The Media Bureau has approved Sinclair’s sale of five stations to Rincon Broadcasting and waived a limit on common ownership of top-four stations in the same market, said an order Tuesday. The bureau also rejected a petition to deny the deal from recently formed public interest group Frequency Forward (see 2504150056). The group’s “allegations concerning Sinclair’s character qualifications have repeatedly been considered and rejected,” the order said.
The FCC signed off Tuesday on T-Mobile and SpaceX's requested waiver of agency equipment authorization rules related to handsets receiving supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service (see 2504090038). In the order (docket 23-65), the Office of Engineering and Technology and Space Bureau said applying the rules would stymie T-Mobile subscribers and first responders from accessing SCS "through no fault of their own, because the holders of equipment authorizations for certain devices have failed to submit requests for waivers to allow those devices to access SCS."
Citizens Against Government Waste on Tuesday supported Verizon's request that the FCC remove the unlocking commitment stipulated as a condition of approving the company’s purchase of Tracfone (see 2505200051). “The FCC should bring parity to the marketplace by granting Verizon’s request,” said a filing in docket 24-186. “The FCC should help mobile providers by eliminating the unlocking requirements that open the gate to cell phone trafficking, fraud and other illegal activities.”
T-Mobile and Grain Management jointly asked the FCC to approve a transaction in which Grain would buy all of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio (see 2503210033). Oppositions were due Monday in docket 25-178.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday accepted for filing CenturyLink's proposal to discontinue its Engage Business VoIP service covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Objections are due July 16 in docket 25-206. Absent further action, a CenturyLink request to discontinue the service will be “deemed granted” Aug. 1, the bureau said.
In an order that it ties to the agency's “Delete” proceeding, the FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday extended for a year a waiver pausing the phase-out of Lifeline support for voice-only services and the increase in the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity (see 2307210068). Without the extension, support for services meeting only the voice minimum service standard, which currently stands at $5.25 per month, would be eliminated for most areas on Dec. 1, the bureau said. Without a pause, the minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity would rise from 4.5 GB per month to 29 GB, also starting Dec. 1.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The U.S. is expected to push to get the full ITU to overturn an ITU Council decision last week to hold the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference in China (see 2506260058). It’s unclear how likely it is to succeed, industry observers said. The Trump administration made a late push to get the council to agree to hold the meeting in the U.S. (see 2506250005). Rwanda also submitted a bid to host the conference but later dropped it.
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Trump v. CASA limiting nationwide injunctions doesn’t directly affect the judiciary’s power to set aside national regulations from federal agencies like the FCC, but it could prompt future challenges to that authority, according to attorneys and academics.
The Senate narrowly passed an amended version Tuesday of the HR-1 budget reconciliation package, formerly named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with a proposal for an 800 MHz spectrum auction pipeline but without a controversial Commerce Committee proposal for a voluntary freeze on enforcing state-level AI rules. The chamber voted 99-1 to strip out that language after a deal between Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. (see 2506300072), collapsed Monday night.