Cooley adds partners to communications regulatory practice: Tony Lin, from DLA Piper, and Ronald Del Sesto and Tamar Finn, both from Morgan Lewis … TechNet appoints Ballina Strategic Communications founder April Mellody as senior vice president-communications … Pennsylvania Senate confirms Public Utility Commissioner Ralph Yanora to second five-year term.

Work remains before open radio access networks are viable worldwide, Sarah Morris, deputy NTIA administrator, warned Tuesday. Among the gaps are “consistent, repeatable and open RAN testing and speeding the pace of commercial-scale deployments,” Morris said during the opening NTIA’s first International ORAN Symposium, taking place this week in Golden, Colorado.

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.

The FCC Precision Ag Task Force will meet virtually Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. EDT, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The group will hear updates from working group leadership and edit its draft executive summary of the group's report to the FCC.

The FCC’s three-year, $200 million cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries will likely be highly competitive, with lots of interest nationally, Julia Legg, account manager at E-Rate Central, predicted on Wednesday during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar. SHLB received dozens of questions about program details during the webinar. The FCC wants to fund as many eligible schools, libraries and consortiums as possible, including “those that include tribal entities, and a mix of large and small, urban and rural” programs, Legg said. All the details haven’t been published on reporting requirements, but a baseline report will be required in year one, with annual reports due within 60 days of the end of the year, she said. Applicants disagreeing with a decision have 30 days to appeal, half the time normally available for E-rate appeals, she said. Allison Baker, associate chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau, said the agency will accept applications from entities not participating in the E-rate program, but they must be eligible for it. Sue McNeil, chief of the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, warned potential applicants that failure to file a complete Part 2 application could mean being removed from the pilot and potentially being referred to the Enforcement Bureau: “Nobody wants that.” Some 30 questions raised in the webinar that weren't answered will be addressed during an Oct. 2 SHLB workshop, said John Windhausen, SHLB executive director. The FCC approved the pilot program 3-2 in June with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043). The initial window to apply for the program opens Sept. 17 and closes Nov. 1 (see 2409040036).

Patti Kukula, executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, withdrew a filing at the FCC made in August opposing FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2408290015). The filing "is not reflective” of the foundation’s “position or stance on this public safety communications matter,” said the new filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. “The submission of the Foundation’s original filing did not adhere to our organization’s process for review,” Kukula said. The foundation was “operating on an incomplete set of facts regarding this regulatory proceeding and a mistaken assumption regarding the proposal.”

GSMA said the group’s board selected Vivek Badrinath as director general and member of the board, effective April 1, replacing Mats Granryd. Badrinath comes to GSMA from Vantage Towers, where he was CEO. Previously he was an executive at Vodafone and Orange. The announcement of Badrinath followed a “rigorous selection process,” said GSMA, which produces the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona each year. In addition, it produces regional conferences, including a version in Las Vegas each fall with CTIA. “During our selection process it was clear that Vivek’s deep understanding of the industry and its potential make him the ideal individual to lead the GSMA into the next phase of its evolution,” said Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete Lopez, GSMA chair. Granryd will stay in the position through April 1 and become a special adviser to the board for the remainder of 2025, the Monday announcement said.

Google abused its dominant position in several European online search markets and must pay a fine of about $2.7 billion (2.4 billion euros), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Tuesday. The decision is a "pivotal shift" in how digital companies are regulated, said EC Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager at a briefing. It highlights the power of EU competition law, some observers said. Google termed the ruling disappointing. The European Commission determined the amount of the fine.

House Communications Subcommittee members traded partisan barbs about NTIA’s implementation of the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, as expected (see 2409040040). Republicans delivered most of the criticism, in part blasting NTIA for what they view as an unnecessarily long timeline for rolling out the money. House Commerce Committee panel GOP leaders launched a probe in July of NTIA’s BEAD-related communications with state broadband offices (see 2407090057). Democrats defended NTIA’s management of the program and blasted GOP lawmakers for obstructing recent broadband funding efforts.

Wireless carriers are unlikely to “get more promotional in a way that would drive demand for the iPhone” following Monday’s release of the iPhone 16, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Monday. “The big question is whether there will be organic demand for the device that will drive an upgrade cycle; based on the comments from industry executives and the extensive work done by our Global Tech team … we think the answer is ‘no,’ but we’ll be watching for clues to the contrary,” Chaplin said.