A commercial in-space servicing industry -- long discussed -- is coming, but when remains a big question mark, Chris Blackerby, Astroscale chief operating officer, said Wednesday. Speaking at the annual Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations (CONFERS) conference in Arlington, Virginia, he said there's demand for such services in geostationary orbit but not to expect a market for in-space servicing in low earth orbit anytime soon. Blackerby said governments are the likely customers for in-space servicing in the near term, though eventually the bulk of the marketplace will be commercial operators contracting for services. Mark Quinn, head of insurance broker Willis Towers' space division, said some space insurers no longer provide coverage after a spate of huge claims during the past two years.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The NARUC Telecom Committee on Monday cleared draft resolutions on phone number conservation, the Universal Service Fund and utility coordination on broadband deployment. A USF panel that day described how reform could happen with Republicans controlling the FCC and Congress next year. Also, the affordable connectivity program (ACP) could return in 2025 despite Washington’s partisan climate, said Sanford Williams, deputy chief of staff for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, during a collocated National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) meeting. State utility regulators are holding their annual meeting here this week.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- An executive from a phone number warehouse defended his company’s practices Tuesday during the NARUC conference. However, the executive, NumberBarn Chief Technology Officer Brian Scott, seemed to heighten concerns for state officials and telecom attorneys who attended the panel. North American Numbering Council Chair Karen Charles, also a Massachusetts commissioner, said she planned to mention warehouse issues at a future NANC meeting.

The move to open radio access networks is accelerating, and may prove inevitable, experts said Tuesday during an Informatech 5G transport and networking strategies webinar. But carriers have options, speakers said. Meanwhile, Ericsson posted a progress report on moving to ORAN.

The FCC received 2,734 applications from schools, libraries and consortia seeking $3.7 billion from its $200 million cybersecurity pilot program, the FCC said Friday. It is reviewing the applications, but the program may not survive the start of the second Trump administration, industry officials warned.

Broadcast executives during Q3 earnings calls were hopeful for ownership deregulation and progress on ATSC 3.0 from a Republican-controlled FCC, but FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr -- the perceived front-runner to chair the agency -- said Thursday that scrutinizing broadcasters is among his priorities. “We're very excited about the upcoming regulatory environment,” said Sinclair Broadcast CEO Chris Ripley during Sinclair’s call Wednesday. “It feels like a cloud over the industry is lifting ... and ... some much-needed modernization of the regulations will be forthcoming.” In a news release Thursday, Carr said when the transition to the next administration is complete “the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth while advancing our national security interests and supporting law enforcement.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk could be a big beneficiary of Donald Trump's election, with some seeing his SpaceX reaping rewards from changes to NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program and the next FCC offering a warmer reception to SpaceX requests. Yet government ethics experts believe Musk and his businesses could face a particularly big challenge if he becomes leader of a government efficiency effort, as Trump promised during the campaign. "He's like a walking potential conflict of interest," said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday night to stand down from working on controversial matters during the transition from President Joe Biden to President-elect Donald Trump, as expected (see 2411060042). Cruz's “pencils down” request to Rosenworcel followed a similar Wednesday call from House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the favorite to lead the agency when Trump takes office in January, backed a pencils-down call Thursday (see 2411070046).

The Bureau of Industry and Security and DOJ are investigating U.S. mobile phone parts producer Lumentum for potentially violating U.S. export controls on shipments to Huawei, according to corporate filings.

The union representing FCC employees, the National Treasury Employees Union, said it's ready to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration but warned that it would oppose efforts against federal workers. The Trump White House is expected to implement plans laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the Trump campaign’s Agenda 47, reducing the federal workforce and reclassifying many career civil servants, making it easier to fire and replace them with political appointees, academics and analysts told us. The NTEU “will make every effort to work in good faith” with the Trump administration, said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a release. “However, we are fully prepared to work with our allies in Congress and use all the tools we have to fight any and all actions taken by his administration that would harm frontline federal workers, our ability to represent them or their ability to serve the American people.”