Changes at the FCC: Chairman Brendan Carr names Eduard Bartholme, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, and Jonathan McCormack, Broadband Data Task Force, co-chairs of the Broadband Data Task Force, replacing Jean Kiddoo, retiring; Hillary DeNigro, Media Bureau, tapped as chair of the Incentive Auction Task Force, also replacing Kiddoo; Jill Coogan, Public Safety Bureau, retires; Patricia Goff, Office of Engineering and Technology, retires; Commissioner Olivia Trusty appoints Krista Senell, Office of Engineering and Technology, as her chief of staff/senior counsel; William Holloway, Broadband Data Task Force, and Jessica Kinsey, Enforcement Bureau, as acting legal advisers; and Andi Roane, office of former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, as acting confidential assistant ... National Emergency Number Association board elects: Lee Ann Magoski, Monterey County (California) Emergency Communications Department (president); Roxanne Van Gundy, Lyon County (Kansas) Emergency Communications Center (first vice president); Cassie Lowery, Rutherford County (Tennessee) Emergency Communications District (second vice president); Melanie Jones, Guilford (North Carolina) Metro 911 (immediate past president); Mark Fletcher, RapidSOS; Leah Hornacek, Aurelian; Stephanie Johnson, Ada County (Idaho) Sheriff’s Office; Holly Barkwell, Barkwell Holland Group; and Karin Marquez, RapidSOS … Nokia Chief Legal Officer Esa Niinimaki will serve as interim chief people officer, replacing Lorna Gibb, leaving to pursue another opportunity; recruitment has begun for Gibbs' successor ... CTIA adds Vijesh Mehta, EZ Texting, to its board.
President Donald Trump made repeated calls on social media this week for reporters from CNN and the New York Times to be fired over their reporting on the U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear program Sunday. “FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
NCTA wants the FCC to seek comment on future broadcaster requests for waiver of the top-four ownership prohibition with stand-alone, transaction-specific public notices, rather than burying the notice in lists of other proceedings, the MVPD group said in an ex parte letter posted in docket 18-349 Thursday. NCTA pointed to a Media Bureau order in June granting a request for such a waiver from Imagicomm Greenwood, which noted that the application was unopposed. “This is not surprising, given that the Commission did not expressly seek comment on the applicant’s request for waiver of the Top-4 Rule,” NCTA said. “Rather, the Commission included these applications on a 31-page Public Notice along with 154 other items even though Top-4 waiver applications are not run-of-the-mill requests routinely included in general public notices.” When it adopted the waiver process in 2017, the FCC said the case-by-case review would allow affected parties to “advance any relevant concerns,” NCTA said. A stand-alone, transaction-specific notice would better comport with the prior commission’s assurances, the group said.
Comments are due July 11 in docket 25-202 on CenturyLink Communications’ application to discontinue legacy voice services in communities in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wisconsin, said a public notice in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The application will be granted automatically July 27, unless the FCC notifies CenturyLink otherwise.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday that he's “open-minded” about the result of the agency’s proceeding on modifying the national broadcast-ownership cap (see 2506180082), while Commissioner Anna Gomez denounced it as “a sweeping effort to tip the scales even further in favor of a handful of powerful corporations.” Gomez said she knows broadcasters are facing economic pressures and the FCC may need to provide relief, “but this is where we need a scalpel, not a chain saw.” Broadcast officials told us that keeping the ownership cap in place only for network-owned stations -- as the public notice suggests -- could make the rule change more vulnerable in court.
As the FCC commissioners voted up a trio of regulatory items Thursday, Chairman Brendan Carr was predicting "a very, very busy" July and August, with a greater focus on accelerating infrastructure buildouts and freeing up spectrum. Approved at the agency's June meeting were orders streamlining cable TV rate regulation and axing the professional engineer certification requirement for the biannual broadband data collection filings, as well as an NPRM proposing to end the requirement that telecommunications relay services providers support the now-obsolete ASCII transmission format. Thursday's meeting was the first for Republican Commissioner Olivia Trusty, who was sworn in Monday (see 2506230057). With Carr now having a two-person Republican majority, agency watchers anticipate that it will ramp up more substantive work aligned with his agenda (see 2506200052).
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has granted certification for several companies to provide video relay service (VRS) and IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) supported by the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service Fund, said three public notices Wednesday. Sorenson Communications, which is majority-owned by Ariel GP Holdco, was granted certification to provide VRS and is eligible for TRS compensation through June 24, 2030. CaptionCall, also owned by Ariel GP, was certified to provide IP CTS with TRS compensation for the same five-year period. NexTalk Software, owned by Solen Ventures, was granted a conditional certification to provide IP CTS. NexTalk will be eligible for TRS fund compensation when the FCC takes action on its application for full certification, the notice said. “We find it to be in the public interest to grant such conditional certification pending a full determination of NexTalk Software’s qualifications.”
Cisco Systems continues to lobby the FCC 10th floor regarding its proposal that the commission end rules that prevent use of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi on cruise ships. In a docket 18-295 filing Wednesday, it recapped a meeting with an aide to Chairman Brendan Carr, during which it argued that earth exploration satellite services migrating out of the 6 GHz band make obsolete the agency's prohibition on 6 GHz low-power indoor access points on boats to protect EESS. Cisco had similar talks with Commissioner Anna Gomez earlier this month (see 2506170061).
Rebuilding parts of Brightspeed's Tennessee network swept away by September's Hurricane Helene is largely done, with the rest of the restoration work to be completed in Q3, the fiber operator told the FCC in a filing posted Wednesday (docket 24-702). Flooding impaired voice service for 309 customers -- many of whom also lost homes. It said new fiber deployment is complete, with work now focused on connecting customers to the new network.
The FCC Wireline Bureau could use $129 million in leftover funds “to fully satisfy demand for Rural Health Care Program funding” for 2025, said a public notice Wednesday. The FCC’s rules for the RHC Program “establish a process to carry forward unused funds from past funding years for use in future funding years.”