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."

The upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference will bring millimeter wave spectrum to 5G, said Grace Koh, heading the U.S. delegation, in an interview with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. International harmonization of spectrum will ensure “interference doesn't undermine the deployment of new services,” she said. If the world can agree on what bands should be used for 5G, “it makes the equipment much more interoperable, and it also makes it easier for operators to deploy," she said: “If we can all agree on what kinds of spectrum we want for 5G instead of piecemeal” allocations, “you have the ability to lower the cost of 5G deployment immensely.” The U.S. has been preparing for the WRC for years, she said. The nation's looking to make sure its plans for high-band “align” with and “sometimes even lead what the world is going to do on millimeter-wave spectrum,” she said. Koh sees 24 GHz as critical. Based on her travels, “every region of the globe is interested in identifying” that spectrum for 5G, she said. Another important WRC focus is satellites for broadband, she said. Without revised regulations, it will be “difficult to understand how they impact current satellites that do actually already provide critical services, and it will be difficult to figure out how to make sure that we get them up there in a safe and practical manner,” she said. The WRC will consider 47 agenda items, Koh said. The issues are “incredibly challenging,” she said.

The Supreme Court won’t hear Minnesota’s appeal of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that VoIP is an information service exempt from state regulation (see 1910090048). The high court denied the Public Utilities Commission’s petition for writ of certiorari Monday. Agreeing cert should be denied, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should, “in an appropriate case ... consider whether a federal agency’s policy can pre-empt state law.” Thomas doubts "a federal policy -- let alone a policy of nonregulation -- is ‘Law’ for purposes of the Supremacy Clause,” he wrote, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch. “Giving pre-emptive effect to a federal agency policy of nonregulation thus expands the power of both the Executive and the Judiciary.” The view of two justices has “no precedential value” but “is nonetheless an indicator of the difficulties of the FCC’s position on preemption of state net neutrality provisions based on its asserted policies of non-regulation,” emailed Benton Institute Senior Counselor Andy Schwartzman. The PUC didn't comment Monday. Charter Communications, which brought the original suit against the agency, declined comment. The telecom industry endorses a draft declaratory ruling, which the FCC will consider at commissioners' meeting Friday, on regulatory parity for 911 fees between VoIP and traditional phone services (see 1910210055).

With the C-Band Alliance proposal gaining ground, some continue to push for a more traditional FCC auction. “Handing over to private parties the management of critical spectrum with an uncertain return to taxpayers is exceedingly difficult to reconcile with Congress’s instructions to the Commission in Section 309 of the Communications Act, and risks running afoul of any number of procedural and substantive requirements,” the Competitive Carriers Association filed, posted Friday in docket 18-122: “A public auction would be on much more solid legal footing, and is also consistent with sound spectrum policy.” Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, opposed a private auction in a meeting with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “A private auction or sale would willfully ignore Congressional intent and precedent,” Calabrese said: “The Commission has no legal authority to authorize, let alone oversee, a private auction.”

Communications Workers of America urged Congress' Commerce and Judiciary committees to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. Five communications industry groups, including America’s Communications Association and NTCA, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to include “language to promote the use of buying group marketplace solutions” in a final STELA measure. Both legislative pushes came before a planned Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on renewal (see 1910160036). “Failure to reauthorize STELA means that more than 870,000 satellite subscribers, most of whom are rural customers, would lose access to network TV programming from the loss of the distant signal license,” said CWA Senior Director-Government Affairs and Policy Shane Larson in letters to the committees' leaders. “CWA has gained recognition of tens of thousands of [DirecTV] employees whose union contract provides good wages, benefits, and working conditions,” which STELA recertification “will help protect.” Larson sought permanent reauthorization, citing “lack of parity in the treatment of out-of-market licensing for cable and satellite providers.” The five industry groups said pro-buying group language, such as in the Modern Television Act (HR-3994), would give “buying groups used by smaller providers access to the same good faith protections afforded to large providers.” ITTA, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and WTA also signed the letter.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia should reject the FTC’s $5 billion privacy settlement with Facebook (see 1908060022) because the deal’s release from liability is too broad, consumer groups argued Tuesday. Public Citizen, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Common Sense Media and U.S. Public Interest Research Group filed (in Pacer) an amicus brief (in Pacer) in opposition to the agency’s consent decree. The settlement releases Facebook from claims prior to June 12 that the company violated a 2012 commission order and any FTC Act Section 5-related claims the agency was aware of before the same date. “Because of the release clause’s breadth, the proposed consent decree was not fair or reasonable and should be rejected by the court,” the groups argue. The Electronic Privacy Information Center's brief (in Pacer) argued the deal's “both procedurally and substantively unfair and must be rejected due to the expansive and vague release of liability granted.” The Center for the Legalization of Privacy in a third opposition brief said (in Pacer) the FTC order can be interpreted to grant the FTC and DOJ warrantless access to Facebook user data.

FirstNet opposed Verizon’s request for the FCC to address interoperability rules for the national first responder network (see 1909270054). Replies were posted Tuesday in docket 19-254 on Colorado's Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority (BRETSA) petitions for declaratory ruling or rulemaking. “Verizon’s comments substantially mischaracterize and minimize the FirstNet Authority’s duties and responsibilities under” the Spectrum Act, which created FirstNet, that authority said, filed by NTIA. “Congress made the FirstNet Authority the agency expressly responsible for carrying out the provisions implementing and overseeing the NPSBN [the nationwide public safety broadband network], and those duties and responsibilities extend far beyond mere 'administrative and business-related actions.'” Relief sought by BRETSA is “unnecessary, unworkable and unwise,” said AT&T, which is building FirstNet. “Neither the Spectrum Act nor the Communications Act authorizes the relief BRETSA seeks,” AT&T said: “BRETSA and its handful of supporters fail utterly to rebut these arguments.” But T-Mobile said the FCC has responsibilities under the Spectrum Act. “As Verizon noted, FirstNet is a Commission licensee, over which the Commission enjoys discretion to impose terms and conditions,” T-Mobile commented: “There is nothing in the … Act that removes from the Commission its general jurisdiction over licensees and their conduct.” BRETSA urged FCC action. “The BRETSA Petitions are not about core-to-core interoperability, placing commercial traffic generally on the NPSBN … or requiring FirstNet to build or support multiple networks,” BRETSA said: “BRETSA’s Petitions are instead about the very practical and essential needs of the public safety community to utilize extant communications resources (i) which serve areas extending beyond the FirstNet footprint, (ii) in which investment of limited public funds have already been sunk, or (iii) which better serve the unique needs of a specific jurisdiction.” BRETSA said: “Until FirstNet achieves a nationwide footprint for the interoperable NPSBN, and public safety agency budgets permit, there will be public safety agencies which will have no choice but to rely upon extant public safety radio systems and commercial providers.”

State Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service members asked the FCC to expand the contribution base for federal USF programs to include a fee on broadband internet access service, filing in docket 96-45 Tuesday. Commissioners Chris Nelson of South Dakota, Sally Talberg of Michigan and Stephen Bloom of Oregon recommend "a connections-based assessment on residential services and an expanded revenues-based assessment on business services." Having different contribution methodologies for residential and business services is "equitable and nondiscriminatory," they said. Under a new contribution mechanism, the FCC would assess fees on businesses that use virtual private network services, video conferencing, web conferencing, unified communications and business wireless broadband access services. For residential customers, a separate fee should be assessed for voice and broadband connections, they proposed. "A connections-based mechanism will provide stability for the Commission, administrative efficiency for carriers, and transparency for customers." About 50 percent of USF support would come from residential connections, and an initial surcharge for wireline, wireless and broadband would be 55 to 60 cents per connection, they suggested. The state commissioners recommend the FCC establish a firm budget for each of the four USF programs "with those budgets not growing any more than the Consumer Price Index for any given year." They want the FCC to "take specific steps to assure the continued viability of state universal service mechanisms promoted by Congress." It's "up to the FCC to determine what to do with the State Members’ recommendation," emailed South Dakota's Nelson (R), the joint board's state chair. "It became clear to the State Members that it was not going to be possible to get a recommendation from the full joint board, so we moved forward with this release of our work product." The other state Joint Board members didn't comment right away. The contribution factor for this quarter is a record 25 percent (see 1909130003). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel this summer asked the states to raise their concerns about needed action on revisions to the USF contribution mechanism and not wait for an FCC rulemaking (see 1907110020). Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who chairs the Joint Board, opposes a fee on broadband access or use (see 1906250011). His office didn't comment now. "The filing is very interesting, and we are looking at it closely," said Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen.

The rechartered FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment will have its first meeting Oct. 30, said Friday’s Federal Register. The meeting will include establishing working groups, the FR said.

CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom officials urged the FCC to adopt a “broad safe harbor that protects voice service providers’ good-faith efforts to combat abusive robocalls,” in a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireline bureau staff. Commissioners approved a declaratory ruling in June allowing carriers to block unwanted robocalls by default (see 1906060056) and industry groups emphasized the importance of the safe harbor (see 1907250039). “Adopting a broad safe harbor will provide the clarity and certainty needed to meaningfully advance the Commission’s goal of relieving consumers from the onslaught of illegal and unwanted robocalls while protecting legitimate calls,” the groups said in docket 17-59, posted Friday: “The Associations’ member companies include voice service providers that serve every corner of the country, all of whom share the Commission’s top consumer protection priority: to stop illegal and unwanted robocalls. These providers have made significant strides towards combating illegal and unwanted robocalls within the Commission’s current regulatory framework.”