The FCC will create grounds for a legal challenge based on the Administrative Procedure Act if Chairman Ajit Pai circulates an order approving the T-Mobile/Sprint/Dish Network deal without seeking additional comment, Rural Wireless Association Counsel Carri Bennet told us. RWA and NTCA formally asked the FCC to seek comment on T-Mobile's DOJ-supported buy of Sprint and the sale of assets to Dish (see 1908050061). FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also sought another pleading cycle (see 1907260071). Bennet said the transaction itself isn’t subject to the APA, but the Dish license transfers and extensions that are part of the larger deal are. The companies and the FCC declined to comment.

Multiple stakeholders are asking the FCC not to phase down Lifeline support for voice services under its USF program. The requests came in comments that were due Wednesday and posted through Thursday. They were in response to a joint petition by CTIA and others and a July 1 public notice in docket 11-42 (see 1907010055).

A new Comcast parental control feature announced Tuesday automatically pauses network connectivity in the home to all of a child’s devices once that child's daily time limit is reached. The feature, accessible from the main xFi page, lets parents set a specific amount of time their children can be online each day; separate limits can be set for weekdays and weekends, it said. Comcast cited a Common Sense Media study saying 68 percent of parents feel their teenagers spend too much time using mobile devices.

A new Comcast parental control feature announced Tuesday automatically pauses network connectivity in the home to all of a child’s devices once that child's daily time limit is reached. The feature, accessible from the main xFi page, lets parents set a specific amount of time their children can be online each day; separate limits can be set for weekdays and weekends, it said. Comcast cited a Common Sense Media study saying 68 percent of parents feel their teenagers spend too much time using mobile devices.

A new Comcast parental control feature announced Tuesday automatically pauses network connectivity in the home to all of a child’s devices once that child's daily time limit is reached. The feature, accessible from the main xFi page, lets parents set a specific amount of time their children can be online each day; separate limits can be set for weekdays and weekends, it said. Comcast cited a Common Sense Media study saying 68 percent of parents feel their teenagers spend too much time using mobile devices.

With NARUC's membership OK'ing a resolution the FCC temporarily halt changes to Lifeline Wednesday at their meeting in Indianapolis, the National Lifeline Association backed the request. The resolution the bipartisan NARUC Telecom Committee OK'd Tuesday (see 1907230040) "underscores the need to implement robust API connectivity and state database access prior to hard launching the National Verifier" that will check whether people are eligible for the government subsidized services for the poor, emailed NaLA counsel John Heitmann. The resolution asks the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. to delay requiring more states use the NV until an application program interface is available or Dec. 31, whichever occurs later. "Fix it first is the right strategy," Heitman said Tuesday. "As industry and the public interest community have joined together to recognize, it is time to pause and study minimum service standard changes that would effectively impose substantial price hikes on low-income consumers for mobile broadband while denying them the choice of affordable voice services. Adding the states‘ support to the pending request for FCC relief rounds out the broad-based coalition seeking FCC action." The agency declined to comment and USAC hasn't commented.

Silicon Labs Q2 revenue rose 10 percent to $206.7 million despite “macro headwinds” affecting the semiconductor industry, while IoT grew to 60 percent of the revenue mix, said management on a Wednesday earnings call.

Silicon Labs Q2 revenue rose 10 percent to $206.7 million despite “macro headwinds” affecting the semiconductor industry, while IoT grew to 60 percent of the revenue mix, said management on a Wednesday earnings call.

ARRL told the FCC it has been unable to reach agreement in a proceeding that proposes to remove limitations on the symbol, or baud, rate, applicable to data emissions in some amateur bands. In March, the amateur radio operator group asked to pause the proceeding (see 1903280059). “When this process began, we expressed our intention to reach a common understanding of issues and to agree on their resolution insofar as possible.” ARRL said in a final report posted Monday in RM-11831. “At the beginning of our meetings there emerged consensus on the issues to be discussed,” the group said: “By the end, the parties had reached consensus on some of the issues, but not all. Despite our best efforts, some of the parties did not agree to submit to the Commission any of the recommendations on which there had been an apparent consensus, having negotiated with an ‘all or nothing’ approach.” More than 600, mostly amateur, radio operators, filed in the proceeding.

The FCC should defer acting on Hemisphere Media's petition for a declaratory ruling on foreign ownership (see 1907100056), said DOJ, DOD and the Department of Homeland Security in a letter posted Friday in docket 19-194. "The Agencies currently are reviewing this matter for any national security, law enforcement, and public safety issues, but have not yet completed that effort." The agencies "will advise the Commission promptly upon completion of our review," the letter said. Miami-based cable network and broadcaster Hemisphere sought permission to be up to 100 percent foreign owned. It operates under a declaratory ruling allowing foreign investors to own up to 49.99 percent in the aggregate of both its equity and voting interests.