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.
The FCC Wireline Bureau Friday approved a temporary waiver of TKC TeleCom's deadlines to comply with the commission’s video incarcerated prison calling services rules. “We find that TKC has demonstrated that its waiver request presents special circumstances that warrant a deviation from the Commission’s rate cap compliance deadlines and per-minute pricing rule for video IPCS,” the bureau said. “As TKC explains, despite its best efforts to complete the necessary engineering and software upgrade work on its billing platform, its platform is not presently capable of applying the correct fees and taxes for video IPCS needed to comply with the Commission’s rules.” The new compliance deadline is April 1, 2026. The bureau noted it had previously approved a similar waiver for Securus. TKC sought the waiver last month.
Verizon and the Rural Wireless Association clashed over whether third-party participants in the T-Mobile/UScellular proceeding should have access to information Verizon wants to keep private. Verizon in particular seeks to block disclosure of any mobile virtual network operator wholesale agreements between Verizon’s affiliates and third parties, including the wholesale agreement between Verizon and Mediacom Communications.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Wednesday asked for a record refresh following up on a March 2020 NPRM (see 2003310039). Comment deadlines will come in a Federal Register notice. The bureau also asked whether “any market consolidation affected parties’ positions on the questions in the Notice,” which is part of the FCC’s efforts to “eliminate outdated and unnecessary regulations.”
Tribal broadband experts stressed during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday the importance of building networks that serve the community’s long-term interests rather than focusing on short-term profits. Panelists also highlighted the growing significance of fiber networks and data centers in advancing tribal digital sovereignty and economic development.
During oral argument Tuesday in federal court regarding consolidated challenges to the FTC's "click-to-cancel" rule, judges pressed the agency about its failure to conduct a preliminary regulatory analysis (PRA). NCTA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others petitioned the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the rule (see 2411220029), which is aimed at making it easier to cancel negative option contracts where consumers have to actively opt out of monthly subscriptions. The rule was adopted last year, and the compliance deadline is July 14 (see 2505120004).
Telecom carriers started by using AI for “customer care” and sales, but AI use is spreading to networks and other parts of companies, said Tim Hatt, GSMA's head of research and consulting, during an RCR Wireless telecom AI forum Tuesday. “A lot is happening,” he said. There are regional differences, “but really we are [in] a commercialization phase.”
Satellite broadband providers, especially Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper service, are likely the big winners in the Commerce Department’s rewriting of the BEAD program rules, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Monday. Smaller providers that use unlicensed spectrum to offer broadband also won, he said. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, slammed the revised rules that the Trump administration released Friday (see 2506060052).