Gogo took a “devastating” Q2 hit from the COVID-19 pandemic's obliteration of commercial airline passenger traffic, said CEO Oakleigh Thorne on a Monday investor call. “It certainly was an extraordinary quarter, but for all the wrong reasons,” he said. “If you sell internet on an airplane and no one’s on the plane, it’s tough to make a living.”
The broadcast TV industry expects improvement in Q3, but it's still (see 2008050063) too uncertain to promise specifics, said executives from Gray Television, Univision, E.W. Scripps and Tegna. “The situation is still fluid and visibility is limited,” said Gray Chief Financial Officer Jim Ryan. “The impact of the pandemic remains uncertain,” said Tegna CFO Victoria Harker. "Scripps has suspended issuing new guidance because of the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said the company.
The potential departure of FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly may affect work to allocate part of the 3.1-3.55 GHz band for 5G, lawyers and commission officials told us. President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday DOD agreed to hand off a 100 MHz portion of the 3450-3550 MHz band for commercial shared use (see 2008100038). FCC work on the band isn’t as far along as some other frequencies and NTIA is raising concerns (see 2007070062).
Dish Network is making “very steady progress” on its 5G network buildout, and its commitment to open radio access network (O-RAN) “architecture” (see 2002190048) is “the most important thing” about the deployment, said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q2 call Friday: “We’re the only company in the United States that we know of that’s doing that from a clean sheet of paper.”
The satellite industry expects at least some changes to the FCC International Bureau earth station siting guidance that's the subject of a reconsideration petition, given the seeming unintended consequences of it, we're told. Since it's about staff guidance and not an order, the outcome isn't exactly clear. The Satellite Industry Association had petitioned for changes.
The U.S. government shouldn’t force a TikTok sale to any particular company, but the Chinese app’s data practices are an unacceptable security threat, Senate Republicans told us last week. The company is defending itself through lobbying, interviews and other public actions.
Responding to a spate of reported 911 dispatching issues, a Washington, D.C., auditor might conduct a long-awaited probe of the Office of Unified Communications next year. Alleged OUC incidents -- including sending first responders to the wrong address or multiple responders to the same place -- could show a systemic problem, said a neighborhood commissioner and firefighter union president in interviews last week.
Rules for the 70/80/90 GHz bands should be optimized for wireless backhaul and compatible applications, said T-Mobile and other carriers in comments posted Thursday in docket 20-133, in response to a June NPRM (see 2008050058). Others sought broader use.
The FCC approved rules for a C-band auction starting Dec. 8 as circulated, with the general approval of all five commissioners (see 2007280063). Jessica Rosenworcel partially dissented because of concerns about the approach on the C band approved 3-2 in February (see 2002280044). Geoffrey Starks also partially dissented, saying his earlier concerns remain. Chairman Ajit Pai announced the agency plans the next mid-band auction, of 2.5 GHz spectrum, in the first half of next year (see 2008060017).
The FCC approved eliminating rules restricting same-market, commonly owned radio stations from airing duplicate programming, 3-2 Thursday. It eliminated restrictions for both bands, as expected (see 2008040063). The draft applied only to AM.