■ S&P Global: Vyve Broadband Parent MBI Could Tumble into ‘Restructuring’

■ MoffettNathanson: Wall Street Not Buying Charter’s Free Cash Flow Story

■ FCC Blocks Two Huawei-Connected Devices from U.S. Sale

■ Ed-Tech People ‘Pretty Shook Up’ after Roth Compares Them to Tobacco Firms

■ Swarztrauber: ‘Benefit of the Bargain’ BEAD Critics Made Faulty Predictions

■ CEO Scott Kirby: People Fly with United Because of Starlink Availability

■ A Few State AGs Express Concerns about Senate Permitting Bill

■ Shentel’s Chris French Named Non‑Executive Board Chairman, Effective Jan.1, 2027

■ Oklahoma Says Two ARPA-Funded Fiber Projects Completed

Ting: Google Fiber is set to take over Ting Fiber’s Colorado Springs dark‑fiber lease. In an SEC filing posted Oct. 22, Ting Fiber parent Tucows will transfer its rights and obligations to gFiber under a 2021 lease with Colorado Springs Utilities. The deal is scheduled to close March 31, 2027, with gFiber replacing Ting as tenant. “Our priority throughout this process is our Colorado Springs customers and Ting will continue to provide the same service and support through the transition,” Tucows CEO Dave Woroch said in a press release. “The move also aligns with Tucows’ ongoing strategic process for Ting.” Tucows’ press release did not mention gFiber’s role. (More after paywall)

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■ Comcast Drops 144,000 Broadband Customers in Third Quarter, More than Expected

■ Oaktree Capital Takes Control of Bankrupt RiverStreet Communications

■ FCC Approves GCI’s $310 Million Purchase of Quintillion, Citing Starlink Competition

■ Cable One’s Stock Plunge Could Trigger NYSE Delisting, Former Executive Fears

■ Hawley, Blumenthal Want Answers From Google on Driving AI in Schools

■ Delaware Adds Verizon BEAD Project to Faster-Permitting Program

■ New York Regulators Ask FCC to Pump Breaks on AT&T’s Copper Retirement Plan

■ Iron River Cable Co‑op Members Concerned about Their Charter Sale Payout

■ Shentel Hikes Annual Cash Dividend by 9.1%

■ Broadcast TV to Receive Nearly 50% of Local Political Ad Spending

■ Former FCC Engineer Justin D. Rison Joins Wiley As Senior Engineering Advisor

Polls: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued a warning to broadcasters about what he called a surge of “entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls” ahead of the Nov. 3 elections. In an Oct. 21 post on X, Carr said the polls are “designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm.” He said some journalists and broadcasters have aired such polls “without regard to basic journalistic ethics and without informing the public that those Polls lack a scientific, accurate, or even real basis.” (More after paywall)

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■ Starlink Ends Third Quarter with 13.6 Million Subscribers, Up 1.6 Million Globally

■ AT&T Adds 442,000 Fiber and 327,000 Fixed Wireless U.S. Subs in Third Quarter

■ FCC Takes Action against Convicted E-Rate Fraudster

■ Virginia Gov. Spanberger Demands Six-Year Electricity Rate Freeze from Merging Energy Firms

■ NAB Supports Retention of Content Protection During FEMA’s EAS Test on Nov. 17

■ Sinclair Fights FCC Adoption of a 5G Broadcast Standard Backed by Ergen’s LPTV Firm

■ House Democrat Accuses White House of Sabotaging Ukraine’s Starshield Access

■ Free State’s May Criticizes California for Impeding Network Modernization

■ Donald Graham Keeps Selling Cable One Shares, With Stake Now Below 5%

■ West Virginia Gov. Morrisey Declares 60‑day State of Emergency to Ease Diesel Fuel Prices

■ Arkansas Regulators Receive Award for Broadband Deployment Progress

■ United Communications Completes Acquisition of Loretto Telecom

■ Wolfgang Lewis Joins Mediacom as SVP and General Manager of Business Services

Debt: Highly leverage Optimum Communications is close to a debt restructuring deal that would hand control of the nation’s fifth‑largest wireline broadband provider to its lenders, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the talks. The proposed transaction would transfer equity to lenders including Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital Management, and JPMorgan Chase, and it would also settle litigation. The people said controlling shareholder Patrick Drahi has been negotiating how his stake would be treated in the restructured company, and that “the gap between what he was demanding and what creditors were willing to give him has shrunk recently.” They added that the treatment of preferred shareholders, including Drahi, remains central to reaching a mutual agreement, Bloomberg reported. (More after paywall)

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■ NSR Analyst: Cox Broadband Losses ‘Running Well Above Expectations’

■ UBS Analyst Sees Tower Companies Benefiting from Starlink Mobile

■ Pearl TV: Price of ATSC 3.0 Converters Coming Down Ahead of Transition

■ Sen. Wicker Views Starlink As Essential to Ukraine’s Defense

■ Sen. Wyden: Hundreds of Federal Websites Remain Vulnerable To Surveillance

■ AT&T: Just 1% of Eligible Customers Use Legacy Copper Network

■ Amazon Exploring SMR Nuclear Power in Indiana Partnership

■ Conner Clyde Joins Mediacom as Group VP of Strategic Insights & Analytics

■ Hearst TV Hires Chris Plourde as VP of Strategy and Distribution

■ Departing CNN Star Amanpour Says: ‘Be Truthful, Not Neutral’

■ Technology Policy Institute Hits One-Year Pause on Annual Aspen Forum

BEAD: Michigan is taking another step toward expanding high‑speed Internet access as 23 ISP subgrantees have signed agreements under the federal BEAD program. State officials said on Oct.19 Michigan will invest $916 million in federal funds, with subgrantees contributing another $531 million in private matching funds. The combined investment is expected to connect nearly 200,000 homes, businesses and community anchor institutions to reliable broadband service as the state moves into the next phase of its BEAD rollout. Subgrantees announced included: Charter, Brightspeed, and Michigan Bell Telephone. “Thanks to the commitment of our BEAD subgrantees, who are investing their own funds alongside this effort, we’re … building a stronger, more connected Michigan,” Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Director Susan Corbin said. (More after paywall)

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■ Amazon Leo’s Next Launch: No Earlier Than Nov. 23, 2026

■ Frontier to Pay $625,000 to Settle Data Breach Case with Connecticut AG

■ Veteran Cable Investor Steve Weed and Partners Acquire EarthLink

■ Nexstar Backs FCC’s Repeal of 39% Cap over Various Objections

■ Secretary Rubio: White House Did Not Order Starlink Slowdown in Ukraine

■ KeyBanc Thinks Cable One Shares Could Bounce with New Debt Deal

■ Analyst Supports Pennsylvania Plan to Lease State-Owned Property to ISPs

■ FCC Orders U.S. Carriers to Block All Traffic from Mexico IP Phone over Robocalls

■ Cal Advocates Back New Mobile Service Standards, Including ‘A Live Representative’

■ Democratic Senator from Loudoun County, Virginia, Pushes Three-Year Statewide Ban on New Data Centers

Budget: Nevada has pulled back a major slice of its rural broadband funding. State officials redirected $52 million in pandemic relief dollars after determining a contractor could not finish planned broadband connections in Pahrump before a year‑end federal deadline. All relief funds must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026, and the broadband money could not be used in time. The withdrawn funds represent more than a quarter of the $200 million originally set aside for Nevada’s rural broadband deployment and will now support mental health care in jails, food‑insecurity programs, and multifamily housing efforts, The Nevada Independent reported on Oct. 16. “This was a decision that was a challenging decision to make,” said Britta Appel, the director of the Governor’s Office of Science, Information and Technology (OSIT), the agency overseeing the broadband projects. “It was really based on the totality of the circumstances.” (More after paywall)

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■ Cable One, CoBank to Square Off in Federal Court on Oct. 22

■ Fifth Circuit: FCC’s Creation of USAC to Run USF Was Unlawful

■ Alberta’s BEAD Program: $1,000 Rebate for Unserved Joining Starlink

■ Strand Consult: Starlink’s Need to Replenish LEO Fleet a Liability

■ CCG Consulting: Starlink’s Community Program Could Crack Urban Market

■ Dozens of Dems to Carr: Shut Down FCC’s Review of E-Rate Program

■ Senators Want Pentagon Probe of Starlink Performance Issues in Ukraine

■ Top Lawyer Rick Kaplan Leaving NAB, Shawn Donilon Stepping In

■ Patent Infringement Verdict Could Cost Comcast $213 Million

CABO: For former Washington Post owner Donald E. Graham, hanging on to nearly all of his Cable One shares until the bitter end looks in financial terms to be “worse than Watergate.” Graham has absorbed more than $1 billion in losses on his Cable One holdings after retaining the stock through its dramatic collapse from a late 2020 peak, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing that details fresh sales at single‑digit prices. Graham disclosed this week that he sold 78,029 Cable One shares on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14 for a combined $885,300, with weighted average prices ranging from $9.00 to $13.02. The transactions were made through several trusts he helps oversee, according to the amended Schedule 13D filed with the SEC on Oct. 14. (More after paywall)

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■ Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan Has a Joe Russo Problem

■ Confident Sen. Markey Already Seeking Boston Interns in 2027

■ Musk Disputes Ukraine’s Claims about Starlink’s War Role

■ SpaceX to FCC: Do Not Use E-Rate Money to Overbuild Existing ISPs

■ Consumers’ Research: E-Rate Meant for Baseline Telecommunications Discounts

■ New Mexico Signs First BEAD Contract Worth $26.9 Million with Kit Carson Electric Cooperative

■ Alaska Communications Reaches Deal to Become Authorized Starlink Reseller

■ Netflix Is Laying Off about 6% of Its Employees or 1,000 Workers

■ Pine Bluff Cable TV Offering $10,000 Reward After Fiber Vandalism

■ NCTC Promotes Steve Beardslee, Rob Smith, Shelley Thompson and Stewart Myers to SVP

USF: Alaska is close to seeing a large influx of universal service cash. The FCC is preparing to vote on a plan from Chairman Brendan Carr that would make $162 million available to expand mobile broadband in hard‑to‑serve parts of Alaska. Carr made the announcement Tuesday on a visit to Alaska, joining President Trump at a campaign rally for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in Wasilla. “We have brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the state [and] thousands of people are newly connected. We have high-speed Internet going across the state, but the job’s not done. We are committed to working with Sen. Sullivan until we can finish the job of getting every single person in Alaska connected to high-speed Internet,” Carr said at the Wasilla rally, speaking in his personal capacity. (More after paywall)

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■ Sen. Cruz Blasts Consultants Paid Millions to Help Schools Navigate E-Rate Bureaucracy

■ Free State’s May Says E-Rate Can’t Remain on Autopilot without FCC Scrutiny

■ NAB Defends FCC Repeal of 39% Cap over Cable Groups’ Objections

■ Arkansas Cuts Its First BEAD Check to Brightspeed for $2.6 Million

■ Two Arrested for Aiding Russia’s Alleged Attack on Starlink Facility in Poland

■ Eric Trump Backs FCC Probe of ABC News over Removed Story about His Business Ties

■ TEGNA Stations Extend ABC Affiliation Contract with Disney

■ AT&T Agrees to Sell Its Wireless Company in Mexico for $2 Billion in Cash

■ Sen. Wicker Says Permitting Bill Ranks Near Top in Terms of Significance

■ Texas Comptroller Cuts Off State Funding to Flock to Protect Driver Privacy

Courts: Cable One is sharply escalating its fight with creditor CoBank, telling a federal judge that the lender’s attempt to block a $480 million payment is built on distortions and manufactured panic.

In an Oct.13 filing in the Southern District of New York, the company blasted CoBank’s claims about its financial condition. “Cable One disputes CoBank’s allegation of insolvency,” the company wrote, before delivering its most forceful rebuttal. “For all its bluster about Cable One’s purported insolvency or near‑insolvency, CoBank does not allege – nor could it – that Cable One has missed an interest or principal payment or will do so imminently. Should CoBank suffer actual harm, it is a secured creditor with numerous remedies available to it.” (More after paywall)

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■ CTIA Study: 5G Broadband Drives Down Cable Internet Prices by 17%

■ Charter COO Nick Jeffery Announces Departure of Two Senior Executives

■ San Diego Master Plan: One-Third of Low-Income Households Go without Home Broadband

■ Rep. Morgan Griffith: Starlink Proved Its Value during Hurricane Helene in 2024

■ Public Interest Groups Demand FCC Pause 39% Cap Repeal While Court Fight Plays Out

■ Cedar Falls Utilities Ends Cable TV Service by Underscoring YouTube TV Allows Viewing Outside the Home

■ Washington Post Editorial Slams Carr but Omits Key Details in Hit Piece

■ LPTV Group Urges FCC to Authorize 5G Broadcast as a Companion Standard

■ Silicondust Asks TV Stations to Disable DRM a Week before Nov. 17 EAS Test

■ Many Illinois Farms Lack Robust Broadband for Precision Ag, Survey Finds

■ Sens. Schmitt, Padilla Unveil Broadband Network Vandalism Bill

■ Sen. Bernie Moreno Asks FCC to Investigate ABC News over Removed Story about Trump Sons’ Business Moves

Deal: Cable One is insolvent, according to CoBank. Apparently in agreement, a federal judge on Oct. 9 blocked Cable One from moving forward with a $480 million payment to acquire the remaining 55% stake in Mega Broadband Investments, parent of Vyve Broadband, after creditor CoBank warned the deal would deepen the company’s financial distress. In the Southern District of New York, the court issued an emergency order halting the transfer. “Defendant is temporarily restrained and enjoined from executing the MBI Put Closing,” Judge J. Paul Oetken wrote, directing that Cable One’s counsel be served by email and deeming that service sufficient.

Cable One delayed issuing a public response until Oct. 12. [We] strongly believe CoBank’s claims are incorrect as a matter of law. Cable One intends to vigorously dispute these claims and protect its interests. However, [we make] no assurances regarding the timing or outcome of the pending proceedings,” Cable One said in a press release that did not quote either CEO Jim Holanda or a board member. (More after paywall)

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Today’s Headlines

■ Amazon Leo to Launch Service in 2026, Company Exec Says

■ Cable One Close to Receiving $1.25 Billion Lifeline from Lenders

■ Update: American Airlines to Add Starlink to Its Entire Mainline Fleet

■ NFL Points to ‘Objectionable Bets’ in Seeking State Regulation of Kalshi, Polymarket

■ NCTA CEO Concerned U.S. Might Forfeit Its Wi-Fi Leadership to China

■ D.C. Circuit Wants to Hear from FCC about MAD’s Fox 29 Petition

■ West Virginia Plans to Apply to Host the U.S. Space Academy

■ SHLB: Zeroing Out E-Rate Would Cost the Economy $4.2 Billion

■ Ryan Baasch Leaves Trump White House to Join Polymarket

■ Chris Rouser Hired to Take Italia Commisso’s HR Post at Mediacom

Space Mobile: Grain Management says it has a definitive agreement under which SpaceX will acquire all of Grain's 800 MHz spectrum portfolio involving 14MHz of paired nationwide spectrum. Elon Musk’s company is paying about $8 billion in cash for the airwaves, the Wall Street Journal said, citing “people familiar with the matter.” The agreement includes key low-band spectrum to support next-generation satellite direct-to-device services, enabling Starlink Mobile to reach customers from both the ground and space. In an X post, SpaceX said the Grain agreement with “will pave the way for Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the U.S.” In extended-hours trading, Wall Street traders dumped AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon shares by about 6% each on the Grain transaction news despite repeated claims by mobile incumbents that Starlink Mobile does not have a viable strategy financially or scientifically. “With this new spectrum and our Gen2 constellation, Starlink Mobile can ensure Americans have access to high-speed mobile broadband no matter where they are,” SpaceX said. Musk said on X, “This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America.” In another post, he said: “Very big deal.” (More after paywall)

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■ FCC to Auction 25 Megahertz for Direct-to-Device Service

■ Free State’s Andrew Long Calls for Broadband Funding Pause to Learn from BEAD Roll Out Data

■ NFL to Supreme Court: Let States Regulate Prediction Markets Like Kalshi

■ FCC Fines AirVoice Wireless Parent $10 million for Lifeline Fraud

■ Group Seeks Exemption from ‘Military‑Grade’ Classifying for Drone Light Show Equipment

■ As Planned, Cedar Falls Utilities Shutting Down Cable TV on Oct. 11

■ KeyBanc Says ‘Satellite Broadband’ (Meaning Starlink) Leads Industry in Customer Satisfaction

■ Sen. Cantwell Outlines Six‑Part Framework for Governing Artificial Intelligence

■ Breezeline Earns Opensignal USA Awards in Key Ohio Markets

■ Oklahoma Broadband Office Notes Completion of Broadband Projects by Indian Electric Cooperative

■ Turkey Planning 198-LEO Constellation to Rival Banned Starlink

BEAD: A new study warns that BEAD‑funded broadband construction will place heavy new demands on the nation’s 811 utility‑locate system. “BEAD projects will deploy 271,782 miles of buried fiber, 57.5% of all BEAD fiber miles,” analysts Alex Karras and Michael Santorelli of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute wrote in the report set for release on Oct. 8. They said the buried routes will generate about 1.4 million 811 tickets, triggering roughly 8.1 million facility‑locates, most of them for service drops. “With about 58% of the fiber to be deployed via BEAD needing to be buried, it will be critical for those excavating the ground to install fiber lines to be able to move swiftly and safely through the locates process,” the ACLP analysts said. (More after paywall)

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■ SpaceX Gains FCC Approval for 15,000 Starlink Mobile Satellites

■ Google, Constellation Energy in 20‑Year Nuclear power Deal

■ Texas Seeks FCC Approval to Verify Lifeline Participants

■ AT&T to Fold Newly Acquired Lumen Assets Into Gigapower

■ Silicondust Wants ATSC 3.0 DRM Disabled for Nov 17 EAS Test

■ Shentel Extends FTTH Service to 1,000 Locations in Rural Virginia

■ ABC, FCC Lawyers Battle in Court as Judge Asks for New Submissions

■ TPI President Scott Wallsten Release Study on Impact of Broadband Subsidies

■ New Mexico: 94% Will Have Broadband by the End of the Year

■ Rocco’s Sister, Italia Commisso Weinand, to Retire as Top Mediacom Official

■ GFiber Rolls with Alianza One as Cloud Communications Platform

NSR: Starlink’s impact on big cable broadband ISPs like Charter and Comcast remains limited, New Street Research said Tuesday, but analysts warned that could change as the satellite provider expands. “We haven’t seen much evidence of this so far, but it doesn’t mean it’s never coming,” NSR analysts David Barden, Vikash Harlalka and Ryan Smyth wrote based on a data-sharing arrangement with Recon Analytics. The NSR teams said Starlink now has about 4 million U.S. customers and could reach 12 million by 2030, noting that nearly half of its new subscribers come from small rural providers or households new to broadband. “On the flip side, close to 50% of Starlink’s disconnects went to cable,” they wrote. (More after paywall)

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■ State Cable Groups Move to Block FCC’s 39% Cap Repeal

■ Bernstein Analysts: Starlink Could Reach 150M Global Subs By 2031

■ MoffettNathanson: Broadband Pricing Moving Away from ‘Irrational’

■ ALLO Executive Says Fiber ISP Couldn’t Handle the Competition in Joplin, Missouri

■ Supreme Court Declines to Take Nexstar’s Antitrust Appeal against DIRECTV

■ CTIA: USAC Could Use More Input from Wireless Industry

■ FCC Shuts Down Digital Solutions for Illegal Robocalls

■ Sen. Roger Wicker: Data Centers Don’t Need to Squeeze Ratepayers to Work

■ USTelecom Backs Ziply Fiber’s Jessica Epley for USAC Seat

■ Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Joins Fox News Political Commentary Team

NFL: The National Association of Broadcasters’ top official warned the NFL against shifting more games to streaming platforms, saying the league risks a political backlash. “We need to ensure policymakers are educated about the harm when premier sporting events migrate from broadcast to streaming,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt told Barrett Media in an interview published Oct. 5. “I think the NFL is playing with fire by pushing more and more games off to Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube.” He said lawmakers are increasingly questioning the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, an antitrust exemption that allows NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to cut media deals for all 32 teams. “We are seeing study after study that shows the mounting consumer frustration with needing to buy a new subscription service just to follow your favorite team,” LeGeyt said. (More after paywall)

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■ Re: Cable One, Analyst Actually Floats the ‘B Word’ – Bankruptcy

■ Pennsylvania Announces $448 million in BEAD Grants Reaching 50 Counties

■ T-Mobile Raising Regulatory Recovery Fee as KeyBanc Analyst Considers It a PR Miscue

■ Starlink Unveils Neighborhood Sharing Beta to Connect Users by the Hour and Longer

■ Trump Says Jay Clayton Will Lead SI Task Force, With Quick Turnaround

■ YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV Post Lowest Churn among vMVPDs, S&P Global Says

■ DISH Ends Short‑Term Sling TV Passes After Beating Disney in Court

■ Portland, Ore., Residents Concerned about Dangers of ‘TikTok Door Knock Challenge’

■ Rep. Pfluger Introduces Subsea Cable Security Bill

■ Vero Fiber Completes Merger with MontanaSky

■ Turkey’s Broadband Users Favor Mobile by Wide Margin, Government Report Says

Fiber: Lumos just bought the fiber competition. In a surprise announcement, Lumos said it was acquiring ALLO Fiber’s network in Joplin, Missouri. ALLO got city approval for the $40 million build only in April 2024 in a deal that would reportedly connect 52,000 people and overbuild longstanding cable incumbent Cable One. Lumos entered the picture in July when it sought to reach its own fiber build agreement with local Joplin officials. “We’re proud of the network we built in Joplin and the customers we’ve served,” ALLO CEO Shane West said in a statement bereft of any explanation. “Lumos shares that commitment, and we’re confident they’ll continue to invest in the community.” ALLO’s network is still under construction. (More after paywall)

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■ AT&T, T‑Mobile, and Verizon Finalize Mobile ‘Dead Zone’ JV

■ Report: Starlink Mobile Revenue Soars to $25 Billion by 2031

■ Maryland’s New Law Targeting Copper Theft Takes Effect

■ WISPA Urging FCC To Tighten USAC Governance Rules

■ CAR President Daniel Suhr: AG Bonta Gets a Pass from Carr Critics on First Amendment

■ Trump Expected to Sign WEA Law Adding Satellite after Texas Flood Killed 135

■ BBC Wants Netflix-Type Button on TV Remotes as UK Legal Mandate

■ Adriana Rios Welton Joins Optimum as General Counsel

■ Rightfiber Completes Acquisition of Fastwyre Nebraska

USF: Consumers’ Research wants the FCC to shut down the $4.5 billion High Cost Fund, echoing a position also taken by Starlink parent SpaceX. In a Sept. 30 letter to the agency, CR Executive Director Will Hild said consumers are being taxed to support broadband networks that already exist. “Consumers’ Research therefore urges the FCC to discontinue High‑Cost spending on redundant infrastructure,” Hild wrote. “The FCC should not create a new long‑term High‑Cost mechanism that would lock in another decade of the same tax for duplicative networks. It should not extend legacy support to locations that unsubsidized providers already serve.” (More after paywall)

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■ Indiana Awards $400 million in BEAD funds to 24 ISPs

■ DISH Applauds FCC’s Decision in Must Carry Case

■ New FBA/Cartesian Study Warns about Permitting Delays

■ Senate Democrats Use Filibuster to Block Ratepayer Protection Act

■ Japan’s SoftBank Now Owns U.S. ISP WideOpenWest (WOW!)

■ NCTA Salutes New Senate Bill Criminalizing Network Vandalism

■ FTC Opens Safety Probe into AI’s Anthropic and OpenAI

■ Carr FCC Opens More Spectrum for Starlink, Amazon Leo

■ Sen. Blackburn: Unlike Verizon, AT&T Resisted Jack Smith’s Demands for Her Call Records

■ Carr Honors FCC Staff Members for Engineering and Economic Achievements

■ WOW! Names Christopher Sikora as Chief Commercial Officer

Disney: Disney’s challenge to the FCC’s early ABC license‑renewal order drew sharp criticism on Sept. 30 from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who said the company is pursuing its case in the wrong venue. Carr said Disney’s filing “doesn’t fit within the norms of the Communications Act” and ignores the statute’s required review path. He later mocked Disney’s approach at an agency press conference in Washington, D.C. “Look, when it comes to this particular Disney litigation, it’s very clear we’ve made the case in our pleadings that Disney has filed at the wrong time in the wrong court, making meritless arguments. But other than that, I think they’re doing pretty well in their litigation,” Carr said. (More after paywall)

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■ Is Cable One Going to Close on Mega Broadband Deal Today?

■ Professor Daniel Lyons: FCC Needs to Learn If E-Rate Harms Student Achievement

■ PE Giants Sue Billionaire Patrick Drahi over Optimum Debt

■ ITIF’s Joe Kane: Stop Underestimating Starlink, Especially after V3 Deployment

■ AT&T Signs $3 Billion Fiber Deal with Corning

■ Handful of Senators Presses NTIA on BEAD Non-Deployment Money

■ Verizon Responds to FCC’s Decision to Pause Copper Shutdown

■ Does Capito’s Energy Permitting Deal Include Broadband?

■ McDonald’s Has the Fastest Wi-Fi Among Major Fast-Food Chains: Ookla

■ Baldwin Punts on Challenge to NFL Deals with Streamers

■ People: Charles Phillips Elected to Verizon’s Board of Directors

Must Carry: The FCC ruled that a Georgia television station cannot claim satellite carriage rights throughout two media markets at once, setting aside a 2024 precedent established under Democratic FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. In a decision released Sept. 29, the three voting FCC Commissioners granted DISH Network’s appeal and reversed an earlier Media Bureau order involving WGBP‑TV. The station is licensed to Opelika, Ala., which is located inside the Columbus, Ga., Designated Market Area (DMA). The Nielsen Company later assigned WGBP to the Atlanta DMA following WGBP’s conversion to a distributed transmission system. The FCC said the law defines a station’s “local market” as a single Nielsen‑determined DMA plus the county where the station is licensed, which may be in a different DMA. “There is nothing in the statute that suggests that a station may demand carriage throughout more than one DMA simultaneously,” the order said. (More after paywall)

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■ UBS Analyst John Hodulik Expects Weak Q3 from Charter

■ Sen. Ben Ray Luján Wants Special AI Panel

■ Gray Media Expects to See a Bump in Q3 Political Ad Revenue

■ Sinclair Rebrands Lost ABC Affiliate in St. Louis

■ Ookla Targets Fiber ISPs Ripe for Acquisition

■ Bull Moose Project Calls on FCC to Deregulate Radio Ownership

■ New NVIDIA Platform Designed to ‘Container’ Rogue AI Agents

■ Verizon: Full SSNs for Lifeline Verification a Risk to Data Security

■ Ryan Giachetti Named General Counsel of House Energy and Commerce

■ Comporium Inks Amplifier Deal with Finland’s Teleste

■ Verizon to Report Third‑Quarter Results on Oct. 26

■ Mediacom Expands Fiber in New London, Conn.

LEO: Starlink’s new and far more powerful LEO satellites raise the stakes for rural broadband ISPs and perhaps one day for ISPs covering high-density markets. SpaceX’s latest generation of Starlink spacecraft, known as V3, is poised to intensify competitive pressure on terrestrial broadband providers, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas that have long struggled with slow speeds and limited coverage. The 26 high‑capacity V3 satellites were delivered to orbit for the first time on Sept. 28 by SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket. The V3s are designed to dramatically expand Starlink’s network throughput. Each V3 satellite can support roughly 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity and 160 gigabits per second of uplink capacity, a jump of about 10 times and 22 times, respectively, over the company’s V2 models.

“It really was a spectacular milestone in a lot of ways,” Craig Moffett, Senior Research Analyst at MoffettNathanson, told CNBC. (More after paywall)

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■ Did Democratic Sen. Wyden Find a Way to Save Gomez’s FCC Job?

■ Cable One’s Credit Score Lowered by S&P Global

■ Barron’s: Fiber, FWA Competition Pushing Cable Broadband Prices Way Down

■ Sen. Baldwin Plans NFL TV Fight on Senate Floor Today

■ Wiley Team Looks Ahead to 2027 Policy Battles

■ Kremlin Warns Against Expanded Use of Starlink in the Ukraine War

■ UK Might Fund BBC with a New Monthly Broadband Tax

■ Walmart Rules Out ‘Surveillance Pricing’ Amid FTC Oversight

■ Japan’s SoftBank Group Just Days Away from Owing U.S. ISP WOW!

■ Free State Backs FCC on NEPA Reforms

■ Alabama Reaches $100 Million Settlement with TikTok

■ Maine to Unveil Resilience Grant Winners on Oct.2

■ Grain Management Names Amran Hussein as General Counsel

POTS: Verizon’s copper phone retirement plan has been put on hold. The FCC said Sept. 25 Verizon’s bid to shut off legacy TDM landline service across nine states “will not be automatically granted,” citing the need for more review. “Our removal of Verizon’s application from the automatic grant process is not a final determination on the merits,” the agency added. By contrast, the FCC in June granted AT&T’s request to discontinue copper voice services at more than 184,000 locations in California – a decision the California Public Utilities Commission has appealed to the three voting FCC Commissioners. (More after paywall)

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■ Unlike BEAD Program, Netanyahu Is Not Technology Neutral

■ Ruddy to Policyband: Fox-Roku Deal Violates the Clayton Act

■ Washington State Signs BEAD Deal with Seven ISPs

■ Columnist Jon Decker to Congress: Shut Down the $8.5 Billion USF

■ Judge Tosses Trump Suit Against Iowa Paper’s Dubious Pre-Election Poll

■ Polish Leader: Russia May Have Destroyed Starlink Ground Station

■ NYT Tech Reporter: Google’s Space-Based Data Center Test Could Fail

■ KeyBanc Analyst Downgrades Comcast on ‘Worse Than Expected’ Results

■ Analyst Supino Calls Starlink’s Mobile Plan ‘A Very Long Putt’

■ SHLB to Unveil New E-Rate Study by Brattle Group Economist

■ AT&T, T-Mobile Declare Cash Dividends

TV Ratings: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is escalating his fight with dozens of House Democrats over LGBTQ content slipped into children’s TV shows. Carr sent a Sept. 22 letter to 68 Democrats who oppose adding gender identity descriptors to the TV Parental Guidelines, arguing that parents should be told when shows rated for young audiences include transgender or nonbinary themes. “Keeping parents in the dark about the nature of these programs is a feature not a bug of the effort,” Carr said. “This is an extreme position, and one that comes on the heels of a sudden surge in children’s television programming secretly promoting gender ideology to young kids without the knowledge or consent of their parents,” Carr said in his three-page letter. (More after paywall)

X Post of the Day 1.0

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