While the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month upholding the USF (see 2506270054) was a win for consumers, questions about the future of the fund won’t go away, Pillsbury lawyers wrote Thursday. Carriers that pay into the USF “get to decide whether to pass those costs through to their customers or absorb [them], and due to the high cost, most choose to pass some if not most of that fee on to customers in the form of a line-item USF charge on their phone bill,” the lawyers blogged. Now that the fund has survived judicial challenges, “advocates will look to Congress and the FCC to expand the contribution base to ensure sustainable funding in the face of eroding revenues from traditional telecommunications sources and the rapid growth of broadband and other connectivity services.”
The FCC Technology Advisory Council will hold its first meeting under the current administration Aug. 5, starting at 10 a.m. at FCC headquarters, the agency said Thursday. The group, which last met in December (see 2412190065), “will consider and advise the Commission on topics such as continued efforts at looking beyond 5G advanced as 6G begins to develop so as to facilitate U.S. leadership; studying advanced spectrum sharing techniques, including the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the utilization and administration of spectrum; and other emerging technologies,” the FCC said.
Hundreds of family members who have loved ones in prison filed comments at the FCC in recent days asking the agency not to delay some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027 (see 2506300068). Meanwhile, public interest groups asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to delay its consideration of the prison-calling order, as requested by the FCC, which told the court it needed time to review the rules approved during the Biden administration.
The FCC's plan to delete dormant dockets saw support from many commenters, though with scattered calls to keep several alive. Comments regarding the dormant dockets were due Wednesday in docket 25-165. The agency is looking to shutter more than 2,000 dormant dockets, the largest number it has sought to eliminate at one time (see 2505020063). Comments also included suggestions for other dockets to add to the chopping block.
The FCC on Friday approved T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular, a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt, Chairman Brendan Carr announced. The transaction includes about 30% of UScellular's spectrum and all of its wireless customers and stores. The approval came from the Wireless Bureau with no commissioner vote.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino steps down, no reason given … Changes in Comtech's satellite and space communications unit: Ex-General Dynamics executives Steve Black and Brent Norman named COO and CFO, respectively; Mark Dale advanced to chief technology officer ... Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, appoints John Etue, ex-office of Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, as his chief of staff ... ISP Gigstreem promotes Brent McCutchin to COO and Florencio Bulanhagui to CTO, new positions ... Flynn Rico-Johnson, former policy adviser to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, joins Nvidia as director of government relations for telecom.
The FCC requiring a mandatory ATSC 3.0 transition would “emulate Soviet-era politicos” and amount to “blatant market meddling" for “dubious benefits,” wrote former FCC Commissioner and Free State Foundation Adjunct Senior Fellow Michael O’Rielly in a post Wednesday. O’Rielly compared broadcaster plans to generate revenue from their spectrum using ATSC 3.0 datacasting to “side hustles" and to “allowing mailmen to use U.S. postal trucks to deliver Christmas trees.” Even if a 3.0 datacasting business materializes, “remember that the government would be allowing broadcasters to leverage the spectrum that they use to offer these services for private gain and far afield from providing broadcast services to the public. Is this the best use of a scarce resource?” O’Rielly asked.
The FCC didn't see widespread, significant disruption of communications networks related to the deadly Texas floods over the Fourth of July weekend, but the agency is looking at "issues here and there," Chairman Brendan Carr said Tuesday. Speaking on the radio show O'Connor & Company on WMAL-FM Woodbridge, Virginia, Carr also criticized the lack of BEAD-related construction under the Biden administration and said his Build America agenda, announced last week (see 2507020036), "looks to turn that around." The next month or so will see the BEAD program "completely reset," with new construction coming "pretty soon," he added.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) called on Congress and the FCC to grant state prisons the authority to jam contraband cellphones in their facilities, following a report by state grand jurors highlighting the issue. The 34th and 35th State Grand Jurors released reports Wednesday finding that inmate criminal organizations are still able to operate with their leaders in prison. “Locking someone up doesn’t make us safer if they’re still running criminal empires from behind bars,” Wilson said: "We know how to stop this; the technology already exists and is being used in federal prisons." Jamming inmates' cellphone communication "would immediately eliminate so much of the criminal activities within our state prisons," one of the reports said.
NCTA opposed Airspan Networks’ request last month for a waiver allowing it to manufacture a multiband radio device that operates across the citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) and C bands. “The FCC has seen deep interest by wireless providers in deployment of 5G service in both the 3450 MHz and the 3700 MHz bands, and there is an ongoing, recognized and growing need for base station manufacturers to support operations in these bands cost-effectively,” Airspan said in its request.