The FCC said Monday that it reached outside the agency to bring in Cliff Jones as associate chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology and chief of its Laboratory Division. Most recently, Jones “led operations for Verizon’s private‑cloud infrastructure and the applications supporting Verizon’s 5G network, overseeing core‑network modernization and large‑scale cloud deployment,” the commission said.

The FCC planned to publish in Tuesday's Federal Register a schedule of all the meeting dates for its World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee’s informal working groups June 30-Sept. 16. The meetings are held virtually and are open to the public.

Lumen remains a stand-alone company after divesting its consumer fiber-to-the-home service to AT&T (see 2605280058).

The FCC’s chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union is changing leadership, as its president, William Knowles-Kellett, retired Friday. He was an attorney-adviser in the Enforcement Bureau’s Investigations and Hearings Division. He joined the FCC in 1992 and had served as Chapter 209 president since 2024.

ACA International raised concerns about the FCC’s onshoring NPRM, which commissioners approved 3-0 in March (see 2603260046), in early comments filed last week in docket 26-52. The FCC previously extended the deadline for comments until June 2 (see 2605220034).

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau approved a seven-day extension of the comment and reply deadlines for the agency's onshoring NPRM, approved by commissioners 3-0 in March (see 2603260046). Initial comments will now be due June 2, replies June 29, in docket 26-52, said a notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. “A brief extension will help commenters to develop more comprehensive responses to the issues presented in the item without jeopardizing the Commission’s ability to move forward expeditiously with this proceeding,” the bureau said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently asked for extra time to prepare comments (see 2605180013).

The FCC added more than 20 questions to a further NPRM on its broadband data collection (BDC), approved 3-0 last week as part of a broader BDC item (see 2605200047). The agency posted the order and FNPRM Thursday, including two new paragraphs examining mobile wireless issues.

Cox Media Group and two marketing companies falsely claimed to offer AI services that could “target localized ads” based on consumer voice data collected without consent, the FTC alleged in a nearly $1 million settlement made public Thursday.

The SEC needs to demand that SpaceX give "robust disclosures" about its reliance on BEAD when the company files its initial public offering, Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr. said in a letter last week to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. Limitations to Starlink technology "suggest that the company’s ability to capture these public funds is not certain," Cummings wrote. The union said that if SpaceX is disqualified or unable to meet BEAD performance standards, it could necessitate moving to more expensive private financing or "abandon[ing] significant segments of its domestic growth strategy." In addition, investors "should be alerted to the material precedent" of the FCC rescinding SpaceX's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund award in 2022. That happening again with BEAD would "signal a systemic failure to meet federal performance requirements, impacting the company's long-term competitive position," CWA said.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday that the commission would likely issue a final order this year that could allow corrections officers to jam cellphone signals, but it's not “imminent.” The agency approved an NPRM in October that would create a pilot program for phone jamming by state and local prisons (see 2509300063). The NPRM received significant opposition from wireless companies and associations (see 2601020006).