Fresh T-Mobile/Sprint commitments to the FCC underscore promises made in California and give “further assurance” that T-Mobile will “build a world-leading 5G network,” rural residents will get 5G, and in-home broadband competition will increase, said the companies' motion at the California Public Utilities Commission in docket A.18-07-011. Divesting Boost Mobile won’t affect a LifeLine pilot recently OK’d by the California agency (see 1904250028), the carrier said. “T-Mobile reaffirms its strong support for that program and its willingness to work with the Commission staff to determine how to best support the pilot, including but not limited to having one of New T-Mobile’s brands (e.g. MetroPCS) assume Boost’s responsibilities under the pilot.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai supported the deal, but the CPUC’s decision could be delayed into late summer or longer if the state agency decides changes to the application like Boost divestiture require additional review (see 1905200051). Also Monday, the carriers urged the CPUC to deny consumer groups's motion to strike material based on the carriers' memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF). "To insist that the Commission disregard T-Mobile’s commitments in the CETF MOU as it reviews the merger is to ignore a host of promises that will only have a positive impact on the State," the carriers said.

"Largely successful" in bringing rural broadband there, Lake County, Minnesota, wants to end its experiment as a rural broadband provider. In an FCC docket 10-90 petition Monday, it asked to relinquish its status as a rural broadband experiment (RBE) support recipient as part of its plan to sell the fiber optic network to Pinpoint Holdings. The county said it "dramatically" expanded broadband availability in unserved and underserved areas north and northeast of Duluth, but the project also was rife with "unexpected challenges and delays" that hampered its ability to meet its economic commitments and it was unable to secure financing to continue operating and expanding the network. It said Pinpoint was the winning bidder for the network, and has indicated it doesn't want to continue with the RBE grant program once it closes on the sale. The county said since the RBE program doesn't have a specific process for discontinuing participation, the agency should follow the same process as for relinquishment of Connect America Funds. It said out of an RBE grant award of $3.49 million OK'd by the FCC in 2016 (see 1612130006), it's so far received $1.63 million and that as of Aug. 1, it had built out to serve 3,102 locations, or 36.51 percent of those eligible. It said that, along with giving up its RBE grant status, it and the FCC should agree the county would retain 36.51 percent of the grant support it was awarded, $1.27 million, and return any more funds. Mediacom in 2011 challenged the Rural Utilities Service Broadband Infrastructure Program project as not financially viable, prompting a congressional investigation (see 1303140055 and 1205070046). Then-RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein, now Wireless Infrastructure Association president, testified government would seek full repayment of the loan to Lake County in event of a default (see 1205170068). The municipality said Pinpoint sale proceeds would to go the RUS. "From the moment it was conceived, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the telecom business knew the Lake County broadband project did not add up," Mediacom emailed. "Lake Connections was an unquestionable financial disaster, and taxpayers deserve better."

The FCC Technology Advisory Council meets June 21 at 10 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. Entigenlogic Executive Chairman Dennis Roberson is chairman of TAC, which was rechartered for a two-year term that began Friday, said a public notice Monday. For a listing of other members, see the personals section of this issue.

Demand for upfront payments and multiyear commitments exceeded a $150 million cap for the first time in the history of the Rural Health Care Fund, said an FCC order Monday to provide full funding for all eligible requests for FY 2018. The agency said in docket 02-60 it has suspended its multiyear commitment rule for participants in the RHC program, which is backed by the Universal Service Administrative Co. and provides broadband assistance to rural healthcare providers. The order instructs USAC to designate contracts associated with multiyear funding requests as "evergreen" to exempt them from annual competitive bidding requirements. The commission extended the filing window for 2019 applications from May 31 to June 30, after some groups were concerned (see 1903190019). "We need to evaluate and better understand the growth in demand for the Healthcare Connect Fund, so we can stay ahead of changes and enable the program to meet the needs of those it serves," said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in an accompanying statement.

Comments are due June 7 on two North American Numbering Council reports, said the FCC Wireline Bureau Friday. Comments on new findings related to nationwide number portability are due in docket 17-244, said one public notice. NANC delivered the NNP report May 13 in a letter from NANC Chairman Travis Kavulla. He said that an NNP Working Group narrowed its recommendations to two options, a national local routing number or an Internet Protocol routing number, and the choice “depends on the trajectory of technological change in the industry.” NANC’s NNP report didn't include a cost-benefit analysis, Kavulla adds, because doing so would require assumptions about the pace of stakeholders' technology upgrades. Docket 18-336 is for a report, also issued May 13, updating the FCC on recommendations for implementing 2018's National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act. The law looks to designate a 3-digit dialing code for national use. There's no consensus on what that number should be (see 1905160054).

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), since it covers Californians no matter where they are and since industry hasn't been able to rally around one alternative, is set to become the default privacy protection rules for the nation, Harris Wiltshire privacy lawyer Becky Burr said Friday at the FCBA annual retreat. CCPA will apply to a broader and deeper data set than the EU's general data protection regulation, meaning "significant" reworking of systems needs to be done before it takes effect Jan. 1, she said. "There's a bit of a scramble going on." There's much industry consensus that federal pre-emption is needed to avoid a proliferation of competing state laws, she said in Hot Springs, Virginia. Among proposals in Congress, most agree on the need for a larger role for the FTC, but they disagree on other topics like private rights of action, she noted. Burr said federal legislation that pre-empts CCPA seems unlikely to come to pass, and meanwhile 30-plus states are kicking around their own form of privacy bills. While the California legislature also is looking at changes to CCPA, a risk is that a significant change could give rise to another ballot initiative like the one that prompted creation of the law in the first place, she said. She said the idea of eliminating the right to cure before fines kick in for violations is dead with state lawmakers, but other provisions moving through the legislature would clarify its non-applicability to employees and contractors, modify its definition of personal information and eliminate the requirement companies maintain a toll-free line for allowing consumer opt-outs.

The man who threatened to kill FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s family over the net neutrality common-carrier repeal has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison, said a sentencing order (in Pacer) from a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and a DOJ release Friday. Markara Man, of Norwalk, California, sent three emails to Pai in 2017 that included threats to kill Pai’s children, lists of Arlington schools, and a picture of Pai and his family. Man confessed after being confronted by the FBI, but subsequently wiped data from a cellphone in what prosecutors said was an attempt to destroy evidence. Man will get credit for time served, and after the 20 months be on supervised release for three years and barred from possessing or using a computer without the permission of his parole officer. Court filings show that Man had sought a lighter sentence, arguing that he was mentally ill at the time of the incident and that he had no actual plans to carry out his threat. “Mr. Man committed this crime as a call for help. Now that he is diagnosed and treated it is highly unlikely he will reoffend,” said a sentencing filing (in Pacer) from Man’s attorney Edward Robinson. The sentencing documents require Man to serve his time in a facility where he can receive mental health treatment, but the court denied the defense’s request for lighter sentencing. The FCC didn’t comment. “Threatening to actually kill a federal official’s family because of a disagreement over policy is not only inexcusable, it is criminal,” said U.S. Attorney-Eastern District of Virginia Zachary Terwilliger in the release. “This prosecution shows not only that we take criminal threats seriously, but also that online threats of violence have real world consequences."

The C-Band Alliance has no problems with safeguards some content companies want to see in any C-band transition plan to protect video downlinks, it said in an FCC docket 18-122 posting Wednesday. The CBA said it will be talking specific provisions, including technical rules, the FCC could adopt to implement such safeguards. The content companies, earlier this month recapping meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and the other commissioners, said those safeguards must include having at least 300 MHz available for video downlinks in the repacked C band, meaning no more than 200 MHz of C band can be repurposed. They said protecting those downlinks from interference include having a sufficient guard band, reasonable power limits for 5G base stations and mobile units, minimizing out-of-band emissions and guaranteeing any earth station filters meet or surpass any assumed levels of radiofrequency rejection. They argued against allowing fixed point-to-multipoint transmissions in the repacked C band as making "a difficult spectrum management task impossible." They said the FCC could incentivize spectrum repacking that protects video downlinks by requiring that companies selling spectrum rights wouldn't see profits until after finishing a transition of incumbents and a provision of agreed-on protections to video downlinks, while not allowing mobile users to start operations in a given market until the repack is done. The content companies were CBS, Discovery, Disney, Fox and Univision.

USTelecom Senior Vice President-Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs Patrick Halley said the FCC's Form 477-centric approach to broadband mapping is more granular than ever but still limited (see 1905010089).

The first meeting of the FCC's rechartered Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) will be June 13, said a public notice Thursday. The meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. The BDAC chair and vice chair are continuing from its first term, and other members also were listed (see personals section of this issue). The agency said the three BDAC working groups will be disaster response and recovery, increasing broadband investment in low-income communities and broadband infrastructure deployment job skills and training opportunities. The commission said Dec. 10 it planned to re-up the group, subject to General Services Administration approval, an FCC spokesperson emailed us. "That approval was obtained, and this [is] the first notice following that approval. The re-charter is for two years." The charter expires March 1, 2021, he said.