FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly acknowledged in written testimony submitted Wednesday before a planned Thursday House Communications Subcommittee hearing that the panel is “likely the last time I will testify before Congress as a sitting member of the Commission.” The White House announced Tuesday that President Donald Trump intends to nominate NTIA Senior Adviser Nathan Simington in O’Rielly’s place.

Washington, D.C., is closer to getting a new area code. It would be in addition to the widely-known 202.

President Donald Trump intends to nominate NTIA Senior Adviser Nathan Simington to replace Commissioner Mike O’Rielly at the FCC, the White House announced Tuesday night. O’Rielly’s future at the commission has been in limbo for more than a month since Trump revoked his renomination. Several top Senate Republicans have gone to bat to convince the president to reverse that decision.

Verizon agreed to buy Tracfone from America Movil, in a deal worth as much as about $7 billion that's expected to close in the second half of 2021, the companies said (see here and here). Tracfone is the largest U.S. reseller of prepaid wireless with about 21 million subscribers, 13 million of them using Verizon’s wireless network.

Dish Network is getting more time to meet its AWS-4, lower 700 MHz E block, AWS H block and 600 MHz license construction requirements. An FCC Wireless Bureau order Friday said the license terms for AWS-4, Lower 700 E block and AWS H-block licenses now run through June 14, 2023, and Dish is obligated to provide 5G broadband service over them. It said the license term for Dish's 600 MHz licenses is unchanged from June 14, 2029, but the interim buildout deadline of June 14, 2023, is removed and the final buildout deadline is moved up to June 14, 2025.

NTIA recommends the use of exclusion zones if the FCC reallocates the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi and other use. The FCC is expected to act as early as October. The zones would protect federal operations, including DOD, NASA and Department of Energy systems, NTIA said in a letter. An accompanying table proposes areas that would need to be protected across the U.S.

COVID-19 forced the postponement of the NAB Show in Las Vegas to Oct. 9-13, 2021, from April 11-14, said NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday. NAB has “witnessed growing concern and uncertainty over what the next six months will bring; enough that there appears to be a good deal of reluctance around participating in large events in the first half of next year.” Evidence suggests it will be “well into next year” before COVID-19 “could be under control in the U.S.,” he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said commissioners will vote on a draft proposal taking “decisive steps toward” the use of the 3.45-3.55 GHz band for 5G throughout the contiguous U.S. at their Sept. 30 meeting. The vote was expected.

FCC commissioners will vote Sept. 30 on an order giving states the opportunity to lease 4.9 GHz band spectrum, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai blogged. Pai said it remains underutilized.

Data collected from carriers found it would cost an estimated $1.84 billion to remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment in their networks. In June, the FCC barred the two Chinese vendors from participating in the USF. The agency also released a list of some 50 carriers that have the equipment installed in their networks.