Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross were among the leaders of a dozen federal agencies and councils that signed on Monday to a White House-drafted memorandum of understanding to establish a coordinated process for environmental reviews of broadband and other major infrastructure projects. The MOU sets up the process President Donald Trump mandated in an August executive order that required one lead federal agency to spearhead reviews for each major infrastructure project (see 1708150067). Trump emphasized the need for streamlining the permitting process as part of his push for major infrastructure legislation, including in a February proposal that also included $200 billion in funding (see 1802110001 and 1802120001). The MOU designates the lead agency to “decide whether a project sponsor has identified the reasonable availability of funds, and whether the project otherwise meets the requirements for being identified as a major infrastructure project. It also requires the lead review agency be determined “as soon as practicable for each project." The document requires all signatory agencies and councils to do their reviews simultaneously rather than sequentially, as part of Trump's goal to reduce the permitting timeline to two years.

DOJ and AT&T/Time Warner counsel continued to joust Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington over Turner's alleged market power. Meanwhile, citing unspecified legal issues with confidential business information, Judge Richard Leon Monday afternoon held proceedings behind closed doors and said there wouldn't be any witness testimony until Tuesday. John Harran, Turner senior vice president-business development, digital distribution and strategic partnerships, acknowledged under DOJ questioning that he wrote a March 2016 internal Turner email indicating Turner believed it could "ignite or diminish" interest in the burgeoning field of virtual MVPDs by being in programming bundles or not. He also acknowledged writing an October 2017 internal email indicating "we have the leverage" in talks with YouTube TV, and an October 2016 internal email saying Hulu's virtual MVPD service without Turner or NBCUniversal content would be a recipe for disaster for that service. He said it was possible NBCU would pull its content from Hulu after the expiration of the Comcast/NBCU consent decree. But Harran, under AT&T/TW questioning about the October 2016 email, said he wasn't predicting Hulu's business failure but the failure of its business goal that hoped to have as many networks as possible. The sides also disagreed about AT&T Vice President-Digital Strategy and Experience Devin Merrill's emails and what they say about AT&T strategy for highlighting its DirecTV satellite service over its less profitable DirecTV Now streaming service. Merrill denied he was ever instructed to de-emphasize DirecTV Now and said with its 2016 launch he had "crystal clear" objectives to market and grow the service. DOJ and AT&T/TW have repeatedly battled over the supposed must-have nature of Turner content (see 1804020019 and 1803280025).

Commissioner Brendan Carr will visit southern Nevada Monday to assess the “impact that high-speed broadband can have on small businesses, healthcare, education, and economic development in these rural communities,” the FCC said in a Friday news release. Carr plans to visit Beatty, Amargosa Valley, Pahrump and Mountain Springs in rural parts of Nye and Clark counties. Chairman Ajit Pai last year assigned Carr the task of leading work on wireless infrastructure rules. Carr will be in Las Vegas next week for the NAB Show.

The FCC is seeking comment on the rules it adopted in 2005-06 and their economic impact, said a public notice Friday. The agency said under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, it will review in the next 12 months which rules might need to be amended or rescinded to minimize economic impact. Comments will be due 90 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, the agency said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is asking for comment as it prepares a biennial report to Congress on compliance with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The CVAA report is due Oct. 8 and the bureau asked for comments through April 26 in docket 10-213. “Public comment will assist the Commission in assessing the level of compliance with statutory mandates for telecommunications and advanced communications services (ACS) and equipment used with these services -- as well as Internet browsers built into mobile phones -- to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, the extent to which accessibility barriers still exist with respect to new communications technologies, and the effect of CVAA recordkeeping and enforcement requirements on the development and deployment of new communications technologies,” the bureau said. This is the fourth such report. The 2016 one found “solutions were needed to make equipment used with interconnected VoIP services accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired,” the new public notice said. The bureau also found “little, if any, progress had been made since the 2014 … Report to make non-smartphones used for telecommunications services or ACS accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.” But the bureau determined at the time accessibility of smartphones “and other devices had improved for people with a wide range of disabilities.”

Rural providers slammed draft FCC rural call completion rules (see 1803280046) last week as possibly worsening the problem, while cable companies supported deregulation. NTCA had separate meetings Tuesday and Thursday with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and aides for Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, the association said in docket 13-39. NTCA supported cutting red tape but said the order “would have a negative impact on the continuing problem of calls failing to complete to rural businesses and consumers.” Taking away reports “could very well lead to backsliding,” it said. An alternative is to mandate standards and best practices from ATIS, NTCA said. The agency should require providers respond to rural call completion complaints within a business day, the group said. Rules should sunset after three years and revert to current rules absent a finding the new ones worked, it said. NTCA urged the agency to delete a proposal from its draft NPRM to eliminate recordkeeping and retention rules: “There is no basis in the record to permit carriers to eliminate evidence of the success or failure of their intermediate provider monitoring efforts.” The American Cable Association and NCTA met Tuesday with an aide to O’Rielly and Thursday with an aide to Pai, said a notice. The groups supported the draft order as removing “regulatory ‘underbrush’ without undermining the Commission’s goal of reducing call completion.” They raised concerns some parts “suggest that originating providers are solely responsible any time a call fails to complete.” The FCC should “clarify that the rules focus on persistent problems with rural call completion by originating or intermediate providers, and not isolated call failures,” ACA and NCTA said. “Explicitly state that an originating provider that engages in reasonable monitoring efforts will not be held responsible under the proposed rules for conduct of intermediate providers that is not identified, or could not be identified."

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., urged the FCC Thursday to investigate and address any “unlawful use” of “hostile, foreign cell-site simulators,” commonly known as Stingrays, in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S. They raised concerns in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, after the Department of Homeland Security identified (see 1804040051) the cellsite simulators “throughout Washington.” The Stingrays “could be gathering intelligence on unwitting Americans on behalf of foreign governments,” the lawmakers said: “If these reports are true, it marks an incredible security vulnerability in the seat” of the federal government, particularly given the presence of “critical federal agencies including those involved in national defense and intelligence.” The commission created a task force in 2015 to address Stingray issues (see 1504290030), but “with foreign actors now potentially taking advantage of the Commission’s inaction, the FCC should act,” the Democrats said. The agency didn't immediately comment.

NCTA defended its "Accelerated and Safe Access to Poles" plan against criticism from Google Fiber and Verizon (see 1803060030 and 1803140060). "The ASAP Proposal is a balanced, comprehensive proposal that meets the Commission’s goal of accelerating the process by which broadband providers are able to attach to utility poles in a manner that reflects the legitimate interests of all parties," said the cable group's filing Wednesday in docket 17-84. "Google advocates a regime in which a new attacher would have near total control over the network facilities of existing attachers with no obligation to take serious responsibility for its actions. And Verizon simply appears resistant to any changes that would require it to process applications more quickly." Verizon replied by email: “There’s a growing consensus that a real one touch make ready approach would go far in spurring broadband deployment. NCTA has been consistent in its efforts to fight this approach and maintain the existing levers to delay or prevent competitive deployment. We hope the FCC will see these efforts for what they are.” Google didn't comment. An Incompas filing Thursday on a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials voiced support for the one-touch, make-ready proposals of the FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee.

The Entertainment Software Association challenged FCC repeal of net neutrality regulation. ESA filed a motion Wednesday to intervene against the commission's order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC, et al., No. 18-1051. "Consumers deserve rules of the road that prevent blocking, throttling and other restrictive conduct -- and enable the great online experiences," said Stan Pierre-Louis, ESA general counsel. Others filing to intervene, on different sides, this week were: the American Cable Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, CTIA, Internet Association, Leonid Goldstein, NARUC, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, NCTA and USTelecom.

A draft FCC order and NPRM on assessment and collection of industry regulatory fees was sent to commissioners last week, according to the agency's circulation list. The item addresses several issues raised in a previous notice and seeks comment on regulatory fees for FY 2018, said a spokesman Wednesday.