Groups and companies urged the FCC to move forward to complete rules for the lower 37 GHz band, including adopting a dynamic spectrum management system (DSMS) based on experience in other shared bands. Reply comments were due Monday and mostly posted Tuesday in docket 24-283. In a 4-0 vote in April, FCC commissioners approved an item aimed at spurring greater use of the 37 GHz band, which the Biden administration had targeted for repurposing (see 2504280032).
SpaceX’s push for loosening up the spectrum-sharing rules between geostationary and non-geostationary orbit (GSO and NGSO) satellites in some bands is facing both opposition and support from satellite and terrestrial corners. Comments were due Monday in docket 25-157. Commissioners unanimously adopted the spectrum-sharing NPRM at their April meeting (see 2504280038). It resulted from a 2024 SpaceX petition urging changes to the GSO/NGSO sharing methodology for NGSO fixed satellite service (FSS) downlinks (see 2408120018). The company championed similar changes at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr names members of FCC Consumer Protection and Accessibility Advisory Committee, including Elizabeth Hill, National Association of State Agencies for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Logan Kolas, American Consumer Institute, as co-chairs … FCC retirements: Teresa Daily and Michael Schuppin from the Office of the Managing Director ... Warner Bros. Discovery announces leadership appointments for when it separates in 2026, including President-CEO David Zaslav, who retains those titles for Warner Bros., and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who becomes president-CEO, Discovery Global ... FCBA appoints Lisa Higginbotham, Comcast, to its privacy and data security committee.
One of AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellites, if non-functioning, would take from five years to 20.5 years to reenter the atmosphere, depending on its altitude, the company told the FCC in a docket 25-201 filing posted Monday. The filing -- a series of responses to Space Bureau questions -- covered such ground as collision avoidance and propellant availability for end-of-life maneuvers. AST called a completely dead satellite "highly unlikely ... due to the massive redundancy designed into the satellites."
Skydance Media plans to close Aug. 7 on its purchase of Paramount Global, Paramount told the SEC Friday. The FCC signed off on the transaction last week (see 2507240079).
Representatives of groups concerned with NextNav’s proposal for the FCC to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to enable a “terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services met with Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The filing was by the RAIN Alliance, LoRa Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-SUN Alliance and Z-Wave Alliance, which earlier questioned a NextNav study on potential interference (see 2504280045).
Q Link Wireless CEO Issa Asad was sentenced to 60 months in prison Friday after pleading guilty to fraud tied to the FCC’s Lifeline program (see 2410160029). Asad and Q Link also pleaded guilty to money laundering through the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program. Q Link agreed to pay a fine of more than $109 million, and Asad and Q Link jointly will pay a separate $109 million in restitution to the FCC.
The FCC is launching an effort to encourage operators of multiline telephone systems (MLTS) to bring their systems into compliance with agency rules for calls to 911, Zenji Nakazawa, acting chief of the Public Safety Bureau, said in a Monday blog post. In 2019, the FCC adopted rules to ensure that MLTS users can call 911 and obtain assistance from first responders (see 1908050045).
Major trade associations met with staff from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s office and the Office of General Counsel on a January declaratory ruling and NPRM addressing the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks (see 2501160041). The item was released during the final days of the last administration over the protest of then-commissioner Carr. CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom raised concerns during the meetings.
The FCC announced that its new Consumer Protection and Accessibility Advisory Committee (CPAAC) will meet for the first time Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. at FCC headquarters. Chairman Brendan Carr appointed Elizabeth Hill, board member-at-large of the National Association of State Agencies for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Logan Kolas, director of technology at the American Consumer Institute, as co-chairs.