise the Commission on topics such as continued efforts at looking beyond 5G advanced as 6G begins to develop so as to facilitate U.S. leadership; studying advanced spectrum sharing techniques, including the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the utilization and administration of spectrum; and other emerging technologies,” the FCC said.
Despite an array of federal broadband programs and billions of dollars spent on connectivity and access, a pressing need remains for high-quality national datasets on broadband pricing, network quality and consumers’ digital skills, Pew said Tuesday. A review of broadband literature between 2008 and 2024 showed that researchers identified holes in available data, including a lack of household-level information on broadband access and adoption, Pew said. The absence of data standardization has also led to inaccuracies in measuring coverage gaps, it added.
National Association of State 911 Administrators President Pokey Harris clarified Wednesday that her organization and the National Emergency Number Association are “absolutely not at odds” on pushing for Congress to address funding for next-generation 911 tech upgrades, despite statements in a Tuesday interview indicating some minor differences in the groups' preferred processes (see 2507080065). Republican lawmakers decided against allocating any future spectrum auction revenue for NG-911 in the budget reconciliation package that both chambers passed last week (see 2507030056).
Paramount’s settlement with President Donald Trump over the editing of a 60 Minutes segment “should alarm anyone who values a free and independent press,” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said Tuesday evening at an American Civil Liberties Union town hall in Wheaton, Maryland. The event was the latest in Gomez’s “First Amendment Tour” series of speaking engagements. The settlement was a “desperate move,” and Paramount “would have prevailed [in court] on the facts and on the law,” Gomez said. “Instead of standing on principle, Paramount opted for a payout.” She told the 45 or so attendees that “now is the time to stand up and push back against this assault on free expression, because even when this administration holds so much power, it remains afraid of everyday citizens speaking up and using our voices.” The country needs the corporate parents of media organizations to support a free press, she added. “To have a free press, we need to have free journalists, free from corporate pressure that shareholders would prefer to settle with the administration than support their news organizations.”
T-Mobile is adjusting its practices to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by the Trump administration, said Mark Nelson, the carrier's general counsel, in a letter to the FCC posted Wednesday. Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized T-Mobile for making the concessions.
New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin on Tuesday updated price targets for communications providers as a result of tax-cut provisions in the reconciliation bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last week (see 2507070045). Among the biggest movers were Charter, whose new target is $494 a share, up from $448; T-Mobile, up to $317 from $308; and Verizon, up to $45 from $43.