EchoStar subsidiary Dish Wireless will pay a $17.3 million fine to settle fraud allegations about signing up ineligible applicants for the FCC's emergency broadband benefits program and successor affordable connectivity program, DOJ said Wednesday. In a statement U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro called Dish "shameful."
The FCC Wireline Bureau issued waivers of some agency rules to assist telcos in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands affected by Typhoon Sinlaku. The Wireline Bureau approved a temporary waiver of the number aging rule, which requires providers to wait up to 90 days before reassigning disconnected telephone numbers. The waiver, which will give companies more freedom to reassign disconnected numbers, applies to all companies that provide service in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands and expires Jan. 18. It will also apply to other areas declared states of emergency by the White House due to “hurricanes, typhoons, tropical storms, tropical cyclones, and wildfires” in 2026.
The House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment Tuesday night to the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2027 funding bill that would block the FCC from using its allocation to implement NextNav’s proposal to reallocate the 902-928 MHz band to enable a “terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (see 2404160043). As of Wednesday afternoon, House Appropriations members were still debating the Financial Services FY27 bill, which would give the FCC almost $390.2 million for FY27, including $13.5 million for the Office of Inspector General (see 2604170075).
IRVING, Texas -- While major fiber and cable makers say there will be plenty of supply available for BEAD (see 2603190029), broadband executives speaking Wednesday at the Connected America 2026 conference here were notably more pessimistic. Materials and contractor costs are on the rise, and broadband providers that haven't already been locking down contractors and material for BEAD are behind, Utopia CEO Roger Timmerman said. "There's a shortage out there and a lot of projects coming."
Securities fraud litigation over Charter Communications' subscriber losses due to the end of the affordable connectivity program (ACP) ignores "repeated, clear warnings" that the company and its executives made about long-term ACP effects, Charter told a federal court Tuesday. The suit alleges that Charter CEO Chris Winfrey and CFO Jessica Fischer deliberately misled investors about the impact of the program ending.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a top proponent of the Telecom Act of 1996 when he was in the House, said Thursday that people should view the USF as still “unfinished.” Markey spoke at a conference hosted by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society about the 30th anniversary of the law. Other speakers said the legislation was approved because Democrats and Republicans were able to work together in a way that rarely happens today.
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., told us last week that she and fellow members of the congressional USF working group are “getting enough information” from stakeholders that “pretty soon we might be able to put pen to paper” on potential recommendations for a legislative revamp of the connectivity programs. The working group relaunched in June 2025 (see 2506120091), shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Consumers’ Research v. FCC that USF’s funding mechanism is constitutional.
A New Mexico House committee passed a bill Tuesday aimed at creating a state version of the now-dead federal affordable connectivity program (ACP). The state Senate adopted SB-152 last week 38-0.
The FCC's controversial NPRM on Lifeline rules appears likely to be approved 2-1 Wednesday, with a dissent by Commissioner Anna Gomez and only limited changes, said industry officials engaged in the proceeding. Groups seeking changes to the rules said they remain hopeful that commissioners will tweak the NPRM to address their concerns.
With shovels about to go into the ground for BEAD, focus must shift to performance testing, broadband policy experts said Tuesday at NARUC's Winter Policy Summit in Washington. There’s a critical need for accountability to show that the service being paid for is actually operating within the parameters that ISPs promised, said NTCA Executive Vice President Mike Romano. Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, added that previous federal deployment programs “have done a horrible job” at performance testing and ensuring accountability.