The International Center for Law & Economics urged the FCC last week to move forward on proposals to speed the retirement of legacy copper phone lines. Commissioners agreed to take comment on ways to speed retirements in an NPRM approved last month (see 2507280053).
NextNav is hopeful that the FCC will move forward soon on an NPRM following up on its March notice of inquiry asking about the wide range of possible alternatives to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), said Renee Gregory, the company's vice president of regulatory affairs. Opponents of NextNav’s proposal to use 900 MHz spectrum for PNT are less anxious for the FCC to take next steps.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing of the rejection of a $57 million FCC fine against AT&T for violating the agency's data protection rules. The panel modified its April opinion slightly, taking out language that referred to a 2012 5th Circuit decision in U.S. v. Stevens (see 1208210038).
Nexstar’s profitability and plans to acquire Tegna undercut broadcaster arguments for doing away with the national ownership cap, said MVPDs, civil rights groups, Newsmax and others in comment filings in docket 17-318. Replies were due Friday.
AST SpaceMobile is seeking FCC approval for two years of testing off-the-shelf cellular handsets receiving supplemental coverage from space service using FirstNet's Band 14. In an experimental license application last week, AST said the testing would be done in a 24-kilometer-radius area in Texas using 758-768 MHz downlinks and 788-798 MHz uplinks. Such testing would allow AST to continue evaluating its Bluebird satellites' capabilities to transmit and receive broadband communications to and from mobile handsets in the Band 14 network footprint, it said.
Charter Communications' proposed purchase of Cox Communications might have faced DOJ and FCC opposition under the Biden administration, with its reliance on market-share snapshots when pursuing antitrust claims, Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Alden Abbott wrote last week. But the $34.5 billion Charter/Cox deal, announced in May (see 2505160060), "should have a clear path forward" under current DOJ and FCC leadership, given signs that the Trump administration wants to reinstate "a commonsense, fact-based, and economically centered merger-review policy," said Abbott, a former FTC general counsel. Under the Supreme Court's Brown Shoe test for assessing if a transaction will lessen competition, Charter/Cox doesn't eliminate an existing rivalry, raise entry barriers or accelerate harmful concentration, he said. The two have minimal overlap, and there's booming growth of new broadband competitors, Abbott added.
The FCC Wireless Bureau agreed to “long-term de facto transfer leasing arrangements” in which AT&T and FTC Management will lease spectrum to each other, mainly in the 3.45 GHz band, in markets in South Carolina. The bureau also approved a waiver for the companies to exceed the 40 MHz aggregation limit on 3.45 GHz spectrum in some of the markets. “We find that the proposed transaction has a low likelihood of competitive harm and would serve the public interest, convenience and necessity,” said an order in docket 25-138 in Friday’s Daily Digest.
T-Mobile representatives met with FCC staff to discuss the “drive test data” that the company submitted with its annual progress report, required as part of its purchase of Sprint. “T‑Mobile also identified the software used to calculate low-, medium-, and high-intensity developed areas in large rural census blocks as part of the selection of additional testing locations in these areas,” said a filing Friday in docket 22-211. The slides from T-Mobile’s presentation to staff were redacted in the filing.
A coalition opposed to T-Mobile’s purchase of wireless assets from UScellular spoke with aides to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez about its challenge to a Wireless Bureau order approving the deal. Gomez has said commissioners should have been asked to vote on it (see 2507310041). Representatives from the Rural Wireless Association, Open Technology Institute at New America and Communications Workers of America were present, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286.
Comments are due Sept. 8 in dockets 25-256 and 25-257 on two Consolidated Communications applications to discontinue legacy voice services at locations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The application will be granted automatically Sept. 22 unless the FCC notifies the company otherwise.