FCC staff changes: Wireline Bureau’s Lauren Garry ends her detail to Commissioner Brendan Carr’s office; Nese Guendelsberger, acting legal adviser-wireless to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, returns to International Bureau; Anna Holland leaves Commissioner Anna Gomez’s office for National Institute on Aging; Flynn Rico-Johnson, ex-office of Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., joins Starks’ office as policy adviser; Brian Phillips, ex-office of Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., joins Office of Media Relations as deputy director; Troy Tanner shifts from Space Bureau to acting director-Office of International Affairs (see 2407180021); and retiring are: Carol Edwards, Office of the Managing Director; Paul Murray, Office of Engineering and Technology; Paul D'Ari, Wireless Bureau; and David Sieradzki, Public Safety Bureau.
Kathy Wallman, who served as chief of the FCC Common Carrier Bureau and deputy chief of the agency’s Cable Services Bureau in the 1990s, died of appendiceal cancer July 14. A Great Falls, Virginia, resident, she was 66. Wallman also chaired the FCC’s Public Safety National Coordination Committee. Prior to joining the FCC, Wallman was a partner at Arnold & Porter. After leaving the agency, Wallman worked in the Clinton White House and later founded Wallman Consulting, a strategic consulting firm specializing in technology, media and telecom. She also was a past board member of Public Knowledge and a former senior adviser to the Brattle Group. Survivors include her husband, Steven, and her sister, Margaret. Services will be held 11 a.m. Aug. 10 at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Great Falls. Contributions may be made to CANCollaborate, a nonprofit organization Wallman and her husband founded to develop collaborative projects in cancer research.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Thursday that Troy Tanner, deputy chief of the Space Bureau, will serve as acting chief of the FCC Office of International Affairs. The position is considered critical as FCC work heats up in preparation for the next World Radiocommunication Conference. Tanner replaces Ethan Lucarelli, who died suddenly in May (see 2405150037). Lucarelli was the new office's first chief. A 14-year FCC veteran, Tanner previously served as deputy chief of the former International Bureau, and was formerly a lawyer at Bingham McCutchen and Swidler Berlin.
WifiForward called on the FCC to reject Axon's waiver request that would allow it to market three investigative and surveillance devices operating at higher power levels than allowed under FCC rules in the heavily used 5 GHz spectrum. Law enforcement agencies are the intended market for the devices. The proposal has proven controversial (see 2403080044). Axon should “re-engineer its devices with compliant technology readily available in the highly-competitive Wi-Fi equipment and module marketplace,” WifiForward said. “There is no reason why, in 2024, a vendor should come before the Commission with outdated technology that fails to meet the band rules, proposing to disrupt the successful coexistence environment that the Commission so carefully built,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-40 said.
Mongoose Works is entitled to an additional $69,686 in the C-band transition reimbursement, FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Hinckley Halprin ordered Thursday (docket 21-333). Mongoose appealed a Wireless Bureau decision upholding the C-Band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse’s reducing Mongoose’s lump sum claim amount from $356,052 to $286,366 under the C-band relocation program (see 2309180019). In her 17-page order, the judge said Mongoose proved that its operations weren't restored to pre-reallocation capabilities and that the categorization of two of its antennas is inconsistent with the agency's C-band order.
The FCC on Thursday approved Nokia’s application to begin initial commercial operations as a spectrum access system administrator for the citizens broadband radio service band. Nokia has satisfied the commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements, a notice from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology said. Nokia must file at the FCC information on the beginning date of its initial commercial deployment and specific geographic areas covered, the notice said.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel had “no comment" Thursday when reporters asked her about 16 House Democrats’ request that Inspector General Fara Damelin and federal watchdogs investigate Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr for potential ethics rules violations related to him writing the telecom chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy report (see 2407170061). During a news conference Thursday, Carr largely repeated an earlier statement that his Project 2025 writing didn’t run afoul of ethics rules. FCC ethics officials “signed off on me” writing the Project 2025 chapter “in my personal capacity, which I did,” Carr told reporters. He also pushed back against lawmakers’ claims that identifying himself as a sitting FCC commissioner violated the Hatch Act. FCC ethics officials found “you are allowed to list your current position” in a biography accompanying text written in a personal capacity “among the other sort of biographical details that would be in a bio,” Carr said: Many of the ideas included in the Project 2025 chapter come from “ideas that I’ve put forward in a lot of different contexts, including testimony and in speeches. It's pretty basic stuff,” which isn’t “that controversial.” He later declined to discuss whether he agreed with a Project 2025 proposal that the FCC exclude stations affiliated with PBS and NPR from being designated as noncommercial educational stations, saying he was speaking during the news conference in his personal capacity. That proposal is included in a CPB chapter of the Project 2025 book that Carr did not write.
FCC commissioners adopted a series of items implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 during their open meeting Thursday (see 2407140001). A report and order reduces the permanent per minute rate caps for audio calls and for the first time establishes interim rate caps for video calls for incarcerated people. The law also clarified the FCC’s authority to also set rate caps for intrastate and international calls.
The FCC Thursday unanimously approved, as expected (see 2407160048), an NPRM that proposes industry-wide handset unlocking rules, requiring all mobile wireless providers to unlock handsets 60 days after they’re activated, unless a carrier determines the handset “was purchased through fraud.” The only change of note was an edit on handset and fraud issues added at Commissioner Brendan Carr's request, an FCC official said.
FCC commissioners approved 3-2 a draft order and Further NPRM at their Thursday open meeting that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. The FCC Republicans issued dissents as expected (see 2407170035). In a lengthy dissent, Commissioner Brendan Carr questioned whether the order would survive a legal challenge.