After decades of work by federal agencies dealing with Ligado and its predecessors, still nothing has been invested in its proposed terrestrial L-band network, said aviation organizations and allies that opposed the FCC's 2019 Ligado authorization. They sent letters this week to President Donald Trump and congressional leadership. "Move on [and] put the issue to rest" by getting the FCC to grant the pending petitions seeking reconsideration of Ligado's authorization (see 2005210043), they said. Ligado's authorization poses an interference threat to GPS, satellite communications and weather forecasting services, said nearly 100 groups and companies, including AccuWeather, Airlines for America, American Farm Bureau Federation and American Meteorological Society. Congressional recipients included Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Ligado didn't comment Thursday.
A Fourth Amendment exemption for searches at the border should be overturned because it doesn't fit today's digital age, Stanford law professor Orin Kerr argued in a Tuesday keynote at IAPP Global Privacy Summit for privacy professionals.
The Wi-Fi Alliance on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the FCC's controversial order opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use (see 2004230059). “The 6 GHz band has played a critical role in enabling next-generation Wi-Fi -- driving the global rollout of Wi-Fi 7 -- by relieving network congestion and expanding high-performance connectivity,” the alliance said: Since the FCC order was approved, “billions of 6 GHz Wi-Fi devices have entered the market, underscoring the rapid adoption and far-reaching benefits of forward-looking spectrum policy.”
The U.S. National Grid Institute urged the FCC to direct wireless carriers to change how they report the location of wireless calls to 911. They should “replace all references to civic (street) addresses and to latitude and longitude in reporting the horizontal component of incident locations with the term ‘U.S. National Grid geoaddress,’” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Such geoaddresses “provide an unambiguous way to describe locations in areas away from established road networks, or those involving a natural disaster where road signs have been destroyed,” the group said.
Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, now president of CTIA, met this week with his former aide, current Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr rose to general counsel and then commissioner under Pai. “Terrific meeting with @BrendanCarrFCC,” Pai said Tuesday night on X. “He’s been a leader on wireless issues since his earliest days as a Commissioner and has charted an ambitious course upon taking the reins as @FCC Chairman earlier this year. Excited to work with him and his team on extending U.S. leadership!”
The FCC sent letters to Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar, Charter, Comcast, Altice, Cox and Mediacom asking for internal data as the agency finalizes an order on T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular. The FCC has in the past sought such data to get a broader view of the market as it considers a transaction. The letters, which came from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, were posted in Wednesday’s Daily Digest and in docket 24-286.
SI Wireless, a small wireless broadband provider, sued the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after the FCC blocked payments under its Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. SI accused the FCC of retaliation. The program pays for the removal of unsecure Chinese gear, mostly from wireless networks. SI serves rural southern Illinois and parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Society for American Archeology opposed a CTIA petition asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking (see 2503270059) to update its rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). “The goal of the CTIA’s petition is for the FCC to structure its regulations in such a way that wireless geographic licenses would not be considered Major Federal Actions under” NEPA, said a filing posted Tuesday in RM-12003.
Balboa Geolocation urged the FCC to take a close look at its Pointer technology as an alternative to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). FCC commissioners unanimously approved a notice of inquiry last month on alternatives to GPS (see 2503270042). Balboa's technology was developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory with federal funding, said a filing Tuesday in docket 25-110.
T-Mobile, which will report earnings Thursday, announced new pricing plans Tuesday. The Experience More plan “includes all the benefits” of the carrier’s Go5G Plus plan “and adds more hotspot data plus T-Satellite with Starlink included through end of year,” the company said, and “Experience Beyond includes all the benefits of Go5G Next in addition to more data and T-Satellite included, providing over $200 in added value for each line, every month.” The carrier also offered four new Metro by T-Mobile plans. All the new offerings come with a five-year price guarantee. Choosing a wireless plan has become “almost as complicated as a mortgage,” T-Mobile said. “People need easy-to-understand plans, the ability to compare options across providers and the chance to switch providers when they want, rather than being locked into long-term device contracts.”