FCC Chairman Brendan Carr reacted Saturday to the nationwide No Kings protests, saying in a post on X that the demonstrations “were more effective than they appeared,” because the U.S. has a president “with a mandate to make his country great” instead of a king. “We have a President, elected by an historic and overwhelming vote of the American people -- an election won in the face of lawfare, media opposition, and multiple attempts to take away the choice that rightly resides in the hands of our electorate,” Carr wrote, with a photo of President Donald Trump’s face accompanying the post.

Some Chinese testing labs are urging the FCC to reconsider its revocation of their recognition. The agency started proceedings in September to remove the recognition from some labs it said were controlled by the Chinese government (see 2509080058), and it denied recognition renewal applications for others (see 2509260036). In filings posted Friday, several argued that there's no ground for them to lose recognition.

A new study by the Computer & Communications Industry Association questions whether European carriers really have been hampered by EU regulation. European providers “have promoted this narrative to justify radical changes in European regulation,” it argued. “Europe, they say, is lagging behind in digital investment even though telecom operators, and particularly incumbents, have been investing heavily in 5G and FTTP [fiber-to-the-premises] coverage.”

Most, if not all, of the money left over from BEAD after deployment work is done should go back to the U.S. Treasury, former FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly wrote Tuesday. States' BEAD plans ultimately could come in 30%-50% below budget, said O'Rielly, an adjunct senior fellow at the Free State Foundation. "Even in D.C.," the $20 billion or so that it would save "is real money." By returning the excess money, which resulted from the "Benefit of the Bargain" reforms to BEAD, the Commerce Department would show "that the Trump Administration is indeed giving American taxpayers a real 'Benefit,'" he said. It's also "the most reasonable course," given the national debt. However, O'Rielly added that there's a valid argument that some funds should be held back for inevitable, unforeseen deployment needs, as some BEAD funding winners "will fumble."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday agreed to stay filings on a T-Mobile request asking the court to rehear en banc its challenge of an FCC data fine (see 2509220056). The government sought the stay citing the ongoing shutdown (see 2510010044). “This proceeding is stayed until funding to FCC and DOJ is restored, and all pending and potential deadlines are tolled,” said a one-page order from the court.

NTIA appeared to be among the Commerce Department agencies that the White House OMB targeted Friday with staff firings as part of the Trump administration’s previously threatened reduction-in-force plans during the federal government shutdown, communications industry officials and lobbyists told us. It was unclear how many NTIA employees OMB fired or whether anybody at the FCC was affected. Spokespeople for both agencies didn’t immediately comment.

Lawsuits blaming social media platforms for injuries and deaths are part of a long tradition of faulting speech for human conduct and suffering, the American Enterprise Institute's Clay Calvert wrote Tuesday. Theories that the platforms create social media addiction make it easy to shift blame for injuries and actions "by clouding causal, human-agency questions," said Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies. Such cases ultimately try to put responsibility "on innovative technology companies whose lawful-speech services millions of adults and minors enjoy daily without sustaining or causing harm."

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, sued the Trump administration Wednesday for canceling the Digital Equity Act competitive grant program, which had been approved by Congress. NDIA said it asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order the administration to restore the program and “allow NDIA to resume shovel-ready projects aimed at providing digital navigator services to 30,000 people in 11 states.”

NBC's Saturday Night Live roasted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on its latest episode, with cast member Mikey Day portraying the commission head. The sketch showed President Donald Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, summoning Day's Carr, who danced on screen to the 1983 pop song "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell. When Day's Carr corrected the president that his first name is Brendan, not Brandon, Johnson's Trump replied that "it's crazy you think I care." Johnson's Trump also admonished Day's Carr for hugging him: "You gotta stop."

Dan Schulman, a Verizon board member and the former CEO of PayPal, is replacing Hans Vestberg as Verizon CEO, effective immediately, the company announced Monday. Unlike T-Mobile, which is also going through a CEO transition (see 2509220029), Verizon hadn’t indicated in recent months that change was coming. Mark Bertolini, a Verizon director and the CEO of Oscar Health, was named chairman. Vestberg will stay on as a special adviser for a year, Verizon said.