Comments on FCC assessment and collection of FY 2021 regulatory fees are due in docket 20-105 June 3, replies June 18, says Thursday's Federal Register. An order and NPRM were released earlier this month.
Other states support California in response to ISP associations appealing a ruling denying their preliminary injunction against the net neutrality law, in a case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2103100029). “Amici have a strong interest in defending the States’ sovereign right to exercise their police powers against unwarranted assertions of federal preemption,” said Wednesday's posting (all URLs in Pacer). “A critical aspect of the States’ sovereignty is the ability to pass laws aimed at ‘guard[ing] the lives and health of their citizens.’” New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, plus Washington, D.C., were on the brief in docket 21-15430. California localities agreed with the states. “Investments in broadband-based communications systems to exchange information with the public underscore their reliance on a neutral Internet,” they said. ISPs “falsely” claim that investment declined when the 2015 federal rules were in place, said Access Now, Mozilla, Public Knowledge, New America's Open Technology Institute and Free Press. Other neutrality supporters, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Humboldt, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and Reddit, also filed in support of the state: “We have seen firsthand that stripping away legal protection for net neutrality would inflict serious harm on Californians and on California nonprofits, educators and businesses.”
Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she’s an optimist but also “clear-eyed” about the challenge in stopping robocalls. Commissioners vote next week on rule changes to accelerate the secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) (see 2104290082). The problem of cheap, easily deployed robocall tech won’t be fixed without collaboration among the FCC, state attorneys general and other agencies, Rosenworcel told a National Association of Attorneys General 2021 virtual conference Tuesday. She called on state officials to reach out the FCC. “Collectively, we should be able to make a difference,” she said. Acting FTC Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said older rules -- such as the do-not-call list -- no longer prevent robocalls because the primary actors aren’t legitimate businesses. The FTC, FCC and other federal agencies have been “laggard and lacking” in enforcing their rules, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in recorded remarks. If laws aren’t enforced, they're a dead letter, he said. Following the Supreme Court invalidating the FTC’s ability to seek monetary redress for consumers (see 2105040057), the FTC will have to partner with state AGs more frequently, Slaughter said. “They have access to redress authority we no longer have.” The FTC will plead rule violations more frequently to get access to civil penalties, Slaughter said. Separately, Rosenworcel said the FCC will seek information from state and local officials as part of its broadband mapping efforts. The agency has “a lot of lawyers” spending time on making the information gathered in that mapping effort as public as possible in the face of nondisclosure agreements, she said. Rosenworcel praised the New York AG’s office for its report on fraudulent net neutrality comments filed at the FCC under her predecessor, former Chairman Ajit Pai. Government agencies should care about fake public comments and keeping lines of communication to citizens open, Rosenworcel said. See our article on the AG's report here.
The FCC will likely open an Emergency Connectivity Fund application filing window in June, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Tuesday. Whether to prioritize retrospective reimbursements, which was proposed (see 2104300084), "was an issue in our deliberations," Rosenworcel said. Commissioners agreed to open the first filing window for prospective purchases, a change sought by Commissioner Brendan Carr, with a second for additional prospective purchases if it's determined that not enough funding was allocated for the first window. Any remaining funds will then go toward an additional filing window for retrospective purchases. "The idea was we want to be able to make a difference and get more students connected than they are right now," Rosenworcel said. Rules included changes sought by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks on data collection (see 2105100061). It's "a smart addition," Rosenworcel said. "Distance learning is not going away," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. This "will help close the homework gap that persisted long before COVID-19," said Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y. Democrats praised the FCC’s implementation plan, including Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington, House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comment on a protective order for submitting and requesting information through its robocall mitigation database, said a public notice Monday in docket 17-97 (see 2104200042). Comments are due 10 days after Federal Register publication, replies 15 days after.
As the FCC is expected to have voted on emergency connectivity fund rules by this week (see 2104300084), stakeholders raised concerns prioritizing retroactive purchases and not taking a tech-neutral approach could shut many schools and libraries out. “There are a lot of good things about the order,” Schools, Libraries, Health & Broadband (SHLB) Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen told us. He cited not requiring competitive bidding and excluding smartphones. “Rules tend to favor hot spot deployment,” he said, and don't "give the schools and libraries the flexibility to look at other technologies that may serve their market better.” The FCC declined to comment Friday. Dozens of advocates, industry groups and providers spoke with staff to lobby for more flexibility. Schools and libraries should be allowed to use ECF funds for smartphones, T-Mobile told Wireline Bureau staff. Samsung agreed and told acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks' staff that smartphones “support video conferencing platforms, internet browsing, e-mail, document editing and sharing, and other software necessary to ensure full participation in remote learning activities.” Qualcomm told Rosenworcel’s staff it's “disappointed” with the decision. Whether schools and libraries that have already purchased services and equipment should get priority for reimbursement was a sticking point for education advocates (see 2104260070). The draft rules appear to favor retroactive purchases, Windhausen said. Prospective purchases should be given priority, ACA Connects told Commissioner Nathan Simington's and Commissioner Brendan Carr's staffers, because it would otherwise "be inequitable." One application filing window that prioritizes future purchases would "provide more certainty that support would be available for the upcoming school year," said Verizon. CTIA disagreed and echoed T-Mobile's call to include smartphones. The State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance recommended starting retroactive reimbursement March 1, 2020, instead of the proposed July 1, 2020. Final rules should allow eligible schools and libraries to use funds for constructing self-provisioned networks, said Motorola, because “the limited exception to permit funding of network construction where there is no commercially available option is administratively unworkable." ENA Services recommended tweaking the language to require schools and libraries only certify that they were unaware of existing services to be reimbursed for new construction. NTCA agreed that a limited exemption for self-provisioning should be granted and raised concerns about allowing reimbursement for purchasing hotspots.
AT&T had a cultural shift since GAO recommended last year it improve stakeholder communications (see 2009170071), FirstNet CEO Edward Parkinson told C-SPAN's The Communicators, set to have been televised this weekend. “You learn from mistakes,” he said. “We have and I think AT&T has, too.” Public safety “is a very, very different kind of customer and AT&T … from a cultural perspective, needed to learn that.” AT&T has done “a very good job of correcting some of the mistakes,” he said. It's an “enormous organization” that “really adopted the culture of FirstNet,” he said: “My job is to hold them accountable.” The Senate Communications Subcommittee had a hearing in September (see 2009240056). FirstNet is unique with its public sector oversight and public safety customers, Parkinson said. Making sure AT&T “maintains a focus” on public safety will be important beyond 2023 when the initial deployment ends, he said. Parkinson plans further outreach to public safety agencies in the Nashville area following a Dec. 25 bombing (see 2012280048) and can’t promise there won't be outages. “These types of events, one can never predict,” he said. FirstNet “will be stronger as a result of the lessons we learned,” he said. The network is 93% complete, Parkinson said: “From there, we’ll be able to look at where else can we expand the network, how else can we evolve the network.” More than 300 devices can use FirstNet’s Band 14, he said. Most FirstNet staff continue to work remotely, Parkinson said. “The pandemic has changed everything for everyone,” he said. “Post-COVID, the way that public safety responds to certain incidents and the type of information they’re going to need is going to change.” Public safety users were using twice as much data at the beginning of the pandemic as the average AT&T customer, he noted. FirstNet’s network will evolve as 5G launches and leads to 6G, but “public safety doesn’t necessarily want to be on the cutting edge,” he said. “They want to ensure that this is the technology that they can trust with their lives.” Parkinson said one focus of FirstNet next year will be working with the FCC to get license renewal for Band 14.
Nearly 18 million of the more than 22 million comments submitted to the FCC when it repealed net neutrality rules in 2017 were fake, reported New York Attorney General Letitia James' (D) office. More than 500,000 fake letters went to Congress. “Americans' voices are being drowned out by masses of fake comments and messages being submitted to the government to sway decision-making,” James said: “Instead of actually looking for real responses from the American people, marketing companies are luring vulnerable individuals to their websites with freebies, co-opting their identities, and fabricating responses that giant corporations are then using to influence the policies and laws that govern our lives." The report found the largest broadband companies spent $4.2 million on a campaign to submit more than 8.5 million fake comments to the FCC. The report didn't find evidence that the companies or their lobbying firms had direct knowledge of the fraudulent comments. Millions of fake comments were also submitted in favor of net neutrality rules, the report said. More than 7.7 million of the 9.3 million fake comments supporting the rules were submitted through automated software. Fluent, React2Media and Opt-Intelligence, the lead generators of fake comments, entered settlements and will pay $3.7 million, $550,000 and $150,000, respectively. Investigations are continuing. The report recommended implementing CAPTCHA tests or other technical safeguards to prevent comment submissions through automated software. This "demonstrates how the record informing the FCC’s net neutrality repeal was flooded with fraud," said acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in a statement. "This was troubling at the time because even then the widespread problems with the record were apparent," Rosenworcel said. "We have to learn from these lessons and improve because the public deserves an open and fair opportunity to tell Washington what they think about the policies that affect their lives.” Rosenworcel had urged then-Chairman Ajit Pai to delay repealing the rules until an investigation was complete (see 1712040046). Pai declined to comment now.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should affirm a lower court ruling upholding California's 2018 net neutrality law, said an opposition brief filed Tuesday (in Pacer, case 21-15430) by Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) (see 2102230072). Plaintiffs "miss the mark" in claiming preemptive force, and an injunction would "pose concrete, serious harms to the tens of millions of people in California," the brief argued. The law "does not conflict with statutory limits on the FCC’s power to regulate certain services as common carriers," it said: Plaintiffs "failed to establish irreparable harm or that the balance of equities weighs in their favor because they allege only that their members might need to adjust certain business practices."
Verizon said the FCC should take its time on a 2.5 GHz auction, the next expected 5G auction after 3.45 GHz, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 20-429. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel says further action will be clear after comments. T-Mobile, viewed as the most likely bidder among major carriers (see 2009180029), seeks a 2021 airwaves sale. About 8,300 geographic overlay licenses will be on the block. “Oddities related to the existing licensing structure still need to be resolved before the Commission can hold a successful 2.5 GHz auction,” Verizon said: “The exact spectrum that will be made immediately available will vary from license to license. The Commission is overlaying licenses on top of approximately 2,000 existing licenses, almost all of which are subject to active spectrum leases -- the terms of which are not public.” Even still, the swath remains of interest to national carriers looking for 5G spectrum, the company said. “Meaningful licensing” here “has been suspended for nearly 30 years” with much of the frequencies “particularly in rural areas, lying fallow,” T-Mobile said. Then-Chairman Ajit Pai had proposed a single-round, sealed-bid auction design rather than the more traditional simultaneous multiple round (SMR) format. Commissioners OK’d 5-0 an NPRM in January seeking comment. “Employ familiar and time-tested auction procedures” T-Mobile urged: “Not only is an SMR auction well understood by the Commission and bidders alike, but it would also allow bidders to engage in price discovery, which is the hallmark of what makes an auction economically rational and the touchstone for sincere bidders.” T-Mobile wants SMR because it would gain an advantage, AT&T said. “T-Mobile has already leased large portions of the spectrum at issue from the underlying [educational broadband service] licensees, and thus all other potential bidders know that T-Mobile has a compelling interest in obtaining these overlay licenses to fill out its existing position,” AT&T said: SMR “would be fundamentally uncompetitive, and would essentially hand most of the spectrum to T-Mobile at rock-bottom prices.” It would take months to play out, meaning a prolonged quiet period, AT&T said. Verizon supports SMR, saying a single-round auction is “antithetical to the Commission’s longstanding goals of allocating spectrum based on fully transparent market principles." A single-round approach would “deter auction participation, including by the smaller bidders the Commission believes may benefit,” UScellular warned. SMR auction promotes “price discovery” as over rounds, the carrier said: “While bidders can garner some publicly-available valuation information prior to an auction, this limited information cannot serve as a reasonable substitute.” The Competitive Carriers Association urged a prompt auction and SMR design.