FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel hailed Fara Damelin's confirmation as the commission’s inspector general (see 2403070072). Damelin’s “decades of experience in roles overseeing government operations will help us ensure the ongoing integrity and success of the Commission’s work,” Rosenworcel said Friday. The Senate approved Damelin Thursday night as part of a package that also included a trio of FTC nominees, including GOP Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak (see 2403080038). Damelin is the FCC’s first Senate-confirmed IG. Her confirmation gives the watchdog office its first permanent leader since appointed incumbent David Hunt died in January 2023 (see 2301260026).

The FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council will hold its first meeting under its new charter March 27, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register. The CEDC’s two-year charter was renewed in June. Its hybrid meeting will involve introducing the advisory committee’s members, announcing working groups and receiving guidance on federal advisory committee best practices, the FR said.

Comments are due May 6 for the FCC’s biennial 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act report to Congress, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice in docket 10-213 Thursday. The agency is seeking comment on accessibility topics including internet browsers in mobile phones, the extent of barriers to accessibility in telecom, and the effect of CVAA enforcement on innovation. The PN is focused on whether there was progress on matters highlighted in the 2022 report (see 2210120059), such as accessibility to advanced communications services for Braille readers and apps that allow those with hearing or speech impairments to make phone calls. The PN also calls for updated information on accessibility for systems that allow remote work and remote healthcare. “Since our last biennial Report to Congress, accessibility needs have evolved, and we anticipate that this year’s report will highlight specific accessible devices and services, as well as those that may need improvement in this area,” the PN said.

The recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was the largest show since 2019, with 5G and AI dominating discussions, panelists said Thursday during a TelecomTV webinar. “The show was all about AI,” said Sandeep Phadke, senior vice president at tech provider Tech Mahindra. The show was also “very grounded,” he added. “It was about how, do I make sure that, from a telecom operator’s standpoint, we are able to address the costs to serve customers, the time to market, and where do we get the new set of revenues?” he said. Carriers are “starting to position” themselves on how they will bring their customers AI, which is “an important turning point,” said Andrew Border, head-product for telco solutions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Carriers potentially have a “massive advantage" in AI because of "their globally deployed networks,” he said: “You don’t want to be pulling this AI data all back centrally.” The show also demonstrated that the wireless industry is “coming back really strongly,” he said. “There was a lot of AI -- you could not escape AI,” said Salman Tariq, vice president-sales at software provider Optiva. Every tech player had AI as a theme, he said. There was “a good mix of AI fantasy versus real use cases,” he added. “We are now starting to talk about real-life challenges of AI,” Tariq said. MWC is transforming from a “core telecom” show to a tech show, Tariq said. “You could see a lot of adjacent industries coming in and using telco as a platform to build solutions, to add value in their ecosystems,” he said. AI was “omnipresent,” mentioned in every discussion and spread throughout the show floor, said David Boswarthick, director-new technologies at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. How AI is defined “wasn’t too clear,” he noted. Most of the AI presentations didn’t focus on how carriers are using the technology, he said. But most other discussions were ”very grounded,” Boswarthick said. The focus was on what 5G is doing now and how we can get value now, what customers need, he said. “It was a very now event, as opposed to a more future-looking event.” AI is “finally” emerging as a “significant technology trend,” said Paul Miller, chief technology officer at open radio access network company Wind River. “We’re early in the adoption curve” for AI, he said. His company is deploying AI as part of ORAN, which can save providers money, he said. The meeting saw packed, standing-room only crowds for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. “It was a very, very hot show,” he said. The “AI World Congress” should replace MWC as the show's name, said Francis Haysom, principal analyst at Appledore Research. While "there is, obviously, a degree of hype there,” some discussions focused on “AI as an enabler of automation in networks,” he said.

The FirstNet Authority is asking AT&T for a full report on the Feb. 22 outage that cut off service on much of the carrier’s wireless network (see 2402220058), officials said Wednesday during a meeting of the authority's board. FirstNet CEO Joe Wassel said last week the authority was looking at how to prevent similar outages (see 2402290055). AT&T “took immediate action” to prioritize and restore service to public safety agencies on the FirstNet network and most were back online early that morning, hours before service was reestablished for some commercial customers, said Richard Carrizzo, authority chair. FirstNet is asking AT&T to submit an “after-action report” under its contract with the authority “to assess the root cause of the outage,” said Vice Chair Renee Gordon. “We understand the importance of this and will continue to hold AT&T accountable,” she said. “We have a very serious mission, and we take our mission very seriously,” Wassel said Wednesday. The outage impacted first responders “and for that … we are very sorry,” he said. The authority will work closely with AT&T to identify the cause “and implement strategies for corrective actions to prevent an outage like this in the future,” he said. The authority’s emphasis is on rapidly addressing problems and communicating quickly with first responders, he said. In telecom “outages are unavoidable” but we “can lessen the blow by planning and preparing,” he said. The outage was “a powerful reminder, and an important reminder, that there’s always more to be done,” Wassel said. Brian Crawford, chair of the Finance and Investment Committee, reported on an announcement last month that AT&T and FirstNet plan strategic investments of more than $8 billion over 10 years in the public safety network (see 2402130060). “This is a significant next step in the lifecycle of FirstNet” and “will ensure the network keeps pace with advances in technology,” Crawford said. The board convened in Honolulu and members and authority staff met this week with Hawaiian authorities to discuss lessons from last year’s fires in Maui (see 2308110064), officials said. This was the board’s first quarterly meeting outside the continental U.S., Wassel said.

T-Mobile and SpaceX jointly sought tweaks to the supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service order on the FCC’s March 14 agenda. The FCC should “permit terrestrial licensees to attribute SCS operations in making renewal certifications” and “defer consideration of aggregate out-of-band power flux-density limit[s] to a Further Notice to allow a technical record to develop,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-65 recapping calls with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington: “Replace equipment authorization re-certification requirements with a certification by rule for existing devices” and “clarify that SCS entry criteria apply solely to the provision of SCS in the United States, and permit SCS operators to apply for and receive authority to deploy SCS capabilities internationally independent of a domestic U.S. SCS lease arrangement.” The FCC should also clarify when the 90-day SCS discontinuance period begins, they said.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly picked the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals to consolidate a pair of petitions for review that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 21 report and order updating the commission’s data breach notification requirements, said its consolidation order Monday (docket MCP No. 178). The Ohio Telecom Association filed its petition Feb. 20 in the 6th Circuit (see 2402210026), and the Texas Association of Business did so two days later in the 5th Circuit (see 2402230024). Both petitions seek review on grounds that the updated data breach notification rules exceed the FCC’s statutory authority.

NAB, CTIA and the Information Technology Industry Council joined a host of Washington D.C.-based trade associations last week that urged D.C.’s mayor and city council to address the district's increasing violent crime and pledging to bring back their employees to physical offices. “As job creators, taxpayers, and dedicated contributors to the economic and social well-being of our nation’s capital, we urge the Mayor and City Council to address this pressing issue,” said the letter, which more than 65 business groups signed, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Fuel & Petrochem Manufacturers and the American Society for Association Executives. Increasing incidents in the downtown business district where many of the groups are based threaten “the safety and prosperity of not only our community but also our employees and their families,” the letter said. “The City Council should take immediate action to target the small group of organized and repeat criminals responsible for most of these violent offenses,” the letter said. The groups are committed to bringing back their employees to work in their physical offices downtown, the letter said. “We are committed to Washington D.C., and we are ready to collaborate with the City Council to ensure the implementation of effective measures to reduce crime,” the letter said.

President Joe Biden signed off Friday on a continuing resolution (HR-7463) that extended federal appropriations for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies, DOJ’s Antitrust Division and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 8. The measure also extends appropriations for the FCC and FTC through March 22. The Senate approved the CR 77-13 Thursday night, averting a partial government shutdown that would have otherwise closed RUS late Friday. The House passed it earlier Thursday (see 2402290076).

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) will investigate AT&T's nationwide wireless outage last week, the AG office said Thursday. The office will investigate its causes and AT&T’s response, and wants consumers to file complaints, it said. “Nationwide outages are not just an inconvenience, they can be dangerous,” James said. AT&T CEO John Stankey on Sunday apologized for the outage, which the carrier blamed on a technical issue (see 2402260031). AT&T declined to comment Thursday. In addition, the FirstNet Authority is probing the AT&T outage (see 2402220058), and the authority board will discuss what happened at its quarterly meeting Wednesday, authority CEO Joe Wassel wrote in a Thursday blog post. The FirstNet network was restored by around 5 a.m. CST, about three hours after service was initially affected for some users, he said. “We are committed to identifying the circumstances that led to the outage and working with AT&T to implement strategies and corrective actions to help prevent FirstNet from experiencing an outage like this in the future,” he said. “Resilience is crucial in the face of adversity, and AT&T stepped up and prioritized the restoration of FirstNet.” Wessel said he has also established a FirstNet Authority After-Action Task Force “comprised of public safety, technical, and emergency management experts from our team” that will “help us strengthen our preparedness and emergency communications processes” to prepare for future outages.