NTIA said it's working with eight states to improve a national broadband map: California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. The states will provide data and other inputs. The updated map "will help policymakers around the country make better decisions as they devise broadband expansion plans,” said NTIA Administrator David Redl Tuesday. A 2018 appropriations act mandated NTIA update the map by working with state partners. The initial eight states are geographically diverse, participate in an NTIA state network and have active broadband initiatives, said the agency, which expects to seek further input from other states and jurisdictions. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., called this "another positive step" and said her state will "benefit from being a key player" in broadband expansion efforts.

Ex-Quintillion CEO Elizabeth Pierce pled guilty to wire fraud and identify theft in a scheme to induce investors to sink more than $250 million into her Alaska-based company's fiber network, said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York Monday. Pierce, also FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee ex-chair, admitted to engaging "in a brazen, multi-year scheme to obtain over $250 million from investors by misrepresenting that she had guaranteed revenue contracts with multiple telecommunications services companies," said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Pierce, now of Austin, is to be sentenced May 16, said the office. She pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count, carrying a 20-year maximum sentence, and eight counts of aggravated identity theft, each having a mandatory two years' imprisonment, with at least two of those years to be consecutive to any wire fraud term. Pierce's arrest in April (see 1804130055) led the Project on Government Oversight to seek an FCC investigation into her BDAC work (see 1804180038). The agency last year played down her role, and Chairman Ajit Pai told a lawmaker in the fall he and staff weren't aware of the DOJ probe before Pierce resigned as BDAC chair in September 2017 (see 1810040051). The commission declined comment Tuesday.

The FCC Wireline Bureau recommended keeping a five-year E-rate budget approach for Wi-Fi and other internal connections under "category two" school and library funding. A data review found "numerous ways in which the category two budget approach has resulted in a broader distribution of funding that is more equitable and more predictable," the bureau reported Monday in docket 13-184, noting supportive comments in the record. It said a prior "two-in-five" rule limiting category two funding to individual schools and libraries to two out of every five years was "ineffective." Staff recommended the FCC consider modifying the "category two budget approach to enhance" E-rate support for high-speed connectivity, including by "raising the funding floor if the Commission finds that insufficient funding is deterring participation by schools and libraries at the funding floor."

Understanding how firms like Facebook and Google profit from zero-price models can help enforcers identify anticompetitive behavior, said DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim at a Silicon Flatirons event Monday. Offering products for “free” is nothing new, he said, citing radio, broadcast TV and newspaper models that existed before the internet. He argued internet users have become the “input” of products sold to advertisers. Enforcers shouldn’t exempt zero-price model firms from antitrust scrutiny, he said. Just because there’s no price doesn’t mean there’s no market or potential for abuse, he argued. Market power isn't unlawful on its own, he said: The question is whether an incumbent, regardless of size, is harming competition. Privacy is best dealt with through legislation, not antitrust law, said FCC Chief Economist Babette Boliek. EU enforcers might have “merger remorse” over Facebook’s buys of Instagram and WhatsApp, she said, citing recent antitrust action against Facebook in Germany (see 1902070060). State attorneys general and federal agencies are “rightfully focusing more attention on whether [tech] firms are living up to existing [competition] laws on the book,” said FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra Sunday: “Three threats and challenges” posed by the tech sector relate to fair economic competition, civil rights and threats to democracy. Enforcers should question whether merger activity promotes innovation or allows “corporate royalty to hold on to their reign,” he said.

New Street’s Blair Levin defended his comments on potential problems facing T-Mobile buying Sprint, which were attacked by T-Mobile CEO John Legere Thursday (see 1902070009). Legere’s job is “to sell the merger, and like every CEO in a merger review, he has to express confidence that it will be approved until it is public that it will, or it won’t” be, Levin wrote investors Friday. “Our job is to sift through lots of different policy data to find a pattern that predicts an outcome prior to that public announcement.” Levin’s findings that the deal could be in trouble could be wrong, he conceded: “We owe our clients our best interpretation based on our experience in, and in observing, the government.” Levin questioned Legere’s claims that review was in the last inning and a decision will come soon. Levin expects action in late Q2 or Q3. Members of the 4Competition Coalition, which opposes the transaction, said they met with aides to all five commissioners. The group is made up of “a diverse array of 23 companies, consumer organizations, labor unions, and industry associations,” said a filing in docket 18-197 posted Friday. “All members are united in their view that the Sprint/T-Mobile merger as currently proposed must be blocked. 4CC believes consumers deserve more choices, not fewer. Lower prices, not higher. Better service, not worse.”

Delays for repacking broadcasters worsened during Phase 2, representatives from tower companies, antenna manufacturers and broadcasters told the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Jan. 31, they recounted. The meeting followed up on the representatives' concerns in October (see 1811160037). Repacking delays were worse “primarily because of the unusually poor weather throughout the country that has put tower crews and riggers even further behind schedule than was expected last October,” they wrote, posted Friday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the National Association of Tower Erectors last week the repacking is "ahead of schedule" (see 1902060037). Tower crews “are extremely concerned” about meeting commitments, “let alone taking the new orders” expected in 2019, the filing said. “There are insufficient competent, safe tower and rigging crews available to install the main antennas in accordance with the prescribed Commission repack schedule ... weather delays, permitting delays, and crew availability delays continue to hinder the repack process.” The IATF should increase outreach to broadcasters and increase flexibility on requests for special temporary authority and allowing interim facilities, participants said. A successful repacking could come down to either missing phase deadlines or letting broadcasters shift to temporary interim facilities that are ”less than ideal,” they said. The FCC didn't comment.

Two federal-state joint boards plan to meet Monday during NARUC's conference in Washington, Universal Service State Chair Chris Nelson and Jurisdictional Separations State Chair Sarah Hofmann told us Friday. The FCC named new Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to both joint boards, which Commissioner Mike O'Rielly chairs on the federal side. Being a commissioner also makes Starks a member of a federal-state joint conference on advanced services, said an FCC order released Friday on dockets 96-45 and others. Starks met with reporters Friday (see 1902080056). States have two vacancies on the Separations panel because former Montana Commissioner Travis Kavulla left for the R Street Institute and Wendy Moser wasn’t reappointed to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The FCC didn’t comment.

“It ain’t easy” but Google Fiber is leaving Louisville, Google blogged Thursday. Google won’t charge for the next two months' service before turning off the network April 15, it said. “We’ll work with our customers and partners to minimize disruption, and we’re committed to doing right by the community.” Google placed fiber in shallow trenches in Louisville but “encountered challenges that have been disruptive to residents and caused service issues,” said the company, citing an August WDRB.com article about exposed fiber lines. “We would need to essentially rebuild our entire network in Louisville to provide the great service that Google Fiber is known for, and that's just not the right business decision.” Google Fiber said it continues to add customers in other cities. Google Fiber’s entrance added competition that led to other ISPs enhancing service, a Louisville spokesperson said in a statement: “AT&T, Spectrum, and others have stepped up and increased investment in Louisville.” AT&T and Charter Communications (Spectrum) had filed lawsuits against Louisville over a one-touch, make-ready law that Google Fiber supported. A federal court in 2017 rejected AT&T’s lawsuit against the policy (see 1708210045). Last month, the Louisville Metro Council floated proposed changes to the OTMR law that were expected to resolve the Charter suit (see 1810310045).

Industry and local governments are backing rival Maryland bills meant to speed wireless infrastructure deployment. Maryland Economic Matters Committee Chair Dereck Davis (D) Wednesday introduced HB-654 to pre-empt local governments in the right of way. It includes a “deemed granted” provision on a 60-day shot clock for local authorities to act on a collocation application and a 90-day clock for installing, modifying or replacing a pole. It would limit application fees to $500 for a single application including up to five facilities, plus $100 per each additional facility on that form. Annual ROW occupancy rates couldn't exceed $20 yearly per facility, and collocation “shall be set” at $100 annually per facility. Industry and local government spent months negotiating, but Davis introduced what industry initially had proposed, said ultraMontgomery Program Director Mitsuko Herrera in a Thursday interview. She said Montgomery County is “firmly opposed” to HB-654 but supports an alternative, SB-713, drafted by municipal and county groups and introduced Monday by Sen. Pamela Beidle (D). The Senate Finance panel Wednesday scheduled a hearing on it for Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. Localities’ bill doesn’t set limits on rental fees because Maryland already requires cost-based fees, Herrera said. It would uphold local zoning regulations, require public hearings, consider community needs including aesthetics and ensure enhanced connections to the unserved, she said. CTIA didn’t comment. Meanwhile, Georgia's SB-66, the expected result of autumn talks between industry and local governments (see 1901070045), entered the Senate hopper Wednesday. It would limit application fees to $100 per facility on existing poles, $250 for each replacement pole and $1,000 for each new pole. Annual ROW couldn't exceed $100 annually for each small cell on an existing or replacement pole or $200 for each new pole, and annual collocation rates couldn’t exceed $40 yearly. If the application is “an eligible facilities request, the authority shall not deny the application” and must approve it within 60 days, the bill said. Mississippi's SB-2003 died Tuesday in committee.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai named 37 members to the Disability Advisory Committee for the term ending Dec. 21, 2020. They represent "individuals with disabilities, the communications and video programming industries, the public safety industry, trade associations, academia, researchers, and other stakeholders," said a public notice Thursday. The DAC is expected to have at least three one-day plenary meetings per year, with subcommittees working between meetings on accessibility issues, including communications transitions, telecom relay services, emergency access, and video programming, the PN said. Will Schell, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Disability Rights Office attorney, will again be the designated FCC officer. DAC co-chairs will be Brian Scarpelli, senior policy counsel of ACT|the App Association, and Isidore Niyongabo, director-advocacy and public engagement, National Association of Black Deaf Advocates. (For other members, see personals section.)