The FCC changed a rule to give rural telcos more flexibility to invest in broadband networks without losing high-cost USF subsidy support. The order approved Thursday by commissioners 3-0 will allow rate-of-return carriers to receive USF support for broadband deployment projects with average location costs that exceed a company's capital expenditure limit if they pay for the excess amounts with their own funds. Under a March 2016 rural USF overhaul order, a company construction project that exceeds that limit loses all its USF support, said commission officials and a news release. Thursday's order granted in part an NTCA petition for reconsideration.

Half a dozen states have adopted or are close to adopting laws easing the regulatory burdens of 5G deployment, and the hope is that more will follow suit this year, said CTIA Senior Vice President-External and State Affairs Jamie Hastings Thursday at a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) 5G presentation. Ohio, Kansas, Arizona and Colorado passed such laws in the past 18 months, and bills in Iowa and Virginia are awaiting those governors' signatures, Hastings told us afterward, saying some other states are "in play," though she didn't elaborate.

The FCC voted 2-1 along party lines to approve a business data service order that will substantially expand price deregulation for incumbent telcos and rely on existing and potential competition to discipline providers. The order finds price regulation inappropriate for packet-based BDS offerings with data speeds above 45 Mbps because competition is widespread; and it creates a competitive market test to determine the counties where additional ILEC legacy TDM-based special-access services (DS1, DS3s) can be deregulated, and the counties where they would remain subject to price caps, said an agency release Thursday.

Mobile Future tapped former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell as its chief public policy adviser, effective immediately. McDowell is now listed as the group’s top official on its website. He will remain at Cooley. “As an FCC commissioner, McDowell championed public policy that promoted consumer choice and fostered competition,” the group said in a news release. Mobile Future has seen almost a complete change in staff since last year, when former Chairman Jonathan Spalter was tapped to be president of USTelecom (see 1610040059). Former Executive Director Allison Remsen followed Spalter to USTelecom. Diane Smith was named interim chair to replace Spalter and McDowell now has her policy role, but not her title, a Mobile Future spokeswoman said. Rachael Bender, formerly counsel to the group, is now acting wireless adviser to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Nydia Gutiérrez is acting Mobile Future executive director while the group works to fill the position on a permanent basis, the spokeswoman said. Mobile Future will focus on helping the U.S. build “a competitive and vibrant wireless ecosystem,” with the launch of 5G and the growing IoT, McDowell said in an interview. “There’s so much to do in the wireless space,” he said. “Wireless is the oxygen for the internet of things and it’s a very exciting time to be helping shape policy in the wireless realm.”

An FCC business data service order remained on the agenda for Thursday's meeting of commissioners, despite continued criticism and calls for delay from parties saying BDS deregulation would hurt competition and consumers. "They seem intent on moving forward," said a competitive industry official Wednesday. "That's my sense," agreed an informed source, who said "the big open issue" is a potential transition period to delay the effective date of new BDS rules.

Rural telcos endorsed the FCC's proposed 18-month extension of a freeze on jurisdictional separations of rate-of-return telco cost calculations while the commission works with state regulators on overhauling the current rules. Some RLEC groups urged a longer extension to account for the time needed for regulatory decision-making and implementation. But a consumer group voiced concern about an indefinite extension, and a new group calling itself the "Irregulators" opposed the proposal, as parties filed comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 80-286.

Pending Senate legislation from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., known as the Managing Your Data Against Telecom Abuses Act (see 1704170048), would remove the FTC’s common carrier exemption for broadband providers and give the FTC Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking authority for unfair or deceptive acts or practices on privacy and security, a Democratic Senate staffer told us. The bill text was unavailable. The legislation won't be formally introduced until Congress returns from recess next week, the staffer said.

Critics of an FCC business data service plan mounted a full-court press to postpone a vote scheduled for Thursday on a deregulatory draft order they say would harm competition and consumers unless changed. At the very least, they said the FCC should create a three-year transition to new BDS rules to give competitors more time to deploy new broadband connections to business customers and wireless cellsites. Three congressional Republicans from Arkansas backed a "reasonable transition." Incompas, Sprint and Windstream said AT&T raised business broadband rates in several states as the commission prepares to undermine BDS competition. "Those are unrelated rates not impacted by the FCC’s BDS proposal," said an AT&T spokesman.

More critics of a draft business data service order are pressing the FCC to delay a vote planned for the April 20 meeting of commissioners, so far to no effect. The U.S. Small Business Administration and others said more time is needed to address deregulatory BDS proposals in the draft they say would harm business market competition and customers. If nothing else, the agency should create a three-year transition for implementing a new framework, some said. Some are skeptical there will be a pause.

USTelecom sought what could amount to additional deregulation beyond what's in a draft business data services order, while Starry sought the opposite on BDS. The period for lobbying on the item set for an April 20 commissioner vote (see 1704120049) ended Thursday. CEO Jonathan Spalter and others from the association met Monday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and aide Jay Schwarz, with a filing posted Thursday in docket 05-25 saying "reduction in the FCC’s detailed price setting role proposed in the Order is important, but relatively constrained." The agency seems to be keeping authority to ensure prices for traditional BDS remain just and reasonable, they noted, saying broader relief has benefits and asking the regulator to follow the non-dominance tack from CenturyLink and Frontier Communications. The commission's competitive market test may be too conservative, the executives told Pai and Schwarz. Wi-Fi and wireless broadband access startup Starry, meanwhile, seeks all IP-based BDS providers offering just, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, under Title I Communications Act oversight and Section 706. "Many BDS providers participate in other markets, including retail broadband, mobile wireless, online advertising, video content production and delivery, data storage," wrote the firm started by its CEO Chet Kanojia, who founded the Aereo streaming service that lost to broadcasters a Supreme Court case and shut down. "Because these markets rely on BDS as a critical input into the delivery of the product or service, it is rational for such an integrated BDS provider to exploit its position as the owner of the critical input."