The FCC Space Bureau should sign off on Globalstar's C-3 constellation petition without a new 1.6/2.4 GHz spectrum bands rulemaking, company representatives told bureau staff and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's office, said a filing Tuesday. Globalstar said the 1.6/2.4 GHz mobile satellite service licensing framework "has been an extraordinary success," adding that it "has made the most" of its small bit of spectrum and the framework isn't in need of modification. SpaceX has argued for a 1.6/2.4 GHz rulemaking before a C-3 approval (see 2410020029). Meeting with the bureau and Carr's office, Globalstar reiterated its argument about the lack of room for a new operator in the 1.6/2.4 GHz band (see 2503180022). It said SpaceX's mega-constellation or another new entrant "would inevitably cause extensive harmful interference to Globalstar’s licensed services," and initiating a rulemaking could discourage the planning and investment needed to develop C-3.
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved Tuesday the withdrawal of the Catasauqua Area School District in Pennsylvania from the FCC’s schools and libraries cybersecurity pilot program. The district said it recognizes the importance of the program but lacks the financial support to continue.
TelAlaska Cellular asked the FCC for a six-month extension, from May 21 to Nov. 21, to rip and replace unsecure equipment in its network. The provider warned that it had to dial back service as a result of funding issues. TelAlaska “is a small rural provider tasked with replacing covered equipment at 28 geographically dispersed sites across thousands of miles, many of which are subject to extreme logistical, accessibility, and weather-related challenges,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 18-89. The carrier said it has completed removal and replacement activities at all 28 sites, using the 40% reimbursement allocation it has received so far. Temporary tower solutions were deployed at five locations, the carrier said: “As a result, our Company is currently serving a smaller geographic coverage area than it previously served.”
Starry CEO Alex Moulle-Berteaux and other company executives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks about the importance of the lower 37 GHz band. The company supports a draft order on the band proposed for a vote at the April 27 FCC meeting (see 2504070054), said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-243. “As Starry has explained on the record many times over the years, this band represents a unique opportunity for the Commission to create a sharing structure that envisions co-equal sharing between commercial users and federal users on equal footing,” the filing said. The band provides “a unique opportunity for innovative use cases to operate in licensed millimeter wave spectrum, enabling the use of higher power deployments to help overcome the atmospheric attenuation in these high frequencies."
The FCC on Tuesday approved an experimental special temporary authorization for AST SpaceMobile to conduct testing with FirstNet of its direct-to-device satellite connectivity in the 758-768 MHz and 788-79 MHz bands. AST said it will test off-the-shelf cellular handsets acting as mobile earth stations inside FirstNet's Band 14.
Critics of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to elaborate on their concerns. The groups at the meeting were the Rural Wireless Association, Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Joined by EchoStar, the same groups also met with aides to Commissioner Anna Gomez.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the FCC to consider cutting numerous regulations, starting with broadband labels, in a filing this week in the commission’s “Delete” docket (25-133). The chamber called for a proceeding to review the broadband label order “with an eye toward removing needlessly burdensome requirements and promoting increased flexibility.” The FCC should close a Further NPRM on labels, the filing said.
Better submarine cable network security starts with walling off untrusted vendors and adversary nations, trade groups and national security interests told the FCC in docket 24-523 this week. Many criticized the NPRM -- which proposes rules changes aimed at addressing national security and law enforcement threats to cables -- as creating more complexity and burdensome regulations and flying in the face of the FCC's "Delete, Delete, Delete" deregulatory agenda. Commissioners adopted the subsea cable NPRM unanimously in November (see 2411210006). The subsea cable industry has said it hoped the Trump administration would alleviate the particularly onerous regulatory burdens it faces (see 2502260042).
Approved by Congress last year (see 2412180027), the Spectrum and Secure Technology and Innovation Act makes clear that the FCC must auction all AWS-3 licenses remaining in its inventory, CTIA said in reply comments about an auction procedures NPRM. Whether the FCC should create a tribal licensing window (TLW), which could allow tribes to obtain spectrum for some of the least-connected communities in the U.S., remains a contentious issue (see 2504010055). Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 25-70.
The FCC should deny Sinclair Broadcast’s proposed sale of five stations to Rincon Broadcasting because of Sinclair’s sidecar relationships with Deerfield Media and Cunningham Broadcasting, said a petition to deny filed Monday by a newly formed public interest group, Frequency Forward. “In addition to controlling television stations in violation of the Commission’s multiple ownership rules, Sinclair has made material misrepresentations to conceal the extent of its control over these sidecar stations,” the petition said. “Neither Sinclair, nor Cunningham and Deerfield, Sinclair’s alter egos, are qualified to be Commission licensees.” It called for the FCC to hold a hearing into whether Sinclair and its sidecars are qualified to remain broadcast licensees.