Federal Communications Commission

The House Oversight Committee recently decided to investigate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision in 2022 to deny Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to Starlink. The timing of this announcement clearly has political overtones since it was announced as Elon Musk took the stage at a campaign event with one of the presidential candidates. RDOF was awarded using a reverse auction, where the provider willing to take the lowest amount of subsidy winning the funding.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau establishes a uniform completion deadline of Dec. 31, 2025, for all participants in the Connected Care Pilot Program, and waives the previous completion deadline of three years from each project's start date.

Analysts expect the U.S.

In this Order, the Federal Communications Commission adopts the final eligible services list for funding year 2025 for the schools and libraries universal service support program (more commonly referred to as the E-Rate program). The FCC also releases the final eligible services list for funding year 2025 and authorize the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to open the annual FCC Form 471 application filing window no earlier than 60 days after the release of this Order.

The Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission has entered into a Consent Decree to resolve its investigations into whether AT&T violated the FCC’s Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB) and Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) rules. To settle these matters, AT&T agrees to a total settlement value of $2,299,990 to fully resolve the FCC’s investigations, which includes (i) a civil penalty of $1,921,068, and (ii) repayment to the United States Treasury in the amount of $378,922.

Dealing with customer service should be easy. But all too often consumers of communications services cannot get help without navigating a complex maze of chatbots and other automated tools, experiencing delays that leave them exhausted and no closer to resolving their problem. Consumers can even be deterred from or delay switching services, which in turn harms the marketplace.

Elon Musk’s fast-growing satellite business Starlink could be poised to gain billions of dollars more in federal contracts and subsidies under a Donald Trump presidency, industry experts say, in a reflection of the world’s richest individual’s deepening financial stake in Washington politics. Trump has cast himself as a space patron, pledging to unleash funds for national-security installations in orbit and slash red tape for Musk.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules to bolster the Commission's coordinated nationwide approach to the 4.9 GHz spectrum band through a nationwide band manager framework. "To ensure that the 4.9 GHz band is put to more robust use nationwide in the near term—the 4.9 GHz Band Manager, once selected, will be eligible to apply for a nationwide overlay license and authorized to enter into a sharing agreement with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet).

AT&T and the FirstNet Authority are sitting pretty after the FCC voted 4-0 to hand over a chunk of the 4.9 GHz band for the operation of FirstNet’s nationwide public safety network. The 50 megahertz of spectrum in question is reportedly worth up to $14 billion. But their giddiness might not last too long if the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) has anything to do with it. CERCI is already threatening to challenge the FCC’s decision in court.

The end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) put the kibosh on the business plans of internet service providers (ISPs) working to tackle the urban digital divide. I’m aware of a several ISPs working to bring broadband to neighborhoods where the majority of customers qualified for the $30 ACP discount.