The FCC denied Allband Communications Cooperative a further waiver of a rule establishing a presumptive $250 monthly line cap on total high-cost USF support for eligible telecom carriers. The commission gave Allband previous waivers to the rule, which was adopted in a 2011 order overhauling USF mechanisms. "Allband has consistently misapplied our cost allocation rules rendering its cost accounting unreliable," said an FCC order Wednesday adopted unanimously in docket 10-90. "We are therefore unable to determine, at this time, what, if any, support in excess of the $250 cap is justified and in the public interest. Accordingly, we deny Allband’s Further Waiver Request and require that Allband revise its cost accounting practices to be consistent with our rules. Once that has occurred, Allband may submit a new request for a waiver of the $250 cap if its revised cost study incorporating correctly determined costs would result in a need for support in excess of $250 per line. In addition, we deny Allband’s Application for Review of the Wireline Competition Bureau’s July 25, 2012 waiver grant. Allband requested that the Commission extend its July 2012 waiver of the $250 cap until 2026, rather than 2015, and waive the Commission’s benchmarking rule. Allband also made several legal challenges to both rules. We deny Allband’s legal challenges, consistent with the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit." Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly issued separate statements attached to Wednesday's order. An Allband representative didn't comment.

The FCC International and Wireless bureaus extended the reply comments filing deadline in RM-11681 on Ligado's terrestrial LTE plans from July 21 to Aug. 11. In a public notice Wednesday, the agency said it agreed with Ligado's request for an extension (see 1607150021) to "facilitate the development of a complete record."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler isn't expected to name a replacement for Howard Symons as Incentive Auction Task Force vice chairman, as Symons takes over as FCC general counsel (see 1607190061), said agency and industry officials Wednesday. With much of the work of the task force complete, there's no need to replace Symons, officials said. Task force Chairman Gary Epstein already has another deputy, Jean Kiddoo, recently named deputy chairwoman-transition. Wheeler said in a Tuesday news release: “Now that the Incentive Auction rules are in place and the auction is underway, we have the flexibility to ask Howard to transfer his considerable talents to become General Counsel.”

The FCC sought comment on a proposal to create a new inventory of records system to be used by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The 1974 Privacy Act requires agencies to provide notice of the existence and character of records maintained by an agency, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. “These records enable CGB personnel to contact interested parties concerning its public events, e.g., workshops, conferences, and Webinars, etc., as well as recent developments at the FCC, and to share contact information of governmental, law enforcement, industry, advocacy groups, employment centers, faith-based organizations, libraries, policy organizations, media outlets, schools, seniors centers, veterans groups, national governmental associations or tribal intergovernmental organizations.” Comments are due Aug. 18, and the new record keeping will start Aug. 29 “unless comments are received that require a contrary determination,” the FCC said.

The FCC set comment deadlines on a proposed rulemaking approved at its June meeting (see 1606240043) aimed at speeding up the Team Telecom review of international companies' buys of U.S. licensees. The NPRM suggests time limits for teams of representatives from other agencies to review transactions (see 1606150019). “We propose specific changes in our rules, designed to address the Executive Branch's request in a manner that furthers our mandate to serve the public interest,” the FCC said in a Tuesday notice in the Federal Register . “We believe that implementation of these rule changes would speed the action on applications while continuing to take into consideration relevant national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, and trade policy concerns.” Comment are due Aug. 18, replies Sept. 2.

North American Portability Management dismissed Neustar's continued concerns about the FCC-planned local number portability administrator transition to Telcordia (see 1607070057) as inaccurate and an attempt by the incumbent LNPA to delay the change. In a letter posted Monday in docket 09-109, NAPM said Telcordia hasn't violated any national security commitments or made misrepresentations, and NAPM with FCC oversight will ensure Telcordia delivers a Number Portability Administration Center that is "built in America from the ground up using only U.S. citizens." NAPM cited $1 million in postponed cost savings for every day the transition is delayed and said the FCC already has considered and denied Neustar's claims that the agency's actions undermined the LNPA competitive bidding process. NAPM, the North American Numbering Council and the FCC "all agreed that both Neustar and Telcordia are qualified to serve as the LNPA, but Telcordia's bid was, over the term of the New [master services agreement], thousands of millions of dollars lower than Neustar's bid," NAPM said, citing current MSA contract costs of about $496 million per year compared with a proposed Telcordia MSA costing about $175 million in the first year. "None of the issues that Neustar has raised warrants further consideration by the Commission," NAPM said, urging the FCC "to promptly approve the New MSA so that the important security enhancements of the New MSA can be implemented as soon as possible and the American public will not unnecessarily continue to incur approximately $1M for each day of delay." Neustar didn't comment Monday. The FCC is reviewing draft orders to approve the proposed Telcordia MSA and to address a Neustar appeal of a bureau decision keeping much of the contract confidential (see 1604120038).

A draft FCC order would implement new robocall rules and regulations under the 2015 Budget Act's amendments to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a commission official told us Monday when asked about an item on the agency's updated circulation list issued Friday. Chairman Tom Wheeler "has circulated proposed rules which abide by the Budget Act while helping consumers avoid unwanted debt collection robocalls," the official said. "His proposal includes the right of consumers to stop unwanted calls, limits on who can be called, and limits to the number of calls per month.” Earlier this month, in response to petitions from Broadnet and others, the FCC clarified that the TCPA doesn't apply to calls made by or on behalf of the federal government as part of official business, except for calls made by contractors that don't comply with government instructions (see 1607060013). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said then the FCC already had sought comment in an ongoing rulemaking on a narrow TCPA issue -- providing an exception for companies hired by the federal government to collect funds that are owed the government (see 1605090037), as the agency was instructed to do by Congress in last year’s budget deal. “So our actions here have an odd result. In effect, we prejudge the outcome of our narrower proceeding under the Bipartisan Budget Act,” she said July 5.

CTA President Gary Shapiro urged Donald Trump, presumptive GOP nominee, and his newly selected choice for vice president, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, to release a tech agenda. “The tech industry hopes that in the coming days, the Trump-Pence campaign will provide clarity on where it stands on trade and when we can expect a detailed and substantive agenda that specifically outlines its positions on technology and innovation issues,” Shapiro said Friday. CTA hopes Pence “will shape Donald Trump's tech agenda and share his strong advocacy for the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” he said. Earlier last week, Pence unveiled an Indiana tech fund (see 1607150043). “Indiana has twice earned top-tier status as an Innovation Champion in both of CTA's Innovation Scorecards, an annual innovation policy performance index," said Shapiro. "Gov. Pence legalized ridesharing statewide in 2015 and grew Indiana's technology sector by providing local and state tax revenue reinvestment for taking part in the creation of two dozen tech hubs. Although Gov. Pence supported laws allowing businesses to discriminate against the LGBT community, he listened to the tech community's concerns and amended the law.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said he expects Trump to release such an agenda by the fall debates (see 1606290073). Pence is a former House lawmaker and sponsored the Broadcaster Freedom Act in multiple sessions of Congress. It would have forbidden the FCC from reviving the Fairness Doctrine.

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling defended ICANN’s Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition plans during an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators set to have been televised this weekend. He cited successful completion of a joint ICANN-Verisign 90-day test of a parallel version of the root zone file to ensure the file would remain reliable after the IANA transition. ICANN and Verisign began testing the parallel version of the root zone file in late April to verify that data contained in the Root Zone Management System-produced (RZMS) file will remain reliable after the IANA transition (see 1604110038). ICANN confirmed Thursday that the parallel testing period concluded successfully earlier this month. The test resulted in “zero unexplained differences” between the live version of the root zone file and the parallel testing version of the file that didn’t include NTIA’s authorization, ICANN said in a news release: “This result confirms that the production RZMS and parallel test system produce an identical output for every root zone file published, which was a key step to ensuring the continued security and stability of the Internet's root zone” after the IANA transition. The success of the parallel testing shows the “new system by which ICANN will transmit changes to the root zone directly to Verisign has now been proven to work exactly the same as the current system does,” Strickling said. “The one technical change that has to occur as part of the transition has now been proved to be fully operational and implementable.” Strickling recently pushed back against proposals to delay the IANA transition to allow for further evaluation of the governance changes resulting from ICANN’s transition plans. He said a transition delay not sought by ICANN stakeholders has the potential to damage U.S. credibility and international support for multistakeholder internet governance (see 1606280062 and 1607140084).

Numerous groups with an interest in 5G are applauding the FCC for opening up high-frequency bands for 5G in its spectrum frontiers proceeding. Intel said Thursday's 5-0 vote (see 1607140052) is "ensuring that the U.S. remains a world leader in mobile broadband." It said 5G access to the 28 and 37/39 GHz bands and unlicensed use in the 64-71 GHz bands "in an investment-friendly manner will spur development ... in the U.S. and other countries." CEO Brian Krzanich in a statement said, "Consumers and businesses are going to start benefiting from 5G much faster than generally expected and the FCC’s bi-partisan decision ... is crucial to accelerating this phenomenon." Commissioners' "proactive leadership [is] helping pave the way to make 5G networks a reality in the United States," said National Association of Tower Erectors Executive Director Todd Schlekeway. NATE said member companies "have developed and maintained every generation of communications networks and will be on the front lines again in order to help make 5G networks a reality in the future." The Telecommunications Industry Association in a statement said the FCC vote "frees a significant amount of new spectrum for mobile use, and does so without attaching strings or taking a wait-and-see approach. ... Spectrum Frontiers provides both the fuel that will be demanded by next-generation networks, and the predictability that is needed by technology companies." TIA said implementation of the 5G rules must be done "in ways that deliver on the FCC’s promise of a flexible approach, and we must continue to find new and creative ways to address our insatiable demand for more bandwidth." Information Technology Industry Council Vice President-Government Affairs Vince Jesaitis in a blog post Thursday called the spectrum frontiers decision "a historic one, and one that will cement U.S. leadership in 5G connectivity and next generation WiFi technology commonly known as WiGig" by making the U.S. the first country to map out 5G spectrum and identify additional spectrum bands for 5G and other wireless technologies. "This puts the United States well ahead of foreign counterparts by allowing American entrepreneurs and consumers to be the first in the world to have the tools needed to innovate in the new era of the of the internet: the Internet of Things," Jesaitis wrote. "Cars, buildings, infrastructure like highways and bridges, industrial systems, streetlights, and countless other objects will be using wireless connections to transfer data as well. To accommodate the 30 billion devices that will be connected to the internet by 2020, and fully realize the $11.1 trillion boost to the economy that the IoT will bring, we need to build on current wireless technologies by adopting policies like the 5G initiative that will spur investment in next generation wireless technologies." Friday, the White House and agencies unveiled a wireless research effort that includes 5G (see 1607150035).