VoIP-Pal's antitrust complaint is full of "prolix, repetitive, and at points incoherent allegations" and is "a last-ditch effort by a failing company to avoid the inevitable," defendants AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon told a federal court in a motion to dismiss the case Friday. VoIP-Pal is suing the three carriers in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that they're using their market dominance to deliberately withhold unbundled voice-over-Wi-Fi calling and texting from consumers (see 2410300004). The carriers' motion to dismiss (docket 1:24-cv-03051) said that since VoIP-Pal has suffered multiple court defeats in patent-infringement lawsuits, it's using its complaint as a different way of monetizing its patents. VoIP-Pal's offer to settle if one of the Big Three would buy it for $8.75 billion "lays bare what this case is really about," the carriers said. They added that VoIP-Pal lacks antitrust standing and that its complaint fails to allege that any defendant engaged in racketeering activity or that racketeering activity caused VoIP-Pal injury.

The FCC Wireline Bureau on Monday released a list of U.S. counties where conditional forbearance from the obligation to offer Lifeline-supported voice service applies. Under the commission’s 2016 Lifeline order (see 1807230027), the "forbearance applies only to the Lifeline voice obligation of eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) that are designated for purposes of receiving both high-cost and Lifeline support" and not to Lifeline-only ETCs, the bureau said. The 2016 order established the forbearance "in targeted areas where certain competitive conditions are met,” and the FCC “directed the Bureau to release a yearly public notice announcing the counties in which the competitive conditions are met.”

Public interest groups raised concerns about an FCC draft notice of inquiry that proposes changes to how the agency prepares its Telecom Act Section 706 reports to Congress (see 2507170048). Commissioners are set to vote on it at their meeting Thursday. Representatives of Public Knowledge, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and X-Lab met with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to a filing Thursday in docket 25-233.

AT&T has used a third-party radio access network automation app (rApp) from Ericsson to optimize its network, the companies announced Tuesday, noting that it's the first such use of an rApp on a live network. “This accomplishment marks a decisive moment in the industry’s move from closed, single-vendor Self-Organizing Networks toward an open, future-proof architecture based on the standards and frameworks set out by the Open RAN Alliance,” said a news release.

With an almost 65% reduction in BEAD-eligible locations over the past two years, broadband experts on Wednesday highlighted several challenges to deployment and funding that could affect the program's progress.

NTIA should "expressly condition" BEAD funding on a state's commitment not to enforce rate regulation, ACA Connects said in a letter Tuesday to recently confirmed NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth. The agency should also clarify that it won't issue waivers, the group added. Doing so "will have the most immediate impact" in New York, ACA Connects said, noting that ISPs are subject to the state's Affordable Broadband Act (see 2505290045). The law requires ISPs operating there to offer an affordable service plan for low-income households.

Keysight Technologies said on Thursday the only clearance still needed for its proposed buy of wireless tech and testing company Spirent Communications is from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). “With support and assistance from Spirent, Keysight remains committed to working quickly and constructively with SAMR to obtain clearance for the Acquisition,” Keysight said.

Fiber, coaxial cable, fixed wireless access and satellite all meet the 100 millisecond latency requirement in June's BEAD rules restructuring, but they start to differentiate when it comes to other BEAD requirements, Rysavy Research said this week. Rysavy said FWA and satellite don't readily address the 100/20 Mbps throughput requirement. SpaceX data on its Starlink service's uplink performance shows that in every state, Starlink had a range of uplink throughputs in which the lower value fell below the required 20 Mbps speed, it said. Rysavy said some quoted uplink throughput rates for FWA services fall below the required 20 Mbps threshold, though 5G network providers could meet the required threshold via outdoor antennas instead of indoor customer equipment, densifying networks and deploying additional spectrum. It said fiber and coax "offer considerable flexibility" regarding the BEAD requirement of easily scaling speeds over time. It said FWA providers can scale bandwidth through such steps as more spectrum use and deployment of better antenna systems. It questioned how easily satellite operators can scale, given the expense of satellites and their limited operational lifetimes. Rysavy said fiber and 5G-based services "clearly meet" the BEAD requirement of supporting 5G and successor wireless technologies, but called satellite "a poor choice ... due to its limited capacity and throughput rates."

The FCC during the past 12 months hasn't updated “the list of communications equipment and services that have been determined to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security” of the U.S., the FCC Public Safety Bureau noted on Wednesday. The notice mentioned an FCC proposal to update the “covered list” of unsecure companies to reflect a January finding by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on connected vehicles. Many commenters opposed expanding the list to include connected vehicle hardware or software (see 2506300052).

Coconut Creek, Florida, urged the FCC to take additional steps to make next-generation 911 more accessible to people with disabilities. The city's comments were posted Tuesday (docket 21-479) in response to a Further NPRM that commissioners approved 4-0 in March (see 2503270042). “Existing NG911 systems fail to adequately support the nearly one in four Americans living with disabilities, including those with speech and hearing impairments, or the approximately 2-3 million Americans who use sign language as their primary form of communication,” it said. To address gaps, “we fully support the proposed enhancements to NG911 services, including integrating text, video, and multimedia capabilities and adopting sign language accessible communication methods such as video relay services.”