Keith Schomig, ex-White & Case, named partner at Paul Hastings, focusing on national security reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. … Aalyria, advanced networking and laser communications tech company, appoints Comtech Telecommunications’ Maria Hedden as chief operating officer … Arteris, provider of semiconductor system IP for system-on-chips development, names Joachim Kunkel, Synopsys, to board …GeoLinks hires Mark Funaki, ex-Capstone Green Energy, as general counsel-corporate secretary … Air5, 5G tech company, adds Vinod Khosla founder Raj Singh to advisory board.
Lantronix announces resignation of CFO Jeremy Whitaker, appoints Controller Brent Stringham as interim CFO and names David McLennan, ex-Sierra Wireless, as adviser during the transition … Vecima Networks promotes Judd Schmid to CFO, succeeding Dale Booth, retiring … Lattice Semiconductor appoints Ford Tamer, ex-Inphi, CEO, replacing interim CEO Esam Elashmawi, who continues as chief strategy and marketing officer.
AI is “part of everything” and will only grow in importance, but the U.S. is falling behind other countries in developing AI policy, Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Thursday during the Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference. “Innovation and technology are moving forward and policy is falling further and further behind,” DelBene said. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Extended Reality Association (XR) sponsored the conference at the AT&T Forum.
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday the FCC should revoke Disney-owned ABC’s licenses after what many observers considered his poor presidential debate performance Tuesday night against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ nominee. Trump has repeatedly said broadcast networks and other entities should lose their ‘licenses’ over their coverage of him, including January comments that NBC and CNN are “crooked” and should “have their licenses or whatever they have taken away” (see 2401170050). Harris and Trump, the Republicans’ presidential nominee, briefly traded barbs during the evening about the U.S. tech leadership position with China.
America’s Public Television Stations promotes Kate Riley to president-CEO, effective Oct. 1 and succeeding Patrick Butler, retiring … New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) appoints Manny Barreras, ex-Motorola Solutions, as Department of Information Technology secretary … Kaya DeRose, ex-Maryland’s Charles County Circuit Court, joins TLP: Telecommunications Law Professionals as an associate … Lynk Global’s Dan Dooley rises to CEO, succeeding Charles Miller, who becomes chairman; and John Olson, retired U.S. Space Force, joins as president-strategic development … CrowdStrike cybersecurity company hires Kartik Shahani, ex-Tenable, as vice president-India and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation … National Content & Technology Cooperative elects Comporium's Karl Skroban as board chair, succeeding Vexus Fiber’s Elaine Partridge, who remains on board, and David Thacker, TVS Cable, as vice chair … Entegris, supplier of materials for semiconductor and high-technology industries, appoints Mary Puma, ex-Axcelis Technologies, to board.
China is ahead of the U.S. on many fronts in its plans to emerge as the world leader in 5G, and eventually 6G, experts warned Wednesday during a webcast by the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. The group released a paper urging that the U.S. reassert leadership in wireless technology.
Expect the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a major interpretation on Section 230 as lower courts continue to make conflicting rulings about social media platforms’ free speech rights, legal experts told us in interviews.
Skylo's direct-to-device partnership with Google for emergency messaging capabilities for the Pixel 9 phone (see 2408130067) could be the first of many for Skylo, which already has chip partnerships with Qualcomm, Samsung and Mediatek, William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma noted Wednesday. While Viasat is one of Skylo's main partners, the Pixel 9 partnership isn't material for Viasat, he said. For the Pixel 9 service, Skyo is largely layering direct-to-device connectivity atop Viasat's existing L-band network, he said.
Viasat ended its FY 2025 Q1 with 257,000 U.S. broadband subscribers, the company said as it announced earnings Wednesday. The number marked a notable drop from the 603,000 it had in 2020 -- the last time it reported that number, space consultant Tim Farrar posted Wednesday on X. "Between the emergence of Starlink, Viasat's delays with bringing new capacity online, and the 90% failure of ViaSat-3 F1 due to a botched antenna, this really was a perfect storm that sent consumer broadband subscribers packing," Quilty Space analyst Caleb Henry posted on X. Viasat said it ended the quarter with 3,750 connected aircraft customers, up 16% year over year, and a contracted backlog of another 1,460. In an earnings call with analysts, CEO Mark Dankberg said Viasat expects it will have 4,200 connected aircraft in service by the end of the fiscal year. Asked about the company's aims in direct-to-device service, Dankberg said it already supports emergency location and signaling devices and similar chips will be rolling out soon in handsets. President Guru Gowrappan said Viasat expects FY 2025 revenue will be flat compared with FY 2024's $4.5 billion and would have been up a handful of percentage points if not for the expected decline in U.S. fixed broadband associated with the ViaSat-3 F1 antenna anomaly. Viasat announced this week that the satellite began offering commercial service (see 2408050002). Dankberg said the company expects it can access about 10% of the satellite's capacity. He said when the other two ViasSat-3 satellites are launched, they will deploy to cover the Americas and East Asia and the impaired one will move to cover the Middle East and Africa. William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote Thursday that while aviation and government customer revenue remains strong, SpaceX's Starlink is pressuring Viasat in residential and maritime.
A case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Consumers' Research, et al. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, potentially has major implications for the FCC and FTC, and could permit a president to fire a commissioner at will, industry lawyers said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups are asking SCOTUS in amicus filings to grant the writ of certiorari from Consumers' Research.