T-Mobile fired back Wednesday at Chris Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America, who had slammed the Sprint/T-Mobile deal Tuesday in a C-SPAN interview (see 1902190068). “CWA has a track record of inaccuracy and subsequently no credibility,” emailed Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile senior vice president government affairs. CWA earlier had said T-Mobile’s buy of MetroPCS seven years ago would eliminate 10,000 U.S. jobs, Ham said: “The reality is that nearly 3x more people come to work for our Metro business every day -- compared to the time of the merger. That is job growth.” The T-Mobile/Sprint deal will be “jobs positive from day number one and create at least 11,000 jobs” in the U.S., she said. Ham is a key T-Mobile official working with federal regulators on deal approval.

T-Mobile offered the FCC a revised proposal for an incentive auction in the C band. The plan “includes a mechanism through which satellite earth station registrants can participate in the auction,” T-Mobile said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-122. “Including earth station registrants will provide competition in the reverse auction and the opportunity for those entities to directly obtain auction proceeds, leading to a more efficient reallocation of spectrum.” Under the proposal, the FCC would conduct a forward auction among potential licensees for all 500 MHz of C-band spectrum in each market. The purchase price in each market would be offered to satellite operator and earth station registrant incumbents, T-Mobile said. T-Mobile “continues their spiteful attack on Broadcasters and TV Programmers who would be evicted from C-band distribution,” emailed Preston Padden, C-Band Alliance head-advocacy and government relations. “Their updated ‘Disincentive Auction’ proposal changes nothing, except to exacerbate its infeasibility. Once again, T-Mo is trying to distract everyone from their true purpose: delaying C-Band wireless deployments to ensure that, for as long as possible, New T-MO enjoys a monopoly on deploying 5G mid-band spectrum.”

The FCC closure during the partial federal shutdown shouldn't affect the ability of agency workers to file employment discrimination complaints within the 45-day required window, Chairman Ajit Pai said in a letter dated Feb. 6 and released Friday. He responded to a Jan. 6 letter from House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., urging him to consider waiving or extending complaint filing periods for the shutdown duration. Pai said federal code lets FCC workers seek a waiver of the 45-day deadline for uncontrollable circumstances, such as a shutdown. He said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tolled its time limits for Dec. 22-Jan. 25 deadlines, extending them for 40 days. The FCC won't close again due to funding through Sept. 30 (see 1902150055).

The General Services Administration approved the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee charter renewal, the FCC said in Friday's Federal Register. The FCC said it plans to charter BDAC “on or before” March 1 for a new two-year term.

Chairman Ajit Pai cited FCC action timelines and other efforts to improve 911 calling and responses as part of an "all-of-the-above" approach to public-safety communications. He expects to adopt rules later this year on Kari's Law provisions to require building and campus multiline telephone systems to let users dial 911 directly, he said in remarks at a National Emergency Number Association event Friday. The FCC is working to meet a September deadline for implementing a Ray Baum's Act mandate to ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with 911 calls, regardless of technology. He expects to move later this year on a "Z-axis accuracy" standard in a proceeding aimed at pinpointing wireless 911 callers' vertical location in multistory buildings. He said the FCC is reviewing how best to improve wireless 911 call routing -- plagued by "upwards of tens of thousands" misrouted calls -- to ensure it's based on the location of callers and not cell towers. Pai said wireless providers are "making meaningful progress" toward meeting "stringent" location accuracy standards on 70 percent of calls in 2020 and 80 percent in 2021 to help responders find the callers. Since some states continue to divert 911 fee funds to other purposes, he's ready to work with Congress and stakeholders to ensure all such fees strengthen public safety communications. Pai's "continued engagement will keep pressure on those states stealing critical 9-1-1 fees to change their awful ways & prevent new states/territories from joining," tweeted Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "New Congressional action would be welcome for habitual states that divert (NY, NJ & RI)."

A judge vacated a briefing schedule after Jason Prechtel, the FCC and General Services Administration resolved the journalist's remaining records-release claims in a lawsuit over agency handling of Freedom of Information Act requests for electronic comment submission details. U.S. District Court in Washington Judge Christopher Cooper granted a joint motion (in Pacer) that said additional briefing on the issue is no longer needed, and all that remained was Prechtel's claim for attorneys' fees and costs, said a notice Wednesday in docket 1:17-cv-01835 (in Pacer). Cooper ordered the parties, as they proposed, to file a joint status report by March 27 updating the court on negotiations to resolve the final claim.

Mike O'Rielly expressed interest in another term as FCC commissioner once his current one expires, while taping a recent episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators, an aide confirmed Wednesday. His five-year term expires June 30 (see 1412170031).

Privacy legislation is a growing focus in states beyond California, especially in light of the EU general data protection regulation (see 1901100018), said Abbie Gruwell, National Conference of State Legislatures policy director, at an FCBA lunch Wednesday. Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada and Oregon have approved similar laws giving people more control of how their data is used, she said. Lots of legislators are asking about how data brokers work “and how they can be regulated,” Gruwell said: “Disclosure is a good first step.” Among other trends is legislation on wiretapping, location data and biometric data, Gruwell said: States “are trying to keep up with technology.” They're moving away from regulating data use by specific industries to “overarching data-privacy laws,” but “nobody else has come close to California yet,” she said. Many of the state telecom bills this year are focusing on small cells, said Angelina Panettieri, National League of Cities principal associate-technology and communications. Some of the legislation is “interesting,” she said. In Mississippi, one bill would allow public utilities and rural co-ops to offer broadband, she said: “They sort of moved further towards the center of pre-emption.” Maryland has two small-cell bills, one endorsed by industry and chambers of commerce and the other by municipal groups, she said. “We’re still waiting to see what’s happening there.” Bethanne Cooley, CTIA senior director-state legislative affairs, highlighted legislation aimed at speeding siting of small cells and cutting deployment costs. Estimates are industry will need more than 800,000 small cells in the next few years, Cooley said. “If we’re paying $100,000-plus per small cell, we’re never going to get to 5G and we are in a race,” she said. So far, 21 states have passed pro-industry bills, she said. Small-cell measures are alive in five states with about “a half dozen” more to come during the 2019 session, she said. “All bills are different,” she said. CTIA is telling the states that despite work the FCC is doing on siting, and an FCC shot clock, they need to pass their own legislation, Cooley said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pressed major voice service providers to implement a call-authentication framework in 2019 to help combat call spoofing, saying he'll consider regulation if it appears some won't meet that timetable. "American consumers are sick and tired of unwanted robocalls, this consumer among them," Pai said Wednesday linking to his 2018 exchanges with industry parties. "It’s time for carriers to implement robust caller ID authentication. Uniform adoption will help improve authentication throughout the network and make sure no consumer gets left behind." He applauded providers committing to institute the Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs/Secure Telephony Identity Revisited (Shaken/Stir) framework in 2019. "This goal should be achievable for every major wireless provider, interconnected VoIP operator, and telephone company -- and I expect those lagging behind to make every effort to catch up," he said. "If it appears major carriers won’t meet the deadline to get this done this year, the FCC will have to consider regulatory intervention." In November, Pai wrote 14 industry players demanding they begin providing caller ID authentication to consumers in 2019, and received responses on their plans (see 1811200027). "While some carriers committed to rollout these services in the coming months, others hedged, citing concerns that other carriers appear to have already addressed," the FCC said. CTIA "member companies are working hard to implement tools and coordinate with government officials in an effort to relieve consumers from the pain of unwanted robocalls," responded Scott Bergmann, senior vice president-regulatory affairs. "SHAKEN/STIR can help give control back to consumers by creating a framework to identify unverified calls." Some other telco and cable trade groups didn't comment.

As Samsung began taking preorders this week on 8K smart TVs (see 1902110050), Chris Chinnock, executive director of the 8K Association, reports little new progress getting Samsung-inspired 8KA off the ground. The nonprofit was formed at CES to address 8K, including challenges of procuring native content and encouraging launch of 8K streaming services (see 1901100027). IHS Markit doesn’t see 8K TVs as a large opportunity for some time, emailed Paul Gagnon, executive director-research and analysis, Tuesday. IHS forecasts all vendors this year will ship 43,000 8K TVs in North America, 338,000 sets globally. Panasonic’s participation shows 8KA has global ambitions. Panasonic is collaborating with NHK to bring 8K broadcasts to Japanese consumers by the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Chinnock saw a report Monday that Samsung officials are "reaching out to their competitors,” including LG Electronics and Sony, to join 8KA. “We will invite them,” he told us. LGE declined comment Tuesday. Sony said Tuesday it won't join 8KA because it thinks 8K "definition" work is better handled by groups like CTA. 8KA hopes to “set up committees within the month to start work, which will take time, of course,” said Chinnock. The group’s website lists plans to form five committees, from promotion to content and certification, plus distribution and technology. April’s NAB Show “is on our radar for something next,” said Chinnock. “The wheels grind slowly with lots of big players.”