The FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council's Friday meeting will include remarks from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, said an agenda released Wednesday. The meeting will also include updates on the progress of the working groups and “a discussion of working group plans going forward.” The CEDC’s charter lasts six more months, but the presumed next FCC chair, Commissioner Brendan Carr, has said that he plans to end the agency’s promotion of diversity equity and inclusion (see 2411180059).

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he’s nominating Gail Slater, an economic adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, to lead the DOJ Antitrust Division. Slater, who was Trump’s special assistant to the president for technology, telecommunications and cybersecurity policy at the National Economic Council during his first administration, “will help ensure that our competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and FAIRLY, with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies,” the president-elect said on Truth Social. Slater was previously Internet Association general counsel and worked at Fox and Roku. Trump took a swipe at major tech companies in announcing the Slater nomination. “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech,” Trump said: “I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term," and DOJ Antitrust “will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.”

Facebook experienced 2024's largest outage, with its March 5 incident affecting 11.1 million users based on Downdetector data, Ookla said Tuesday. Among carriers, AT&T topped the list, with a Feb. 22 disruption touching 3.4 million customers. “Our reliance on technology is so total that for many it feels like the world is ending when a popular site or service on the internet is inaccessible, and 2024 saw many outages that reminded us how much one such interruption can disrupt the daily lives of millions,” Ookla said.

Much of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's agenda as the agency's incoming chair doesn't require an FCC majority to move forward, New Street Research's Blair Levin noted Monday. Part of that is because Carr can get Congress to act, and some is due to the delegated authority FCC bureaus have, Levin said. Carr's efforts to investigate tech companies and amplify the voice of conservatives on social media platforms don't require a formal FCC proceeding, he said. For example, Carr can tie up Skydance's proposed Paramount purchase, which would signal other networks that unfavorable news coverage could affect M&A approvals. In addition, Carr could have the FCC general counsel issue a policy statement about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that eliminates the expansive immunities courts have read into the statute, Levin said. And Carr doesn't need a majority to stop work on items with which he disagrees, such as bulk billing rules, Levin said. Outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel "never effectively used her bully pulpit [and thus] had the least consequential term as Chair in modern FCC history," he argued. She failed on such issues as losing spectrum auction authority and not getting an extension of the affordable connectivity program, Levin said. Mentioning Levin's note during a Practising Law Institute event Tuesday, Carr said Levin would need “a food taster” at that night's FCBA annual dinner. Levin's note is a reminder that “it's all downhill from here" for his upcoming stint as chairman, Carr said. “They like you on the way in, they definitely do not on the way out, and I don't expect that pattern to be broken any time soon,” he said. Rosenworcel Chief of Staff Narda Jones said during a different PLI panel that she hadn't read Levin's essay but that her boss was proud of the FCC’s work “to reach communities and stakeholders who haven't necessarily been the focus of the commission's work before.” She pointed to the ACP, formation of the Space Bureau, maternal health mapping, and the Missing and Endangered Persons alarm code as important achievements of the Rosenworcel FCC.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retired from the chipmaker and left its board effective Sunday, the company said Monday. David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus will serve as interim co-CEOs while the board seeks a permanent replacement. Zinsner is CFO, and Holthaus -- most recently general manager-client computing group -- was named CEO of Intel Products, which includes the client consulting group, data center and AI group and network and edge group. Independent board member Frank Yeary will be interim executive chair. In a statement, Yeary said that under Zinsner and Holthaus, Intel "will continue to act with urgency on our priorities: simplifying and strengthening our product portfolio and advancing our manufacturing and foundry capabilities while optimizing our operating expenses and capital. We are working to create a leaner, simpler, more agile Intel.”

Incompas President Angie Kronenberg has left the group, she said Monday on LinkedIn. "I recently resigned to pursue new career opportunities," she said. "It's been a great ride advocating on behalf of the competitive tech and telecom industry." She joined Incompas in 2013 as chief advocate and general counsel. An Incompas spokesperson told us CEO Chip Pickering would continue to head the organization as CEO and that the association will fill the position with someone versed in the issues Kronenberg handled.

The FCC's 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining T-Mobile for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations should be overturned, the carrier said in a brief filed Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “The FCC concluded that essentially the entire wireless industry had violated the law by continuing to operate location-based service (LBS) programs” based on actions by a “single, rogue actor” who “misused those programs,” T-Mobile said in docket 24-1224. T-Mobile was assessed the largest fine of the major carriers, more than $91 million, plus $12 million for Sprint's violations, which it subsequently acquired. Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented, even though the FCC four years ago, under Republican Chair Ajit Pai, approved the initial notice of apparent liability. T-Mobile noted that it and Sprint ended their LBS programs months after reports of potential abuse surfaced. Moreover, it argued that the FCC lacks authority over LBS data under the Communications Act: “The FCC based its retroactive punishment on an utterly novel construction of the governing statute, holding, for the first time, that the mobile-device-location information used in those LBS programs was ‘customer proprietary network information" (CPNI). T-Mobile said the “FCC’s unilateral imposition of tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties violates the Companies’ jury-trial rights under the Seventh Amendment and Article III.” It cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, which questioned administrative penalties handed down absent a jury trial (see 2406270063). The fines also violate principles of fair notice, the brief said. “The FCC adopted its broad view of CPNI for the first time in these enforcement proceedings, after the conduct had already occurred.” The FCC’s “hindsight-based liability findings” are also “arbitrary and capricious,” the provider said. “Among other safeguards, the Companies limited the number of entities with direct access to device-location information, ensured that LBS providers were vetted before allowing them to participate in the LBS programs, and required express customer consent before sharing device-location information.” The government is scheduled to respond Dec. 26. Verizon challenged the FCC’s fine in the 2nd Circuit, AT&T in the 5th Circuit (see 2411060008).

The federal government defended the FCC’s decision denying petitions for declaratory ruling on the agency’s over-the-air reception device (OTARD) rules in response to Indian Peak Properties' challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405060035). The FCC declined to step in following a dispute between the company and Rancho Palos Verdes, California (see 2410290011). “The Commission correctly construed the Rule to require a regular human presence at an antenna’s location,” the government said. “This requirement is evident from the Rule’s text and the Commission’s historic treatment of the Rule, and is consistent with Congress’s original purpose of protecting viewers’ access to video programming.” The pleading discussed the dispute's long history. After a city inspection revealed at least 11 antennas on the property in question, “plus other equipment on the roof, the City ordered Indian Peak to remove all but five antennas, and the parties began several years of discussions,” the pleading said, noting that in 2020, after suing the city, Indian Peak sought FCC review. The pleading said the commission’s determination “that Indian Peak failed to adequately allege that its antenna use fell within the Rule’s scope was supported by substantial evidence: Indian Peak repeatedly told the Commission that no one lived at the Property, emphasized the importance of remote access, and offered vague and inconsistent descriptions of how the Property was used.” From its origins protecting viewers’ access to satellite video at their homes, the OTARD rule “has always contemplated that a protected antenna serve a human end user at the antenna’s location,” the government said. “Indeed, if the Rule did not contain a human-presence requirement, it would necessarily extend to antennas on unoccupied buildings -- a result which nothing in the Rule’s history supports.”

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology, met with U.S. telecom executives Friday to discuss China’s “significant cyber espionage campaign targeting the sector,” the White House said. Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., last week called for an FCC investigation of a Chinese hacking campaign, which in part allegedly targeted communications from Vice President-elect JD Vance and the presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2411190073). “The meeting was an opportunity to hear from telecommunications sector executives on how the U.S. Government can partner with and support the private sector on hardening against sophisticated nation state attacks,” the White House said. Officials didn’t disclose what companies’ executives attended the meeting.

DirecTV's planned purchase of EchoStar's Dish Network (see 2409300009) is off, EchoStar said in an SEC filing Friday. EchoStar said it received notice from DirecTV last week that it was ending the purchase agreement effective 11:59 p.m. Friday because the deal's financial terms weren't being met. EchoStar said no termination fee or other payment is due from either party.