The U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the FCC it hopes the agency is aggressive in cutting regulations, starting with broadband labels, in reply comments Friday in the “Delete, Delete, Delete” docket (25-133). In initial comments, “the Chamber offered forty-two areas of regulatory reforms that broadly would modernize media and video regulations, ensure fairness and due process in enforcement, connect all Americans, rein in abuse of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, reform the equipment authorization process, and unleash the space economy,” the filing said (see 2504150016). The record shows “significant support for these areas of reform.”
Public interest groups defended the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053) in briefs filed last week at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The order reduces call rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039). Parts of the order were challenged by Securus and Pay Tel, which provide incarcerated people’s communication services (IPCS), as well as by state and law enforcement interests led by the National Sheriffs’ Association (see 2502140049). Briefs were posted last week in 24-8028.
An FCC draft NPRM on a host of minor updates to the agency’s foreign-ownership rules for broadcasters and common carriers is expected to enjoy unanimous approval during the agency's open meeting Monday, FCC and industry officials told us.
While Amazon's Kuiper satellite constellation is the subject of reports that it's facing significant delays, precedent suggests those hurdles are normal and should get resolved as momentum builds, Quilty Space analyst Caleb Henry wrote Wednesday. In their first year, SpaceX's Starlink and Eutelsat's OneWeb fell short of the number of batch launches they had targeted, he said. Given how much Amazon has put into Kuiper -- an estimated $16.5 billion-$20 billion -- the FCC is likely to extend Kuiper's license, he added. The inaugural commercial launch of Kuiper satellites is slated for Monday (see 2504220002).
NAB wants the FCC to overhaul its website, stop tying rules to specific databases and do away with local public notice rules for stations, the trade group said in comments filed Wednesday in docket 24-626. The filing was a response to a December NPRM that sought comments on cleaning up outdated references and processes in broadcast regulations (see 2412100057).
Opponents of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular met with aides to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to elaborate on their concerns, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-286. The parties at the meeting were the Rural Wireless Association, EchoStar, Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute. They discussed many of the issues presented in other meetings at the FCC (see 2503210032).
After decades of work by federal agencies dealing with Ligado and its predecessors, still nothing has been invested in its proposed terrestrial L-band network, said aviation organizations and allies that opposed the FCC's 2019 Ligado authorization. They sent letters this week to President Donald Trump and congressional leadership. "Move on [and] put the issue to rest" by getting the FCC to grant the pending petitions seeking reconsideration of Ligado's authorization (see 2005210043), they said. Ligado's authorization poses an interference threat to GPS, satellite communications and weather forecasting services, said nearly 100 groups and companies, including AccuWeather, Airlines for America, American Farm Bureau Federation and American Meteorological Society. Congressional recipients included Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Ligado didn't comment Thursday.
With the 25-year license of its South America-1 submarine cable network set to expire, Telxius Cable is seeking a renewal. In an FCC application posted Thursday, Telxius said the SAm-1 cable network continues to operate, so the company wants to relicense it until 2051. SAm-1 connects Florida, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru, offering bulk capacity to wholesale and enterprise customers, the application said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Thursday posted new filing deadlines for a Talton petition seeking a waiver of the commission’s rules capping the rates for audio and video for incarcerated people provided to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Comments are now due May 8, replies May 15, in docket 23-62. The bureau suspended earlier deadlines on the petition (see 2504170020) after public interest groups, led by the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, objected to Talton’s request for confidential treatment.
The Senate Commerce Committee said Wednesday night that it will mark up two telecom measures during an April 30 meeting that will also consider Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty (see 2504230051). Lawmakers will vote on the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act (S-259) and Enhancing First Response Act (S-725). The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. S-259 and its House companion (HR-906), which was advanced by that chamber's Commerce Committee, would require the FCC to publish a list of communications companies with FCC licenses or other authorizations in which China or other foreign adversaries’ governments hold at least a 10% ownership stake. Congressional leaders included an earlier version of the measure in a scuttled December continuing resolution (see 2412180033). S-725 and the similar 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-637) would reclassify public safety call takers and dispatchers as a protective service.