FCC commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved an NPRM aimed at reducing unwanted AI robocalls, as expected (see 2408050029). Commissioner Nathan Simington raised concerns about part of the notice, with which he would only concur. Responding to concerns that Incompas and Cloud Communications Alliance raised, officials said some questions were moved to a notice of inquiry. Commissioners during their open meeting approved 5-0 a pair of other items (see 2408070047).

Public Knowledge adds Morgan Wilsmann, previously Google fellow at Chamber of Progress, as policy analyst and promotes Lisa Macpherson to policy director and Nicholas Garcia to senior policy counsel ... Global Tech Industries Group appoints Luke Rahbari, previously Equity Armor Investments, as CEO, succeeding David Reichman, retiring ... Technology and services provider Advanced Systems Group hires Kate Sims as vice president-strategic accounts and Joe Marchitto as chief technology officer-strategic accounts; both previously Integrated Media Technologies ... Yanbing Li, previously Aurora, joins security platform Datadog as chief product officer ... Cybersecurity company Cyble appoints Ernest Fung, previously Tokopedia, as chief financial officer ... Wi-Fi Spectrum Slicing technology company Edgewater Wireless nominates former Wilan CEO Jim Skippen to board, pending shareholder vote Sept. 5 ... WAN provider Inseego’s board votes to extend Philip Brace’s appointment as executive chairman for two six-month terms.

DENVER -- States are marching ahead to meet requirements for NTIA’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program and trying to distribute money to subgrantees next year, state broadband directors said during the Mountain Connect conference Tuesday. They were optimistic about having enough money to connect everyone, though they cautioned that the technology used will vary. Don’t be afraid to use satellite connections, urged SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in a keynote. “I don’t think the math works without Starlink.”

America’s Public Television Stations’ Lonna Thompson, executive vice president-COO and general counsel, will retire, effective Sept. 1, staying on as consultant ... Connectivity infrastructure provider Alphawave Semi appoints Sameer Ladiwala, ex-Luminar Technologies, as senior vice president-finance/chief accounting officer ... Software development company Provoke Solutions appoints Trace Machina’s Harper Carroll as strategic adviser.

A recent Media and Democracy Project (MAD) submission of a petition with 25,000 signatures against the renewal of Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see 2407250056) is an attempt at “distort[ing] the Commission’s processes” and less than 2.3% of the signatories reside in WTXF’s viewing area, the network said in an ex parte filing Friday. “Taking at face value MAD’s claim as to the accuracy of the names and locations in its filing,” only 571 of them “possibly reside in Fox 29 Philadelphia’s viewing area,” Fox said. “In contrast, over 3.1 million households, and many more people, live in the Philadelphia” designated market area. The FCC “does not, and should not, make decisions on whether to grant a license renewal application based on the number of persons allegedly willing to fill out a webform.” The petition “cannot outweigh the testimony of numerous viewers of Fox 29 Philadelphia who have urged the Commission to swiftly renew the station’s broadcast license.” The FCC “should adhere to its own precedent, weigh the evidence in the record fairly, and grant Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal without further delay.” The "issues raised in the petition go well beyond the Philadelphia station and raise serious questions about the decisions made by its owner to knowingly spread dangerous lies to protect profit,” MAD Executive Director Milo Vassallo said in an email. “It is time to remind Fox that we the people own the airwaves, not any single individual or corporation."

UScellular remains focused on selling its wireless operations and about 30% of its spectrum to T-Mobile in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, executives said during an earnings call Friday. The deal was unveiled in May (see 2405280047). UScellular reported results along with parent TDS. “We’ve launched the regulatory approval process, and we remain optimistic that this process will have a favorable outcome,” UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel said on a call with analysts: “We remain convinced that the transaction with T-Mobile is the best long-term option for our customers as they will have the long-term benefits of greater scale and a more competitive network.” Therivel noted UScellular plans on selling the remainder of its spectrum holdings. “That process is active and ongoing and given the nature of that process, we don’t expect to have updates until it is concluded,” he said. TDS reported total operating revenue of $1.238 billion in Q2, down from $1.267 billion a year earlier. TDS lost $14 million, compared with a $19 million loss the previous year. UScellular said it has 134,000 fixed wireless subscribers. It plans on retaining more than 4,300 towers.

Maurine and Matthew Molak, who sued the FCC for its decision authorizing funding of Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2406260006), filed a petition at the agency seeking reconsideration of last month’s 3-2 order allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2407180024). Pleading cycle deadlines will come in a Federal Register notice, a Friday notice from the FCC said. “Petitioners urge the FCC to reconsider and rescind the Report and Order because it is contrary to law,” the petition said. The Molaks argue that the Telecom Act didn’t provide the FCC authority to use the E-rate program to pay for internet service and connections, “such as the Wi-Fi service and equipment at issue.” An agency “cannot exercise authority it does not have,” the petition argued: “If the FCC wishes to move forward with this proposal, it must first obtain proper authority from Congress.” The Molaks, whose 16-year-old son died by suicide after he was cyberbullied, argued that the school bus ruling would give children and teenagers unsupervised social media access. That case is before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen told us the group is mostly pleased with the Wi-Fi order and Further NPRM that the FCC posted last week. Windhausen saw no big surprises. “We're glad the FCC clarified a few issues and teed up additional questions in the further notice,” he said. SHLB's webinar on Wednesday “showed that there is a high level of interest in this new initiative, so we're excited to see how schools and libraries use this opportunity,” he said. SHLB plans additional webinars to answer questions about the program. Several changes were made between the draft and final version of the item, based on our side-by-side comparison. One question before the vote was whether the item would be tweaked to address fixed wireless access and partnerships with nontraditional providers (see 2406270068). The order clarifies that Wi-Fi hot spots “must be for use with a commercially available mobile wireless Internet service, rather than for use with [citizens broadband radio service] or other private network services.” The FNPRM adds language, as sought by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, on cybersecurity issues. The final order includes a new paragraph on cybersecurity risk management. “Recognizing the critical needs of schools and libraries to protect their broadband networks and sensitive student, school staff, and library patron data, we seek comment on how to ensure that using E-Rate support for Wi-Fi hotspots does not introduce additional vulnerabilities or risks to cyberattacks,” the FNPRM says: “Specifically, we seek comment on whether service providers … should be required to implement cybersecurity and supply chain risk management plans.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s Project 2025 ties likely won’t damage his chances of becoming the agency's chair if Donald Trump is elected president in November, even though the Trump campaign has distanced itself from the project (see 2407110054). Commissioner Nathan Simington is listed as a project adviser but didn’t write a chapter, as Carr did, or play a more public role.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vowed she will continue fighting for the commission's net neutrality order following the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that stayed the rules Thursday (see 2408010065). "The American public wants an internet that is fast, open and fair," and Thursday's decision "is a setback, but we will not give up the fight for net neutrality," Rosenworcel said.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency promotes Lisa Einstein to chief artificial intelligence officer, new position (see 2408010033) ... Cloud-native wireless core and radio access network solutions provider Axyom.Core appoints Kurt Daniel, ex-Titan.ium Platform, as CEO ... IT company Soroc Technology names Christine Evitt, ex-Compucom Canada, as president, effective Tuesday ... Kape Technologies appoints Ankit Khemka, previously Revolut, as chief marketing officer ... Wayne Lewandowski, ex-Xage Security, joins cybersecurity company Hypori as chief revenue officer ... Cybersecurity company SentinelOne names Stanford adjunct professor Alex Stamos, ex-Meta, as chief information security officer ... Astound Broadband appoints Toni Murphy, ex-Comcast, as executive vice president-COO.