The FCC said in a release Wednesday that it has saved more than $567 million via cuts to contracts in an internal effort coordinated with the Department of Government Efficiency, but experts said those numbers may be misleading.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told us Tuesday night that he doesn’t see it as a setback that several Senate Commerce Committee Republicans want to pursue alternatives to parts of the House panel’s budget reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), even as some congressional DOD supporters raised their own objections to the measure. House Commerce cleared its spectrum and AI reconciliation language early Wednesday on a party-line, 29-24 vote after Democrats unsuccessfully floated a handful of amendments that reflected their objection to using future FCC auction proceeds as an offset for extending the 2017 tax cuts and other GOP priorities.
The FCC made a mistake when it put a greater portion of satellite regulatory fees on the backs of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) licensees, reducing the burden on GSO licensees, and should reverse the unfair allocation, SpaceX told an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. In a docket 24-85 filing posted Tuesday, SpaceX said that if the agency instead goes forward with its proposed alternative regulatory fee methodology for satellites, it should use a logarithmic scale rather than relying on the size of a constellation.
T-Mobile representatives met with FCC staff to discuss the company’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular in a $4.3 billion deal announced a year ago (see 2405280047). New data submitted in response to FCC questions was stripped from the filing, posted Tuesday in docket 24-286. “T-Mobile described that the spectrum efficiency for LTE using low-band spectrum differed from values provided during the FCC’s consideration of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger,” the filing said: “T-Mobile also explained that, since it would be adding UScellular’s spectrum to the T-Mobile network, it was appropriate to utilize the T-Mobile spectrum efficiency values for the combined network in its modeling.”
NextWave Spectrum and T-Mobile are exchanging fire in a dispute over alleged interference with NextWave's use of the 2.5 GHz band in New York and New Jersey. NextWave asked the FCC earlier this month to “take swift and decisive action to compel T-Mobile’s compliance” with commission rules and “cease its flagrant and unlawful encroachment into NextWave’s exclusively leased" service areas in those states.
Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday amplified a social media post from Gavin Wax, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington’s chief of staff, on improving American manufacturing and competing with China. “Important point by Gavin,” Vance wrote in support of Wax's post about making American-made tech products competitive globally. Vance chiming in to support Wax is the latest example of prominent figures connected with President Donald Trump’s administration weighing in on issues raised by Simington and Wax since the latter joined Simington’s staff late last month. Since then, the two have authored a string of co-bylined articles on mostly FCC-centric topics that nevertheless are drawing attention from powerful Republicans. Trump himself reposted Simington and Wax’s article on broadcasting network affiliate fees (see 2505020066), and Simington recently appeared on the shows of former lawmaker Matt Gaetz and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon to discuss his articles with Wax.
States opposing the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 have shifted gears in part to challenge whether FCC decision-making is legitimate because of the false premise that the regulator is an independent agency. The order, which reduces calling rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039), is under appeal in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (24-8028).
As greater numbers of satellites are launched, the FCC is making progress trimming its backlog of satellite and earth station applications, FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz said Tuesday as the Satellite Industry Association released its 2025 state of the satellite industry report. A record 11,539 operational satellites were in orbit as of the end of 2024, up more than 1,900 from year-end 2023, SIA said.
SpaceX could be the biggest beneficiary as the FCC takes a hard look at EchoStar's compliance with milestones attached to its 5G network buildout. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's inquiry into EchoStar's compliance with buildout deadlines (see 2505120074) "clearly originate[s]" from SpaceX, LightShed Partners' Walt Piecyk wrote Tuesday. He said the FCC probe appears to be particularly focused on EchoStar's use of the S band -- spectrum real estate that SpaceX wants.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas is holding off on publicly endorsing or opposing the House Commerce Committee's reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), but he and some other fellow panel Republicans are already looking at potential changes if it emerges from the lower chamber as currently written. House Commerce hadn't yet tackled the reconciliation measure’s spectrum language Tuesday afternoon as panel members traded barbs about the legislation’s proposed Medicaid cuts.