UPM asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse FCC decisions backing Digicel-Haiti’s 2014 deactivation of thousands of SIM cards that UPM purchased from a third party and that granted access to a Digicel-Haiti discount roaming plan, the Helsinki-based company said in a brief Wednesday. In response to a UPM complaint and rulings by lower courts, the FCC found that Digicel-Haiti didn’t qualify as a U.S. telecommunications carrier under the agency’s jurisdiction and that Digicel’s deactivation of the cards didn’t violate the law (see 2501150076).
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Thursday on a petition by Oxio seeking a waiver of a requirement in the commission’s numbering assignment rules. Those seeking initial numbering resources must include in their applications evidence that they're authorized to provide service in the area for which the numbering resources are requested. Oxio argues that it needs to “ensure that it has access to telephone numbers for its innovative hybrid wireless service,” the bureau said. Comments are due July 7, replies July 22, in docket 13-97.
Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar, Comcast and Altice made filings at the FCC in response to letters from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics as the agency examines the broader wireless market in light of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular (see 2504230019). The filings, posted this week in docket 24-286, were fully redacted.
The Commerce Department should take its time to ensure it gets BEAD rules right, WISPA President David Zumwalt said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Moving too quickly “only serves to perpetuate the flaws in BEAD’s original design,” said the letter, released Wednesday. It also urged Lutnick not to ignore the service offered by wireless ISPs.
Smith Bagley Chairman Kevin Frawley met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to discuss changes to USF, including the company's proposal to allow wireless carriers to use legacy high-cost support to “rapidly construct 5G” within their eligible telecom carrier service areas. Frawley “described the longstanding and ongoing challenges in constructing, operating, and maintaining mobile wireless network infrastructure on remote Tribal lands, including challenges in upgrading to 5G due to the extreme expense of extending fiber to all of [Smith Bagley's] towers,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-32.
President Kris Hutchison and others from Aviation Spectrum Resources Inc. met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff on a request the company made as part of the “Delete” proceeding. In that proceeding, ASRI asked the commission “to eliminate an outmoded rule specifying a geographic restriction for the aeronautical VHF channel of 136.750 MHz, which limits the efficient and constructive use of the aeronautical VHF band by the aviation industry.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday approved a request from the C-band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse (RPC) to end operations at the end of June (see 2505140034). The bureau also designated Verizon, “on behalf of all the 3.7 GHz Service licensees, to directly assume responsibility for the RPC’s last outstanding program cost ‘in the event of a favorable Commission or favorable final court ruling regarding the pending appeal.’” That step was at the request of the RPC.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday urged the FCC to take last week’s Supreme Court decision limiting the scope of environmental reviews into account as it considers changes to rules on National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements (see 2505290075). The FCC is seeking comment on a CTIA petition seeking regulatory relief on NEPA and National Historic Preservation Act rules, which has proven controversial (see 2505160035).
The Wireline Bureau reminded recipients in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program that they must file status updates with the FCC every 90 days. The next due date is July 2, said a notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest.
The Rural Wireless Association, Communications Workers of America and public interest groups asked the FCC to consider spectrum sales between UScellular and the three major wireless carriers together, rather than as separate transactions. “These transactions represent a significant restructuring of the mobile wireless market and effectuate the exit of UScellular as a mobile wireless carrier,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 25-150. The groups met with staff from across the FCC, along with Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.