The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe slammed the FCC’s approach to seeking tribal input on how the agency enforces National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act rules, according to a letter posted Monday in docket 25-217. Comments in the proceeding, due last week, showed tribes and states leading the opposition to proposals included in an August NPRM (see 2509190053), part of a broader Trump administration move to limit enforcement of environmental laws.

T-Mobile asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Monday to rehear en banc the August decision by a three-judge panel upholding the FCC’s data fines against it and Sprint, which it subsequently purchased (see 2508150044). The 2nd Circuit recently upheld a similar fine against Verizon, while the 5th Circuit rejected one against AT&T (see 2509100056).

SpaceX expects that the spectrum it's buying from EchoStar, along with the technology in the satellites it plans to deploy, will allow the company to provide LTE-like service. The 50 MHz of spectrum that SpaceX will get from EchoStar "will deliver unparalleled performance" to off-the-shelf mobile phones and IoT devices, SpaceX said Friday in an application seeking approval of the transfer. The $17 billion cash-and-stock deal, announced earlier this month, came shortly after EchoStar also agreed to sell its 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz licenses to AT&T (see 2509080052).

The 5G download and upload speeds of EchoStar's Boost Mobile network are slightly slower than those of its wireless rivals, Ookla said last week. Citing its Speedtest and RootMetrics data, Ookla said Boost "relies heavily" on AT&T's wireless network, often connecting to it in U.S. metro areas and using it the majority of the time along rural state routes. Boost also hasn't yet launched its network in some major California cities, it noted.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered Andrew Mart of Naperville, Illinois, to explain within 10 days his operation of an amateur radio that was found to be transmitting at 20.8 MHz, outside permitted bands. No amateur radio license, issued by the U.S. or another country with reciprocal U.S. operating privileges, “allows transmissions on frequencies outside the authorized amateur bands, including the transmissions you admitted making,” the letter said.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Friday reminded carriers with supplemental coverage from space “arrangements” that they must file annual reports by Oct. 15. The reports must cover “911 voice calls, text messages and emergency call center data,” said the notice in docket 24-318. The commission “adopted these reporting requirements in 2024 as part of interim 911 requirements for terrestrial providers that use SCS arrangements to extend their coverage service areas.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday scheduled oral argument for Nov. 24 on challenges to the FCC’s 4.9 GHz rules (docket 24-1363). The FCC approved the order during the last administration with support from current Chairman Brendan Carr (see 2411130027).

Opponents of T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, including spectrum, met with Arpan Sura, an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, about their application for review of the transaction (see 2507310041). Representatives of the Rural Wireless Association, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Communications Workers of America attended, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-286. The transaction was approved by the Wireless Bureau and the Office of International Affairs without a commissioner vote.

NCTA and WISPA said the FCC should think twice before quickly agreeing to give Viaero a waiver of a rule that limits a single party to owning four citizens broadband radio service priority access licenses (PAL) in any market. Comments were due Wednesday to the Wireless Bureau on Viaero's proposal to buy 10 priority access licenses from Citizens Band License Co., which would result in it exceeding the limit in seven counties in Colorado (see 2509050021).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved a waiver Thursday for Aroostook County, Maine, allowing it to license a VHF channel from the industrial/business pool and use it for internal public safety and first responder communications. The bureau said the county contends that it plans to replace its aging system, but construction has been delayed for more than two years due to a “lack of available frequencies.”