CTIA announced Thursday that President-CEO Meredith Baker will step down next year, with the expiration of her contract. Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a partner at private-equity firm Searchlight Capital, is among the early rumored candidates to succeed her. Speculation has also surrounded Brad Gillen, a CTIA executive vice president who joined the group 10 years ago and also worked for Baker when she was an FCC commissioner. Pai declined comment Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision doing away with Chevron deference won’t grind the next FCC to a halt but could prompt congressional action on the USF, former FCC officials said during panel discussions Thursday at Broadband Breakfast’s "Broadband in the Trump Administration" event.

NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said during a Thursday Broadband Breakfast event he intends to resign Jan. 20, declaring the day President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to office as the end of his leadership of the agency. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel plans on leaving the same day (see 2411210028). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and some other event participants predicted potential changes in NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program once Republicans have unified control of government upon Trump’s inauguration, but suggested it’s less clear how spectrum policymaking may change next year.

Communications industry lobbyists told us they expect President-elect Donald Trump to soon follow his pair of Tuesday night FTC selections (see 2412100073) with a nominee for the FCC seat Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel plans to vacate Jan. 20. The lobbyists mentioned Arielle Roth, telecom policy director for Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as the apparent front-runner for the nomination, though the Trump team hasn’t yet made a final decision. Trump said Tuesday he’s picking Republican FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as permanent chair of the commission and will nominate Mark Meador, a former antitrust staffer for Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah., to the commission seat that Chair Lina Khan currently holds.

Sirius XM appoints Wayne Thorsen, ex-ADT Inc., as executive vice president-COO, effective Dec. 16 ... Cybersecurity company Forcepoint appoints Rick Hanson, ex-Delinea, as president-Go-to-Market ... SMS platform Community names Jeremy Schultz, ex-Uberflip, as CEO ... Cybersecurity company Exabeam appoints Mike Byron, ex-Mimecast, as chief financial officer ... Managed Services Provider Node4 names Richard Moseley, ex-Rapid7, as CEO succeeding Andy Gilbert, transitioning to president and board member; transition to be complete early 2025.

The prospects for achieving broadcast ownership deregulation are “better than at any point in the recent past” under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook in a Q&A during the UBS Global Communications Conference. Sook said Monday he expects a congressional effort will scrap the 39% broadcast ownership cap and implement internal FCC changes that will ease rules on broadcasters within the first six months of the new administration. Incoming FCC head and current Commissioner Brendan Carr “gets it,” Sook said. “We've been in contact with him, and will continue to be in close contact.” Sook said that Carr’s repeated statements on taking away broadcast licenses and holding broadcasters to a public interest standard are aimed at NBC, CBS and ABC. “I think there is some animus or frustration with some of the networks for some of their content decisions.” However, Sook downplayed the threat. “FCC chairmen can't really unilaterally revoke licenses,” he said. “Now you can use your pulpit to commence hearings ... and ... make people's lives more expensive and more difficult, but unilaterally removing licenses is not really within the cards.” Along with Carr, Sook said Nexstar discussed deregulation with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. Unlike previous pushes to change the national cap, the broadcast TV groups support completely removing it this time, Sook said. “The industry itself is united around the need and not divided as to what the right number is.” Carr could spur TV market consolidation simply by signaling that waivers allowing top-four duopolies would be more liberally granted, Sook said, adding it’s a move he could make without a majority at the commission. Sook is also looking to Carr to eliminate the simulcast requirement for the ATSC 3.0 transition and establish a date certain to end ATSC 1.0. “We are spending time working with both the legislative and the executive branch to try and affect these changes.”

Private-sector communications companies interpret the record in the FCC's proposed customer service standards proceeding as going against the agency, while states and localities say the need for agency action is clear. That according to docket 24-472 reply comments this week. Industry groups pushed back against the NOI's proposals in initial comments last month (see 2411250020). In comments posted Tuesday, Mosaicx said tech such as virtual assistants and interactive voice response can be tailored to meet service providers' customer service needs. Accordingly, the FCC should let these technologies continue evolving, giving industry flexibility to tackle customers' needs. While many communications providers have "problematic" customer service practices, the FCC shouldn't proceed with a rulemaking, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said. This would add unneeded customer service regulations and administrative burdens on entities, with rural electric coops "a prime example," it said. Applauding the NOI, 15 state attorneys general said it's valid for the FCC to consider extending cable customer service rules to cover satellite TV, voice and broadband service providers. They added that changing technologies mean there are decreasingly few distinctions between customer service needs of various providers. Accordingly, they urged the FCC to require that customer calls are recorded and that customers may request the recordings. In addition, missed service appointments is an issue that cries out for solutions, the attorneys general argued. Signing the filing were the AGs of Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia. The cable industry's argument that customer service rules are unnecessary because market forces and competition ensure good customer service ignores the fact that cable operators don't always provide good customer service, said Fairfax County, Virginia, which applauded the proceeding. "The market forces on which the industry relies consist of corporate executives wondering whether spending serious money to improve customer service would capture enough new customers to justify the costs," it said.

AT&T CEO John Stankey anticipates a pro-growth administration and FCC with the inauguration of Donald Trump in January. During a UBS financial conference Tuesday, Stankey noted a “pro-investment dynamic” in Trump’s first term. Cutting taxes “worked” and led AT&T to make record investments in its network. Stankey said he knows Brendan Carr, tapped to lead the FCC next year, and expects him to be aggressive on making more spectrum available for carriers and on other issues important to AT&T. “He believes markets solve a lot of problems,” Stankey said of Carr: “Certainly, he's fairly public with his point of view.” AT&T plans accelerating its push to replace copper lines with updated technology, he said. “We've been working on filing in certain wire centers to show that we can move completely off of legacy technology and meet the needs of customers with newer technologies.” He added, “I'm comfortable we're moving into this at the right time.” The current FCC hasn’t opposed to the transition, “they've just been cautious,” Stankey said. Chris Sambar, a former AT&T executive, said in May the company spends $10 billion annually maintaining millions of miles of copper wires, of which only 5% remain in use (see 2405210059).

Many questions remain about how the U.S. Supreme Court will decide FCC v. Consumers’ Research, lawyers involved in the case said Tuesday during an FCBA webinar. The USF case is expected to be heard in the spring. SCOTUS decided last month to hear a challenge to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which found the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.

ExteNet Systems executives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez on concerns raised by the December 2023 pole attachment Further NPRM (see 2402140048). The company deploys and operates distributed mobile infrastructure. ExteNet supports streamlining the rules but is concerned “that comments from some, such as the Coalition for Concerned Utilities, indicate a desire to rollback the progress made on pole attachments, including those rules related to transparency and communication,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84. “Rolling back these provisions will increase delays and prevent consumers from receiving the wireless services they need,” ExteNet said.