AI is hot, as evidenced by the number of mentions on 71 Q1 earnings calls analyzed by LightShed, analyst Walter Piecyk told investors Tuesday. “Mentions of AI or related terms doubled in Q1 to 319 times and was mentioned on nearly half the calls we tracked,” the firm said: “That’s up from 155 times on just over a quarter of the calls we tracked in Q4. This has far surpassed any buzzword we have previously tracked. Google and Meta accounted for one-third of the mentions.” Mention of inflation on quarterly calls “has declined dramatically in the last two quarters,” LightShed found. The term was mentioned in 3% of calls monitored by LightShed in Q1, compared with 62% in Q2 of last year. Recession was mentioned in 23% of calls, up from 14% the previous quarter, but that’s lower than the 32% in Q2 of 2022, LightShed said.

Charter Communications' advertised broadband speed claims challenged by Frontier Communications aren't misleading, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Board said Thursday. The finding reverses a BBB National Advertising Division finding that recommended Charter qualify its speed claims. NARB said a majority of its panel, which is the appellate advertising body, found the challenged speed claims made by Charter don't mislead reasonable consumers.

Satellite-delivered supplemental mobile coverage from space could have as many as 200 million connections by 2031, ABI Research said Thursday. It said notable revenue growth will come from services based on the 5G-based NR-NTN communications standard, which is expected to be introduced in 2026.

APCO named Melvin Maier its new CEO Friday, replacing Derek Poarch, former FCC Public Safety Bureau chief who has led the group since 2011. Maier was APCO chief technology officer and previously was vice chair of the FirstNet Public Safety Advisory Committee. He's current chair of the Next Generation 9-1-1 Coalition. Maier joined APCO last year, after 32 years in law enforcement, most recently as a captain and chief of public safety communications for the Oakland County, Michigan, Sheriff’s Office. APCO said it did “an exhaustive and competitive nationwide search involving more than 200 applicants.” Poarch will stay on “over the next several months to ensure a smooth transition” and will remain CEO until he leaves. Maier becomes executive director immediately and will add the CEO title when Poarch departs, APCO said. Poarch and his team have grown APCO "in monumental and unprecedented ways," said Angela Batey, APCO president and a public safety instructor in Georgia.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved a request Thursday for an en banc rehearing of Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC's method for funding the USF. In March, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously against Consumers' Research, saying the FCC "has not violated the private nondelegation doctrine because it wholly subordinates" the Universal Service Administrative Co., and Congress "supplied the FCC with intelligible principles when it tasked the agency with overseeing" USF (see 2303240049).

The person who told the FCC that direct broadcast satellite wholesale services provider Spectrum Five was dropping its complaint against Intelsat had no right or authority to do so, Spectrum Five lender BIU told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a petition for review last week (docket 23-1163). BIU said it's FCC precedent to take back actions that were initiated by a party lacking proper authority, and the unauthorized withdrawal of the petition "amounts to a fraud on the Commission itself." Spectrum Five's 2020 petition, which it withdrew in April (see 2304130048), sought revocation of the Intelsat 30 and Intelsat 31 satellite licenses for willful violations of license terms. BIU said it received no response to a June 9 letter to the Enforcement Bureau asking that 2020 petition be reinstated. In that letter, BIU said the withdrawal of the 2020 petition and the subsequent bureau order dismissing the petition "were procured by fraud." It said the person representing himself as a senior officer of Spectrum Five had given BIU sole authority to withdraw the petition. In withdrawing the petition himself, BIU said, "we ... must assume that he was compensated by a party-in-interest in the proceeding to do so -- that is, he was bribed." Our calls to an Austin number for Spectrum Five weren't answered. The FCC didn't comment.

Umair Javed, chief counsel to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, left the agency, he confirmed on LinkedIn. Javed, who joined Rosenworcel’s staff from Wiley in 2017, had been recusing himself from work on various items for several months, industry officials said. Javed is seen as a potential replacement for FCC nominee Anna Gomez if she leaves her position as head of the U.S. delegation to the World Radiocommunication Conference before the start of the conference Nov. 20 (see 2306010075). The FCC didn't comment.

Broadband experts debated how the FCC should proceed in adopting its final rules on combating digital discrimination. Some at a Friday Federalist Society webinar raised concerns about how the commission may define discrimination and its authority on the issue. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act mandated the agency adopt final rules by Nov. 15. The proceeding "is one of the most important items on the FCC's plate," said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. The "key problem" with the rulemaking is that it "exceeds the statutory authority" by imposing a disparate impact on ISPs, said FSF Policy Studies Director Seth Cooper. The current record before the FCC doesn't suggest providers are actively engaging in discrimination, Cooper said, and the agency should instead focus on prohibiting "intentional discrimination of access." Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld noted Congress "did make explicit findings with regard to lack of access" for communities of color and low-income areas when it directed the commission to establish rules to combat digital discrimination. "The FCC has an obligation to step in where the market will fail," Feld said, saying "every provider has a responsibility." Questions remain on what the FCC's authority is and whether there's a possibility for overreach once final rules are issued, said Clint Odom, T-Mobile vice president-strategic alliances and external affairs, noting the Enforcement Bureau "can wield a lot of power" due to this rulemaking.

The White House will reveal state allocations for the $42.5 billion broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program Monday, said New Jersey Office of Broadband Connectivity Director Valarry Bullard on an NTIA videoconference Thursday. Afterward, other state officials told us they were invited to a 4:30 p.m. Monday event. State broadband officers were invited to the Monday event to find out grant amounts, said Bullard at the New Jersey virtual outreach meeting: "All of these state broadband offices will get together and [President Joe] Biden will say, 'You get a grant' and 'You get a grant.'" NTIA Federal Program Officer Brynn Deprey said to expect a news release. NTIA earlier said it would announce BEAD allocations by June 30. NTIA will use the FCC map to determine how much money states receive in addition to the $100 million each they’re guaranteed under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Louisiana will be there, emailed Veneeth Iyengar, the broadband office's executive director-broadband development and connectivity. "I do not know the exact nature of the announcement, though we are in the ballpark in terms of timing with regards to knowing what our BEAD allocation will be." Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter also said she was invited to the White House event but can't attend. South Carolina Broadband Office Director Jim Stritzinger also said all states had been invited to the White House event. NTIA didn't comment further Thursday.

Several FCC licensing systems that were having outages are back online and deadlines involving them are extended, said a public notice Wednesday. The universal licensing system (ULS), tower construction notification system (TCNS), E-106 system and antenna structure registration system (ASR) are now online, said the PN. They were down from Friday until 9 a.m. EDT Wednesday “due to technical issues” the PN said. “We are extending the deadlines for all regulatory filings that were due in the affected systems between June 9, 2023, and June 29, 2023, until Friday, June 30, 2023,” said the PN. The extension supersedes previous, shorter extensions granted last week, the PN said. “We have provided for a longer extension for these filings than initially contemplated in the June 13 Public Notice in anticipation of high traffic volumes on these systems in the coming days.” The agency encouraged filers “to consider deferring discretionary filings this week, and we encourage filers preparing large submissions to coordinate in advance with staff of the Bureaus,” the PN said. Historic preservation reviews that were in progress during the outage are resumed, grants of special temporary authority that were to have expired between June 9 and June 29 will now expire June 30, the PN said.