Proponents of the 5G broadcast standard for low-power TV haven’t adequately shown that the new standard won’t cause interference to other services, said Sinclair Broadcast and NAB in reply comments filed in docket 25-168 in response to a petition from HC2 (see 2506030060). The petitioner “has not submitted a detailed engineering analysis or a technical study demonstrating that LPTV stations can operate using 5G Broadcast without interfering with existing television services,” said Sinclair.
AT&T said its network wasn’t to blame for problems on a call with faith leaders that provoked the fury of President Donald Trump (see 2506300060). “Our initial analysis indicates the disruption was caused by an issue with the conference call platform, not our network,” AT&T said on X late Monday. “Unfortunately, this caused the delay, and we are working diligently to better understand the issue so we can prevent disruptions in the future.”
T-Mobile unveiled new pricing plans Tuesday for its Ultra Mobile brand, which it acquired last year (see 2405010035). The entry-level plan now offers 500 MB of data at $15 per month, up from 250 MB. The $39-a-month plan now includes 24 GB of data, up from 15. T-Mobile is also offering additional international calling features, it said. “Starting today, Ultra plans now include more data, more international coverage and customers have more ways to save with multi-month plans -- all while keeping the same affordable pricing launched over a decade ago.”
The Wireline Bureau has extended several incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027, and the FCC could reevaluate aspects of the 2024 IPCS order, said an order and news release Monday. The new order waived the deadlines for complying with the rate cap, site commission, and per-minute pricing rules adopted in 2024 “to ensure sufficient funding for safety and security tools, while IPCS providers and the facilities they serve address the challenges of implementing these requirements.” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a release that the 2024 order “is leading to negative, unintended consequences” where prisons limit the availability of IPCS, and it “does not allow providers and institutions to properly consider public safety and security interests when facilitating these services.”
The FCC shouldn't accept or receive comments on AST SpaceMobile's plans to use the 700 and 800 MHz bands for supplemental coverage from space services until AST makes public its interference analysis on those bands, T-Mobile said. In a posting Friday (docket 25-201), T-Mobile said AST should also first provide more information about the spectrum it will use and the geographic area that its proposed SCS operations cover, including coverage maps for each block of spectrum it leases.
Spanish-language streamer ViX will likely be the fastest-growing subscription streaming service in the Americas this year, Ampere Analysis said this week. Owned by TelevisaUnivision, ViX will likely grow its subscriber base by 18% this year, hitting 10.5 million paying customers in the U.S. and Latin America, it said. That would be a higher growth rate than any other major subscription entertainment streaming platform in the region, Ampere added.
Greater use of unlicensed fixed wireless (ULFW) could reduce the number of remaining BEAD-eligible locations by up to 15%, as long as ULFW providers meet technical requirements, according to an analysis Tuesday by New York Law School's Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute. ACLP said NTIA's BEAD restructuring notice, issued earlier this month (see 2506060052), allows ULFW to compete for BEAD grants, while locations served by ULFW are potentially no longer eligible for funding. The resulting reduction in eligible locations varies widely from state to state, the analysis said, with some seeing as much as a 30% decrease and others seeing almost no change. Rural Digital Opportunity Fund defaults, meanwhile, could raise the number of eligible locations by 3%, it added.
A U.S. offer this week to host the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference is probably a long shot, WRC experts and watchers told us. In a letter dated Monday to ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's offer doesn't specify a U.S. location for WRC-27, saying it could be "any number of cities," including Washington.
Mapping EchoStar's supposed coverage in the San Francisco area raises more questions about whether the company reached roughly 80% of the U.S. population as of the end of 2024, as it claimed, said Kristian Stout, innovation policy director for the International Center for Law & Economics. In a docket 22-212 filing posted Friday, Stout said it appeared that EchoStar attested that it covers adjacent markets using spectrum for which it doesn't hold a license.
The implications of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring judicial deference to agency environmental reviews of infrastructure projects remain unclear, experts said Wednesday, weeks after the ruling in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado. While the decision was unanimous, it had many twists and turns that make it difficult to know what its effect will be, panelists said during a Washington Legal Foundation webinar.