What will come out of the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding is hard to say at this point, since it builds on other FCC efforts to cut regulations, experts said during a webinar Wednesday by the Center for Business and Public Policy at Georgetown University. The FCC has logged more than 1,100 comments so far in docket 25-133, with replies due this week (see 2504290054 and 2504290038).
The FCC will consider rules growing out of last year’s “bad lab” NPRM during the commission’s May 22 meeting, Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday. Also on the agenda are foreign-ownership rules and an NPRM about spectrum for satellite broadband. Drafts will be posted Thursday.
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty on a bipartisan vote Wednesday, as expected (see 2504290058), but Democrats made clear they won't allow a smooth confirmation process on the floor unless the Trump administration commits to picking a party-affiliated candidate to replace retiring Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. Ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and five other panel Democrats voted for Trusty on Wednesday, even as misgivings about Starks' replacement and the FCC's independence during the Trump administration led seven caucus members to vote against the nominee.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr names Joseph Calascione, ex-Akin Gump and FCC, Wireline Bureau chief, replacing acting Chief Trent Harkrader ... Vonage promotes Seckin Arikan to COO; Christophe Van de Weyer, formerly Proximus Group, replaces him as president and head of business unit API … Changes at TowerCom: George Davis promoted to CEO; Matt Richard to CFO, replacing Dave Olson, a board member; Chip Bulloch to senior vice president-East, a new position; John Stevens, ex-Boingo Wireless, joins as regional vice president-West, replacing Chris Colton, deceased ... Correction: Trent Harkrader, who has stepped down as acting FCC Wireless Bureau chief, has been at the agency since 1999 (see 2504280019).
EchoStar's Hughes subsidiary has reached Jupiter 3 coordination agreements with SpaceX and other non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite operators, but talks with Amazon about its Kuiper constellation continue, EchoStar told the FCC Space Bureau in a filing posted Tuesday. The coordination agreements -- to ensure that Jupiter 3 operations at 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz don't cause harmful interference -- were a condition of the approval of the satellite, which launched in 2023. EchoStar said it has met with Kuiper and the FCC on multiple occasions in coordination discussions. With the coordination agreement to be reached at least 60 days before launch of the NGSO system, EchoStar said it was submitting to the FCC its interference protection plan for Kuiper operations at 18.8-19.3 GHz and 28.6-29.1 GHz. The inaugural batch of Kuiper's satellites intended for commercial broadband service launched Monday and "were operating as expected in low earth orbit," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote Tuesday on X.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez hopes broadcasters “will show courage” in the face of FCC threats against free speech and a free press, she said Monday in an interview on CNN. “The danger of any kind of capitulation by any entity that capitulates to demands to censor or chill speech is it breeds further capitulation,” she said. “It is my hope, in fact, that we will see more courage, and we will see more pushback against this administration.” She also said there's no evidence that CBS violated FCC news distortion rules.
New CTIA President Ajit Pai, former chairman of the FCC, met with Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington and their aides, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 25-59. Pai previously met with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr (see 2504230015).
One change of note in the 37 GHz order and Further NPRM approved 4-0 on Monday by the FCC (see 2504280032), when compared with the draft version, is the addition of language on the development of a dynamic spectrum management system (DSMS) in the band. The FCC posted the approved item Tuesday. It “does not foreclose the adoption of a DSMS in the future,” the FNPRM now says: “We seek comment on the possibility of replacing the coordination framework we adopt today with a DSMS. What metrics might the Commission use to determine that use of the 37 GHz band has reached sufficient scale to merit further exploration of adopting a DSMS to coordinate use of the band?”
CTIA urged the FCC to schedule an AWS-3 reauction without delay and dismiss calls for a tribal licensing window, according to reply comments on a March public notice on FCC bidding procedures. The record that’s been developed “demonstrates broad support for the Commission’s proposed procedures, including the efficient, time-tested Clock-1 auction format,” CTIA said this week in docket 25-117. In initial comments, the group disagreed sharply with tribal interests that urged a tribal window (see 2504110040).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced Tuesday that one of his former aides, Joseph Calascione, is returning to the FCC as chief of the Wireline Bureau. The announcement comes the day after Carr said acting Chief Trent Harkrader is leaving the agency after 26 years (see 2504280019). Calascione joined Akin Gump in early 2022. He previously served for 20 months as an acting legal adviser to Carr. “His legal and policy expertise on wireline and other communications issues will enable the FCC to modernize its regulatory frameworks” and “unleash economic opportunity,” Carr said.