Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
Trade groups are urging federal agencies to treat deliberate damage to communications networks, such as fiber-optic cable cuts, as domestic terrorism in some instances and increase investigative and enforcement resources in regions with more incidents. Widespread, organized attacks on communications networks represent "a significant and rapidly growing threat demanding urgent, coordinated federal, state, and local action," the groups said in a letter Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday night confirmed reports that he's urging President Donald Trump to pick Democratic nominees to the FCC and FTC in a bid to ease Democrats’ opposition to speeding up confirmations ahead of the August recess. Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others told us they’re skeptical that the Trump administration will follow through, given that the president didn’t pick minority-party nominees to independent commissions during the first six months of his term and fired sitting members of the FTC and other bodies.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into Comcast NBCUniversal’s relationship with its affiliates, days after President Donald Trump targeted the network in a social media post. Carr told Comcast in a letter Tuesday that the Media Bureau will scrutinize its affiliation agreements for restrictions on streaming negotiations or competing for local sports rights, as well as terms that could “unduly inhibit” local broadcast station programming decisions.
Clearing as much as 60 MHz in the upper C band could happen within 12 months of an FCC order initiating an upper C-band transition, Eutelsat told agency officials. The company recapped its meetings with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's office and with Commissioner Olivia Trusty in a docket 25-59 filing posted Tuesday. Eutelsat said it could get that 60 MHz free through compression and wouldn't need new satellite launches. It alternately could clear as much as 130 MHz within three years of an FCC order, it said, with two additional C-band satellites and all services compressed. Eutelsat urged the FCC to use the 2020 C-band transition framework as the foundation for any further reallocation of upper C-band spectrum. That would include a satellite-operator-led transition, structured financial incentives and reimbursement, it noted. Clearing meaningful additional C-band spectrum would require "significant" financial investment by Eutelsat, and financial incentives "should appropriately align with this effort," the company told the commission.
Representatives of the Utilities Technology Council told FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty "how utilities need access to additional spectrum to support the safe, reliable and secure delivery of essential electric, gas and water services to the public at large,” according to a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-99. The spectrum “needs to provide sufficient capacity to simultaneously support multiple utility voice and data applications, including high resolution video for security, as well as low latency applications such as advanced distribution automation, distributed energy resources management systems and protective relaying systems.” The group also met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
The 12.7 GHz band is prime for satellite communications use, the Satellite Industry Association said as it called for repacking and compressing broadcast auxiliary service (BAS) and cable relay service (CARS) operations there.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America on Tuesday urged the FCC to demand increased transparency on foreign adversaries' control of smart devices and appliances. Commissioners approved an NPRM on foreign-ownership rules in a unanimous vote in May (see 2505270057). The coalition is raising “concerns with China-owned brands like Haier (owner of GE Appliances), Midea and Hisense in the U.S. market,” said a news release.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr applauded the penalties levied against Q Link Wireless and CEO Issa Asad, including prison time for Asad, for USF fraud and money laundering. “The FCC takes very seriously any instance of misuse of public funds and misrepresentation,” Carr said Monday. “Protecting taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse is central to our work.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Monday on Corn Belt Telephone’s application to buy Templeton Telephone’s assets and customers. Comments are due Aug. 11, replies Aug. 18 in docket 25-163, the notice said. Templeton Telephone provides local, long-distance and other services in the Templeton local exchange in Iowa and has been designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier, the bureau said.