Lifeline USF resellers challenged tribal support restrictions in an FCC order that commissioners adopted 3-2 in November with an NPRM to begin overhauling the low-income subsidy program (see 1711160021). "Petitioners seek relief from portions of the Order that will (1) limit enhanced Tribal Lifeline support to 'facilities-based' service and (2) limit Lifeline support to 'rural' Tribal areas pursuant to a newly established FCC definition," said the National Lifeline Association, Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless (enTouch) and Easy Telephone Services in a petition (in Pacer) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that surfaced Friday in National Lifeline Association v. FCC, No. 18-1026. NLA is a trade group representing Lifeline providers and vendors. The companies said the actions were arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, exceeded FCC authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Meanwhile, Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC had resolved seven notices of apparent liability from 2013 and 2014 against Lifeline providers (see 1712290032), and "expects to resolve two more soon"; three others remained with the agency's Office of Inspector General. The FCC has an enforcement action on its agenda for tomorrow's commissioners' meeting but hasn't identified what it involves. Pai was responding to a Dec. 1 letter from Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee ranking member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. She asked for details on commission steps to recover $89.5 million in proposed fines against 12 Lifeline providers for alleged program violations (only one case had been resolved at that time). McCaskill's office didn't comment Monday.

What bothers CTA President Gary Shapiro about the net neutrality debate is that "both sides have exaggerated so badly” what they see as the likely impact of the FCC’s December vote to roll back 2015 rules (see 1712140039), Shapiro said in a CES-recorded interview on C-SPAN’s The Communicators to have been televised over the weekend. “We are in a position now where there's people who have such malicious intent toward the present chairman of the FCC,” said Shapiro of Ajit Pai. “His kids are being bothered, they’re getting death threats. This is not American to go after a public official, who frankly is a brilliant guy, doing what he thinks is right, with a lot of substance and nuance behind him.” Many “good people" on "both sides” of the debate can disagree, but “the fringes and the extremes on this issue are a reflection of a very bad direction that I believe that the country should not be going in,” said Shapiro. Pai withdrew from a planned visit to CES days before he was to sit down for a Las Vegas interview with Shapiro (see 1801030054).

Correction: Three of President Donald Trump's FTC nominees are Republicans while the fourth, Rohit Chopra, would be the agency's only Democratic commissioner if they all are approved by the Senate and the FTC's only Democratic commissioner, Terrell McSweeny, leaves as would be required with arrival of Joseph Simons (see 1801250066).

The FCC should roll back or eliminate outdated children’s TV rules, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly blogged Friday. Kidvid rules require broadcasters shoehorn unprofitable children’s TV into their packed schedules and impose burdensome paperwork requirements, O’Rielly said. “With today’s dynamic media marketplace there are very little, if any, additional benefits provided by the Kid Vid rules.” Trimming such rules was a frequent request by commenters on the FCC’s media deregulation efforts (see 1707060060). O'Reilly said though the rules were intended to ensure the availability of children’s educational programming, the modern media market offers such content on streaming services, online video and MVPDs. Children’s TV is “booming,” O’Rielly said. “Where is the market failure to warrant the continuation of the FCC’s Kid Vid mandates?” The current rules caused broadcasters to move away from children’s programming shorter than its 30-minute mandate or non-regularly scheduled programming, such as after-school specials, O’Rielly said. By crowding out more in-demand programming, the requirement “depresses the value of broadcast stations and threatens their financial resources to create and air costly programming, like news and community specials” O’Rielly said. “It is high time the Commission consider whether the Kid Vid rules are still necessary,” he blogged. “At the very least, there are substantial portions of these rules that can be rolled back or reconsidered.” The rules are "one of television broadcasters’ last public interest obligations" remaining after the wave of deregulation under the Republican majority FCC, said Benton Foundation Executive Director Adrianne Furniss in a statement posted under the headline "Now They Come for the Children." The proposal "should be dead on arrival," Furniss said. "It is unthinkable that the FCC would turn its back on children -- and the law."

The FCC Consumer Advisory Committee will meet Feb. 26, starting at 9 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, the FCC said Thursday. "The Committee is expected to consider a recommendation from its Robocalls Working Group regarding call authentication,” said an FCC notice. “The Committee will also receive briefings from Commission staff on issues of interest to the Committee.”

Gone are the days when few firms had more than 20 lawyers, but the communications field is far more inclusive than it once was, veteran communications lawyers said at an FCBA event Wednesday. The anecdote-laden talks involved many career tips from long-time practitioners for new lawyers. Networking is a must-do, said Wiley Rein co-founder Richard Wiley. He was famous for knowing secretaries' names at the FCC, said Diane Cornell, who most recently was special counsel to former Chairman Tom Wheeler. Cornell said reputation is a key lawyer asset that can easily get tarnished. "Don't screw people over," she said. "Don't lie." Former Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said emails and texts largely replaced phone calls and in-face conversations, but prompt replies demanded by etiquette remain. Many talked up mentorships but said older lawyers can learn from younger peers. Talking about changes in overtime, Covington & Burling retired broadcast lawyer Jonathan Blake said when he started in the 1960s, partners filled out time sheets annually, and it was unheard of for law firms based elsewhere to practice in Washington. Discussing how to stay abreast of changing technologies, Abernathy said she made in-house engineers "my best friends." She advised lawyers to set up meetings between the FCC and clients working on noteworthy tech even if there's no advocacy on a proceeding but as a means of making connections. When at the agency, she said, "I loved those kinds of presentations." Blake said lobbying where one takes up more than 60 percent of the conversation is a bad session and there needs to be plenty of question asking. Overreach in lobbying "is the kiss of death," he said.

The transition to 5G will need "fundamental changes" to the FCC's permitting and regulatory structures, including modernization of the local, state and federal regimes that govern infrastructure deployment, Commissioner Brendan Carr told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Telecommunications and E-Commerce Committee Thursday, according to his prepared remarks. The current regulatory regime can't support the tenfold to hundredfold increase in small cells and millions of miles of new fiber that will be necessary, he said. Carr said in coming weeks he will lay out "concrete steps" for making regulatory structures "5G ready." And in a reference to the TV series The Office, Carr jokingly advocated the agency adopt a "Dunder Mifflin Rule" that a regulation that benefits only paper suppliers "is void ab initio."

After “a strange” 2017 for broadcaster mergers and acquisitions, with pent-up demand leading to a burst of activity after the incentive auction was done, that pace looks to continue this year, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast lawyer Howard Liberman in a Digital Policy Institute webinar Thursday. He said small and mid-sized telecommunications company transactions, meanwhile, haven't been nearly as active, perhaps because of regulatory uncertainty under the Trump administration. Liberman said the ATSC 3.0 standard's rollout among broadcasters will likely come over the next two to three years. He said for viewers, it will mean more robust signals in a mobile environment as well as more enhanced features like better audio and multi-camera choices. Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner said the FCC's Title II rollback will likely lead to congressional action that brings back net neutrality rules that aren't "encumbered by heavy Title II regulations." Conversely, privacy rules are "in a holding pattern," though there's broad consensus on the need for "stronger and better" privacy rules. Consumer Policy Solutions President Debra Berlyn said it's a benefit to consumers that privacy rules are back before the FTC, where protections will be universal instead of limited by industries. "We don't want a patchwork of protections," she said. Entner said a key need for 5G implementation is more spectrum, and that, while the FCC is looking at 28, 39 and 60 GHz bands, more also needs to be freed up in the lower bands. The agency also needs work toward standardized rules to help with siting of new cell sites and acceleration of how quickly sites can be made operational, Entner said. He said consumers will be inundated with 5G marketing and messaging this year, with the first implementations coming by year’s end. He said consumer confusion will be inevitable because of the varied applications of 5G.

On the anniversary of his assuming the role of FCC chairman, Ajit Pai Wednesday released seven pages containing 70 bullet-points he said was a summary of his first-year accomplishments. They included passing Communications Act Title II net neutrality rollback; setting key rules for the Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction; approving U.S. market access requests for broadband satellite operators OneWeb, Space Norway and Telesat; adopting robocall rules; and assessing firsthand, damage caused by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

The Supreme Court extended a filing deadline to March 5 for net neutrality litigants, according to the court's docket webpage for Daniel Berninger, et al. v. FCC, No. 17-498, and combined cases. After three previous extensions, the DOJ solicitor general Friday requested that a Feb. 2 deadline for responding to cert petitions be extended to March 5, and the court did so Tuesday for all respondents. Berninger and others asked the high court to review the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's affirmation of the previous commission's 2015 Title II net neutrality order. Some doubt justices will agree to review the case on the merits because they believe it has become moot under the current rollback of Title II net neutrality regulation (see 1801080036).