Local number portability operations in the Southeast appeared to be running normally Friday, after iconectiv took over administrator duties in its region from Neustar April 8 (see 1804090028). "All is going well as we complete the first week," emailed an iconectiv spokeswoman. North American Portability Management had no new updates posted on its LNPA transition page Friday by late afternoon. Others we contacted weren't aware of any significant problems or didn't comment. "Planning and preparation continue for the next cutover weekend," said iconectiv's spokeswoman. The incoming LNP administrator is to take over in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Northeast regions May 6, and in the Southwest, Western and West Coast regions May 20. Heading into the Southeast cutover, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said NAPM and its transition oversight manager, PwC, did "extensive preparatory work and testing to ensure a smooth transition," including a March 18 "successful 'dry run' of critical components." Pai responded April 6 to a letter from Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., seeking an update (see 1803230070), in an exchange posted Friday in docket 18-19.

Comment deadlines were corrected on FCC proposals to implement Section 7 of the Communications Act and speed review of new technologies and services. Comments are due May 21, replies June 20 in docket 18-22, said a correction Wednesday in the Federal Register that said an earlier notice (see 1804040021) inaccurately reflected shorter deadlines than the 45-day and 75-day deadlines in the NPRM. Three other FR notices said Paperwork Reduction Act comments are due: May 11 at the FCC and Office of Management and Budget on revised video relay service certification information collection requirements in docket 03-123 (here), and on third-party disclosure obligations under Section 17.4 rules, requiring "the owner of any proposed or existing antenna structure that requires notice of proposed construction to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to register the structure with FCC," among other duties (here); and June 11 at the FCC on truth-in-billing and anti-cramming requirements in dockets 98-170 and 04-208 (here).

Telco and cable entities updated a request for FCC actions against "access stimulation," with CenturyLink this week joining proposals building on a November letter from AT&T, Frontier Communications, NCTA, NTCA, Verizon, Windstream, WTA and USTelecom (see 1711170063). A revised proposed rule "follows up on our letter and would require carriers that are engaged in access stimulation to bear the financial responsibility for all terminating switched transport costs (including both flat-rated and usage-sensitive charges) between their end office (or remote or functional equivalent) and the tandem switch to which the terminating carrier requires inbound calls to be routed," said the parties' filing posted Thursday in docket 01-92. Another filing cited a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will open a Friday FCC workshop on identifying the communications information needs of government and consumers and improving preparation for crises. Three roundtable discussions will follow -- on federal information requirements, state/local/territorial requirements and consumer requirements, said a Public Safety Bureau notice. The workshop takes place at FCC headquarters starting at 9 a.m.

While at the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, Sharon Bradford Franklin was executive director (see 1803290050).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau's final report on the January false missile alert in Hawaii blames “a combination of human error and inadequate safeguards” for the alerting error, a similar conclusion to that reached by the bureau in a preliminary report the same month (see 1801300053). “Neither the false alert nor the 38-minute delay to correct the false alert would have occurred” if Hawaii had implemented “reasonable safeguards and protocols” to minimize the risk of false alerts and ensure the availability of measures to correct false alerts, the final report said Tuesday. It condemns the use of the phrase “this is not a drill” in a practice alert, as occurred in Hawaii. Test messages should be clearly identified as tests, the report said. “The script and content for actual emergency alerts versus test alerts should be clearly distinguishable,” the document said. Recommendations include that public safety alerting entities conduct tests in “controlled and closed environments,” require validation by more than one “credentialed person” for tests of “high-impact alerts,” create procedures to correct false alerts and establish redundant lines of communication. The bureau will follow up with additional outreach, it said, including a webinar and upcoming roundtable. “Fixing this should be a top priority -- from working to promote best practices to establishing a mechanism for false alert reporting,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “We have our work cut out for us.”

The Rural Utilities Service should coordinate with the FCC on disbursing $600 million for broadband deployment under the recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act, blogged FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly Wednesday. The Department of Agriculture agency is to administer the pilot program of grants and loans. "The new program could be instrumental to filling coverage gaps in rural America not yet addressed by private companies and the FCC’s USF programs -- but only if it is implemented in a thoughtful and coordinated manner," he wrote. He lauded statutory language intended to target the funding to areas without 10/1 Mbps service and prevent overbuilding. "It is imperative that RUS coordinate with the FCC to ensure the implementation of regulations prevent any overbuilding of USF funding recipients," he said. "By working in a complementary fashion, these programs can help providers extend and sustain broadband into the most rural parts of the nation. For instance, the FCC has lacked the funding and resources to complete its Remote Areas Fund (RAF) proceeding, which was intended to bring service to the hardest to reach portions of the United States. If the RUS pilot program can reach into these RAF or RAF-like areas, then the country will be much closer to achieving the objectives of universal service." He said it's also important for the FCC to understand how the RUS money is being spent and for both agencies to work with the NTIA "on data on current and future broadband funding commitments so that the broadband map developed pursuant to this legislation provides the most accurate information possible regarding any remaining unserved areas."

AT&T provided a broad update Tuesday on its 5G commercial trials. “It’s no coincidence that AT&T is aiming to be the first U.S. carrier to launch standards-based, mobile 5G services to customers this year,” said Melissa Arnoldi, president-technology and operations, in a blog post reporting the early results. “We’ve been ‘practicing’ for this moment for almost 2 years. And unlike some of our competitors, we plan to offer a 5G-capable device to customers this year, too. After all, what’s the use of a highway without an on-ramp?” In Waco, Texas, AT&T provided 5G service to a retail location more than 150 meters away from a cellsite, using high-frequency spectrum, and had wireless speeds of about “1.2 Gbps in a 400 MHz channel,” the carrier said. In Kalamazoo, Michigan, AT&T said, it studied the impacts on 5G millimeter-wave signal performance from rain, snow and other weather. The company “learned mmWave signals can penetrate materials such as significant foliage, glass and even walls better than initially anticipated,” the carrier said. It “observed more than 1 Gbps speeds under line of sight conditions up to 900 feet.” In South Bend, Indiana, the carrier said, it studied “a full end-to-end 5G network architecture, including the 5G radio system and core, demonstrating extremely low latency.”

The local number portability maintenance window was extended only one hour Sunday as iconectiv took over LNP administrator duties from Neustar in the Southeast region (see 1804090028), said PwC, transition oversight manager.

The North American Numbering Council expects to meet or beat deadlines for reporting to the FCC on call authentication trust anchor (CATA) governance and deployment, nationwide number portability (NNP) and toll-free assignment modernization (TFAM) issues, said Chairman Travis Kavulla, in an update for Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith posted Tuesday. He said the NANC is to consider a CATA draft on an April 27 teleconference, before a May 7 report deadline, and consider NNP and TFAM drafts at its May 29 meeting, before a June 7 deadline. He believes "working groups are making substantial progress" on their tasks. A CATA group "reached consensus that the industry should be responsible for standing up" a "General Administrator" (GA) for the call authentication framework in the "very near term" without a formal proceeding, though the group wants the FCC's endorsement, Kavulla wrote. There's "strong opposition" to a possible commission request for proposals for a GA and differing opinions on who should be on its board. A baseline draft "includes sections outlining the role and selection of a Policy Administrator," and on how industry parties "might be incented toward and monitored for their progress" toward framework participation. He said another working group sees three plausible NNP solutions: "commercial agreements, non-geographic local routing numbers (LRNs) and nationwide implementation LRNs." The group "has concluded that the modifications to the SS7 signaling parameters that would be required to implement the GR-2982-CORE specification make it an inferior solution," with comments also negative in FCC proceedings. The TFAM group has three subgroups, he wrote: one that "has made substantial progress in identifying rules that would need to be adjusted"; another considering a secondary market for toll-free numbers has "addressed about half of the questions" from a September NPRM; and a third looking at set-asides or reservation of certain toll-free numbers "is still in fact-finding mode" and plans to question registry database administrator Somos on "what kinds of abuse of the existing system may have happened" and on possible changes.