Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., offered dueling visions of net neutrality legislation Tuesday, as the rhetorical battle on Capitol Hill over the FCC's planned Thursday vote to repeal its 2015 rules intensified. Thune took to the Senate floor to renew his call for Democrats to negotiate with Republicans on compromise net neutrality legislation, while Doyle announced plans to file a bill to “save” the 2015 rules. Other net neutrality news: on how the draft net neutrality order may affect interconnection (see 1712120015), on congressional Democrats' concerns about the FCC commenting system's cybersecurity (see 1712120052) and on FCC security procedures (see 1712120043).

With the FCC poised to declare "internet freedom," there is much disagreement about whether deregulated broadband providers will have the incentive and ability to engage in paid prioritization of traffic that favors some content and applications, potentially harming rivals and consumers. Cable and telco ISPs said they generally don't want to discriminate among data streams, even if they can, and an order to remove "utility-style" net neutrality regulation, which commissioners plan to vote on Thursday, will promote broadband investment and innovation. They said adequate safeguards remain, including at the FTC and DOJ, to curb harms to consumers or competition, but net neutrality advocates disagree. (In related news Monday, see 1712110050 on congressional rollback efforts and 1712110049 on an draft FTC-FCC ISP monitoring plan.)

Parties proposed changes to an FCC draft Rural Health Care (RHC) order and NPRM scheduled for a vote Thursday (see 1711220026). USTelecom and ITTA cited a draft order provision that healthcare providers seeking RHC program support in funding year 2017 could benefit from voluntary price reductions from their service providers. USTelecom is concerned "the commission may be looking to service providers to bear the burden of the program exceeding its budget by reducing prices below competitively-bid rates," said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-310. "The more appropriate and efficient approach is for the Commission to better manage costs in the RHC program through procedural measures such as allocating additional funding or by more judiciously approving RHC support applications." ITTA said, the agency "should maintain, if not bolster, the language in its draft order emphasizing that any price reductions by service providers for RHC funding in FY 2017 are both voluntary and adopted as a single, one-time measure." It also said language should specify that service providers won't incur penalties if they decline to voluntarily reduce their rates. As part of the draft's proposed limited funding relief, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition urged the FCC to "fully fund all RHC applications that were submitted within the FY 2017 filing window (which is now closed) -- even in the event available rollover funds prove insufficient," said an SHLB filing on discussions with aides to all five commissioners. In calls with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, Alaska Communications backed "an immediate increase in the budget for the RHC support programs, and suggested the FCC seek comment in the NPRM on several issues." The Alaska Primary Care Association called the draft "positive" but also urged fully funding FY 2017 applications and extending the current application window for next year. Kellogg & Sovereign, which assists RHC applicants, voiced concerns about a "standstill" in FY 2017 funding and the FY 2018 filing window.

Hughes Network Systems urged the FCC to go easy on performance-measurement duties in a planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of USF support for fixed broadband services in traditional ILEC areas where incumbents declined CAF II offers. Such obligations would impose burdens that fall hardest on smaller winning bidders, said the Hughes response Wednesday to a public notice in docket 10-90 (see 1711060055). The FCC should leverage existing programs, including Measuring Broadband America, but if it does impose a new requirement, it should select a "software approach where the software resides on the operators' modems," said Hughes, which earlier made broader CAF II auction arguments. Several parties lobbied FCC rural broadband auctions task force members in filings this week. The Wireless ISP Association pressed the staffers not to require potential bidders using spectrum to submit propagation maps for the census block groups they're eying. Such applicants should demonstrate due diligence in applications, but the mapping requirement "would be impractical, unfair and inefficient," said WISPA, which also criticized a proposed financial screen and backed census block groups (CBGs) as the geographic bidding unit. A rural coalition of power companies and NTCA urged the FCC to simplify the auction, arguing that procedural complexity, particularly package bidding, could deter small provider participation. But officials from USTelecom, AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications, Frontier Communications, Verizon and Windstream defended package bidding, which they said allows participants "to plan efficient network deployment" across CBGs. They said their analysis suggests packages of up to 25 CBGs are "likely to provide sufficient opportunity to reap network build and operating efficiencies to yield bids" consistent with the FCC's goal of ensuring competitive prices and broad coverage. They also said the ability of bidders "to change performance tiers between rounds appeared to contribute more to views that the auction is unnecessarily complex than to the needs of existing broadband providers."

An FCC draft order to undo Title II net neutrality appears legally strong, said some attorneys on a Phoenix Center panel, but another questioned aspects. Chairman Ajit Pai's draft to restore a less-regulatory Communications Act Title I broadband framework has precedent, deference and investment arguments in its favor, said Tom Navin, a Wiley Rein attorney and ex-Wireline Bureau chief. At around the same time Tuesday, a pro-Title II panel was held (see 1712050057).

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle,​ D-Pa., told a New America conference FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s net neutrality proposal won’t just roll back rules to before the 2015 regulations, it will mean “turning the clock back to zero.” Pai is wrong that getting rid of the rules will mean “business as usual” for the internet, Doyle said. At around the same time Tuesday, an anti-Title II panel was held (see 1712050035). Pai made the opposite point to Doyle in a speech to an International Institute of Communications meeting in Washington.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai won't postpone a Dec. 14 vote on rolling back Title II net neutrality regulation under the Communications Act, spokespersons said Monday after calls for delay. In a news conference Monday, Democrats New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel urged Pai to wait until questions, including questions about millions of allegedly fake comments, are fully investigated. Rosenworcel said the process lacks integrity. Some senators sought delay, which USTelecom opposed (see 1711290032).

The FCC and DOJ defended the commission's "reasonable" order to largely deregulate business data services of large telcos from "imprecise and costly-to-administer price caps." After "voluminous data collection and 12 years of rulemaking," the commission "used carefully considered benchmarks to identify competitive markets where the costs of ex ante pricing regulation -- such as deterring pro-consumer innovation and investment -- exceed the benefits," said the brief to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. Information collection for the order was cleared by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, effective Wednesday, said a commission rule to be published in that day's Federal Register. FCC/DOJ said "contrary" to some "petitioners' contentions" the commission didn't entirely deregulate any BDS offerings in dispute: "Rather, the Commission reasonably predicted that in certain markets, prices could be adequately constrained through a combination of market forces and the agency’s customer-initiated 'fast-track' complaint process. The FCC’s decision, based on careful cost-benefit analysis, to move incrementally from ex ante ratemaking to ex-post review of prices was neither arbitrary nor capricious." The brief was filed Nov. 17 under seal and the public version was posted Monday on the agency's website. Three briefs filed Monday remained under seal in the 8th Circuit docket (via Pacer): an "intervenor" brief by Comcast and NCTA; an "amicus/intervenor" brief by AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom; and an "amicus/intervenor" brief by Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, BT Americas, Granite Telecommunications, Incompas, Sprint and Windstream. Ad Hoc, Sprint and other petitioners argued the action deregulated too broadly, and Citizens and CenturyLink said a 2 percent "X-factor" rate cut for remaining regulated BDS offerings overstated productivity gains (see 1709280035 and 1710050021).

Phone and electric cooperatives may be best equipped to spread fiber broadband across rural America, but are often overlooked, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance reported Tuesday. USTelecom said deploying broadband in rural areas is a priority for its big ISP members and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said it’s best to support incumbent ISPs except in the most unserved areas. The Phoenix Center supported cooperatives deploying broadband so long as they don’t partner with municipal networks.

U.S. internet traffic is projected to continue "explosive growth," rising "two-and-a-half times over the next five years," according to a USTelecom analysis Monday of annual IP traffic data in a Cisco index, blogged Patrick Brogan, the association's vice president-industry analysis. "A massive shift toward online consumer video is the primary driver of traffic growth. Other factors explaining the projected growth include increased mobile data traffic, continued broadband adoption, faster broadband connection speeds, new IoT "technologies, and other applications such as virtual reality, cloud services and data analytics," he wrote.