The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Friday on a waiver request by Tiverton, Rhode Island, which wants to add a base station in the 470-512 MHz T band to its public safety radio system. A waiver is needed because of an adjacent TV station located in Boston, about 50 miles away, the bureau said. Tiverton says it’s “in dire need of improved coverage and building penetration in its historical downtown business district,” the bureau said. Comments are due June 12, replies June 23, in universal licensing system file 0010645349.
The Rural Wireless Association urged the FCC in comments posted Friday to look at AT&T’s proposed buy of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from UScellular in the broader context of the U.S. wireless market. The sale of the licenses is tied to a larger deal with T-Mobile that's also still before the FCC (see 2504150046). Replies to oppositions were due at the FCC on Thursday in docket 25-150.
USTelecom submitted a letter to the FCC Enforcement Bureau asking for the continuing designation of its Industry Traceback Group as the registered robocall traceback consortium. Letters of intent to serve in the role were due at the FCC on Friday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved the transfer of control of Megawatt Communications from Jack Cathey to RSTN Communications (docket 25-146). The bureau noted that no one filed an opposition. Megawatt serves parts of Tennessee and is designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier there.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., on Thursday night criticized spectrum language included in the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1). The House cleared HR-1 Thursday 215-214 with provisions that would restore the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034, and mandate that the federal government reallocate at least 600 MHz of airwaves for commercial licensed use (see 2505220064). “There is strong bipartisan concern about handing over this spectrum,” Lujan said. “Yet House Republicans are moving ahead at President [Donald] Trump’s directive, prioritizing billionaires over the urgent need to invest in broadband access.”
SpaceX's efforts to access the 2 GHz band -- where EchoStar enjoys sole use -- are key to its direct-to-device ambitions, but they're also creating a major spectrum fight between the two companies, spectrum and satellite experts told us. Some see SpaceX eyeing the spectrum to enhance its D2D service and to block EchoStar's and are asking if SpaceX anticipates competing directly with wireless carriers.
A U.S. Supreme Court opinion late Thursday preventing fired independent commissioners from resuming their work is a strong indication that the high court will allow President Donald Trump to remove FCC and FTC commissioners from the minority party, academics and attorneys said in interviews Friday.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks will leave the agency before its June 26 meeting; replacement plans are unclear (see 2505220043) ... European business communications provider Dstny Group names Yann Le Helloco, ex-InfoVista, as chief product and technology officer … Telecommunications customer experience firm TechSee names Lawrence Askowitz, the Bank Street Group, to its telecom advisory board.
Coordination with federal spectrum users is the biggest regulatory challenge in the bands where Capella Space operates, the synthetic aperture radar satellite operator told FCC leadership. In a docket 25-133 filing posted Thursday, Capella recapped 10th-floor meetings at which it said coordinating with federal users can take longer than the FCC's licensing process. Other issues cited included the variation in coordination restrictions from license to license based on unpredictable factors and licensees not having the information they need to avoid congested frequencies and locations. Capella asked the FCC to help mitigate the coordination challenges by sending application materials for coordination as early as possible and improving communication with other agencies. The company also urged the agency to reduce its surety bond requirement for some satellite licenses by making it subject to a one-year grace period rather than the 30-day deadline. The Capella staffers met with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, the offices of Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, and Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz.
Any FCC approval of Skydance Media's proposed purchase of Paramount Global should include conditions safeguarding Paramount's entertainment industry employment, Project Rise Partners (PRP) co-Chair Daphna Ziman told FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, according to a filing posted Thursday (docket 24-275). PRP has also made an offer to buy Paramount (see 2504030049). Other concerns that PRP raised include reports about Skydance's alleged involvement in Paramount operations before the deal is approved and how the transaction could affect CBS' relationship with its affiliates. Asked Thursday during the FCC's monthly meeting about the timing of its decisions on Skydance/Paramount, Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency continues to run “a normal review process” of the deal's merits. He said the agency is or has been working through numerous transactions of late, such as Verizon/Frontier Communications.