SpaceX's pending direct-to-device service will employ terrestrial spectrum (see 2405140059).

The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Jan. 5 cert petition of Consumers’ Research challenging the FCC's method for determining the USF quarterly contribution factor (see 2401100044), a docket entry Monday said (docket 23-743). The petition asked SCOTUS to review a Dec. 14 decision of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Q4 2022 contribution factor (see 2312140058).

Financier BIU, which unsuccessfully petitioned the FCC to reinstate a Spectrum Five complaint against Intelsat, is appealing the agency's dismissal of that petition. The full commission's April dismissal of a petition seeking reinstatement of the SF complaint (see 2404110053) was fraudulent because it was done at the instruction of someone who had no right, power or authority to do so, BIU said Friday in a petition for review (docket 24-1189) at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit complaint seeks reinstatement of SF's petition that the FCC act against Intelsat for allegedly interfering with SF's spectrum license. "The unauthorized withdrawal of the [SF] Petition amounts to a fraud on the Commission itself," BIU said. The SF petition was withdrawn at the instigation of SF CEO David Wilson, who lacked authority to do so, BIU argued. Wilson didn't comment Monday.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit granted the FCC’s motion to dismiss the petition of Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net that challenged the authority of the agency and the Universal Service Administrative Co. to withhold reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that the two companies provided to schools under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2404250028). Circuit Judges Robert Wilkins, Michelle Childs and Florence Pan issued a per curiam order Friday (docket 24-1027). The petitioners didn’t challenge the FCC's “final reviewable order,” the order said. The D.C. Circuit also denied the petitioners’ request for mandamus relief to order USAC to release the reimbursements, said the order. USAC’s investigations of the two petitioners and their eligibility to receive universal service fund reimbursements are complete, the FCC told the D.C. Circuit last week (see 2406050001). USAC’s delay in completing the investigations wasn’t so egregious as to warrant mandamus, the order said. The petitioners haven’t otherwise demonstrated a “clear and indisputable right to mandamus relief,” it added.

The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee will meet virtually June 26, starting at 11 a.m. EDT, the FCC said Thursday. CAC last met in April (see [Ref:2404040040).

The Universal Service Administrative Co.'s investigations of Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net and their eligibility to receive universal service fund reimbursements are "now complete," FCC counsel James Carr wrote the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday (docket 24-1027). USAC has begun to notify the companies and the schools they serve “of any downward adjustments in universal service funding stemming from USAC’s findings in the investigations,” said Carr. USAC expects to complete this notification process within the next month, he said. The two companies petitioned the D.C. Circuit in February to order USAC to release the reimbursements they said they were due for IT and broadband services that they provided to schools under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2402200044). The FCC said in late April that USAC’s investigations stemmed from evidence that the companies and the schools they served “may have had a prohibited pre-existing relationship” before the schools awarded the companies their business (see 2404250028). Carr’s letter to the D.C. Circuit didn’t delve into USAC’s findings from those investigations.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr on Tuesday urged the FCC to address allowing jamming to fight contraband cellphones in correctional facilities. “In prisons and jails throughout the country, contraband cell phones are being used to plan and orchestrate violent attacks and other criminal activity, posing a real and substantial safety risk to correctional officers, visitors, inmates, and the public at large,” Carr said. Jamming is “the easiest way to protect the public” from the dangers of contraband cellphone use, Carr added. The wireless industry has embraced managed access systems as the most effective tool for curbing contraband cellphones in prisons (see 2109140049).

The FCC's World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee has a particularly heavy load of 16 space-related agenda items on its plate in advance of WRC-27, Co-Chairwoman Kimberly Baum said Monday at WRC's first meeting. The meeting was largely housekeeping, including discussions of the informal working group structure and logistics of WAC and IWG meetings, as well as issues such as meeting procedures and records keeping. NTIA has a preparatory process through the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC), FCC Office of International Affairs lawyer Greg Baker said. Proposals that are reconciled between the FCC and NTIA are forwarded to State, he said. Charles Glass, NTIA international spectrum policy division chief, said IRAC has two groups dealing with WRC issues: one an ad hoc committee working on recommendations to send to the FCC regarding implementation of WRC-23 outcomes, and another dealing with preliminary proposals for WRC-27. Glass said there is one preliminary view that will go before IRAC this week for approval, with several more considered during IRAC's meeting next month. Baum said WAC's aim is to have preliminary views and even preliminary proposals prepared before September's Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting.

All 56 U.S. states, territories and the District of Columbia have had their broadband equity, access and deployment volume 1 plans approved, according to NTIA's BEAD initial proposal dashboard. Eight states have received volume 2 approval, letting them start their challenge processes.

The FCC will host a private celebration of the agency’s 90th anniversary Tuesday, an agency spokesperson confirmed. The event will involve staff and guests but is closed to the public and media, the spokesperson said. The agency was formed June 19, 1934.