The FCC barred Q Link Wireless from participating in the agency's Lifeline or any other USF program, according to a letter posted in Friday’s Daily Digest. In July, Q Link Wireless CEO Issa Asad was sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud tied to the Lifeline program (see 2507280019). Asad and the company also pleaded guilty to money laundering through the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program.
Hikvision USA has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review an FCC order seeking to close potential loopholes in the agency's equipment authorization process (see 2510280024). The company criticized the order after it was approved in October.
NCTA representatives spoke with FCC staff to urge the agency to impose a uniform 180-day handset-unlocking mandate on all carriers, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-186. “In addition to increasing consumer choice and reducing consumer confusion,” an unlocking mandate would “promote affordability” by “reducing the artificial friction imposed on consumers seeking to switch to more competitive providers.”
The FCC moved quickly this week to seek comment on an NPRM about rules for an upper C-band auction, approved by commissioners 3-0 on Nov. 20. The NPRM includes questions on making spectrum available to tribes. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has acknowledged that the agency is under the gun to move forward on what would be the first major spectrum auction since the 3.45 GHz auction, which ended in 2022 (see 2511200046). Comments are due Jan. 5, replies Feb. 3, in docket 25-59, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register.
Tom Sawanobori, CTIA's senior vice president and chief technology officer, will retire in February after more than a decade at the association, the association announced Thursday. “Sawanobori played a key role in enabling the wireless industry’s deployment of 5G networks, including spectrum and siting initiatives,” CTIA said. He previously spent more than two decades at Verizon, where he was involved with the initial rollout of 2G networks through the 4G LTE era across Verizon's footprint, the group said.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce representative urged the FCC to move quickly to streamline siting in a meeting with aides to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty, according to a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-133. Chamber members “have expressed concerns with obtaining federal decisions in a variety of contexts in the communications sector including siting” and “spectrum licensing decisions for space activities,” the filing said.
The FCC on Wednesday rejected a request by Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless, Easy Wireless and i-wireless asking the agency to grant the companies' applications for review on upward revisions for reimbursement of services provided in the last month of the Lifeline COVID-19 waiver period (see 2504030027). In June, Chairman Brendan Carr circulated an order denying the carriers’ requests (see 2506270060). The order was approved 3-0 by commissioners.
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday approved AT&T’s proposed purchase of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from the former UScellular for $1 billion. The approval came after AT&T agreed to end any trace of diversity, equity and inclusion in its hiring and other practices and made concessions to NATE (see 2512020061). The FCC has also quickly moved on proposed transactions from Verizon and T-Mobile after they offered similar concessions. In each case, approval has been through staff orders rather than commissioner action.
AST SpaceMobile's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) partnership with Verizon and AT&T will use the 800 MHz cellular frequencies of those wireless carriers only within the carriers' cellular geographic service areas and adjacent unserved areas, according to Verizon. In a docket 25-201 filing posted Monday, Verizon said the SCS service wouldn't use another carrier's licensed spectrum, as the Competitive Carriers Association has argued (see 2511190020). AST's satellite system will protect in-band and adjacent licensees from harmful interference, and AST operations will be secondary to any nearby wireless operations, Verizon added.
NCTA opposed a waiver request from Brownsville, Texas, asking to operate a city network that uses the citizens broadband radio service band at +60 dBm effective isotropic radiated power, which is higher than the +47 dBm allowed by FCC rules (see 2511250015). The group is concerned that approving the waiver “would increase the risk of interference with other CBRS operations, undermining the carefully calibrated framework that is vital to the band’s success,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-258.