AST SpaceMobile told the FCC Space Bureau the agency should continue to assess regulatory fees only on authorized and operational satellites and earth stations, not pre-operational ones. In docket 24-85 Thursday, AST recapped a meeting with the bureau, at which the company said charging such pre-operational regulatory fees could add big costs to new satellite deployments before a licensee has the opportunity to start service and earn revenues. Nonoperational systems require minimal post-authorization regulatory oversight, it said.
New laws criminalizing the destruction of telecom facilities and a renewed focus by law enforcement “cannot come soon enough,” former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said this week in a Free State Foundation blog post. “From fiber cable cuts and copper thefts to cell tower sabotage, the damage caused by these crimes is creating harms that are rippling across our nation's communities -- disrupting emergency services, Internet access, and essential business operations.”
UPM asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse FCC decisions backing Digicel-Haiti’s 2014 deactivation of thousands of SIM cards that UPM purchased from a third party and that granted access to a Digicel-Haiti discount roaming plan, the Helsinki-based company said in a brief Wednesday. In response to a UPM complaint and rulings by lower courts, the FCC found that Digicel-Haiti didn’t qualify as a U.S. telecommunications carrier under the agency’s jurisdiction and that Digicel’s deactivation of the cards didn’t violate the law (see 2501150076).
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Thursday on a petition by Oxio seeking a waiver of a requirement in the commission’s numbering assignment rules. Those seeking initial numbering resources must include in their applications evidence that they're authorized to provide service in the area for which the numbering resources are requested. Oxio argues that it needs to “ensure that it has access to telephone numbers for its innovative hybrid wireless service,” the bureau said. Comments are due July 7, replies July 22, in docket 13-97.
Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar, Comcast and Altice made filings at the FCC in response to letters from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics as the agency examines the broader wireless market in light of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular (see 2504230019). The filings, posted this week in docket 24-286, were fully redacted.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau will conduct a voluntary exercise of the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for all communications providers June 16-18, according to a public notice Thursday. The test will begin June 16 with a mock activation letter to all registered DIRS participants from the Public Safety Bureau, it said. The letter, which "will clearly state that this is only an exercise,” will include a list of preselected counties that form the affected area for the mock DIRS activation, and providers will be asked to report data on any communication assets they have in those counties. "Since this is an exercise, the FCC does not expect to receive actual outage data," the notice said. Providers that don’t have communications assets in the affected counties can still participate in the exercise by reporting mock data for the counties. The agency wants initial data by 10 a.m. ET June 17 and an updated report by the same time June 18. The bureau will send a deactivation letter by 3 p.m. ET June 18 to let participants know that the exercise is over.
Comments are due July 7, replies July 21, on the FCC’s proposals for FY 2025 regulatory fees, said an NPRM released Thursday. The agency on Wednesday unanimously approved the NPRM, which seeks comment on a proposal to reclassify 61 indirect full-time equivalents (FTEs) as direct FTEs, as well as on the $390,192,000 in proposed fees. The costs of indirect FTEs are borne by all FCC regulatory fee payors, while direct FTEs are paid only by the licensees serviced by the bureau or office to which they are assigned. The reallocation is based on the FCC determining “that certain FTE work in the Office of General Counsel, the Office of Economics and Analytics, and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is sufficiently linked to the oversight and regulation of regulatory fee payors in a core bureau.” Among the proposed changes to FTEs, the Wireless and Wireline bureaus' payors would see their direct FTEs increase by 23 each, while Media Bureau payors would see an increase of 13 FTEs. The regulatory fee NPRM doesn’t seek comment on proposed changes to the way fees for space and earth stations are calculated, because the proceeding for a recent Further NPRM on that subject (see 2502260017) is still open, Thursday’s NPRM said.
Police have arrested Jeffrey Gary, formerly an assistant division chief in the FCC Enforcement Bureau, for allegedly assaulting a woman. The attack occurred Friday evening near the Braddock Metro Station in Alexandria, Virginia, per a release this week from the Alexandria Police Department. Gary is being fired from the FCC, where he had served in the Enforcement Bureau's Telecommunications Consumers Division. Police said Gary has been linked to at least one other attack.
The FCC on Thursday posted the three items set for votes at the commission’s June 26 meeting, all of which are aimed at cutting regulations. It will consider cutting cable TV rules and an engineering requirement tied to the agency’s broadband data collection, as well as addressing text telephone-based telecom relay service rules.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, insisted in a brief interview Thursday that a deal he reached Wednesday with top Armed Services Committee Republicans for spectrum language in the chamber’s budget reconciliation package (see 2506040078) remains in place, despite panel member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., indicating new wrinkles emerged. Senate Commerce planned to release its reconciliation language Thursday but hadn’t by our deadline. Meanwhile, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, National Emergency Number Association and other groups urged Senate Commerce to allocate some future auction proceeds in its reconciliation proposal for next-generation 911 tech upgrades.