Representatives of cable and broadband provider Optimum Communications met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week about ways the upper C band, set for auction next year, is different from the lower C band. In a filing Friday in docket 25-59, Optimum noted its “heavy reliance” on C-band spectrum. The transition will be “fundamentally different” because of the “nature of the work needed to install new Ku-band facilities and the higher reimbursement costs of doing so compared to updating existing C-band facilities,” it said.
A submarine cable trade group called the FCC’s proposed FY 2026 regulatory fees discriminatory, while satellite companies pushed for a new fee category and NAB sought a reduction for earth stations, according to comments filed in docket 26-94 by Thursday’s deadline. “The changes to the fees of submarine cable operators proposed in the FY 2026 NPRM are arbitrary and unjustified, and should be rejected,” said the Submarine Cable Coalition.
Industry groups told the FCC last week that it doesn’t have the authority it asserts to require companies to move offshore call centers back to the U.S. Commissioners unanimously approved an NPRM on the issue in March (see 2603260046), and comments are already coming in, though they’re not due until Tuesday after the agency extended the deadline.
EchoStar aims to sell its remaining terrestrial wireless licenses within 16 months, it told the FCC in a waiver request posted Friday, as it also asked the agency to extend or drop those licenses' buildout deadlines and waive the discontinuance rule. If the waivers are granted, the company will sell its 700 MHz, paired AWS-3, citizens broadband radio service (CBRS), C-band, multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS), and millimeter-wave (mmWave) licenses by Sept. 1, 2028, it said in its request (docket 22-212). If those sales don't happen, EchoStar said it will conduct a private auction of the licenses by March 1, 2029.
Lifeline advocates slammed a DOJ advisory opinion released Friday, which instructs the FCC that benefits received through the program are subject to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, and recipients need to provide more than just their Social Security number to be eligible. The opinion stressed the importance of not providing any funding to immigrants who haven't been in the U.S. for at least five years and don't have "qualified" status.
NCTA and Verizon may not always agree, but both urged the FCC to get aggressive on accelerating the IP transition and moving remaining carriers from an intercarrier compensation (ICC) regime to a bill-and-keep framework. Nearly 100 groups and companies responded to the February NPRM in initial comments, which were due this week and included opposition from NARUC and others (see 2605270032)
The Environmental Health Trust (EHT), Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and three individual plaintiffs last week filed for a writ of mandamus from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking it to order the FCC and the Food and Drug Administration to comply with the court’s 2021 remand of the commission's 2019 RF safety rules (see 2108130073). The groups want the FCC to update its 1996 limits for RF exposure.
CTIA representatives met with FCC staff members last week to urge the commission to make available as much upper C-band spectrum as possible for next year’s auction. The group also updated its stance on required protections for radio altimeters, sometimes a bone of contention with the airline industry (see 2605080024).
NARUC told the FCC that the agency doesn’t have some of the authorities it claims in a February NPRM on speeding up the IP transition and moving remaining carriers from an intercarrier compensation regime to a bill-and-keep framework (see 2602180046). Also in comments due Tuesday (docket 25-311), NTCA said the proposals would be terrible for some rural local exchange carriers (RLECs).
The FCC appears likely to move forward on a rulemaking to look further at Qualcomm’s sidelink technology in the U-NII-2B band (5350-5470 MHz), but the agency also may be tempted to explore uses beyond the Qualcomm proposal, industry observers said Wednesday. Qualcomm told the FCC in reply comments, which were due Friday in docket 19-116, that the record reflects “overwhelming support for sidelink from leading public safety organizations.” Other groups raised concerns in the initial comment round (see 2605080014).