USTelecom and NTCA met with FCC officials on Lifeline minimum service standards set to be implemented Dec. 1, per filings (and here) in docket 11-42 posted Tuesday. The standards would bump up speed and capacity requirements for fixed broadband, which could result in "a forced upgrade," NTCA said, and create "the perverse effect" of pricing some customers out of broadband. Require all Lifeline providers make their minimum advertised speed available to all Lifeline subscribers in that area and give existing Lifeline broadband customers the option of upgrading to the minimum or applying current tiers to Lifeline discounts, NTCA said. It asked the FCC to answer an industry petition to postpone implementing the update (see 1907300076). USTelecom emphasized knowing soon if implementation changes to prevent customer confusion and undoing carriers' preparation. Representatives from USTelecom and members CenturyLink, Consolidated, Verizon, and Windstream met with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. They repeated concerns on a Lifeline representative accountability database (see 1907050036). NTCA officials met with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.

Facebook and Amazon reported increases in Q3 lobbying spending over the same period in 2018 amid ongoing Capitol Hill antitrust interest in the tech sector. Disney, USTelecom and NetChoice were among those that said earlier Monday they increased spending (see 1910210077). Google reported a 50 percent drop to $2.98 million. Comcast, AT&T and NAB also had declines. Facebook said it spent $4.8 million, up nearly 70 percent. Amazon reported just over $4 million, an 11 percent increase. AT&T laid out $3.24 million, down almost 16 percent. Comcast reported just over $3 million, down more than 11 percent. NAB's dropped more than 12 percent to $2.98 million. NCTA increased expenditures more than 5 percent to $2.94 million. Verizon's spending increased 4 percent to $2.43 million. Charter's decreased 2 percent to $2.23 million. T-Mobile's increased more than 7 percent to $2.21 million. CBS' spending stayed level at $900,000. Fox upped expenditures almost 22 percent to $780,000. Dish Network increased 13 percent to $590,000.

ISPs and state telecom authorities asked the FCC to delay the first-round auction for its $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund until it gets better broadband mapping data. In replies posted through Tuesday in docket 19-126, the California Public Utilities Commission, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) and Navajo Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, among others, supported delay.

Trade groups representing Connect America Fund ISP auction participants urged in interviews and filings with the FCC to fine-tune a draft order on reconsideration that would update broadband performance measurements for the rural, high-cost USF program. Commissioners vote on the order, in docket 10-90, Friday (see 1910040053). Interested parties met with officials, sometimes repeatedly, in recent weeks.

Disney, NetChoice and USTelecom are those posting the highest increases in Q3 lobbying spending over the same period last year, before Monday's night deadline. The Information Technology Industry Council and Wireless Infrastructure Association saw the largest declines. CTIA had the highest overall spending, $2.28 million, up 3.6 percent. Disney spent $880,000, up 16 percent . Cox reported $840,000, up 7.6 percent. Sprint laid out $710,000, little changed. USTelecom spent $510,000, up 8 percent. ITIC reported $400,000 down 11 percent. Twitter spent $320,000, up about 3 percent. WIA reported $210,000, down 13 percent. NetChoice spent $70,000, up 250 percent. The Computer and Communications Industry Association devoted $50,000, level with Q3 2018.

USTelecom sought clarification from the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. about how USF compliance might be called into question if participants in the high cost universal broadband portal edit their broadband mapping data as geocoding technologies improve. USTelecom said "a change to the fourth digit of a geocoded decimal (representing a change in accuracy of about 10 meters) would be a workable demarcation point for determining a change that required a deletion." Deleting and resubmitting a location would erase the year a broadband location was originally deployed, it said. "If a carrier 'deleted' a number of locations for a certain year and then those same locations were re-uploaded in the HUBB with a different deployment year, it could retroactively call into question the carrier's compliance." USTelecom with members AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated, Frontier and Windstream met with USAC and the FCC Wireline Bureau staff Wednesday, and the association said, posted Monday in docket 10-90, it "understood that if the carrier had previously met a deployment year's milestone, and then, by virtue of 'deleting' and resubmitting locations with better geocodes, fell under the milestone for a particular year," there would be no penalty "as long as the cumulative number of locations submitted to date for the life of the program remained above the current threshold."

Industry groups representing telcos, cable companies and telecom service bundlers endorsed an FCC draft declaratory ruling to ensure 911 regulatory fee parity between VoIP and functionally equivalent traditional phone services, in interviews last week. Commissioners will vote on the draft at Friday's meeting (see 1910040053). The ruling, on docket 19-44, is an attempt to answer a referral from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on litigation between AT&T's BellSouth and some 911 districts (see 1909110027).

Mark Hurd, 62, Oracle co-CEO, died Friday, according to founder Larry Ellison. He had taken medical leave in September. Survivors include his wife and two daughters. The company declined to disclose further details. "He understood broadband’s power to change lives," said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter.

USF stakeholders should make more improvements to broadband mapping, especially before the FCC begins awarding some $20 billion over about 10 years in the next version of its USF high-cost fund. That's the consensus in Q&A with us at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition panel (see 9:45 a.m.) Thursday and from audience members. Stakeholders targeted telcos, which some said don't always know down to a small-geographic level what areas they serve with internet service, and the FCC. The commission has been improving its mapping, working with others in the federal government including the Rural Utilities Service, said RUS Assistant Administrator-Telecom Programs Chad Parker.

Co-chairs of the Department of Homeland Security Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force urged House Homeland Security Committee members to consider enacting new liability protections and incentives to encourage companies and foreign governments to share information on threats to the supply chain. Committee leaders appeared interested during a Wednesday hearing in further protections. They invoked perceived supply-chain threats posed by Kaspersky Lab and Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE.