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.
Representatives of TransUnion met with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireline bureaus to discuss the company’s “market-driven” calling solution. “Businesses currently face two interrelated dilemmas -- certain calls that are authentic are being spam-tagged and/or blocked and calls that are fraudulently spoofed are getting through to unwitting consumers,” said a filing posted Thursday (docket 17-59). TransUnion has found that up to 25% of some companies’ calls “are mislabeled as spam,” while as many as 15% of some calls from financial institutions are “spoofed,” the filing said: “TransUnion’s solutions, based on global call authentication standards, allows consumers to see businesses’ name, logo, and call reason information on their incoming call screen, providing greater confidence that a call is legitimate.”
UScellular filed data at the FCC on its radio access network, answering questions about its proposed sale of wireless assets to T-Mobile (see 2405280047). The carrier redacted all the data in the filing, posted Thursday in docket 24-286. Based on text that wasn't stripped, the company provided data on how it defines congestion, its average cost per radio and its fixed wireless access offering, among other areas.
The International Connectivity Coalition continues to lobby the FCC to keep 25-year submarine cable system licensing terms and to adopt bright line rules for restricting or prohibiting transactions that have links to a foreign adversary (see 2505200039). In a docket 24-523 filing posted Thursday, ICC reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, at which it also advocated for a fast-track review for parties whose licenses were approved previously.
The FCC questioning the progress of EchoStar's 5G network deployment (see 2505120074) could set the stage for a clash with White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios, analyst Tim McDonald wrote Thursday in a blog post. Kratsios could interpret the FCC action as a direct challenge to his strategy of promoting and protecting emerging technologies in which the U.S. could be preeminent, McDonald said. While the FCC might see what it's doing as providing market certainty by enforcing its rules, he added, OSTP very well could view the FCC action as jeopardizing the idea that EchoStar's open radio access network deployment shows that the U.S. can build telecom infrastructure without Chinese vendors.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on Thursday called the FCC’s actions against regulated companies that force them to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs “sinister.” She was particularly critical of the Wireline Bureau’s order last week approving Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier (see 2505160050) after Verizon agreed to get rid of DEI programs, which she said were “meant to increase fairness in hiring in the workforce.”
Industry attorneys expect USF reform and think BEAD efforts will soon speed up, they said in a webinar Thursday hosted by Incompas CEO Chip Pickering. The panel also discussed convergence between wired and wireless broadband and the movement of power away from the FCC in the wake of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings against agency authority. “From Incompas’ perspective ... we think a lot will shift to Congress, to the administration and to the states,” said Pickering.
The FCC approved an order and Further NPRM Thursday aimed at squelching “bad labs,” continuing work started in the last administration. Commissioners also decided the agency would look well beyond its initial plans of considering the 12.7 and 42 GHz bands for satellite broadband spectrum. Those items were approved 4-0, as were updated foreign-ownership rules (see 2505010037).
Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., is threatening to block Senate passage of its budget reconciliation package if Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others include spectrum legislative language that doesn’t exempt the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7 GHz bands from potential reallocation for commercial use. Rounds’ declaration Wednesday night created another potential roadblock for spectrum legislation to make it into a negotiated reconciliation deal, even as House GOP leaders celebrated the lower chamber's narrow passage Thursday morning of their One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1). That measure's spectrum title would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034, and exempts the lower 3 GHz and 5.9-7.1 (6) GHz bands from reallocation.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’ announcement Thursday that he was attending his last commission meeting (see 2505220013) sparked renewed concerns from his supporters on and off Capitol Hill that President Donald Trump will leave his seat vacant instead of naming a party-affiliated successor. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights led another push just before Starks’ announcement for Senate leaders to delay Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty’s confirmation process until the Trump administration commits to keeping the commission staffed with two members not affiliated with the party of the sitting president.