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.
Representatives of Communication Service for the Deaf met last week with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on the potential benefits of direct video calling (DVC). “DVC allows individuals who use American Sign Language to communicate directly in real-time with businesses and government agency customer service agents who are also fluent in ASL and have been trained by their respective enterprises to provide call center assistance,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. “DVC can provide the most effective, accurate and cost efficient way to provide telephone access to customer call centers, crisis and health assistance hotlines, and 911 public safety answering points for over 1.5 million ASL users.”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Tuesday it plans to release an unclassified 2022 report it commissioned on U.S. telecom networks’ security vulnerabilities amid a renewed pressure campaign from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The Senate on Monday night passed by unanimous consent Wyden’s Telecom Cybersecurity Transparency Act (S-2480) to force the CISA report’s release, but the measure still requires approval from the House, which is on recess until Sept. 2. Wyden has also placed a hold on CISA director nominee Sean Plankey, which would prevent a swift confirmation process if the Homeland Security Committee advances him Wednesday.
Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., launched a probe Tuesday of the federal government’s review of Skydance's $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global amid other Democrats’ corruption claims about the deal (see 2507250029). Meanwhile, the Freedom of the Press Foundation wants the disciplinary body for the D.C. Bar to investigate whether FCC Chairman Brendan Carr violated the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct in his handling of the Skydance/Paramount deal (see 2507290060).
A disciplinary complaint filed Monday with the entity that investigates D.C. Bar members for professional misconduct is unlikely to lead to proceedings against FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, legal ethics scholars told us.
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."