FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington wants to reassign staff at the Media Bureau, “slash” the USF and streamline FCC licensing, he said in a column in The Daily Caller Friday, co-authored with new Chief of Staff Gavin Wax. The FCC “is a prime candidate for [Department of Government Efficiency]-style reform,” they said in the column.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told former Breitbart executive Steve Bannon in an appearance on Bannon’s podcast Friday that China is using 5G to surpass the U.S. in industrial automation and that President Donald Trump’s confidence in Chairman Brendan Carr is “fully justified.” Deployment of 5G in China is “not that much consumer” but “lots in the industrial sector, lots of private networking that is just for running particular factories, medical facilities, logistics facilities, et cetera,” Simington said. “People always assume that China was going to be late to automate because they had such a large pool of unskilled, low-wage labor,” but it's “front-running this” and has a rate of robotics adoption seven times what was predicted, Simington said.

The FCC on Friday approved waivers for Ericsson and Samsung Electronics America to offer dual-band radios that operate across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum. Samsung filed its waiver request last year, and Ericsson, which already had a waiver, sought a second that parallels Samsung's request (see 2303170044). NCTA and WISPA raised concerns, which the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology addressed in the order.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Thursday that his “expectation” remains that President Donald Trump will move on minority party nominees to the FCC and other commissions, despite Democrats’ concerns that the administration will choose to leave such seats empty (see 2504010053). Several Senate Commerce Committee Democrats who voted Wednesday to advance Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty said they won’t back her final confirmation unless the Trump administration commits to maintaining Democratic FCC seats, including picking a party-affiliated nominee to succeed retiring Commissioner Geoffrey Starks (see 2504300047).

CTIA urged the FCC to move aggressively to promote full-powered licensed use of 4 and 7/8 GHz spectrum ahead of the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027. The Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC), EchoStar and Kuiper Systems also responded to an FCC notice seeking comment on positions that the FCC’s WRC Advisory Committee approved last month (see 2504150032).

Major communications trade groups filed a petition Thursday asking the FCC for a rulemaking on its enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision about whether federal regulatory agencies can bring in-house proceedings to enforce civil penalties. CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association filed the petition.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said in a podcast interview Tuesday that for the U.S. to compete effectively with China, it needs to remove regulatory barriers to industry. China has given companies such as Huawei “an open door” to acquire land, receive research and development grants, and hire non-Chinese workers, Simington said on Dinesh D’Souza's podcast. In 2024, D’Souza’s book and film questioning the 2020 election -- both called 2000 Mules -- were removed by publisher and broadcaster Salem Media from all platforms after their depictions of voter fraud were found to be false (see 2405310069).

The FCC listed freeing spectrum, facilitating the space application review process and sending warning letters to broadcast networks and tech companies as accomplishments in a news release Tuesday touting its work during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

CPB and Democratic board members Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan sued the Trump administration Tuesday, claiming their Monday dismissal was illegal. In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in docket 25-01305, they said Trent Morse, the White House deputy director-presidential personnel, emailed them Monday that President Donald Trump “had purportedly terminated their positions on the Board.” Morse’s email, included in the filing, told the three that they were “terminated effective immediately.” White House action against the board members came as Trump geared up to send Congress a spending rescissions package, which officials have said will call for rolling back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding (see 2504150052).

A journalist and public interest group have sued the FCC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the agency to release records related to the Department of Government Efficiency. Nina Burleigh, a contributor to The New Republic and The New York Times, and Frequency Forward jointly asked the court to require the FCC to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for records on DOGE’s activities at the agency. The FCC hasn’t answered the March 4 request, the complaint said, even though a response was due March 24. DOGE’s efforts could create a conflict of interest because FCC regulatee Starlink and DOGE are controlled by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the complaint said. Starlink has requested Rural Digital Opportunity Fund dollars, and information accessed by DOGE could give Musk an unfair advantage, it said. “No apparent effort has been made to segregate Musk from the FCC’s decision-making process.” Frequency Forward is a newly created group based out of the office of Smithwick & Belendiuk, which is representing the group in both the FOIA matter and a recent petition against Sinclair (see 2504150056).