Legal experts expect President Donald Trump will use the Congressional Review Act process to reject regulations approved under President Joe Biden. The legal experts spoke Wednesday during an FCBA continuing legal education event.
New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr laid out an aggressive agenda for his first meeting as chair, with two items on future spectrum auctions, including a look at the upper C band. The FCC will also tackle wireless emergency alerts and robocalls and ways of strengthening the call-blocking capabilities of carriers. In addition, commissioners will consider an NPRM on the volume of broadcast commercials.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr names Jay Schwarz, Space Bureau chief, replacing Julie Kearney; Adam Jackman, formerly House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, director-strategic communications, Office of Media Relations ... GSMA names Marc Murtra, Telefonica, to its board, effective immediately, replacing Jose Maria Alvares-Pallete, who left Telefonica; deputy chair Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel Group, becomes acting chair, replacing Alvares-Pallete … Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday promotes Darryl Lawrence, assistant consumer advocate, to interim consumer advocate ... River Advisers promotes Alexis Martin, chief consulting officer, to CEO ... North American numbering plan administrator Somos names Shannon Donohue, Proximus Global, to its advisory board … Cato Networks taps Karl Soderlund, ex-Zscaler, as global channel chief, replacing Frank Rauch, retiring … Waxman Strategies names Sarah Morris, formerly NTIA, as managing director and leader-technology practice, new post … The Computer & Communications Industry Association appoints Karina Perez, ex-Aerospace Industries Association, as director-Space and Spectrum Policy Center, new post; Megan Stokes, formerly ACE-AFSCME, as state director, replacing Khara Boender; and Aneysha Bhat, ex-Small Business Association, as senior manager-federal affairs, new post.
Amphenol notified the FCC on Tuesday that it has completed its buy of CommScope’s outdoor wireless networks unit and distributed antenna systems business for $2.1 billion in cash, a development announced Monday (see 2502030019). In a filing in docket 15-319, Amphenol said the FCC should expect no changes to what was CommScope’s citizens broadband radio service spectrum access system as a result of the ownership change. The two business units will be known as “ANDREW, an Amphenol company,” the filing said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday sought comment by Feb. 19 on parts of AT&T's requests last week as it shutters more of its legacy copper network. The bureau created dockets for comments about moving customers off DS1 and DS3 services (docket 25-45) and retiring remote call forwarding services (25-46) and VoIP calling (25-47). AT&T plans to move aggressively in the new Donald Trump administration to cut costs by closing parts of its legacy network (see 2501310046).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Monday night that he has asked the Enforcement Bureau to “examine” claims made by Senate Commerce Committee member Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., last week about broadcasters circumventing the commission’s sponsorship identification rules ban on payola. Blackburn wrote Carr that “we have learned” broadcasters are pressuring musical artists to “perform ‘free radio shows’ -- also referred to as ‘listener appreciation shows’ or ‘charitable concert events’” in exchange for airtime. “There is often an implicit suggestion that declining to perform could result in reduced airplay,” Blackburn said. “This forced quid pro quo applies to essentially all artists,” and some “have told me that it is not unusual for them to perform anywhere from 10 to 50 such shows in any given year.” That “practice is exploitative and should not be tolerated,” she said: “Artists should not be extorted into providing free labor in exchange for airplay.” Carr said this “conduct hurts America’s songwriters [and] musicians,” and he plans to “provide an update” on the probe this week.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced more staff appointments to a number of agency offices, including the Space Bureau, in a release Tuesday. Jay Schwarz, who previously served as a wireline adviser to former Chairman Ajit Pai, will become the bureau’s second ever chief, replacing Julie Kearney. The release also included the announcement of former acting NTIA head Adam Candeub becoming general counsel, which Carr posted Monday on X (see 2502030063). Adam Jackman, former director-digital communications for the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, will serve as Carr’s director-strategic communications for the Office of Media Relations. Dana Howell, a former information resource manager in the FCC Office of the Managing Director, will serve as executive assistant in Carr's office, the release said. “Additional staff announcements will follow,” it added.
The Alaska Telecom Association urged the FCC to move with care as it considers how to implement parts of the Alaska Connect Fund (ACF), approved by FCC commissioners in November (see 2411050002). Comments were due Monday on a Further NPRM on mobile and fixed wireless under the fund in docket 23-238.
Telnyx didn't do enough to stop artificial and prerecorded voice messages claiming to be from a nonexistent FCC "fraud prevention team" -- calls that went to FCC staff and their family, among others -- the agency said Tuesday in proposing a $4.5 million fine against the communications platform operator. The notice of apparent liability (NAL) was the first commission-level action under Chairman Brendan Carr. The agency said in the NAL that at least one recipient of the FCC impostor calls in February 2024 was connected to someone who demanded that outstanding FCC fines be paid in Google gift cards. The agency said Telnyx didn't conduct due diligence in verifying that the people who placed the call were who they said they were or their reasons for establishing Telnyx accounts. "Cracking down on illegal robocalls will be a top priority at the FCC,” Carr said, adding that the fine "flows from an apparently illegal robocalling scheme and continues the FCC’s longstanding work to stop bad actors.” The 3-1 approval of the NAL saw Carr's fellow Republican commissioner, Nathan Simington, dissenting, as he did under Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in recent months, due to questions about the agency's enforcement authority (see 2409060054). Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez said in a statement that she supports self-reporting on potential rules violations and applauded Carr's office for allowing edits to the NAL to encourage self-reporting.
The FCC abruptly declined to defend the inclusion of a nonbinary gender category in its broadcaster workplace diversity data collection shortly before the start of oral argument at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The eleventh-hour shift could lead to the court declining to rule on the case, attorneys told us.