Increasing FCC partisanship and a decline in hiring engineers and economists are symptoms of a flawed organizational structure, blogged University of Florida Public Utility Research Center Director Mark Jamison for the American Enterprise Institute Monday. The structure “encourages a silo mentality, favors people with legal training over people schooled in analysis, and muffles expert voices,” said Jamison. Similar points were made in a recent letter to the agency urging a reorganization, signed by a host of former FCC officials, advocates and academics -- including Jamison (see 1905300001). The FCC should emphasize functions such as licensing and policy instead of the current bureau division by communications medium, Jamison blogged. He cites drops in production of working papers and hosting of economic symposiums as evidence of a lack of in-house analysis of FCC decisions, plus the number of lawyers at the agency compared to engineers and economists. “Developing good analyses and displaying them in public make it harder for regulatory agencies to justify decisions with conjecture and to bias decisions toward favored constituencies,” Jamison said.

Some LGBTQ organizations are raising red flags about expanded use of 211 for a national three-digit suicide prevention hotline, as the FCC North American Numbering Council recommended (see 1905080020). The Trevor Project (TTP), in a docket 18-336 posting Friday on meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks, Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly, said a 211 designation would require retraining 211 operators to effectively handle calls from LGBTQ youth in crisis. It said an independent N11 or three-digit code for mental health crises would prioritize suicide. TTP also said the FCC's report to Congress required under the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act should include recommendations that national suicide prevention lifeline counselors be trained in LGBTQ cultural competency and that an integrated voice response to route calls to TTP be established. Adding the responsibility for suicide prevention and mental health crisis calls to 211 raises the risk of delayed access to experienced assistance, LGBTQ advocacy group Equality North Carolina (ENC) said. It said there's a danger in inexperienced 211 call center staffers who are unprepared for mental health crisis calls or in interactive voice response that increases wait times. The FCC instead should designate a currently undesignated N11 code or repurpose a designated-but-low-volume N11 code, it said. Suicide prevention organization Suicide Awareness Voices of Education said suicide prevention and mental health crises need their own N11 dialing code, and dual use of 211 or creation of a 10-digit number "could make things even worse."

Verizon, U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile were the big bidders in the 28 GHz auction, AT&T and T-Mobile in the 24 GHz auction. The FCC released results Monday. In the 28 GHz auction, the first held by the FCC, Verizon bid $505.7 million for 1,066 licenses in 863 markets. U.S. Cellular was a distant second, $129.4 million for 408 licenses in 362 markets. T-Mobile was third, $39.3 million for 865 licenses in 864 markets. Windstream, which bid $6.2 million for 106 licenses, was the only other bidder above $5 million. In the 24 GHz auction, AT&T was the top spender -- winning 831 licenses in 383 markets with bids of $982.5 million. T-Mobile also went big, with $803.2 million for 1,346 licenses in 400 markets. U.S. Cellular was third, bidding $126.6 million for 282 licenses in 102 markets, followed by Starry, which bid $48.5 million for 51 licenses in 104 markets.

FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin denied a long-stalled application to assign an FM translator station to Lake Broadcasting over the conduct of CEO Michael Rice and lack of evidence showing he's qualified to be a licensee, said a decision released Thursday. The matter concerned a proposed sale of a Montgomery, Alabama, translator in 2012 by Patrick Sullivan to Lake Broadcasting. Since Rice is a convicted sex offender who previously held station authorizations that were revoked partially because of a lack of candor, the deal was designated for hearing. The hearing was held in 2017 before then-Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel, but Rice abruptly left before the proceeding was over and never presented evidence showing how his previous misrepresentations to the FCC affected his suitability to be a licensee, the decision said. Sippel retired in 2018 without ruling on the case. Halprin said now she isn’t required to hold a new hearing to rule here: “Relevant case law indicates that in such a situation, testimony of witnesses must be reheard only where the disposition of the matter depends on first-hand evaluation of their demeanor and credibility.” The new ALJ said Rice and Lake Broadcasting didn’t present evidence “on the separate issue of Mr. Rice’s propensity to deal truthfully with the Commission in light of his and [Lake Broadcasting’s] past misdeeds.” The issue was exacerbated by Rice’s exit from the hearing, Halprin wrote. “The circumstances of Mr. Rice’s abandonment of the case call into question the level of respect that he has for the Commission’s processes generally.” Rice will appeal the decision, his attorney Jerold Jacobs said in an interview. Rice is seeking to vindicate his right to be a licensee, Jacobs said. Halprin’s decision is limited in scope, and a footnote in the decision explicitly states that she hasn’t ruled on the matter of whether Rice’s sex offender convictions prevent him from being a licensee. “We disagree” with Halprin’s determination that insufficient evidence was presented, Jacobs said. Rice still has a single amateur license from the commission, Jacobs said.

Amazon, or one of the big cable companies, may emerge as the elusive fourth wireless carrier, to satisfy DOJ concerns about T-Mobile's buying Sprint (see 1905300058), analysts said Friday. “We do not have an interest in acquiring divested spectrum from the Sprint/T-Mobile transaction,” a Comcast spokesperson said. “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation,” an Amazon spokesperson said. Analysts cited reports such players are scoping Boost, which the companies agreed to sell (see 1905200051) to get FCC clearance. Other divestitures could be forced by DOJ. Agreement is possible, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told us Friday. “It will be a complicated negotiation, but there should be a deal that works for everyone.” Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim “would like to approve the deal, but he has a memo from his staff highlighting competitive harms and he has 17 state [attorneys general] threatening to sue if he does approve the deal,” Chaplin said: “The easiest path forward for him would be finding concessions that address the harms and undercut a case by the state AGs. Establishing a credible fourth competitor would be the perfect solution.” Chaplin said cable will get in anyway. “They will buy spectrum,” he said: “They would also love a better [mobile virtual network operator] MVNO than they have now, one that gives them core network control.” While prospects Amazon might jump into the wireless business have caused market jitters, the threat is limited, said Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche. “Spectrum is the life blood of a wireless network -- and while [Amazon] could buy some spectrum divestitures if required to get this done -- it is impossible for us to see how it will amass the necessary spectrum to mirror that of the wireless incumbents,” she told investors. “That the DOJ has forced T-Mobile to contemplate such a transaction suggests the DOJ has signaled that without such a deal, it will file a complaint,” New Street’s Blair Levin told investors. “How much T-Mobile is willing to give up to proceed," he asked. Negotiations are likely just getting started and there are some big questions, Levin said. “We don’t know whether Cable or Amazon are seriously interested or want to see what might be available now or, if the deal doesn’t go forward, from Sprint in the future. ... We don’t know if the Cable players are willing to agree to the terms of a joint venture necessary to make the new entrant a national player.” Barclays' Kannan Venkateshwar noted analysts there have made the case for “convergence between the application layer and the network layer … where we had argued that over the long term, there was a high likelihood of companies such as Amazon and Google getting into wireless.” Amazon and Google are testing in some bands, including the citizens broadband radio service band, Barclays said.

Iconectiv will have the job of applying and enforcing secure telephone identity (STI) governance authority rules to make operational the signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) framework for call authentication, ATIS announced Thursday. The company will be charged with trying to ensure STI certificates are available only to authorized service providers and that STI Certification Authorities work to maintain the integrity of the Shaken framework. It's "a major milestone in putting SHAKEN into action, a top industry priority critical to restoring trust in the voice network,” said ATIS CEO Susan Miller. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai looks forward to Shaken/secure telephone identity revisited framework deployment by major carriers later this year as a route to cracking down on caller ID spoofing and unwanted robocalls. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted that 5 billion robocalls "is BONKERS" and the agency needs "to bite the bullet and require [call authentication technology] NOW." The FCC previously gave Iconectiv a number portability contract that Neustar previously had.

The FCC new Office of Economics and Analytics has yet to do a full-fledged cost-benefit analysis on any item, officials said Thursday at an FCBA event featuring front-office staff. The order creating OEA requires that level of analysis only on items with an effect on the economy of $100 million or more ( see 1801300026) and none has risen to that level since, said acting Chief Giulia McHenry. Only three items in the past five years rose above that threshold, she said. OEA itself makes the call on the overall economic effects of an item, she said. OEA evaluates commission-level items and has done an analysis of about 100 so far, about a third of which required more in-depth economic analysis, officials said. McHenry said the federal shutdown slowed the hiring of new economists, traditionally hired in January, but two new Ph.D. economists and two auction lawyers are joining the office. About 60 economists were shifted there from elsewhere in the FCC, she said. “We have one central location where economists can work together a little more, there’s a little more sort of cross-cultivation,” McHenry said. “It has empowered the economists a bit more to think independently.” Chairman Ajit Pai’s office has been “supportive” and “helpful,” McHenry said. “We certainly don’t consider ourselves above the fray,” but economists have to remember “they’re economists” and what their role is, McHenry said. OEA published its first white paper (see 1904050030), with another 10 or so in the works, officials said. As long as OEA is engaged early, it shouldn’t slow work on any item, McHenry said.

The FCC should use its upcoming relocation as an opportunity to break up its “siloed” organizational structure, said a joint letter to all five commissioners signed by a collection of former officials, academics and longtime advocates. They included ex-Commissioners Henry Rivera and Deborah Taylor Tate and former General Counsel Henry Geller. “Because companies offering essentially substitutable services are often regulated by different bureaus, and thus receive different treatment, the FCC's legacy 'silo structure' is no longer viable.” The agency should replace the current Media, Wireless and Wireline bureaus with three “function-based” divisions: Economics and Policy, Licensing and Grantmaking, and Engineering, the letter said. They suggested an alternative, incremental plan that would replace the Wireless and Wireline bureaus with one focused on universal service, and another focused on competition, pricing, broadband and network deployment: “This would effectively maintain the current bureau divisions while removing their traditional industry silos.” Function-based bureaus make it tougher for industries to “capture” the agency, since it's more difficult for any one firm to use intense lobbying and “the revolving door” to dominate a pan-industry entity, the ad hoc group said. The reorganization could also aid diversity by applying nondiscrimination regulations across all industries regulated by the agency, the letter said. The FCC's upcoming move to new headquarters is a “a rare opportunity” to reorganize, the letter said. “If past relocations are a guide regarding what we may expect, many employees will use this opportunity to retire or take jobs in the private sector -- thereby creating an opportunity for a relatively painless restructure of the agency.” The agency doesn't have to wait for congressional action to reorganize, but it would be wise to make sure Congress is involved in the process, Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser and letter signatory David Honig told us. The letter suggests the agency open a rulemaking and seek comment on such an organization, and convene an advisory committee to study the issue. Other signatories include Free State Foundation President Randolph May, former NAB General Counsel Jane Mago, former Cable Bureau Chief Deborah Lathen, and University of Florida Public Utility Research Center Director and Trump transition team member Mark Jamison. The agency and Chairman Ajit Pai's office didn't comment.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved limited waiver for the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) to test its wireless emergency alert system. The test is to start June 22 at 11 a.m. EDT, with a backup of the same time the following day. “In light of the heightened attendance and security expected for the National July 4th Celebration this year, we are persuaded by the HSEMA Letter that the proposed WEA test will help prepare the District of Columbia Government and HSEMA, as well as tourists and residents alike, in the event of an incident or emergency during the festivities,” said a Wednesday order: “We are also persuaded that there is value in allowing the end-to-end WEA test to use a ‘live’ WEA event code, as opposed to the State/Local WEA Test code, because of the importance of ensuring the reliability of WEA as a means of providing critical information in the event of an emergency.”

Communications providers should be part of the pre-disaster planning alongside power companies and emergency operations center personnel, and also need flexibility to adapt to changing conditions during emergencies, Charter Communications and Comcast representatives told an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, per a docket 11-60 posting Wednesday. They discussed collaboration work with electric companies and other communications providers via NCTA, Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers and Department of Homeland Security working groups about service restoration best practices after natural disasters.