NTCA, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and other commenters told the FCC last week that they dislike a proposal to deregulate telephone access charges more now than they did five years ago, when the agency last sought comment (see 2008050030).
The U.S. and the E.U. agreed to address digital trade barriers as part of a joint statement released Thursday. The agreement laid out in more detail the informal arrangement made between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at an impromptu summit in July.
The Trump administration has so far raised many questions about its approach to tackling cybersecurity, former acting NTIA Administrator Evelyn Remaley said during a USTelecom webinar Tuesday. Other experts said the administration is mostly on the right track, though they conceded its policies remain a work in progress.
Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., on Friday accused FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of abusing his power by pushing Verizon and other companies to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs to win approval of transactions before the commission (see 2505160050). Verizon’s proposed buy of Frontier was held up as Carr sought assurance on DEI (see 2505160024). Ivey spoke during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) conference.
AT&T expects to see up to $8 billion in tax savings for 2025-2027 as a result of the recently enacted reconciliation package and will invest $3.5 billion of those savings in its network, the carrier said Wednesday as it reported Q2 results. AT&T also reported 401,000 postpaid phone net adds for the quarter, 243,000 AT&T Fiber net adds and 203,000 AT&T Internet Air adds.
The FCC posted on Thursday the drafts for all the items teed up for votes at the commission’s Aug. 7 open meeting. Most have a deregulatory bent.
The Trump Organization announced Monday that later this year, it will launch Trump Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator, and a gold-colored smartphone, which it said will eventually be made in the U.S. The launch would create ethics concerns regardless, but even more so given the Trump administration's pressure for the FCC to answer directly to the White House, public interest groups said.
Apple stock was down Friday after President Donald Trump said it and other smartphone makers could be subject to sizable tariffs starting at the end of June. Trump "long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple" about his expectation that iPhones sold in the U.S. "will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else," he wrote Friday on Truth Social. "If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S." Later, Trump told reporters the tariffs would also apply to Samsung and other smartphone makers. "Otherwise it wouldn't be fair," he said, adding that the tariffs should be ready next month. "When they build their plant here, there's no tariff." He also told reporters he was confident Apple could build iPhones in the U.S. that would be price-competitive. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst covering tech for TF International Securities, posted on X that in terms of profitability, "it's way better for Apple to take the hit of a 25% tariff on iPhones sold in the US market than to move iPhone assembly lines back to US." Apple closed at $195.27, down $6.09.
HERSHEY, Pennsylvania -- FCC officials speaking Saturday at the FCBA's annual seminar expressed confidence that the agency will regain spectrum auction authority. Chief of Staff Scott Delacourt said the commission expects at least one auction, AWS-3, within the next year and is taking steps to ensure it can support that auction, such as preparing necessary IT, he said. Commissioner Nathan Simington said Congress sees midband spectrum as a priority, so a significant auction should be teed up by year-end.
Verizon isn’t sweating a potential downturn in the economy, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, said Thursday during a MoffettNathanson conference. “We are really resilient, and we are ready for any type of economy,” he said. Sampath called it “a little premature” to discuss tariffs on smartphones. “We'll have to wait and see" what the real tariff is.