The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, other tribes and supporters won a partial victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court Friday vacated the most important portion of the March 2018 wireless infrastructure order, placing small cells back under FCC, historic and environmental review. The court upheld other parts of the order. Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is overseeing FCC work on wireless infrastructure, said the decision wasn’t a total loss. The court “upheld key provisions of last March’s infrastructure decision,” Carr said: “Most importantly, the court affirmed our decision that parties cannot demand upfront fees before reviewing any cell sites, large or small. These fees, which had grown exponentially in the last few years, created incentives for frivolous reviews unrelated to any potential impact on historic sites. Those financial incentives are gone, and we expect our fee restrictions to continue greatly diminishing unnecessary and costly delays.”

DOJ and attorneys general for five states said they reached a settlement with T-Mobile and Sprint on their proposed deal. The settlement goes further than the companies’ earlier proposal at the FCC.

As T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to concessions to get their deal OK'd, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he'd recommend approving the deal. He would suggest commissioners greenlight the transaction, with an FCC release saying that "in the coming weeks," he will "present his colleagues with a draft order that would resolve this matter."

The FCC intends to begin its auction of spectrum in the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands Dec. 10 and plans to begin work on a fund targeting broadband deployment in unserved rural areas, Chairman Ajit Pai told reporters Friday morning. The announcements came ahead of Pai's planned participation in an afternoon event with President Donald Trump aimed at clarifying that the U.S. isn't headed toward a nationalized 5G network, as we reported Thursday. That event is set to begin just before 2:30 p.m., the White House said.

NTIA isn't backing down from asking the FCC to protect some DOD sites as the commission is poised Friday to adopt an order to partly free up the upper 37 GHz band for commercial wireless use including 5G. NTIA said in a letter to the FCC Thursday evening it should reject “pleas by potential bidders” to “effectively change the nature” of spectrum allocations in the upper 37 GHz band, following an auction. The letter said the Pentagon is willing to restrict requests to areas that can’t be accommodated in the lower 37 GHz band.

The House passed the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) on a largely party-line 232-190 vote, as expected. The chamber ultimately approved either unanimously or by lopsided bipartisan margins all 12 amendments that were allowed floor consideration. HR-1644 and Senate companion S-682 would add a new title to the Communications Act that reverses the FCC order rescinding its 2015 net neutrality rules and restores reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., said Monday night he's “ready to roll” and vote to advance the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) out of the House Communications Subcommittee, increasing the bill's chances of clearing the subcommittee's Tuesday markup. Butterfield is among four House Communications Democrats who aren't listed as co-sponsors of HR-1644 and was viewed as the most skeptical of the bill during a legislative hearing earlier this month. The other three subcommittee Democrats who haven’t co-sponsored HR-1644 are: Tony Cardenas of California, Tom O'Halleran of Arizona and Kurt Schrader of Oregon.

The FCC's new administrative law judge OK'd Sinclair's request the ALJ nix the hearing designation order proceeding involving the company's now-ended plan to buy Tribune's TV stations. ALJ Jane Hinckley Halprin noted that the HDO alleged Sinclair may have misled the commission on whether it was the real party in interest that would get some divested Tribune’s licenses.

DOJ won't further challenge in court its two-time judicial loss in its failed effort to block AT&T from having bought Time Warner, it said Tuesday. Earlier that day, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel unanimously sided with AT&T in upholding a lower court judgment that approved the deal worth tens of billions of dollars.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel sided with AT&T in upholding a lower court judgment that approved AT&T's buy of Time Warner over DOJ opposition. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruling is affirmed, said the judgment (in Pacer) of Judges Judith Rogers, Robert Wilkins and David Sentelle in USA v. AT&T, No. 18-5214.