It’s unfair to charge voice customers for broadband networks, but not guarantee voice services will be provided, said Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades Wednesday. On a webinar hosted by the National Regulatory Research Institute, Rhoades urged a revamp of USF contribution that includes broadband assessments. “We have to stop pretending that voice and broadband are separate things,” she said. “Ignoring the fact that we cannot build the network that we need without the inclusion of an assessment on broadband is almost delusional.” Competitive Carriers Association General Counsel Rebecca Thompson and NTCA Senior Vice President-Policy Mike Romano agreed. Not including broadband in the contribution base is “a disaster waiting to happen,” Romano said. The FCC has been mulling a contribution overhaul for more than 15 years, but politics remains a barrier to action, said ex-Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey, now a consultant. Congress must be convinced it’s not taxing the internet to assess contributions on broadband, she said. But USTelecom Senior Vice President-Law and Policy Jonathan Banks said it’s forward-looking to fund broadband networks rather than voice lines. It’s important to take another look at USF contribution, but first there’s more work to do on the Connect America Fund, he said: “It’s important to keep our eye on the ball of getting current stuff done.”

Chairman Ajit Pai dubbed April “infrastructure month” at the FCC, but Commissioner Mignon Clyburn offered an alternate name. “Did you know that it’s ‘Industry Consolidation Month’ at the @FCC?” she tweeted Wednesday. “Tune in April 20 to learn why this agenda fails to put #ConsumersFirst.” Clyburn didn’t offer further comment, but is expected to oppose Pai’s proposed business data service order (see 1704030050) and a proposal to restore the UHF discount (see 1702210027) when commissioners vote next week. The agency didn't comment.

Incompas said business data service competitors will need at least a three-year transition if the FCC changes the BDS regulatory framework as proposed in a draft order tentatively set for an April 20 vote (see 1703300052). The Computer & Communications Industry Association called for a three-year delay in BDS rate hikes. "Carriers need time to adjust their business models to account for the loss of crucial wholesale last-mile inputs used to serve their customers and to build to the extent it is economically feasible," said an Incompas filing posted Wednesday in docket 05-25 on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. The record doesn't support the draft's conclusions, particularly "the deficiencies in the competitive market test for DS1 and DS3 services and the blanket finding of competition for transport and Ethernet services," the filing said. "It is extraordinary for an agency to find a market competitive based on a duopoly let alone the mere potential for a duopoly, as is the case here." Incompas called the potential for competition "remote" and said "cable companies' own statements in the record contradict the idea" that they "will be imminent game changers in the market." It cited the importance of tech transitions protections, some of which would be eliminated by the draft BDS order and targeted for elimination by a draft FCC NPRM on wireline infrastructure also eyed for an April 20 vote (see 1704060046). A CCIA filing backed "a three-year delay in the implementation of BDS rate increases" and said the FCC should revise its competitive market test "to adequately consider the real offerings of providers." Granite Telecommunications voiced concern about draft BDS changes to a tech transition interim rule that requires ILECs to provide competitors a reasonable substitute when seeking to discontinue a "TDM-based commercial wholesale platform voice service" used as a wholesale input. The BDS draft "would abruptly end -- without any transition period -- this regulatory backstop without providing any evidence to support the conclusion that doing so would adequately preserve competition," said a Granite filing. "In the interest of compromise, Granite proposes that the Commission maintain the rule for a multi-year period (e.g., until December 31, 2019)." Verizon suggested the FCC allow "companies to adjust to detariffing while preserving existing contracts." Some "contract tariffs refer to or incorporate tariffed terms for special-access services. Some of those contracts do not contemplate detariffing," said a Verizon filing on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly warned Wednesday that moving to Next-Generation 911 will be expensive, with cost estimates all over the map. O’Rielly spoke to the NG911 Institute. “Consider a 2011 FCC White Paper that put the total nationwide [public safety answering points] PSAP costs at anywhere between $1.44 billion and $2.68 billion,” O’Rielly said, say written remarks. “Compare that to one done for the State of Oregon at the same time that calculated that state’s ten-year costs at approximately $82 million. Do the math, 50 states plus the U.S. territories times $82 million and it’s over $4 billion.” O’Rielly also backed PSAP consolidation, questioning whether the U.S. needs almost 6,000 PSAPs. O’Rielly earlier made that same point to the FCC Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (see 1501260063). “Is there a way to design a more efficient overall system that allows for a reduction in the number of current facilities without increasing the risk to public safety?” he asked now. “I suggest that the answer to this is most certainly, yes. In fact, it’s been done in a number of states already and others are in the middle of doing so.” O’Rielly also repeated warnings that too many states are using 911 funds for other purposes (see 1703020060). ”A number of states currently divert monies collected from consumers under the guise of funding 9-1-1 systems and transfer it to either unrelated public safety purposes or, worse yet, totally unconnected functions,” he said. “In some cases, this means a state is deceiving taxpayers by collecting more than is actually needed to fund its 9-1-1 system and redirecting the excess to other spending purposes. Alternatively, and this is actually much more reckless, the diversion of 9-1-1 fees can leave a state’s system shortchanged and potentially unable to fully meet its public safety needs, delaying necessary updates, training, worker retention, and the like.”

Device searches by Customs and Border Protection more than doubled in FY 2016 over the prior fiscal year and are continuing to rise, show agency figures released Tuesday. In the first six months of FY 2017, electronic devices of nearly 15,000 international travelers to the U.S. were searched, and in recent months, the monthly total was higher than that of the year-ago period. CBP said the searches affected less than 0.0008 percent of the nearly 190 million travelers who have come this fiscal year. In FY 2016, electronic devices of more than 19,000 travelers -- representing 0.005 percent of the 391 million travelers -- were searched, while in FY 2015 that number was about 8,500 travelers, or 0.002 percent of 383 million travelers. Privacy and civil liberties groups have criticized the policy and practice (see 1703170019 and 1702210007). In Congress, lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require law enforcement to get a warrant based on probable cause before they could search a U.S. person's device (see 1704050030).

Retired Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty and IHS Markit Vice Chairman Dan Yergin were among the executives who met with President Donald Trump and some Cabinet members Tuesday at the White House's Strategic and Policy Forum, the White House emailed us. It said the meetings were to discuss the strategic priorities for various Cabinet secretaries and their agencies. Also among those taking part were White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, it said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he sought a deal with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on an alternative framework for exempting small ISPs from open internet enhanced transparency requirements. Pai was responding to a letter from Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, who voiced disappointment the FCC didn't consult with the congressman before circulating a draft order to exempt ISPs with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from the duties (see 1702140060 and 1701270058). Pai said he previously sought a bipartisan compromise and modeled his small-provider exemption order on Loebsack's Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, in an April 3 letter posted Monday in docket No. 17-18. "After I received your letter, I reached out to my colleague yet again to determine whether an alternative compromise would be amenable to her," Pai wrote in reference to Clyburn. "Unfortunately, my compromise proposal was rejected. Nonetheless, our action will help the nation's small Internet service providers better serve their communities, like the ones you mentioned in your home state." The FCC approved the exemption order 2-1 Feb. 23 over the dissent of Clyburn, who said there was no analysis to support raising the small-provider exemption level from 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers.

Broadband infrastructure legislation should target unserved areas and rely on reverse auctions, with the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF) program a good example, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information and Technology and Innovation Foundation, who wrote a report released Monday. Such bills should use "multiple tools, including both tax incentives and targeted financial support," he summarized. "It is important for broadband infrastructure spending to focus first on areas that are legitimately unserved rather than propping up duplicative, smaller networks or increasing available speeds beyond what is reasonably needed." He said CAF "is the most well thought-out" existing federal broadband effort, and its "reverse-auction mechanism is a model for allocating funds." The loan programs of the Rural Utilities Service is a bad example, he wrote: "RUS has faced accountability challenges, and many of the networks benefiting from its guaranteed loans ultimately creep into low-cost areas that are already served competitively. It would be a mistake to expand on this program as part of an infrastructure bill."

The FCC and allies and NATOA are at odds over the significance of a federal appellate court overturning the agency's solicited fax rule and what it means for a challenge of the commission finding of effective competition in the U.S. cable market. FCC intervenor NCTA in a letter (in Pacer) Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the FCC in a letter (in Pacer) Thursday, said Congress expressly gave the agency authority to make effective competition determinations in franchise areas. The FCC said the fight over the agency terminating franchising authorities' certifications to regulate cable rates in areas where there's effective competition is "plainly distinguishable" from the D.C. Circuit's ruling last month that the agency's solicited fax rule is illegal (see 1703310018). The regulator said its December 2015 conclusion of effective competition in most franchise areas nationwide was consistent with the Communications Act's text and legislative history. In its letter (in Pacer) Wednesday to the D.C. Circuit, NATOA -- which along with NAB and Minnesota's Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission is challenging the effective competition finding (see 1508280033) -- said the D.C. Circuit junk faxing ruling "definitively rejected" FCC rationale that its solicited fax rule was lawful as long as Congress didn't prohibit it, and that since Congress didn't authorize "mass sua sponte terminations of franchising authority certifications," the court should set aside the FCC effective competition order. NCTA rejected NATOA assertions that the D.C. Circuit decision means the only way for the agency to terminate franchising authorities' certifications is after a petition, as laid out in Section 623(a)(5) of the Communications Act, saying that section of code is about seeking relief from a franchising authority that exercises its rate regulation in violation of FCC standards, and is silent about effective competition determinations.

The FCC is rechartering its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council for a new two-year term, though with apparently less focus on cybersecurity than the CSRIC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler. The last CSRIC met the final time in March (see 1703150058) and no top FCC official spoke. Early in his chairmanship, Ajit Pai rescinded two cybersecurity items issued under Wheeler -- a white paper on communications sector cybersecurity regulation and a notice of inquiry on cybersecurity for 5G devices (see 1702060059). Wheeler appointed David Simpson chief of the Public Safety Bureau in 2013 because of his cybersecurity expertise (see 1402190030), and Simpson spoke frequently at CSRIC meetings while he was at the FCC. “The issues to be considered may include, but are not limited to: (1) the reliability of communications systems and infrastructure; (2) 911, Enhanced 911 (E911), and Next Generation 911 (NG911); (3) emergency alerting; and (4) national security/emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications,” the FCC said in a public notice. Nominations for membership are due at the FCC no later than April 24, the PN said. The new CSRIC will start work early in the summer, the FCC said.