The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday in Consumers’ Research v. FCC that the USF's contribution scheme doesn’t violate the non-delegation doctrine. The decision overturned an en banc ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent, which was joined by Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has granted certification for several companies to provide video relay service (VRS) and IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) supported by the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service Fund, said three public notices Wednesday. Sorenson Communications, which is majority-owned by Ariel GP Holdco, was granted certification to provide VRS and is eligible for TRS compensation through June 24, 2030. CaptionCall, also owned by Ariel GP, was certified to provide IP CTS with TRS compensation for the same five-year period. NexTalk Software, owned by Solen Ventures, was granted a conditional certification to provide IP CTS. NexTalk will be eligible for TRS fund compensation when the FCC takes action on its application for full certification, the notice said. “We find it to be in the public interest to grant such conditional certification pending a full determination of NexTalk Software’s qualifications.”
Cisco Systems continues to lobby the FCC 10th floor regarding its proposal that the commission end rules that prevent use of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi on cruise ships. In a docket 18-295 filing Wednesday, it recapped a meeting with an aide to Chairman Brendan Carr, during which it argued that earth exploration satellite services migrating out of the 6 GHz band make obsolete the agency's prohibition on 6 GHz low-power indoor access points on boats to protect EESS. Cisco had similar talks with Commissioner Anna Gomez earlier this month (see 2506170061).
Rebuilding parts of Brightspeed's Tennessee network swept away by September's Hurricane Helene is largely done, with the rest of the restoration work to be completed in Q3, the fiber operator told the FCC in a filing posted Wednesday (docket 24-702). Flooding impaired voice service for 309 customers -- many of whom also lost homes. It said new fiber deployment is complete, with work now focused on connecting customers to the new network.
The FCC Wireline Bureau could use $129 million in leftover funds “to fully satisfy demand for Rural Health Care Program funding” for 2025, said a public notice Wednesday. The FCC’s rules for the RHC Program “establish a process to carry forward unused funds from past funding years for use in future funding years.”
The shuttering of the North American Numbering Council (see 2506240074) could make it harder for the FCC and industry to deal with the problem of telephone number exhaustion and other issues overseen by the group for the last 30 years, former NANC officials told us. The NANC’s charter expires in September, and its last meeting was Tuesday. Members learned of the decision to end the long-standing advisory committee about two weeks ago, said 15-year NANC veteran Richard Shockey, board chairman of the SIP Forum.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez visited Letcher County, Kentucky, in the latest stop on her “First Amendment Tour” series of panel discussions. In a release Wednesday, Gomez said the White House and FCC’s “unprecedented efforts to censor and control speech reach every community, including the coal towns and mountain communities of Eastern Kentucky.” Her message to the state: “Now is the time to stand up and push back against this assault on free expression and remind those in power that the First Amendment is not optional.” Gomez’s Kentucky event was organized by the Center for Rural Strategies, a nonprofit “focused on improving economic and social conditions for rural communities around the world through the creative use of media and communications,” the release said.
With the cost of space travel decreasing, regulatory hang-ups are starting to eclipse launch costs as the biggest barrier to commercial space, SpaceX Vice President of Satellite Policy David Goldman said Wednesday. Regulatory challenges are "where the bottleneck is," he said at a space and spectrum conference at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, locked down support Wednesday from a pair of top Armed Services Committee Republicans for the panel’s spectrum budget reconciliation package language after strengthening the original proposal’s exclusion of the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506060029). Cruz’s office also reemphasized his view that the revised proposal’s language to encourage states to pause enforcement of AI laws no longer threatens jurisdictions’ eligibility for the enacted $42.5 billion in BEAD funding (see 2506230043) in the face of Democratic assertions to the contrary.
The FCC's 1610-1626.5 MHz band and 2483.5-2500 MHz band licensing framework has been a huge success, and there's no reason to modify it, Globalstar CEO Paul Jacobs told FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, according to a filing posted Tuesday. Globalstar said the FCC should grant its C-3 constellation application (see 2502280001) without conducting a rulemaking on the spectrum bands or initiating a processing round. Allowing a new entrant into its licensed mobile satellite service spectrum "would inevitably cause extensive harmful interference." SpaceX has sought permission to operate in the 1.6/2.4 GHz bands (see 2506120011).