The antitrust bar being especially lacking in diversity is problematic, said Elizabeth Wilkins, chief of staff to FTC Chair Lina Khan, Thursday at an FCBA Diversity Pipeline event. She said the agency has been thinking about diverse recruitment issues for its staff, with pipeline programs like the FCBA's being an important tool. Keynoting at the event, American Association of Public Broadband Executive Director Gigi Sohn discussed her career and alluded to but didn't directly discuss her failed nomination for FCC commissioner.

The FCC moved up the dates for its final two meetings of the year. The Nov. 16 meeting was changed to Nov. 15. The December meeting was moved a week from Dec. 20 to Dec. 13. Meeting dates are most often changed to accommodate the schedules of commissioners. "The dates were changed in coordination with the Commissioners’ offices," an FCC spokesperson emailed.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel signed memoranda of understanding with Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority at the 2023 ITU Global Symposium for Regulators in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Wednesday, said an FCC news release. “Our peoples and our economies are inextricably connected,” said Rosenworcel in the release: "We must ensure that strong, respectful, and principled partnerships are established and endure between international communications regulators.” The agreements will increase coordination between the FCC and the other regulators and enable discussions on 5G, spectrum licensing, broadband deployment, accessibility, robocalls and network security, the release said. Rosenworcel also met with ITU Secretary General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU Telecommunications Development Bureau Director Cosmas Zavazava, and leaders from India, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Georgia, and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, the release said.

Canada's denial of Ligado's ancillary terrestrial component plans (see 2306010040) could influence the FCC to reconsider its Ligado approval and to respond to the multiple reconsideration requests before it, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation blogged Tuesday.

Concerns raised by Dish Network's TerreStar about joint SpaceX/T-Mobile plans to offer mobile service supplemental coverage from space (SCS) (see 2305310034) largely parrot Dish's own petition except when it raises specious new arguments, SpaceX said Monday in docket 23-135. "Apparently DISH was dissatisfied with the flimsiness of its initial petitions," SpaceX said, denying the SCS service with T-Mobile would reduce the amount of spectrum available to terrestrial operators. Also critical of the TerreStar petition, T-Mobile said it and SpaceX aren't asking for additional spectrum to be dedicated for SCS use, and thus there won't be any impact on the amount of spectrum terrestrial services can access. It said TerreStar's argument the FCC should focus on supporting use of existing mobile satellite service allocations to provide SCS services is moot since consumer devices today don't support MSS spectrum. SpaceX hasn't offered anything in the record to demonstrate its plans to modify its second-generation constellation to add a mobile satellite service system for SCS provision (see 2302080001) is feasible without resulting in harmful interference to their 2 GHz operations and plans, Dish Network and EchoStar told FCC personnel last week, recapping a meeting with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and a separate meeting with the Space Bureau.

The FCC deactivated the Disaster Information Reporting System for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but DIRS remains in operation for Guam, said a public notice Monday. DIRS was activated in the region due to Super Typhoon Mawar. “The FCC will, however, continue to monitor the status of communications services and work with providers and government partners in these areas as needed to support remaining restoration efforts,” the PN said. Monday’s DIRS report, which included both areas, shows 42.9% of the cell sites in the affected areas out of service, along with 3,967 cable and wireline subscribers, 3 TV stations and 3 FM stations.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau rescheduled to July 6 and 7 its annual disaster information reporting system refresher due to the ongoing DIRS activation for Typhoon Mawar. The session had been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. “The refresher will include a simulated event, commencing with the Bureau sending a mock activation letter on July 5 to all registered DIRS participants,” said a Monday notice: “The mock activation letter will provide a list of pre-selected counties that form the disaster area for this practice event. Providers will be asked to report data on any of their communications assets (e.g., broadcast, cable, satellite, wireless, and wireline) in the affected area. As this is only a simulated event, the Bureau does not expect to receive actual counts of outages.”

The FCC continues “to welcome opportunities to improve” the affordable connectivity program (ACP) “and meet our shared goal of connecting 100% of us,” a spokesperson emailed us in response to commission acting Inspector General Sharon Diskin’s letter earlier this week to GOP leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees that she “shares” some of their concerns with the program’s administration. Diskin criticized the FCC for not applying “lessons learned from prior program experience” when it wrote ACP’s rules (see 2305310080). The FCC set up ACP “in record time because Congress required it” via the 2021 Infrastructure investment and Jobs Act “and because we recognize affordable broadband is essential for modern life,” the spokesperson said: “We remain committed to protecting the success and integrity" of ACP "so it operates as Congress envisioned. As such, we’ve independently launched our own program audits, including asking providers to share additional information about their alternative verification programs.” Any “reviews by the inspector general” like Office of Inspector General’s ACP audit “are met with swift response by the agency so we can maintain the ACP’s program integrity,” the spokesperson said.

President Joe Biden formally sent to the Senate Tuesday his nomination of former NTIA acting Administrator Anna Gomez to the vacant fifth FCC seat and reselection of sitting Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks for new terms. Gomez's term, if she is confirmed, would end June 30, 2026. Starks' new term would expire June 30, 2027; Carr's would run through the same date in 2028. The White House announced the nominations last week with hopes the FCC might shift to a belated 3-2 Democratic majority after more than two years in a 2-2 tie (see 2305220065).

Disaster information reporting system data shows outages at 44% of the cellsites and for 6,149 cable and wireline subscribers in the affected portions of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands due to Super Typhoon Mawar. That’s a change from Tuesday, when slightly more cellsites were reported down -- 46.2% -- but far fewer cable and wireline subscribers were affected: 4,959. Wednesday’s DIRS report shows two TV stations and three FM stations out of power, but no public safety answering points affected, all unchanged from the previous report.