The FCC Space and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology signed off Friday on license transfers needed as part of SES' $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat. It put no special conditions on the transaction. SES/Intelsat is likely to result in lower costs from synergies, better network quality, increased investment, national security benefits "and the creation of a more vigorous satellite competitor," the bureaus said in a 35-page order.
The FCC Wireline Bureau last week approved T-Mobile’s buy of a stake in fiber-based provider Metronet as part of a joint venture with investment firm KKR. The proposed deal was announced a year ago (see 2407240020). The approval came after T-Mobile agreed to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs that the Trump administration targeted (see 2507090034).
T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, which has been pending since May of last year, got two key clearances in two days. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced Friday (see 2507110065) that the Wireless Bureau approved the transaction. Late Thursday, DOJ announced it won’t oppose the deal, which includes about 30% of UScellular's spectrum and all its wireless customers and stores.
NextNav filed at the FCC a supplement to its early engineering report, addressing interference issues raised by the company’s proposal that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2503030023). The supplement filing, posted Thursday in docket 25-110, slammed critics of the earlier report (see 2504280045).
Morgan Stanley on Thursday resumed coverage of Verizon and Frontier with an "equal weight" investment rating. The firm said Verizon appears to have a strategy for improving its performance in the wireless consumer space, and its loss of market share should slow. "When we aggregate our view on moderating industry growth, Verizon's pricing premium, the competitive environment, and Verizon's strategy to improve its wireless performance, we see 2.5-3% annual wireless service revenue growth ahead with a bull case of [about] 3-4% and a bear case of [about] 2% in each of the next three years."
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.
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.
The FTC failed to follow procedural requirements of the FTC Act when it adopted its "click-to-cancel" rule, an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said Tuesday as it vacated the regulation. NCTA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others petitioned the panel about the rule (see 2411220029), which is aimed at making it easier to cancel negative-option contracts, where consumers must actively opt out of monthly subscriptions.
The FCC shouldn’t take up a proposal to give broadcasters expedited waivers of media ownership rules in exchange for their promises to reduce retransmission consent rates by 50% over three years, said Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long in a post Monday. The proposal, from Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories and Hawaiian Telcom Services Co., was filed in the FCC’s “Delete” docket in June. It amounts to “forward-looking, government-imposed pricing mandates” on retransmission consent rates “that could persist for a decade or more,” Long wrote. The proposal would also use administrative contracts that couldn't be reviewed in court and would bind broadcasters and MVPDs, he said. “These so-called voluntary ‘social contracts’ would impose enforceable, multiyear pricing constraints -- effectively, rate regulation -- while circumventing judicial scrutiny.”
The Rural Wireless Association and other groups asked the FCC to examine AT&T’s proposed purchase of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from UScellular in the broader context of the U.S. wireless market. The groups met virtually with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to a filing posted Monday in docket 25-150.