NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said Tuesday she will retire in March. She began leading the group in July 2010. Starting at the rural communications association in 1986, Bloomfield was serving as vice president of government affairs there when she left in 2007 for jobs at Qwest and then Verizon. "This is the right time for our industry to make that change," now that USF's survival is less in doubt, she said. "Now that the debate is shifting to a new phase of challenges, it’s the perfect time ... for that next leader to take you all over the next mountain!"
Consumers’ Research and other challengers of the USF contribution factor in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to end their current challenge there. The government and challengers said in a filing with the court that they “hereby stipulate to the dismissal of the petitions in the above proceedings, with each side to bear its own costs and fees.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr thanked EchoStar and Chairman Charlie Ergen on Tuesday for addressing the FCC’s concerns in a series of spectrum deals announced in recent weeks. EchoStar officials said Monday that selling the spectrum wasn’t their first choice (see 2509150003). “There were a lot of questions raised, including by us in May, about whether they met their buildout obligations,” Carr said at a Politico event (see 2509160040). “We had a lot of good discussions with them.”
The U.S. Supreme Court should refrain from overturning judicial precedent on the firing of independent agency commissioners as “a matter of judicial restraint -- of respect for precedent and continuity in the law,” said TechFreedom in an amicus brief filed Monday in Trump v. Slaughter. The case concerns President Donald Trump’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and could bear on whether Trump can fire FCC commissioners. The White House wants SCOTUS to vacate a lower court order that blocked Slaughter’s firing.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) will meet Sept. 25, as expected (see 2506120070), the agency said Thursday. The meeting will start at 1 p.m. at FCC headquarters. CSRIC members are scheduled to vote on a report about recommended best practices on the ethical and practical use of AI and machine learning, the notice said, as well as hear updates on other reports.
NTIA may require states to conduct an additional round of subgrantee selections for the BEAD program, warned Christopher Mitchell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's community broadband networks initiative. In a blog Tuesday, Mitchell said NTIA added a "new step in the BEAD process to further reduce new investment in the areas that currently only have access from satellite providers."
The latest comments posted in docket 25-223 show disagreement on what changes the FCC should make to its approach to its Telecom Act Section 706 reports to Congress (see 2509090010). Among them, USTelecom and CTIA urged the commission to refocus the report to look just at deployment. Commissioners approved a notice of inquiry in August on the preparation of the reports, with an eye on more narrowly focusing them based on the statutory language (see 2508050056).
The FCC’s direct final rule process and planned deletion of rules could disproportionately affect rural Alaska, and the agency should consult with tribal nations on any deletions, the Knik Tribe said in comments posted Wednesday in docket 25-133.
SpaceX’s purchase of wireless licenses from EchoStar, announced Monday, wasn’t a surprise (see 2509080052), AT&T CEO John Stankey said Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs conference. “I'd probably argue that that may be the highest and best use of that spectrum for a variety of reasons because it does harmonize very well globally.”
The FCC is proposing to revoke the certification of Assistive Technology of Alaska (ATLA) to operate the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) in the state, said a letter in Monday's Daily Digest.