While 5G network slicing has gotten the most attention, it hasn’t proved to be successful in most cases, and fiber slicing may have more promise, said Nick Saporito, executive director at GFiber Labs, during a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday. Also at the event, FBA CEO Gary Bolton said early indications show that fiber will play an important role in the restructured BEAD program.

The cable ISP industry has assembled a coalition of senior executives to combat vandalism and other damage to communications networks. Chairing the Strategic Threat Response & Infrastructure Knowledge Exchange (STRIKE) is Comcast Chief Network Officer Elad Nafshi. Tom Monaghan, Charter Communications' executive vice president of field operations, is vice chairman. NCTA and CableLabs subsidiary SCTE, which are spearheading STRIKE, said members also include Altice USA, Cable One, Cox, Mediacom, Rogers and GCI.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday circulated two items targeting programs created under the Biden administration to fund Wi-Fi hot spots and Wi-Fi on school buses. Commissioner Anna Gomez immediately indicated she opposed cutting the programs, which have long been lightning rods for Republican objections.

EchoStar is asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to require the FCC to change rules in the AWS-3 auction order that commissioners approved in July (see 2507240055). In the order, the FCC rejected arguments by EchoStar, parent of Dish Network, that the agency should use the same designated entity (DE) rules in the reauction that it employed in the original (see 2507220033).

Some federal agencies could struggle to meet the large reform agenda laid out in the White House's space launch executive order issued earlier this month (see 2508140004), Pillsbury space lawyer Jodi Goldberg wrote last week. Some agencies mentioned in the order have experienced budget and staffing cuts in recent months, with more potentially coming, she said. The Department of Transportation and NASA -- key to the order's execution and the White House's space priorities -- are currently under the same leadership, she noted. "With fewer resources and a recalibration of institutional knowledge within the agencies, the Administration’s ability to deliver widescale meaningful reform in each area identified, and on the timeline set by the EO, may be an accomplishment on the same level as successfully launching a rocket to Mars."

New Environmental Health Trust (EHT) President Joe Sandri said he wants to popularize the idea that, similar to how cars are marketed based on their safety, wireless services and devices can be sold based on their safety in terms of RF exposure. Sandri was a longtime telecom executive who headed FiberTower, which was bought by AT&T, and IDT Spectrum, which Verizon ultimately absorbed. “I know a lot … from the perspective of an industry player,” he said. He was picked for the top job at EHT in August.

The Department of Commerce's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released summaries of two reports Thursday that were sharply critical of actions by the FirstNet Authority. One found that some FirstNet officials worked to block an OIG investigation, while the second found incidents of retaliation against a FirstNet employee who cooperated with OIG.

T-Mobile is making a number of changes at the top of its senior leadership team, the carrier said in a filing this week at the SEC. Board member Andre Almeida is leaving that role to become president of growth and emerging businesses, effective Monday. As such, he “will oversee the Company’s broadband, T-Ads, financial services, enterprise and government businesses,” T-Mobile said. Callie Field, president of the business group, is leaving Sept. 30 but will remain as an adviser through March.

The White House's commercial space launch executive order, issued earlier this month (see 2508140004), will likely lead to the elimination of duplicative analyses that the FAA and other government agencies do, Covington staffers wrote Sunday. Space Force already does extensive analyses, such as calculating the expected casualty risks for every launch mission, and the FAA has said it would defer to federal range-safety processes for launches from the Eastern and Western ranges, wrote Stephanie Barna, Alan Estevez and Ethan Syster. However, they added, in practice the FAA still certifies those Space Force results independently, meaning launch providers and their customers can face two layers of scrutiny for the same safety models and data, which can increase confusion and delay. The FAA's ongoing review of its Part 450 space launch rules, backed by the order, "could address these pain points."

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and its top executives were engaged in "straightforward ... securities fraud" when they concealed from investors how important NBA rights were to its revenues, class-action plaintiffs said Monday as they opposed the company's motion to dismiss their suit. While WBD argues that the market already knew the value of the NBA rights, the matching clause terms in its contract with the NBA was less "potent" than the company had made it out to be in public statements, the plaintiffs said. WBD CEO David Zaslav and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels are also defendants in the suit, filed in November at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York (docket 1:24-cv-09027). The plaintiffs are suing over the financial hit WBD took in 2024 when it lost NBA rights to Amazon.