By 2019, the U.S. will need more than 350 MHz additional licensed spectrum to support projected commercial mobile wireless demand, said a study prepared for CTIA by The Brattle Group. The forecast uses the FCC’s formula and approach to update the projected licensed spectrum deficit from five years ago, it said. The FCC said by 2014 the licensed spectrum deficit would be 300 MHz, which means over the next five years the U.S. must increase its existing supply of licensed broadband spectrum by over 50 percent, the report said. CTIA said recently only 135 MHz of the 300 MHz goal the FCC National Broadband Plan called to be cleared had been cleared (see 1506230014).

By 2019, the U.S. will need more than 350 MHz additional licensed spectrum to support projected commercial mobile wireless demand, said a study prepared for CTIA by The Brattle Group. The forecast uses the FCC’s formula and approach to update the projected licensed spectrum deficit from five years ago, it said. The FCC said by 2014 the licensed spectrum deficit would be 300 MHz, which means over the next five years the U.S. must increase its existing supply of licensed broadband spectrum by over 50 percent, the report said. CTIA said recently only 135 MHz of the 300 MHz goal the FCC National Broadband Plan called to be cleared had been cleared (see 1506230014).

ICANN stakeholders urged leaders of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) during ICANN’s meeting in Buenos Aires Wednesday to consider moving to the back burner some issues it’s considering addressing in a proposal on new ICANN accountability. It's a bid to simplify the proposal to include only changes deemed critical for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition. CCWG-Accountability and the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) are working on plans for the IANA transition process, evaluating several community proposals on the transition. The IANA transition process has been, as expected (see 1506190061), the dominant topic at ICANN’s Buenos Aires meeting, which is taking place amid a legislative push to give Congress more oversight over the transition.

The House overwhelmingly passed a trade preferences package that would renew the Generalized System of Preferences on June 25. The vote came just a day after the Senate passed a host of trade bills and resolutions, ending a months-long legislative battle over Trade Promotion Authority. President Barack Obama is now set to sign TPA and the preference package into law in the coming days and renew GSP, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and two Haiti tariff preference level programs (see 1506120015). After his expected signature, importers would soon be able to file retroactive relief for duties incurred over the past two years of GSP expiration.

Satellite operators oppose an FCC proposal to charge them a 12-cent-per-subscriber regulatory fee (see 1505290033), and are concerned about what may come next, said DirecTV, Dish Network, EchoStar and Hughes Network in comments on the commission’s regulatory fee NPRM posted in docket 15-121 Tuesday. “There is no limiting principle that would stop the Commission from doubling or tripling the rate next year,” said Dish, saying such an outcome wouldn't be legal or in the public interest, and would negatively affect DBS subscribers.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured the agency’s new Disability Advisory Committee that disability issues remain one of his top priorities. DAC held its first meeting in March, while Wheeler was busy testifying before the House Oversight Committee, so he didn't attend that meeting (see 1503170063). “The work of this committee is very high on my personal priority list,” Wheeler said Tuesday. He said that his first meeting as chairman was with groups representing the disabled. “I wanted to send a message,” he said. “I’m here delivering the message again.”

The FCC released its order Monday giving interconnected VoIP providers direct numbering access, which was adopted Thursday 5-0 (see 1506180060). The 78-page order sets up a process to allow VoIP providers connected to traditional phone networks to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering administrators rather than through telecom carrier intermediaries. It established various conditions "designed to minimize number exhaust and preserve the integrity of the numbering system." The FCC disagreed with commenters that said the agency had to classify interconnected VoIP service as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act to give providers of the service direct numbering access. The FCC said nothing in Section 251(e) restricted the commission's numbering jurisdiction to telecom carriers. NARUC was among the most explicit and seemed to raise a litigation threat in warning the commission not to give interconnected VoIP providers direct numbering access without classifying their service under Title II (see 1506120013). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in her statement that the agency should decide the VoIP classification issue and stand by it. The FCC said arguments that it should address certain intercarrier compensation issues in the same order were "speculative" and "do not constitute sufficient grounds to delay VoIP direct numbering access." A footnote confirmed it declined to act on Level 3's proposals seeking to ensure CLECs can collect local switching access charges when completing the VoIP calls of providers with direct numbering access, as expected (see 1506190047). The order said Level 3 raised the issue a few days before the beginning of the sunshine period. The commission called its related VoIP symmetry rules complex and said it lacked an adequate record to fully evaluate Level 3 proposals and implications.

The FCC released its order Monday giving interconnected VoIP providers direct numbering access, which was adopted Thursday 5-0 (see 1506180060). The 78-page order sets up a process to allow VoIP providers connected to traditional phone networks to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering administrators rather than through telecom carrier intermediaries. It established various conditions "designed to minimize number exhaust and preserve the integrity of the numbering system." The FCC disagreed with commenters that said the agency had to classify interconnected VoIP service as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act to give providers of the service direct numbering access. The FCC said nothing in Section 251(e) restricted the commission's numbering jurisdiction to telecom carriers. NARUC was among the most explicit and seemed to raise a litigation threat in warning the commission not to give interconnected VoIP providers direct numbering access without classifying their service under Title II (see 1506120013). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in her statement that the agency should decide the VoIP classification issue and stand by it. The FCC said arguments that it should address certain intercarrier compensation issues in the same order were "speculative" and "do not constitute sufficient grounds to delay VoIP direct numbering access." A footnote confirmed it declined to act on Level 3's proposals seeking to ensure CLECs can collect local switching access charges when completing the VoIP calls of providers with direct numbering access, as expected (see 1506190047). The order said Level 3 raised the issue a few days before the beginning of the sunshine period. The commission called its related VoIP symmetry rules complex and said it lacked an adequate record to fully evaluate Level 3 proposals and implications.

Two House members accused the FCC Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) of deviating from the statute in the satellite TV law that created it. Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, outlined concerns to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Thursday. “Some group participants and directives issued by your staff, unfortunately, are ignoring the qualifying statutory language regarding downloadable security in order to resurrect a previously discredited proposal referred to as AllVid,” the lawmakers wrote. “These proposals and staff directives go well beyond security issues, and in fact, seek to force providers to dismantle their video services and content for others’ commercial exploitation, harming the video marketplace and interfering with contracts and copyright law in the process.” The lawmakers dismissed this development as “an enormous distraction” and beyond statute. If the FCC allows such deviation from statute, that “would raise questions about your willingness to follow Congressional mandates,” they said. Green and Latta are the lawmakers responsible for the stand-alone legislation that ended the set-top box integration ban, eventually passed into law as part of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization and considered a key lobbying priority for the cable industry. The commission declined to comment, as did Cheryl Tritt, who chairs the FCC committee. “The limited scope of DSTAC and it’s [sic] purpose is clear, and the language that defines it has been agreed upon in both the House and the Senate unanimously," Latta said in a statement.

Two House members accused the FCC Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) of deviating from the statute in the satellite TV law that created it. Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, outlined concerns to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Thursday. “Some group participants and directives issued by your staff, unfortunately, are ignoring the qualifying statutory language regarding downloadable security in order to resurrect a previously discredited proposal referred to as AllVid,” the lawmakers wrote. “These proposals and staff directives go well beyond security issues, and in fact, seek to force providers to dismantle their video services and content for others’ commercial exploitation, harming the video marketplace and interfering with contracts and copyright law in the process.” The lawmakers dismissed this development as “an enormous distraction” and beyond statute. If the FCC allows such deviation from statute, that “would raise questions about your willingness to follow Congressional mandates,” they said. Green and Latta are the lawmakers responsible for the stand-alone legislation that ended the set-top box integration ban, eventually passed into law as part of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization and considered a key lobbying priority for the cable industry. The commission declined to comment, as did Cheryl Tritt, who chairs the FCC committee. “The limited scope of DSTAC and it’s [sic] purpose is clear, and the language that defines it has been agreed upon in both the House and the Senate unanimously," Latta said in a statement.