TWN Communications, supplier of commercial and residential broadband services to rural electric cooperatives, taps former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein as executive vice president-chief strategy and external affairs officer ... NCTA hires NTIA’s Russ Hanser as deputy chief legal officer ... Incompas adds DC Blox CEO Jeff Uphues to its board ... Silicon Labs taps board member Bob Conrad, also a former Texas Instruments and Analog Devices executive, as senior vice president-worldwide operations; Sandeep Kumar, who currently leads global operations, will depart Silicon Labs in 2024's second half ... New IAB hires: Cintia Gabilan, ex-Amazon and Meta, as vice president-IAB Media Center; Arlene Mu, ex-Lowe's, as assistant general counsel; and Nadine Karp McHugh, ex-Goldman Sachs, as new IAB executive in residence ... Ivanti, IT and security company, adds Proofpoint’s Alex Lei, also former Dell Technologies, as senior vice president-sales, Asia Pacific and Japan ... Streaming media company FreeCast rehires Chris Savine, ex-Netscape and AOL Time Warner, as chief operations officer and head-finance; he previously was FreeCast’s chief financial officer from 2014 to 2020 ... Involta, provider of data center and cloud infrastructure and services, hires Everstream Solutions' Dereck Wischmeyer as general counsel.

Industry and consumer groups have lobbied the FCC in recent days on whether to maintain its proposed language regarding forbearance of Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions for broadband internet access service (BIAS) in its draft order restoring net neutrality rules, according to an analysis of recent ex parte filings in docket 23-320. The FCC in its draft order to be considered Thursday during the commissioners' open meeting tentatively decided to grant ISPs forbearance from Communications Act Section 254(d) requirements, which govern USF contributions (see 2404050068).

Incompas pushed back on CTIA's claims regarding some FCC-proposed rules for call labeling and blocking in a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff (see 2404080034). The group noted that the "lack of transparency into the call labeling and presentation practices that carriers and their analytics providers deploy is an increasing problem." FCC oversight of call labeling and blocking is necessary to ensure that "pay-to-play" business models "do not stymie nondiscriminatory, competitively neutral standardized solutions," Incompas said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 17-59. "Without greater accountability and transparency, competitive providers, their customers and end-users will be significantly disadvantaged," the group warned, asking the FCC to also "standardize the inclusion of rich call data."

House Commerce Committee members on Thursday vowed to find a bipartisan solution for updating Communications Decency Act Section 230.

The FCC will take a series of steps to reestablish the commission's net neutrality framework and reclassify broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II telecom service in a declaratory ruling and order (see 2404030043). A draft of the items to be considered during the agency's April meeting, released Thursday, would establish "broad" and "tailored" forbearance for ISPs. The draft doesn’t make a final determination on how network slicing should be treated under the rules.

FCC commissioners will vote on restoring net neutrality rules during the agency's April 25 meeting, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Wednesday (see 2403290057). Commissioners will consider a declaratory ruling, order, report and order, and order on reconsideration. "A return to the FCC’s overwhelmingly popular and court-approved standard of net neutrality will allow the agency to serve once again as a strong consumer advocate of an open internet," Rosenworcel said. Also on April's agenda is a draft NPRM about georouting 988 calls (see 2404030051).

The Computer & Communications Industry Association and Incompas told the FCC they support allowing broadband internet access to “monetize networks in new ways through the use of non-BIAS services,” including network slicing. But the rules shouldn’t create a loophole that benefits only some companies, they said. The treatment of slicing has emerged as a large issue as the agency moves closer to an expected vote on new rules (see 2403290057). “How the Commission addresses non-BIAS data services in the Order is one of the most critical issues in this proceeding,” said a joint filing posted Monday in docket 23-320: “As currently proposed -- without expanded guidance and clarity-- the rule could create a large loophole that undercuts the FCC’s otherwise strong open internet rules.” Free Press raised concerns in meetings with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The forthcoming order would benefit by stating explicitly that supposed non-BIAS data services may not be used to evade the rules and the order’s conduct standards,” Free Press said. CTIA, meanwhile, explained to the FCC why network slicing is important and should be protected from regulation under proposed net neutrality rules. The filing adds detail to comments the group offered last week (see 403290042). “Network slicing is a technology that can provide innovative, virtualized wireless offerings targeted to users’ needs and is just emerging in the U.S.,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-320. “Network slicing will allow wireless providers to offer over a single physical network a series of virtual networks configured to satisfy different use cases -- including those that benefit from low latency, low jitter, high speeds, or heightened security, as well as those that can tolerate lower speeds, more jitter, or more delay than a typical [broadband internet access service] offering,” CTIA said. Use cases are still emerging and may include public-safety communications, robotic surgery, smart grids and other infrastructure, and communications at crowded events, the group said. Slicing also improves spectrum management, the group explained, allowing carriers to “manage finite spectrum resources more efficiently,” and can enhance network security and privacy “by isolating traffic in its own network slice, so that data and traffic cannot be intercepted or faked by entities of another network slice.”

Utility companies and some industry groups urged the FCC to maintain its current rules for pole attachment application processes, noting the commission recently adopted new rules to help facilitate the process to expedite and streamline broadband deployment. Some ISPs said process delays remain and backed FCC-established timelines for larger pole attachment orders. Reply comments were posted Thursday in docket 17-84 (see 2402140048).

FCC commissioners voted 3-2 Thursday, over dissents by Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, to approve the agency's Telecom Act Section 706 report to Congress. The report concluded that broadband isn't deployed in a "reasonable and timely fashion," with about 24 million Americans lacking access to speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps. The two Republicans also dissented at the commissioners' open meeting on a proposed requirement that cable and satellite TV multichannel programming distributors display prominently the aggregate cost of video programming in ads and customer bills.

NTIA Tuesday released its implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy. Under the plan, studies for the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands, top priorities of wireless carriers, will begin this month and be completed in October 2026 (see 2403120006). FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized the plan, saying in “the best case” the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands won’t be available until 2028. Others had a more positive take.