Fixed wireless access is accelerating and shows no signs of slowing down, experts said during a Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) FWA Forum webinar Wednesday. GSA identified announced FWA service offers using LTE or 5G from 535 operators in 186 countries and territories and launched service from 455 operators in 173, per a new report.

The FCC is launching a Privacy and Data Protection Task Force, made up of technical and legal experts from across the agency, with a focus on enforcement, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday in a speech at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Rosenworcel said Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal will chair the task force. “Right out of the gate, we are showing that this task force means business,” Rosenworcel said.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans a confirmation hearing June 22 on FCC nominee Anna Gomez, along with renominated Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, despite a GOP push to split up the trio, panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, told us Wednesday. The panel is unlikely to formally notice the hearing until Thursday. Supporters of shifting the FCC to a 3-2 Democratic majority are hopeful the move will set the Senate on a course to confirm all three nominees before the chamber begins its August recess. The House Communications Subcommittee is also to hear from FCC commissioners next week, setting its first commission oversight hearing of this Congress for June 21.

The vast majority of surveillance abuse that intelligence agencies have committed against U.S. citizens under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority was unintentional, DOJ and FBI officials told the Senate Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing Tuesday (see 2306120068, 2303280065 and 2303150069).

Some state broadband offices see room to improve the FCC’s national broadband map, even with NTIA set to announce allocations by June 30 for the $42.5 billion broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. Other states told us they’re still reviewing the FCC's latest map, released May 30.

Dish Network has likely made its Wednesday deadline for its 5G wireless network covering 70% of the U.S. population, though its 2025 coverage requirement -- with requirements for each individual license -- could be a bigger challenge, wireless industry experts told us. Dish and the FCC didn't comment, though Dish Executive Vice President of Network Development Dave Mayo said at the CTIA 5G Summit last month the company would meet the FCC-set milestone. Dish's final buildout deadline is June 14, 2025, for it to offer 5G to at least 75% of the population in each partial economic area.

The FCC's proposal to limit mobile supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations to co-channel licenses held by one party in geographically independent areas (GIA) is getting pushback from some satellite and terrestrial interests, per NPRM reply comments in docket 23-65 Tuesday. There was wireless and satellite disagreement on whether a waiver system suffices or if the agency needs SCS rules. The SCS NPRM was adopted 4-0 in March (see 2303160009) and the wireless industry argued in initial comments SCS rules are premature (see 2305150007).

NTIA heard a variety of comments, positive and negative, on the viability of the citizens broadband radio service as a model for future spectrum sharing. Comments, posted by the agency Tuesday, were due May 31 on an NTIA report on dynamic sharing and the three-tier sharing model offered by CBRS (see 2305010063). The report was by the agency’s Colorado lab, the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS).

Backers of allocating additional money for the FCC's affordable connectivity program and other broadband initiatives the federal government created during the COVID-19 pandemic need to make Republicans "understand the consequences ... of not funding access," said House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md., during a Tuesday Punchbowl News event. GOP leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees called ACP's future into question in May when they asked the FCC's Office of Inspector General to probe the commission's management of the program money it received via the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 2305080067).

USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group (ITG) "remains the best candidate" for the role of the registered industry consortium for tracebacks, the group told the FCC. Comments posted Friday in docket 20-22 showed support for USTelecom's redesignation as the registered consortium, a designation the group has held since 2020 (see 2007270068). Iconectiv also submitted a letter of intent for designation.