NextNav filed at the FCC a supplement to its early engineering report, addressing interference issues raised by the company’s proposal that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2503030023). The supplement filing, posted Thursday in docket 25-110, slammed critics of the earlier report (see 2504280045).
GCI representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr concerning the company’s petition seeking clarity of the agency's Alaska Connect Fund mobile requirements (see 2501310053). Part of the filing, posted Thursday in docket 23-328, was redacted. As GCI and the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition “have made clear, it is not possible to extend 5G-[new radio] at 7/1 or 35/3 Mbps to the edge of the voice service areas reached by the Alaska Plan,” the filing said. “Even excluding voice-only areas, Alaska providers will need significant flexibility and, as such, the general expectations should be more realistically calibrated in light of the nature of Alaska’s communities and the realities of wireless signal propagation and attenuation.”
In light of Congress restoring FCC auction authority, Ligado said on Thursday it’s time for the commission to address the 1675-1680 MHz band, the topic of a record refresh this year (see 1905090041). “Since 2019 the Commission has studied how to reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared federal and commercial use, and recent submissions by [NTIA] clearly establish that the band can be used for both uplink and downlink and shared with Government users,” Ligado said in docket 19-116. The opportunity to make the band available for shared use “is the fruit” of the Wireless Bureau’s “diligent efforts to refresh the record in this proceeding over the first half of this year.”
The 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court agreed Thursday to hold in abeyance a legal challenge to an FCC ruling that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. The court's action came after the FCC reminded it that the agency's composition has changed since it adopted the school bus Wi-Fi ruling in 2023, and the current commission may no longer support the order (see 2507070012).
The FCC Office of International Affairs has signed off on the requested transfer of the PPC-1 submarine cable landing license from one Australian company, TPG Telecom, to another, Vocus Group, as part of Vocus' purchase of TPG's subsea cable business (see 2411150001), said a public notice Thursday. PPC-1 connects Sydney to Piti, Guam.
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.