The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Wednesday approved ZP Better Together’s request to continue providing video relay service (VRS) supported by the interstate telecommunications relay services fund following the acquisition of indirect ownership and control of ZP by Teleperformance Group. The bureau noted it sought comment in December, and none was filed. “Applicants state that ‘ZP currently meets or exceeds all mandatory minimum standards that are applicable to VRS and have not been waived by the Commission, and will continue to do so’ after the Teleperformance acquisition is consummated,” the bureau said.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) isn't likely to make much headway with the 119th Congress absent a major revamp, tech policy panelists said Wednesday at a Congressional Internet Caucus event, which also featured some panelists disagreeing on the FCC's role in cybersecurity enforcement.
CTA CEO Gary Shapiro warned Wednesday of a potential “brain drain” in the federal government should the Donald Trump administration continue its assault on the bureaucracy. The Joe Biden administration lacked enough officials who understood how business works, and Trump's don’t understand government, Shapiro said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. Unions that represent federal employees, including at the FCC, slammed the latest Trump actions.
A White House executive order on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs could lead to telecom companies abandoning such efforts, causing a rollback of progress on diversity, said industry executives and public interest attorneys during a FCBA panel discussion Tuesday. There is “fear and chaos” in “lots of corridors and hallways of corporate America” over the DEI executive order and anticipation of future White House action in that vein, said Clint Odom, T-Mobile vice president-strategic alliances and external affairs and a former FCC aide. “The world seems to be lining up between the companies that are doing DEI and the companies that are retreating from it.”
With President Donald Trump yet to lay out with any detail what course he will chart on spectrum, experts warned Tuesday that the current administration faces the same issues as the last (see 2411140042). With various band studies underway, launched under Joe Biden, there are no obvious bands left to reallocate for exclusive licensed use, experts said at the RCR Wireless Wi-Fi Forum.
The effective date of the one-to-one robotext consent order was pushed off a year, to Jan. 26, 2026, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Acting Chief Eduard Bartholme said in an order in Monday's Daily Digest. Issued Friday, the order cited a pending judicial review of the policy. Also on Friday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found for the appellant, Insurance Marketing Coalition, in its suit challenging the order (see 2501240068). The 11th Circuit vacated part of the order and remanded it to the FCC for further proceedings. Decisions from the 11th Circuit "will hurt consumers, small businesses and the American phone system,” Electronic Privacy Information Center lawyer Chris Frascella said in a joint statement Monday with Public Knowledge and the National Consumer Law Center. “This is particularly disheartening because the rule was a very simple but impactful protection: companies could only sell your consent to receive robocalls if you provided an individual record of consent (e.g. a checkbox) for each company you consented to receiving robocalls from," Frascella said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appoints: Tom Sullivan as acting chief, Office of International Affairs, replacing Troy Tanner; Catherine Matraves as acting chief, Office of Economics and Analytics; Katie Gorscak as acting director, Office of Media Relations, replacing Paloma Perez Christie … Salt Point Strategies names Anderson Helton, ex-staffer for Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Milla Anderson, ex-FCC, as vice presidents … FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks moves Wireline Bureau's Kiara Ortiz to acting legal adviser, replacing Anderson.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced acting leadership for a number of bureau offices Friday but not for the offices of Workplace Diversity or Communications Business Opportunities. An executive order that President Donald Trump issued Monday that ends federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts could affect those offices and their staff, industry and FCC officials told us. Neither office was mentioned in Carr’s release Monday announcing the shuttering of other FCC diversity efforts (see 2501210070). The FCC didn’t respond to repeated inquiries about those offices' fate. Office of Workplace Diversity staff were present at an all-hands meeting that Carr held Thursday, FCC employees told us.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr promotes Jacob Lewis to acting general counsel, replacing Michelle Ellison; Patrick Webre to acting chief, Enforcement Bureau, replacing Peter Hyun; Eduard Bartholme to acting chief, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, replacing Alejandro Roark; Erin Boone to acting chief, Media Bureau, replacing Holly Saurer. Carr moves Joel Taubenblatt to acting chief, Wireless Bureau; Trent Harkrader to acting chief, Wireline Bureau; Debra Jordan to acting chief, Public Safety Bureau.
The FCC Space Bureau can't ignore commission-set requirements "simply ... because SpaceX does not like them," Viasat said as it continues arguing for reconsideration of a portion of the SpaceX/T-Mobile authorization to provide supplemental coverage from space service (see 2412270017). In a docket 23-135 filing posted Wednesday, Viasat said SpaceX's reply to the recon petition ignores some of Viasat's key points, such as the SCS order is contrary to the bureau's determination last year to deny SpaceX access to parts of the 1429-2690 MHz band because they aren't available for mobile satellite service (MSS). Viasat also attacked SpaceX's arguments calling for dismissal of the recon petition since Viasat didn't previously file comments in the dockets where SpaceX requested SCS authority. It's an "inescapable fact" that the SpaceX SCS order includes band segments that weren't part of the agency's previous SCS framework order and thus can't be used for SCS service, Viasat said.