An FCC Further NPRM on gateway providers and curbing illegal robocalls got a mixed reaction in comments posted through Monday in docket 17-59. Several questioned whether the proposed rules are duplicative. Most backed ending the foreign provider prohibition, which the commission paused enforcement on during the proceeding.

Providers, local governments and advocates welcomed FCC-proposed rules for the $14.2 billion affordable connectivity program, in comments posted Thursday in docket 21-450. Some raised concerns about potential implementation challenges as the agency shifts from the $3.1 billion emergency broadband benefit program and urged the commission to allow flexibility for EBB providers and enrolled households during the transition.

ISP groups may file briefs Feb. 23 on New York’s appeal of a lower court rejection of the state’s broadband affordability law, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday. The court granted three requests by ACA Connects, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, and CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom and New York State Telecommunications Association in case 21-1975 (see 2112060042).

The federal government is increasingly rife with spectrum fiefdoms among agencies, contrary to the FCC's core purpose as a centralized point of spectrum policy decision-making, Commissioner Brendan Carr said Wednesday during the Practicing Law Institute's annual telecom policy and regulation seminar. He said updating memorandums of understanding would help, but ultimately there must be deference to the expert agency making a final decision. Such "devolution" of spectrum policy will be a permanent fixture, but that trend needs some reversing, he said.

USTelecom appoints from OMB Michael Pauls as senior director-government affairs ... Information Technology and Innovation Foundation adds ex-FTC economist Julie Carlson as associate director-antitrust and innovation policy, ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy ... Kirkland & Ellis hires Scott Scheele as partner, Antitrust & Competition Practice Group; he was at DOJ as chief, Antitrust Division’s Media, Entertainment and Communications Section.

Require that affordable connectivity program providers apply the benefit only to "all plans that are presently offered to potential customers, not grandfathered plans," USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter told FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and his staff, said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-450 (see 2111180067). Spalter said it's not "necessary" for providers to submit details of every plan that will be available and to allow "as much time as necessary" to transition from the emergency broadband benefit program.

ISP associations asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals to require their brief by Feb. 23 on New York’s appeal of a lower court rejecting the state’s broadband affordability law, in letters Monday in case 21-1975 from the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA, USTelecom and NTCA. U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, temporarily blocked the state law earlier this year, ruling ISPs would likely succeed on conflict and field preemption arguments (see 2107230044). Last week, in an amicus brief, California, Illinois, 20 other states and the District of Columbia said they “seek to defend New York’s sovereign right to exercise its police powers against Plaintiffs’ unwarranted assertions of federal preemption.” Amici “regularly exercise their sovereign authority to enact and enforce numerous laws applicable to broadband providers and other online businesses,” including laws “aimed at securing their residents’ access to vital goods and services,” they said. “There is nothing about the Internet that necessitates a departure from that normal state of affairs, and certainly nothing that warrants it in the absence of clear direction from Congress.” In other amici filings, the Benton Institute and Public Knowledge said the New York law is “a targeted and state-specific regulatory response to the problem of the digital divide.” Access Now, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and others said federal “programs, while being helpful and effective, have not fully solved" the "broadband affordability problem.” The Greenlining Institute said states “have long played an essential role in regulating both interstate and intrastate communications, both as an exercise of their inherent sovereign police powers and within a federal statutory framework that leaves room to adapt communications law and policies to local concerns.” The district court's field preemption claim, if affirmed, "would invalidate vital state laws regulating areas of traditional local concern -- including consumer protection, public health, and public safety,” wrote seven internet law professors including Harvard Law School’s Lawrence Lessig and Stanford Law School’s Barbara van Schewick. It would “leave both the FCC and the states without regulatory authority, leaving Americans wholly unprotected from harms by interstate communications providers,” they said.

An FCC Further NPRM on curbing illegal robocalls to public safety answering points and improving the PSAP Do-Not-Call registry got mixed reaction from public safety organizations and industry in comments posted Thursday in docket 12-129 (see 2110010065). Commissioners approved the item in September. Comments were due Wednesday.

Tejasi Thatte, ex-chief of staff to Rep. Tony Cardenas and ex-NCTA, joins NBCUniversal federal affairs team ... USTelecom names Diana Eisner, ex-Frontier Communications, vice president-policy and advocacy, and Nicole Henry, ex-office of Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., senior director-government affairs; also promotes Hawley Stanton to senior director-government affairs ... John Howes, ex-Wireless Infrastructure Association, becomes counsel and senior policy adviser to Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, with responsibilities including telecom and tech ... New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) appoints Brian Lipman as director-Division of Rate Counsel; he had led it on acting basis after Stefanie Brand retired in September.

Broadband and housing advocates want more FCC scrutiny over multi-tenant environments and the deals MTE building owners make with providers, said replies posted Monday in docket 17-142 (see 2110210053). Some said exclusivity agreements could hamper enrollment efforts in the upcoming $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). MTE trade groups rejected additional regulation.