Microsoft representatives spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on submarine cable rules, according to a filing posted Monday (docket 24-523). The company explained "the importance of avoiding a reduction in the term of submarine cable landing licenses, noted that third-party [submarine line terminal equipment] does not constitute cable ownership or control and ought not be licensed as such, and described the challenges of imposing license and reporting requirements on third party vendors like datacenter owners and those holding [indefeasible rights of use] and other submarine cable capacity leases.”
EchoStar’s decision Friday not to make a $326 million cash interest payment due that day on corporate debt that matures in 2029 (see 2505300001) could give the company more leverage to negotiate over spectrum with the FCC, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Monday. New Street believes FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s strategy “is to put a cloud over the value of [EchoStar’s] assets while using procedural maneuvers to keep [EchoStar] from challenging those actions in the Court of Appeals,” Levin wrote. The company also told the SEC on Monday that it wasn't making an $183 million interest payment due that day on notes that mature in 2026, 2028 and 2029.
Airlines for America (A4A) and Aviation Spectrum Resources Inc. (ASRI) jointly urged caution if the FCC moves forward on an auction of upper C-band spectrum. But CTIA and wireless interests called for the agency to take the next steps toward an auction, building on the record-setting C-band auction, which ended in early 2021 (see 2102180041) and reshaped carriers’ midband portfolios. Replies were due last week in docket 25-59 on a notice of inquiry approved by commissioners 4-0 in February (see 2502270042).
NASHVILLE -- The federal government is warehousing or squatting on much of its spectrum holdings, Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Monday at the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect 2025 trade show and conference. Also at the event, states and providers complained about BEAD uncertainty (see 2506020047).
The FCC's denial of LTD Broadband's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase 1 long-form application wasn't arbitrary and capricious, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Tuesday in a per curium order rejecting LTD's petition for review (No. 24-1017). LTD was the largest winning bidder and challenged the FCC's denial of its long-form application after more than a yearlong review process. A three-judge panel held oral argument in November (see 2411050040). The court disagreed with all LTD's arguments. It said the FCC's guidance on RDOF rules "does not describe a light-touch, deferential review" and determined that the agency gave LTD "fair notice" of its review. The court also disagreed that LTD was treated differently from other bidders and that the FCC could alternatively deny only part of its winning bids because there wasn't "a sufficient basis in the record for the FCC to distinguish" areas where LTD "was and was not financially and technically prepared to provide service." LTD CEO Corey Hauer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Numerous industry and FCC officials told us Tuesday that FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington is expected to leave the agency or announce an imminent departure this week. Simington and his office didn’t respond to requests for comment. His term expired last year, but he was expected to stay until the end of 2025. The makeup of the agency is already in flux: Current Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said he will leave before the FCC's planned June 26 meeting (see 2505220043, and the confirmation of Republican Olivia Trusty isn’t expected until late June or July (see 2505290053). It's seen as unlikely that Simington would exit before Starks and leave the FCC with a Democratic majority. However, if he departs after Starks but before Trusty’s confirmation, it would leave just two commissioners. The Communications Act requires a quorum of three. An announcement Wednesday from Simington would precede FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s expected announcement of his agenda for the June 26 meeting, lobbyists said.
The Trump administration proposed an increase in the FCC’s annual funding for FY 2026 but simultaneously sought in its budget request, released Friday night, to cut appropriations for NTIA and Agriculture Department broadband programs, including ReConnect. It also confirmed plans to rescind much of CPB’s advance funding for FY26 and FY27 (see 2505280050). Meanwhile, PBS and a Minnesota public TV station sued the administration Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking CPB from distributing funding for PBS and NPR (see 2505020044).
Citing the uncertainty around its spectrum rights because of FCC issues, EchoStar said Friday it had opted to forgo making a $326 million cash interest payment due that day on corporate debt that matures in 2029. In an SEC filing, EchoStar said the nonpayment counts as a default on the 2029 notes, but it pointed out that it has a 30-day grace period to make the payment, giving the FCC time to provide the relief the company requested. If the commission grants EchoStar relief, "we may confidently continue investing in our network buildout and expansion of our Boost business" and mobile satellite service offerings. The company this week asked the FCC to deny VTel Wireless' petition for reconsideration on an extension of EchoStar's 5G network buildout deadlines and to confirm that it has satisfied the 2024 commitments it made for that extension (see 2505280002).
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington is right that broadcast ownership restrictions need modernization, but his call for streaming platforms to be subject to MVPD-like regulation (see 2505270054) is economically flawed, International Center for Law & Economics senior scholar Eric Fruits wrote Friday. That would extend an outdated regulatory framework over more technologies, he said. Streaming began and grew because streamers weren't subject to the heavy-handed rules that traditional linear providers were, and expanding legacy rules to streaming platforms could discourage technological experimentation, he said. Instead, the commission should revisit the broadcast industry's national cap and "offer the MVPDs the same light-touch rules that streamers currently enjoy."
The FCC Media Bureau and Office of Managing Director revoked the licenses of two Kremling Enterprises-owned radio stations in Texas because they had nearly $14,200 in unpaid regulatory fees, according to an order Friday. KYKM(FM) Yoakum and KTXM(FM) Hallettsville have delinquent fees from FY 2017-21and FY 2024. The order also dismissed pending renewal applications for the stations.