The objective of Consumers' Research was getting a case about the Universal Service Fund contribution methodology before the U.S. Supreme Court. That case resulted in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' recent 9-7 en banc decision that found the contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax," legal experts said during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar Wednesday. The 5th Circuit remanded the contribution factor for Q1 2022 to the FCC for further work.

Serverless platform technology company DBOS appoints Jeremy Edberg, ex-Lambda, as CEO and to board ... Canadian mobile carrier Videotron and Freedom mobile promote Jean-Francois Lescadres to senior vice president-CFO and Jean Peladeau to senior vice president-chief marketing officer ... Senior Vice President-CFO Mike Lopez retiring from Ribbon Communications end of year ... FCC announces members of Communications, Equity and Diversity Council including Chair Heather Gate, Connected Nation executive vice president-digital inclusion; Vice Chairs Nicol Turner Lee, director-Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation, and Susan Au Allen, CEO-US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation; Digital Empowerment and Inclusion Working Group Chair Anisa Green, AT&T director-federal regulatory; and Diversity and Equity Working Group Chair Christopher Wood LGBT Tech executive director (see 2408130043) … Telecom fraud prevention company Somos appoints Sinch’s Stacy Graham to advisory board ... Platform, cloud and managed services company Calix names Wade Oosterman, ex-Bell Canada, to board.

The FCC’s Communications, Equity and Diversity Council may lobby for affordable connectivity program funding, according to comments at Tuesday’s CEDC meeting, the second under a new charter that lasts until 2025. The CEDC has 10 months to prepare recommendations for the FCC on implementing digital discrimination rules and getting the most for underserved communities out of federal broadband infrastructure funding, Chair Heather Gate said. “We must make recommendations to the FCC directly, but we should not be afraid to make recommendations that the FCC can communicate with other agencies,” Gate said. “We may also ask the FCC to communicate our recommendations with the White House or Congress."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump touted his accomplishments in deregulating business sectors during his interview Monday night with X CEO Elon Musk on that platform. In addition, Trump praised Musk’s approach to free speech and AI.

DOJ is likely to seek a ban against Google’s default search deals with companies like Apple in the department’s search market monopoly lawsuit against the platform, legal experts on opposite sides of the case said last week. Whether the department can successfully force Google to sell off Chrome or Android is an open question, they said.

The Democratic Party’s switch to Vice President Kamala Harris as its candidate for the White House is expected to provide a huge boost to broadcasters’ political advertising haul from the 2024 election, TV and radio executives said during recent Q2 earnings calls. Broadcasters also see sports returning to traditional airwaves, and Nexstar CEO Perry Sook predicted pay TV is arriving at an “inflection point” that could arrest plummeting subscriber numbers and drooping retrans dollars. Outgoing Tegna CEO Dave Lougee disagreed during what he said would be his final earnings call before retiring. “The innings of net retrans as the growth driver have certainly come to the later stages,” he said. Mike Steib will succeed Lougee next week.

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) is working with state lawmakers on legislation aimed at holding social media platforms more accountable for disseminating deepfake porn, he told us Wednesday.

The rise of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrats' presidential nominee should have few implications for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, industry observers agree. If anything, Rosenworcel’s ties to Harris are likely stronger than they are to President Joe Biden, they said. Biden waited until October 2021, more than nine months after his inauguration, to designate Rosenworcel as the first woman to chair the agency on a permanent basis (see 2110260001).

Danielle Thumann, ex-Crown Castle, returning to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s office as legal adviser ... NARUC selects Tony Clark, Wilkinson Barker, as executive director-elect, effective Oct. 1, to succeed Greg White, retiring Dec. 31 ... Robert Deegan, ex-Array Information Technology, joins Unissant as chief financial officer ... Eric Johnston, ex-Marriott International, joins Comcast’s public policy and digital equity team as executive director-strategic affairs ... Communications and data networking products distributor Graybar names Lauren Baker, ex-Emerson Climate Technologies, as vice president-strategic planning.

DENVER -- NTIA won’t abandon projects that experience construction delays in the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, program leader Evan Feinman told the Mountain Connect conference on Wednesday. Many state broadband directors at the event reported progress meeting BEAD requirements as they prepare to distribute $42.5 billion across the U.S. next year (see 2408060048).