The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly selected the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear multiple pending petitions for review of an FCC order on incarcerated people's communications services, said an order Thursday. The petitions challenged various parts of the partially published order in the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 9th circuits (see 2408230012).
Citing "unanticipated intervening global events beyond [its] control," EchoStar is seeking additional time to meet construction milestones attached to some of its wireless licenses. An advantage EchoStar has is that the FCC wants to see increased national wireless network competition, analysts told us.
The FCC urged that the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court reject Maurine and Matthew Molak's challenge of the commission’s October declaratory ruling clarifying that the use of Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose and eligible for E-rate funding (see 2408300027). In a brief Wednesday, the agency argued the Molaks lack standing to bring the challenge and the agency acted within the law when it addressed school bus Wi-Fi.
Statutory language in the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act allowed the FCC to act against those responsible for illegal voice-cloning in the New Hampshire presidential primary election (see 2408210039), Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday.
The FCC gave the go-ahead to EchoStar's request this week for extensions of milestones in its 5G network buildout. In a notation Friday in the FCC's Universal Licensing System, the agency said it granted the extension request contingent on EchoStar fulfilling the conditions it made with its application. EchoStar previously cited issues ranging from the pandemic's impact on supply chains to the cost of moving Boost subscribers from the legacy Sprint CDMA network to the T-Mobile network as reasons for delaying its 5G work. Accordingly, it asked that the FCC extend 2025 milestone deadlines into late 2026.
House Oversight Committee Democrats tussled with Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr during a Thursday hearing over his responses to their questions about former President Donald Trump’s call to revoke ABC’s licenses over the network’s handling of his Sept. 10 presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2409110058). House Oversight Democrats also repeatedly highlighted that Carr wrote the telecom chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy agenda (see 2407050015). Panel Republicans focused on amplifying Carr’s criticism of NTIA’s implementation of the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program (see 2408070023).
CTIA asked the FCC to act on its 2019 petition seeking clarity of pole attachment rules under Section 224 of the Communications Act. Representatives of the group met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, according to filings posted Wednesday in docket 17-84. “As wireless providers continue to build out and enhance 5G networks nationwide, access to existing poles -- including light poles -- is critical,” CTIA said: “However, uncertainty exists today as to the application of Section 224 to light poles, which continues to impede their use and hamper wireless providers’ ability to increase capacity in their networks to meet ever-growing data demands and expand competitive home broadband offerings.”
Bill Tolpegin, CEO of Aura Network Systems, spoke with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks on the company’s 2021 request for a rulemaking on expanding the use of air-ground radiotelephone service channels between 454.675-454.975 MHz and 459.675-459.975 MHz for voice and data communications, including by drones (see 2109230049). Aura’s nationwide network “is ideally suited to meet the near-term need for spectrum for networked [command and control] services that will allow uncrewed aircraft to safely fly beyond visual line of sight in controlled airspace,” said a filing posted Tuesday in RM-11912.
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by Oct. 3, replies Oct. 18, on iconectiv's request to become wholly-owned by a "to-be-formed subsidiary" of Koch Equity Development (KED). The bureau sought comment in a public notice Wednesday in docket 95-116 on whether iconectiv will still meet the commission's neutrality requirements for the local number portability administrator (LPNA). The companies also sought approval for the LNPA to be "indirectly acquired by KED" and consent to "terminate the existing Ericsson-FP-Icon Voting Trust" when the transaction closes because "neither Ericsson nor FP-Icon will have any equity interests in iconectiv post-close."
The Association of Late-Deafened Adults and Deaf Seniors of America urged the FCC to "consider certificating new entrants" of IP relay providers. In a letter Wednesday in docket 03-123, the groups backed Nagish's conditional certification, saying the "now-typical two-year conditional certification period will provide valuable information to both the commission and consumers." Nagish received its certification in January (see 2401040069). The groups noted that allowing new entrants to the IP relay marketplace will "advance innovation and functional equivalence" after "a decade of a single provider in the market and only one method" of delivering the service. IP relay is "an especially important service for individuals who are DeafBlind because IP relay is an alternative service for individuals who are unable to benefit from video relay services and IP captioned telephone services," the groups said. Current providers of IP relay and video relay services "provide no choices to users who want to speak on the phone without a human interpreter relaying the call," they said: "New IP relay providers can change this."