FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Senate Commerce Committee member Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., traded barbs Wednesday night and Thursday over their exchange at the panel’s commission oversight hearing (see 2512170070) about what the senator called inconsistent handling of news distortion complaints against media companies. Carr refused during the hearing to commit to Rosen’s request that he open “an investigation into Fox News” for editing a 2024 interview with now-President Donald Trump amid his election contest that showed only part of his answer to a question about whether he would release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty elaborated on her vision for making U.S. networks more secure in an article published last week by the James Madison Institute’s Center for Technology and Innovation. The U.S. must engage with other nations to keep its own networks secure, she wrote. U.S. involvement in international telecommunications organizations like the ITU “must be revitalized,” she said. “U.S. representatives should be leading the conversation, shaping the standards, and setting the norms, not watching from the sidelines as adversaries fill the vacuum.”
The FCC is working to meet a congressional deadline, part of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (see 2512110051), to review whether to add Chinese drone maker DJI to its list of covered companies that present security risks, Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters after Thursday’s meeting.
Top Democrats on the Senate and House Communications subcommittees were noncommittal in interviews Wednesday and Thursday about pursuing legislation to address changes that NTIA made to the $42.5 billion BEAD program’s rules in its June 6 restructuring policy notice. The Government Accountability Office ruled Tuesday that the Congressional Review Act (CRA) doesn’t let the Commerce Department unilaterally make such alterations (see 2512170032). Meanwhile, Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., filed the Supporting U.S. Critical Connectivity and Economic Strategy and Security (Success) for BEAD Act on Thursday to allow states to repurpose non-deployment BEAD funding for next-generation 911 technology upgrades and other purposes.
Bidding in the long-awaited reauction of AWS-3 spectrum will start June 2, the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireless Bureau announced Thursday. That means it would likely occur about a year ahead of the much bigger auction for the upper C band. The AWS-3 auction will be the FCC’s first for full-power licensed use since 2022. The first auction of AWS-3 spectrum was in 2014.
President Donald Trump issued a memorandum Friday night directing NTIA to “immediately begin the process of identifying” the 7.125-7.4 GHz band “for reallocation for full-power commercial licensed use” and study how to reallocate federal systems on the airwaves “to other frequencies,” including the 7.4-8.4 GHz band. Trump framed the reallocation as needed to ensure U.S. leadership in “6G development.” The move came a day after Trump signed off on the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passed after leaders reached a deal to omit Senate-side language that would have given the defense secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands.
The FCC approved 3-0 Thursday, with few changes, an order and further NPRM on expanding the commission’s VoIP numbering authorization rules (see 2512170039). Also at the meeting, commissioners addressed low-power TV and translator stations in a second item approved unanimously and, for the sixth consecutive month, adopted a direct final rule (DFR) to expunge a set of what the agency said are obsolete and unnecessary rules.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appoints to the board of the Universal Service Administrative Co.: Ian Forbes, T-Mobile USA (representing commercial mobile radio service providers); Alexander Minard, NCTA (cable providers); Amber Gregory, Arkansas State Library (libraries); Stephanie Minnock, Lumen (incumbent local exchange carriers); Heather Sanborn, Maine Public Advocate (state consumer advocates); Julie Tritt Schell, state of Pennsylvania (schools); and Tim Schram, Nebraska Public Service Commission (state telecom regulators) … Steve Clayton, ex-Microsoft, joins Cisco as chief communications officer, effective Jan. 5 … ACT | The App Association names Natalia Richardson, formerly European Cancer Organisation, as communications manager for Europe and the U.K. … GCI’s Maureen Moore adds general manager for consumer services to her senior vice president title, replacing Paul Landes, retiring … Cherokee Nation promotes Brandon Scott to chief communications officer.
MoveOn and Optimum made separate calls Wednesday for the FCC to block Nexstar’s purchase of Tegna.
The FCC should more closely scrutinize and apply tougher controls to current and future programs that reimburse telecom providers for the costs of equipment and services in schools and libraries, the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) said Wednesday in a report on lessons learned from the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). The FCC will take the report’s recommendations “under consideration” when it modifies its universal service programs or implements appropriated funding programs, said Managing Director Mark Stephens and Wireline Bureau Chief Joseph Calascione in a response letter included with the report.