Shareholders at major communications, media and tech companies are increasingly grappling with diversity, equity and inclusion questions, as is evident from numerous DEI-related shareholder proposals on the agendas of companies' latest annual meetings. The increased shareholder activism around DEI isn't limited to tech and communications, as the 2025 proxy season is experiencing a jump in proposals seeking to roll back or limit those corporate efforts, according to the Conference Board.
Carrier groups urged the FCC to move cautiously as it updates its Part 36 separations rules, which haven’t seen a major overhaul for more than 35 years. The rules remain important for many small providers, they noted in comments due Wednesday in docket 80-286. The FCC also has the ongoing “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding, which is examining eliminating rules of all kinds (see 2504140046 and 2504140063).
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez condemned the agency’s threats against broadcast networks and warned that a loss of its independence could hurt internationally. Gomez delivered remarks during a Center for Democracy & Technology event Thursday in Washington. It was the first stop on what Gomez called a “1st Amendment Tour” in a release earlier this week. “I'm embarking on a tour to talk about this administration's efforts of censor and control, because we need people to understand what's happening, and we need them to speak out,” she said Thursday. “We are in an alarming moment, and I am not someone who is generally alarmist.”
Jeremy Marcus, ex-FCC Enforcement Bureau, joins Lerman Senter ... SurgePays promotes Derron Winfrey to president-sales and operations ... Plume, maker of a SaaS platform for communications service providers, names Daniel Herscovici, ex-Edison Partners, as president and CEO ... EuNetworks Group appoints Marisa Trisolino, formerly CMC Networks, as CEO, while interim CEO Kevin Dean becomes chairman, both effective May 12 ... Thrive appoints Kimberly Saturley, formerly Aqua Security, chief people officer.
EchoStar's application for review of the out-of-band emissions (OOBE) limit waiver granted to SpaceX (see 2504080029) makes a "fact-free argument" and overlooks the FCC Space and Wireless bureaus' rationale, SpaceX said Wednesday (docket 23-135). SpaceX said the waiver, for its supplemental coverage from space operations in the PCS G block, was based on technical evidence in the record, but EchoStar never submitted any technical analysis of its own. EchoStar’s insistence that the FCC setting an OOBE limit precludes a waiver in appropriate circumstances would do away with the waiver rule itself, SpaceX said. The company also recapped conditions put on the waiver to protect adjacent-band terrestrial networks.
The FCC should end its freeze on major changes for low-power TV stations and loosen restrictions on power levels, said the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance in a filing Wednesday documenting an ex parte meeting Monday with Erin Boone, acting Media Bureau chief and senior counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “The time is ripe to allow LPTV stations to improve the service they provide to local communities,” the filing said. The agency shouldn’t impose additional recordkeeping requirements on LPTV stations proposed in an NPRM last year, the alliance said (see 2406060028). “The ATBA encouraged the FCC to formally terminate this proceeding.” It also expressed support for the NAB’s ATSC 3.0 transition plan and urged the FCC to look into providing displacement protection for LPTV stations that provide “local services.”
The Wi-Fi Alliance on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the FCC's controversial order opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use (see 2004230059). “The 6 GHz band has played a critical role in enabling next-generation Wi-Fi -- driving the global rollout of Wi-Fi 7 -- by relieving network congestion and expanding high-performance connectivity,” the alliance said: Since the FCC order was approved, “billions of 6 GHz Wi-Fi devices have entered the market, underscoring the rapid adoption and far-reaching benefits of forward-looking spectrum policy.”
The U.S. National Grid Institute urged the FCC to direct wireless carriers to change how they report the location of wireless calls to 911. They should “replace all references to civic (street) addresses and to latitude and longitude in reporting the horizontal component of incident locations with the term ‘U.S. National Grid geoaddress,’” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Such geoaddresses “provide an unambiguous way to describe locations in areas away from established road networks, or those involving a natural disaster where road signs have been destroyed,” the group said.
Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, now president of CTIA, met this week with his former aide, current Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr rose to general counsel and then commissioner under Pai. “Terrific meeting with @BrendanCarrFCC,” Pai said Tuesday night on X. “He’s been a leader on wireless issues since his earliest days as a Commissioner and has charted an ambitious course upon taking the reins as @FCC Chairman earlier this year. Excited to work with him and his team on extending U.S. leadership!”
The FCC sent letters to Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar, Charter, Comcast, Altice, Cox and Mediacom asking for internal data as the agency finalizes an order on T-Mobile’s proposed buy of wireless assets, including spectrum, from UScellular. The FCC has in the past sought such data to get a broader view of the market as it considers a transaction. The letters, which came from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, were posted in Wednesday’s Daily Digest and in docket 24-286.