AT&T is trying to use an adjudicatory proceeding to get around joint negotiations, and wasting the FCC's time, with its good-faith rules violation complaint against nine station groups (see 1906190027), the defendants said in a heavily redacted docket 19-168 answer Wednesday. The station groups said if they were violating the good-faith obligation in the renegotiated retransmission consent agreements, AT&T should have brought the complaint after the sides went through the same process in 2016. They said the allegation that Sinclair controls or operates all of them is baseless and designed to get publicity for the complaint. And they said the compliant shows the station groups negotiated with AT&T and its DirecTV. AT&T didn't comment. The station group defendants are Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR, Nashville License Holdings, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting.

NAB told the FCC it should move forward on the C band and not wait for more "ill-conceived" proposals on how to reallocate the spectrum for 5G. The FCC can make no more than 200 MHz available without raising interference concerns, said a filing Wednesday in docket 18-122. “If the Commission caves to unreasonable and unjustified pressure to reallocate more spectrum in the C-band for terrestrial wireless services, it will no doubt be harming the backbone of our nation’s audio and video content delivery system,” NAB said: “Further delay in reallocating 200 MHz of spectrum will give oxygen to ill-conceived, self-interested schemes that are out of touch with reality.” The FCC shouldn’t force broadcasters to rely on fiber as an alternative to C-band spectrum, as proposed by a coalition led by America’s Communications Association (see 1907150010), NAB said. ACA didn’t comment on the NAB arguments. But ACA said in a filing posted Wednesday it spoke with Aaron Goldberger, aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, about its plan. Coalition members had conversations “with most of the MVPD programmers that use the C-band for delivery of video programming and have participated in the proceeding, and that it has a few more scheduled this week,” ACA said: “Within weeks, ACA Connects will be supplementing its original proposal. The additional material will further detail how the fiber network would be designed, established, launched, maintained, and paid for, particularly the part of the network that connects programmers to data centers.” China is "spending tens of billions of dollars to deploy high-capacity fiber-optic and advanced wireless infrastructure in order to win the race to 5G,” emailed ACA Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman. “To compete, the United States must do the same. The 5G Plus Plan is the only proposal before the Commission that clears at least 370 MHz on a nationwide basis and builds out more than 100,000 miles of fiber to small markets and rural areas. It’s hands down the best solution in the record.” ACA understands broadcasters want to remain in the band and can under the plan, he said: “It now seems broadcasters want to tell small cable operators to stay on the band too.”

Beyond just new deployments, fixed broadband providers also have to report upgrades or discontinuances of existing offerings or the sale of existing broadband-capable network facilities within six months, said the final broadband mapping order adopted last week by the FCC (see 1908010007) and released Tuesday. But that language wasn't in the draft, according to our analysis. The draft order said the agency would leave Form 477 in place, subject to some modifications, but the final order elaborates on that, with the agency saying its deployment data will still be "a useful reference point." The Second Further NPRM adopted with the Digital Opportunity Data Collection order also elaborates on questions to be asked about fixed wired deployment reporting. The final order adds a question about measures and methods for ensuring data interoperability and needing the least amount of post processing. It also asks whether providers should be sanctioned for submitting inaccurate data without clear evidence the provider intentionally did so, and how to handle situations in which the filer is unintentionally negligent in submitting inaccurate data. The adopted NPRM adds questions about digital opportunity maps and datasets being used for other universal service programs such as E-rate and Rural Health Care. On crowdsourced data, the NPRM now asks about the appropriate time period "if any" for fixed providers to respond to a complaint. The adopted NPRM also raises the idea of the FCC establishing standards and processes for resolving disputes between providers and stakeholders about whether service actually is available at a given location. The notice also suggests possible enforcement actions for pervasive reporting errors, bad faith or refusal to refile a coverage polygon found to contain inaccurate information. It adds questions about whether creating a location-based database should be done in parallel with establishing an online portal for the FCC's polygon-based approach, and whether fixed providers not accepting universal service support shouldn't have to disclose individual location information since that could be considered competitively sensitive. It also asks about how best to assign prepaid and reseller subscribers to a particular census tract.

Nebraska cable ISP Great Plains Communications closed on its acquisition of InterCarrier Networks (ICN), a fiber network carrier operating in Illinois, Indiana, the St. Louis metro area, and Kentucky, Great Plains said Tuesday. Great Plains said the deal will let it extend its market along those ICN routes and give it opportunity in Kentucky markets. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

The FCC was right to shed a census block-centric approach to measuring broadband deployment, but its new mapping approach adopted last week (see 1908010007) won't mean much for most of rural America, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Monday. He said the rural broadband gap comes largely from big telcos' neglected copper networks. He said the inherent challenges in accurately mapping DSL and fixed wireless technologies means the new maps "are still going to be terrible in the places we most care about." He said the FCC's reliance on those maps for decisions like awarding grant money will still hurt rural America. Rather than caring about mapping, the U.S. needs to focus on policies like grants to replace copper with fiber. "We don't need a map to know that is good policy," he said.

Broadcasters are generally comfortable with the C-Band Alliance’s plan for the band, and proposals to clear more than 200 MHz won’t work, Bob Weller, NAB vice president-spectrum policy, blogged Monday. “Clearing 200 MHz of C-band spectrum is possible only because the necessary equipment changes are limited to filters, receiver tuning and dish positioning (with few exceptions),” Weller said. “Calculating the costs and timing for those changes is straightforward because at that level, every satellite network is identical: only an antenna and a receiver are involved.” But clearing more than 200 MHz would be “based on supposition and guesswork because the necessary changes move back from the receiver into the guts of the distribution and network systems, and there the various systems become divergent,” he said: “Some suggest that more spectrum can be reallocated if higher-efficiency compression is used. That may be true, but it certainly won’t be fast. When you start changing compression systems, a lot of testing is needed because some systems are more sensitive to the artifacts of compression than others. That testing would be needed on nearly every single network because their characteristics and requirements are not the same.” Broadcast demands also aren’t static, he said. U.S. broadcasters are preparing to upgrade from HD video to 4K “and possibly higher” resolution, he said: “These consumer-driven improvements come at a cost: increased bandwidth. While higher-efficiency compression schemes can partially offset the requirements for increased bandwidth, clearing 200 MHz initially helps future-proof that predictable, but as-yet unknown, need.”

The FCC’s final order implementing new rules to ensure callers to 911 using multiline telephone systems (MLTS) can dial out directly without using a prefix, such as "9," largely tracks a draft proposal, based on a side-by-side comparison. Commissioners approved the rules last week over partial dissents by Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 1908010011). The rules also apply dispatchable location requirements to MLTS, fixed telephone service, VoIP, telecommunications relay services and mobile texting. The order released Friday includes comments by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, who had reservations about the FCC’s approach. Submissions in the record discussed “the possible unintended consequences of requiring the delivery of outbound-only interconnected VoIP calls to 911,” O’Rielly said. “When such calls have connected to emergency call centers, the calls have been of very short duration, indicating possible misdials or nefarious activity.” The concern was that the FCC could create a problem similar to that with non-service initialized (NSI) phones, unconnected mobile phones that “public safety has recognized are used in a high percentage of fraudulent 911 calls,” he said: “Instead of dismissing these concerns, the Commission should have considered this further, because, as we have learned with NSI phones, once you implement these rules, it is hard to undue them without concerns being raised about the one legitimate call that was could be missed and the legal liability that can result if it is not connected to a call center.” O’Rielly also complained the cost-benefit analysis “primarily discusses what we stated in the Notice, which is mostly based on comparing the potential cost against the benefit of a hypothetical number of lives being saved based on the flawed 'Value of a Statistical Life' metric. Now that the Office of Economic and Analysis is up and running, we must do better.”

Comedian John Oliver criticized CenturyLink, GTL, Inmate Calling Solutions and Securus Sunday for charging high rates for inmate calling services. The complaint came as part of a larger condemnation on HBO’s Last Week Tonight of the economics of the current U.S. prison apparatus and its effect on inmates’ families. “One in three families reported going into debt to pay for phone calls or visitation, which is terrible,” Oliver said, referencing a 2015 report led by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. "And that doesn't really set up a prisoner for success once they are released.” Oliver also criticized jails and prisons for often taking “a cut of the proceeds” from ICS providers. Former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn praised Oliver for “highlighting #InmateCalling injustice.” Crime “indeed does pay ... for everyone except the #incarcerated (and families),” Clyburn tweeted Monday. “Those who fight #PhoneJustice help only a few $$$. The rest of us suffer.” MediaJustice highlighted the segment in an email to supporters. The email also touted the June introduction of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act (S-1764), which would affirm the FCC's ability to use its procedures and authority to address inmate calling rates (see 1906120076).

NTCA and the Rural Wireless Association asked the FCC to seek comment on the DOJ-supported buy of Sprint by T-Mobile and the sale of assets to Dish Network. “The proposed merger is now a completely different arrangement than what is currently before the Commission,” said a request, posted Monday in docket 18-197. The agreement with DOJ “relies on the highly questionable assumption that the harm to competition recognized by DOJ that would result from the loss of Sprint from the nationwide mobile wireless marketplace would be offset by the competitive impact of the Dish acquisition of assets that would supposedly result in Dish becoming a fourth facilities-based nationwide mobile wireless competitor with sufficient strength to prevent the substantial competitive harms that would result from the exit of Sprint,” it said. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks earlier tweeted that the FCC should seek comment on the new arrangement (see 1907260071).

Verizon owns a spectrum portfolio “for the 5G-era” and is “on track” to launch 5G in 30 markets this year, CEO Hans Vestberg said Thursday during a call with analysts as the company released Q2 results. Fiber is critical to 5G and Verizon’s fiber deployment extends to more than 60 cities, he said: “It's so essential for the whole 5G play that we have to have this fiber.” Throughput speeds in 5G areas are as fast as 2 Gbps, compared with 600 Mbps with LTE, he said. Verizon estimated it will spend $17 billion-$18 billion this year on its network. Net income for the quarter was $4 billion, compared with $4.2 billion a year ago. Revenue was $32 billion vs. $32.2 billion last year. The company had a net increase of 1.2 million retail postpaid connections -- 431,000 phone and 647,000 smartphones. “Subscriber results were better than expected; financial results a little worse,” said New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin: “No change to guidance. I wouldn’t expect material changes to expectations based on these results.” Technology Business Research analyst Steve Vachon told investors that unknowns remain on Verizon’s spectrum plans. “Verizon plans on eventually deploying 5G on multiple spectrum licenses to provide nationwide coverage but a concrete timeline has yet to be disclosed beyond the company’s initial goal to offer mobile 5G services to 30 cities by the end of 2019 via millimeter wave spectrum,” he said: “Though initial 5G deployments will enable Verizon to build a presence in large metro areas, Verizon will likely trail AT&T and T-Mobile is serving smaller markets as the companies expect to provide nationwide 5G coverage in 2020 by leveraging both millimeter wave and low-band spectrum.”