The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals transferred a coalition of states' challenge of the FCC's incarcerated people's communications services order to the 1st Circuit, said an order Thursday (docket 24-2983). The 14 states challenging the order opposed the transfer (see 2410020039).

The FCC Precision Ag Task Force will meet in a virtual session Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. EST, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. It will vote on its final report and recommendations to the commission.

To avoid possible overbuilding, NTIA should require states to have an expedited process to verify that eligible locations aren’t served before making final awards in the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. NRECA CEO Jim Matheson sent a letter Thursday to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. The association’s proposed true-up process would “allow existing ISPs to conclusively demonstrate that they provide adequate service at locations that otherwise could be awarded funding,” Matheson said. “To counter any gamesmanship in this process,” NTIA should allow this only for fiber deployments. “In the time since eligible locations were determined and the state map challenge processes occurred, many rural ISPs have continued to construct fiber broadband networks and connect new customers,” said Matheson: Those ISPs include NRECA members. “There are significant discrepancies between the FCC’s December 2023 map data, subsequent state challenges and rural networks either built since then or currently under construction,” he said. “As a result, BEAD funding could be awarded to overbuild locations where reliable internet service has since been, or soon will be, deployed.”

After years of patent infringement fights, VoIP-Pal is shifting to a legal focus on antitrust complaints, CEO Emil Malak wrote Tuesday. Patent litigation is "a lengthy and uncertain process," while antitrust "offers a more streamlined and direct approach." The company last week dropped a complaint filed in August against AT&T and Verizon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (docket 1:24-cv-02395) and on the same day filed with the same court a complaint against AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom. In that complaint (docket 1:2024-cv-03051), VoIP-Pal said the defendants use their marketplace dominance to hurt competition. In addition, it said they violated Section 251 of the Telecommunications Act by deliberately withholding unbundled Voice over Wi-Fi calling and texting from consumers. Moreover, the carriers "maintained an unfair monopoly" by using VoIP-Pal routing classification technology without authorization.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) backed the FCC's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari regarding the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling on the Universal Service Fund contribution mechanism. SIIA said in an amicus brief Wednesday (No. 24-354) that it's "incumbent upon the Court to tread lightly, and to fully account for the consequences, before disrupting that massively important (and enormously beneficial) status quo" (see 2410180007). The group cited the USF-funded E-rate program's importance, saying a "downstream consequence" of affirming or declining to review the decision would include a "sharp reduction in funding" and "exacerbate the very inequities that the Universal Service Fund in general ... was meant to redress."

The Bulk Broadband Alliance last week urged the FCC to abandon a proposal regulating bulk broadband billing arrangements in multi-dwelling units (MDU). The group cited a July letter from the American Economic Liberties Project asking that the commission let residents opt out of bulk billing agreements between properties and ISPs (see 2408010064). However, the alliance said Friday in docket 17-142 that bulk billing brings "increased competition, reduced provider costs, and enhanced consumer bargaining power." Moreover, an opt-out requirement would bring higher prices because providers "would no longer submit the low bids they currently offer when competing for these contracts," the alliance said, adding that implementing the requirement would have "difficult administrative challenges." It also said the FCC lacked statutory authority to regulate bulk billing arrangements.

Fixed satellite service earth station licensees qualified for protection from citizens broadband radio service have until Dec. 2 to renew their licenses so that their registration is valid in 2025, according to an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Friday. Incomplete registrations as of Jan. 1 may be deactivated or deleted, and the earth station site won't merit protection by spectrum access system administrators, it said.

T-Mobile’s Q3 2024 was the company’s “best Q3 in a decade,” said CEO Mike Sievert on an earnings call Wednesday. The company recorded the highest number of new postpaid phone subscribers for Q3 in 10 years, and also showed the lowest Q3 postpaid phone churn in T-Mobile’s history, executives said on the call. The company reported $16.7 billion in total service revenue in Q3, a 5% increase over the same quarter in 2023. CFO Peter Osvaldik said the carrier expects a “trough” in 2025 from the loss of the affordable connectivity program and Tracfone's transition to Verizon. However, he also said Q4 sales will likely top Q3's due to “holiday seasonality.” Asked about T-Mobile’s plans for supplemental coverage from space, Sievert said the company tested the service through a grant of special temporary authority during the recent hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina. The tech will be “off to the races soon,” Sievert said. Executives said the company had “optionality” for its 800 MHz spectrum. T-Mobile sought to auction off that spectrum earlier this year but didn’t receive qualifying bids. The spectrum isn’t currently part of its financial predictions or spectrum plan, Sievert said. DOJ gave T-Mobile’s proposed purchases of Lumos and Metronet the nod, but it awaits FCC approval, said General Counsel Mark Nelson. T-Mobile’s purchase of U.S. Cellular isn’t as far along, but Nelson said all three deals are expected to close in 2025.

More than a dozen states told the U.S. Supreme Court that they were "right to be worried" about the FCC's Universal Service Fund's contribution mechanism in an amicus curiae filed Wednesday (No. 24-254). The states -- West Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia -- agreed with the en banc 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' decision that the fund’s "problematic blend of standardless decision-making and missing executive oversight violates Article I of the Constitution" (see 2410010024). The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, NTCA, USTelecom, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, National Digital Inclusion Alliance and MediaJustice also wrote SCOTUS in a separate letter maintaining their interest in the outcome of the case as intervenors. The groups said they have interests that are "distinct from those of the government."

Glendon Capital Management, which has close to a 10% stake in Frontier Communications, said Wednesday it's opposed to Verizon's $20 billion takeover offer of Frontier announced last month (see 2409050010). "We recognize the strategic merits of combining with a U.S. wireless carrier as the telecommunications industry continues to converge, but we believe a sale at this price does not adequately capture Frontier’s progress and momentum," Glendon said in a letter to Verizon's board.