These are a few topics I found interesting, but which don’t support a full blog.

NTIA BEAD Work to Continue During the Shutdown. We found out that the BEAD and other programs at NTIA were not subject to the government shutdown. NTIA is continuing work on BEAD, the Middle Mile program, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity program, the Broadband Infrastructure Program, and the Connecting Minority Communities program. Overall, NTIA was able to keep 463 of its 600 employees, largely because their work isn’t tied to annual appropriations.

My irony meter instantly went into full swing because NTIA is able to use the same funds allocated to BEAD to keep the federal side of the BEAD program open while the agency is actively working to claw back as much of that same funding as possible from State broadband grants and non-deployment funds.

Rights-of-way Not Permanent? The Georgia Supreme Court rules that local governments can withdraw contracts that granted rights-of-way, by relying on an argument that no contract can last forever, with no end date. This is bad news for telcos, cable companies, electric companies, wireless companies, and the many businesses that rely on maintaining rights-of-way to support long-term infrastructure. This might not mean much beyond the specific case that drew this ruling, but it opens up the possibility of local governments requiring periodic payments to maintain rights-of-way – something that infrastructure owners will be compelled to pay once infrastructure is using the rights-of-way.

Verizon to Buy Starry. Verizon purchased the fixed wireless company Starry, which is an interesting addition to the company’s expansion of wireless broadband. Starry has developed a unique wireless technology that it uses to bring broadband to large MDUs. Starry currently has over 100,000 customers in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, and Washington, D.C./Virginia.

Starry uses millimeter wave spectrum to reach customers. This fits in well with Verizon’s portfolio of millimeter wave spectrum that it had hoped to use for 5G. That use quickly died when it showed that the spectrum fizzled at street level when connecting to cellphones. Remember all of the Verizon commercials with a cellphone showing gigabit speeds?

FCC to Fast-Track Satellite Expansion. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced a push to fast-track satellite applications for expansions or changes to constellations. The process currently requires years of study by the FCC to consider any request from a satellite company. Carr described his planned changes as moving from a ‘Default to No’ process to a ‘Default to Yes’ framework”. He ways this will make the assumption that satellite technologies are in the public interest and should be treated in the same way that the FCC treats other technologies. This might be viewed as a pro-Starlink change, but there are dozens of companies asking for permission to launch satellites.

SpaceX has Chinese Investors. During a lawsuit, it was discovered that SpaceX has Chinese investors, a fact that has never been made public. This instantly raised a lot of questions since SpaceX is becoming increasingly important as a U.S. military contractor.

The extent of the Chinese investments, and the type of Chinese investor, was not disclosed, but it seems certain that this is going to be investigated. SpaceX has always kept its full ownership private, and that will likely have to change if it to wants to keep the role of defense contractor.