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January 2025

Commissioner Starks Announces Staff Changes

Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks announced the following changes to his team. Milla Anderson, formerly Commissioner Starks’ Policy Advisor, departed the FCC.  Anderson joins the private sector. Following Anderson’s departure, Kiara Ortiz will be serving as Acting Legal Advisor. Ortiz comes from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau where she is Legal Advisor to the Bureau Chief.  She began her career at the FCC as an Honors Attorney.  She has a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Spelman College.  

Weekly Digest

Trump and Carr Team to Curb Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the FCC

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Friday, January 24, 2025

Rep Allen Introduces the Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2025

Rep Rick Allen (R-GA) introduced the Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2025. This legislation extends the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) spectrum auction authority and seeks to ensure the efficient allocation of mid-band spectrum, a resource critical for the advancement of 5G and next-generation technologies. Specifically, the bill:

Verizon CTO: Industry needs to re-examine meaning of open RAN

Is open RAN dead? Santiago “Yago” Tenorio, the open RAN trailblazer who left Vodafone for Verizon, hears that question a lot. The short answer: No. The longer one but perhaps not what everyone wants to hear: Maybe the industry needs to re-examine what it really means by “open RAN.” Spun out of a desire by operators to break the vendor “lock-in” that vendors like Ericsson and Nokia commandeered, open RAN—short for “Radio Access Network”—was launched as a way to enable operators to mix and match products from different vendors.

What DOGE actually is now

When President Trump finally issued his executive order formalizing the Department of Government Efficiency, its scope—or lack thereof—took Washington by surprise. While Elon Musk and now-departed DOGE co-founder Vivek Ramaswamy 

Penn State professors partner on digital equity grant to benefit Philadelphia

Two Penn State faculty members recognized for their expertise in broadband and digital access helped shape an effort that secured a five-year, $11.9 million grant that aims to benefit residents of the city of Philadelphia. Christopher Ali and Sascha Meinrath both members of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, co-funded and help run the Pennsylvania Broadband Research Institute (PBRI), which is a partner in the grant.

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