FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, back from a whirlwind trip to Taiwan last week (see 2211020037), said the trip was a success. His goal, in part, was to “play a small role in continuing to deepen the partnership and ties between the U.S., particularly coming on the heels of last month’s Communist Party confab in Beijing,” Carr said in an interview Monday. Chinese leader Xi Jinping “continues to saber rattle and put force on the table when it comes to Taiwan,” he said: “In my view, a free and democratic Taiwan is vital to U.S. economic interest and to our national security interests. I think it’s important for all of us to continue to show support.” That support “helps Taiwan show strength and that’s a good thing for stability,” he said. Carr also said he met with officials at the National Communications Commission, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after meeting virtually with the country’s regulators earlier in the year. “It’s important to continue to collaborate and share our two countries’ approaches when it comes to cybersecurity and network resiliency, undersea cable issues,” he said. “I focused a lot on those issues when I was there,” he said. Carr said he spent part of one day in Hsinchu, home to Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. More than 90% of more advanced chips are “manufactured right there on the island,” he said. “The role that Taiwan plays in our semiconductor industry right now and our supply chain is irreplaceable,” he said. There probably won’t be another place to get that type of advanced chipset “for probably decades to come, in terms of the breadth and depth and long-term investments necessary,” he said. The $54.2 billion Chips and Science Act, signed into law in August (see 2208090062), will help build manufacturing facilities in the U.S., but “the reality is you can’t replicate the advanced nature of the work that’s in Taiwan outside of Taiwan at this point in time,” he said. As soon as Xi calculates that China’s military capacity is greater than that of Taiwan, plus its allies, the Chinese leader will “probably make a move on Taiwan,” Carr said. “The more we can do to show our collaboration and partnerships with Taiwan, the more likely it is that we achieve cross-[Taiwan] Strait peace,” he said.
Some broadcasters are seeing lower than expected political advertising and possible continued shortages in the auto industry, plus are certain how an economic downturn will affect their businesses, executives from iHeartMedia, Gray Television and Sinclair Broadcast said on Q3 earnings calls this week. “We are truly disappointed that several unexpected factors will keep us from hitting our previous guidance” on political advertising for 2022, said Gray co-CEO Hilton Howell, noting the results for Q3 are still up 30% from political ad results for Q3 2018, the last midterm election year.
Canada’s Semiconductor Council names Paul Slaby, ex-Nortel, managing director ... Data loss prevention company Next DLP names HelpSystems’ Connie Stack CEO ... DataOps cloud provider Y42 names Jules Cantwell, ex-Qualtrics, president, with Max Herrmann, ex-Swim.ai, joining as senior vice president-marketing5G routing company Arrcus taps former Cisco, Citrix, Ericsson and Motorola executive Ashutosh Sharma as head-engineering, India ... JupiterOne names Sacha Faust, ex-Amazon, chief innovation officer, and Sean Catlett, ex-Slack, general manager-Europe, Middle East and Africa … Arm adds Nest founder-former CEO Tony Fadell, also ex-Apple, to its board.
Latham & Watkins announces promotions including for Intellectual Property Litigation Practice: Michelle Ernst and Britt Lovejoy to partners and Allison Blanco and Gabrielle LaHatte to counsel; for Connectivity, Privacy and Information: Elana Nightingale Dawson to partner; and for Mergers and Acquisitions Practice: Caitlin O’Brien, Mariclaire Petty and Matthew Villar to partners and Alyssa Galinsky, Benjamin Lee, Alexandra Welch McArthur, Gloria Ring, Emily Stegich, Tara Tavernia, Thomas Verity and Stefanie Vincent to counsel, all effective Jan. 1 … Nexstar's CW Network names Pop TV’s Brad Schwartz president-entertainment, effective Monday; and Nexstar Media's Beth Feldman, executive director-communication, Networks Division, adds to her portfolio senior vice president-network communication, replacing Paul Hewitt, leaving CW after 22 years.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, long a critic of China, said Wednesday he's in Taiwan for a series of meetings. Carr said this is the first time a commission member has visited that nation. “Over two days, Carr will meet with his Taiwan counterparts, including officials at the National Communications Commission, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and “convene meetings with stakeholders in the tech and telecom sectors,” said a news release: “Events will focus on collaboration in the areas of network resiliency, cybersecurity, and 5G, as well as the benefits that Taiwan and America realize from strong, bilateral ties.” Carr also is holding meetings in Hsinchu, the center of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
Companies in the developing world are looking to spectrum sharing and new models for accessing the internet because old models have left many unserved, speakers said Wednesday at IEEE’s virtual Connecting the Unconnected Summit. Experts said just having access to a simple phone can transform how people live.
Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy names former FCBA President Natalie Roisman, ex-Wilkinson Barker, executive director … Ross Lieberman, ex-ACA Connects, joins Hotwire Communications as senior vice president-government affairs … Cybersecurity company Absolute Software names Jim Lejeal, ex-VictorOps, chief financial officer, effective Dec. 5, replacing interim CFO Ron Fior, and Samir Sherif, ex-Imperva, chief information security officer, effective immediately ... Paramount unit BET names as senior vice presidents Simone Oliver, ex-Refinery29, for digital content, and Jason Odom, ex-MotorTrend, for digital operations … Web3 intelligence company AnChain.AI adds Andreessen Horowitz's Scott Walker, former SEC digital asset examiner and counsel, as a strategic adviser ... Semiconductor equipment and services supplier Cohu adds former Coherent CEO Andy Mattes to its board, effective Tuesday.
Omnicom Group names MediaLink’s Kathleen Saxton chief marketing officer, newly created position, effective Jan. 1 ... Eutelsat Secretary and Group General Counsel Julie Burguburu to step down, succeeded by David Bertolotti, director-institutional and international affairs, both effective Dec. 12 ... Customer experience intelligence platform Disqo adds Nicholas Weaver, ex-Google, as vice president-engineering ... Global Semiconductor Alliance adds Meta Vice President-Infrastructure Alexis Bjorlin to its board.
State telecom regulation is needed to reach rural areas, two Democrats running for utility commissions in red states said in interviews ahead of Nov. 8 elections. Facing one such challenge, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Chair Chris Nelson (R) told us his state has made “tremendous progress” rolling out broadband in recent years. Alabama, New Mexico and some Colorado voters will have ballot questions on broadband next month.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is “aware of” reports Huawei is attempting to circumvent U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports to the company by providing money for Chinese startup Pengxinwei (PXW) IC Manufacturing to build a chip manufacturing plant in Shenzhen that’s expected to largely distribute its products to Huawei, a department official said Tuesday. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio of Florida and four other GOP senators urged President Joe Biden Monday to “halt” the PXW construction plans (see 2210170078) and Commerce is “working with the White House” to respond to those concerns, a spokesperson said: “BIS is conducting a review of existing policies related to China and will potentially seek to employ a variety of legal, regulatory, and, when relevant, enforcement tools to keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands.” The bureau is “taking a comprehensive approach to implement additional actions necessary related to technologies, end-uses, and end-users to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests,” the spokesperson said.