FCC Chairman Ajit Pai viewed hurricane damage and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico Thursday, a day after consulting with the island's leadership and outlining his proposal to help the commonwealth and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1803070054 and 1803060039). On day two of his four-day visit to the islands, Pai had "informative visits in Utuado," a county "hard-hit" by Hurricane Maria with some parts that "still lack connectivity and basic infrastructure. Much work to do," he tweeted. That was one of his many tweets and retweets (here) of his site visits and meetings with Puerto Rican officials, including Gov. Ricardo Rossello (New Progressive Party). At a news conference Wednesday, Pai discussed his plan to provide $954 million in USF support for telecom networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including $256 million in new funding and other "repurposed" funding. The aim would be to give short-term funding to providers to restore networks and longer-term funding "to improve them and hopefully harden them in the case of future disasters," he said. "We want to be able to make the business case as easy as possible, in this case by providing additional federal funding, an increase over what Puerto Rico would have gotten in the absence of the plan." He said his plan's "lead proposal" is to invite companies to submit competitive proposals for a geographic area, with Puerto Rico's 78 or so "municipios" the suggested unit for the commonwealth. "Let's figure out which [proposal] gets us the biggest bang for the buck," he said, noting other alternatives included a subsidy auction. Funding recipients would have to use the money for its intended purpose and meet buildout and reporting requirements, he said. Rossello said his government is taking actions to speed and streamline the permitting process for telecom construction and other efforts. Pai met with broadcasters during his trip to Puerto Rico, an FCC spokeswoman said. Broadcasters aren’t eligible for new USF money targeting carriers affected by the storm but still need assistance, said International Broadcasting Corp. Legal Adviser Jean Paul Vissepo in an interview. Broadcasters need funds to repair damaged stations and equipment, but Puerto Rico’s damaged economy is also affecting them, he said.

MuckRock released emails it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to the FCC on Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision not to attend CES in January (see 1801100027). Included is a Dec. 29 email from Julie Kearney, CTA vice president-regulatory affairs, to Pai aides asking about rumors Pai wouldn’t attend in person a Jan. 9 on-stage interview with CTA President Gary Shapiro. “We’re hearing from 3rd party sources that the Chairman is planning to do his Tuesday one-on-one session with Gary remotely,” Kearney wrote. “This seems like strange info. since we haven’t talked about it, so I’m just letting you know. I assume that we are all systems GO for CES.” Kearney reassured the Pai aides: “We have a very tight security plan for the room and the area (and for all of CES), so I hope that provides comfort.” Also included is a Jan. 3 email from Kearney to Pai's Chief of Staff Matthew Berry expressing disappointment that Pai canceled and alerting Berry that CTA planned to put out a news release that afternoon announcing Pai's withdrawal from the show. "Gary feels that we need to issue a short release" because many CES attendees "are expecting" Pai's "presence" at the show, said Kearney. She promised CTA would answer any media inquiries about the release with a "no comment." Days later, Shapiro told a C-SPAN interviewer on the CES show floor that Pai withdrew because his children got death threats over the FCC's December vote to roll back 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1801260018). We “totally understand and appreciate all you and the team have done over the past several days on many fronts,” Kearney wrote Berry in her Jan. 3 email. The FOIA materials released also included a Dec. 18 email that Kearney sent FCC staff with draft questions Shapiro planned to ask Pai during their Jan. 9 one-on-one in Las Vegas. Among the topics were net neutrality, efforts to cut regulation and Pai’s digital empowerment agenda. The FCC and CTA didn't comment.

Challengers to the FCC net neutrality repeal order remained quiet on plans immediately after a court lottery Thursday chose the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case. Representatives of several of the parties that filed petitions for review in the D.C. Circuit declined to comment or didn't respond to our queries about whether they will seek to have the case transferred to the D.C. Circuit. After the FCC notified the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation there were 10 timely petitions in the D.C. Circuit and two in the 9th Circuit, a panel order said the 9th Circuit was "randomly selected" to review the consolidated case (see 1803080055). The two in the 9th Circuit were filed by the California Public Utilities Commission and Santa Clara County, California. The litigation timetable will likely depend on which circuit hears the case, said Markham Erickson, a Steptoe & Johnson attorney, speaking at an Incompas conference Feb. 7 (see 1802070037). The D.C. Circuit generally can decide cases within a year, but the 9th Circuit could take up to a couple of years, he suggested. Erickson is representing Mozilla in the net neutrality litigation and also represents Incompas.

The FCC's daily roundup of actions returned to its regular email schedule Wednesday. The Daily Digest resumed being emailed the same day of publication, after a hiatus since Friday (see 1803060035), users told us. "It appears to be fixed and functioning as usual," said an FCC spokesman. Also received Wednesday was Tuesday's issue. That earlier issue said at the start that "Yesterday's Daily Digest was not received by all recipients. While it was posted online, we wanted to share it today now that the technical problems in the email list appear to have been fixed." The digest throughout the period remained accessible at www.fcc.gov/proceedings-actions/daily-digest, with the current day's version here.

The FCC and the FTC said they plan a policy forum March 23 and a technology expo April 23 on efforts to curb illegal robocalls and caller ID spoofing. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai views blocking unwanted calls as a top priority (see 1802210032). “They are the number one consumer complaint at the FCC,” Pai said Wednesday. “We’re committed to confronting this problem using every tool.” The workshop starts at 9:30 a.m. at FCC headquarters, the expo 10 a.m. at Pepco Edison Place Gallery, 702 8th St. NW in Washington.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai met with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello (New Progressive Party) and other officials Wednesday, his first day of a four-day visit to the commonwealth and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They discussed Puerto Rico's telecom infrastructure and Pai's proposal to provide Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with $954 million in USF support to help restore and upgrade hurricane-damaged communications networks, according to Spanish-language tweets by Rossello and others that Pai retweeted (here, here, here, here). Pai also met with the CEO of Claro, Puerto Rico's largest telecom carrier, a company spokeswoman emailed. Pai's broadband plan would add $256 million in new USF support and repurpose existing funding currently directed at the islands, mostly to expand fixed broadband connectivity over the long term and 4G mobile broadband connectivity in the medium term (see 1803060039). Asked about the repurposed funding, an FCC spokesman emailed that "among other differences, the new program would include buildout obligations as well as a competitive process for awarding support for fixed broadband." Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who arrived in Puerto Rico Monday, tweeted Wednesday about conditions and recovery efforts in the Villa Cama neighborhood (here) and at a school in rural Toa Baja (here). Pai was to have met with broadcasters in the evening, said Jean Paul Vissepo, legal adviser with Puerto Rico’s International Broadcasting Corp. Broadcasters are hoping for FCC assistance with restoring service to the island. Broadcasting was the communications service used to disseminate emergency information on Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the extensive damage to broadcast facilities has been under-assessed, Vissepo said.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn pushed for a "broadband health safety net" for underserved groups, again highlighting "double burden" counties with higher disease rates and lower connectivity levels (see 1802080057). She thanked Chairman Ajit Pai for his continued commitment to a Connect2HealthFCC task force but said more should be done. "We should stop shaking our heads and conceding that some people will always fall through the cracks," she said in prepared remarks at a conference Wednesday. "Let’s aim higher, by intentionally meeting the health needs of every single American ... and let’s leverage broadband technology." She cited efforts to use broadband to address health needs, including in Appalachia, "where the cancer picture is bleaker than in other rural" areas.

The FCC's daily roundup of regulatory actions wasn't emailed to all recipients for a second (see 1803050059) and perhaps third business day Tuesday, based on some experiences including our own and those of communications lawyers and stakeholders we queried. The Daily Digest remains available on the agency's website, and a fix may be at hand. Tuesday had a change from recent days, in that some users mid-afternoon received the email versions of Friday's and Monday's issues. Tuesday's wasn't yet spotted via email. The list used for such emails appears to have been fixed, releasing the two previous issues that "had been stuck," said a spokesman, noting Tuesday's issue remains available online. "We are waiting on confirmation that today's email made it through as well." Wednesday's digest may be emailed as normal, the representative said.

Cable executives presented an "Accelerated and Safe Access to Poles" plan to FCC staffers last week. "ASAP is a comprehensive, balanced proposal to accelerate new broadband deployment while protecting the safety and reliability of existing network facilities," said a filing Monday in docket 17-84 on meetings representatives of NCTA, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications had with Wireline Bureau staffers and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The key elements are "speed and certainty," "expedited make-ready," "pre-selected contractors" and "indemnification," NCTA said, and all industry parties would have to compromise to make the plan work. "The proposal requires pole owners to process applications much more quickly than they have advocated; it limits existing attachers, including NCTA’s members, to a much narrower opportunity to perform their own make-ready work than exists today; and it requires new attachers, which also include NCTA members, to use only contractors approved by existing attachers when moving facilities on the pole," the association said. "Because the ASAP Proposal is predicated on this balancing of interests, the Commission can, and should, adopt it in its entirety." Google Fiber discussed the record in the wireline infrastructure proceeding and provided an update on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee's report "recommending one-touch, make ready," said a filing on meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly. There were no details.

The FCC is expected to trigger a court lottery soon to pick the venue for challenges to its "internet freedom" order rolling back net neutrality regulation. "The certification and selection should happen quite quickly (unless the FCC decides to sit on it for some reason)," emailed Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press, one of the petitioners, Tuesday. "I would normally expect an answer this week," said a former FCC attorney, who saw no reason for a significant delay. Parties are supposed to notify the FCC about petitions. An FCC spokesman didn't comment but noted information about the judicial lottery process. By our count, at least 15 petitions for review were filed in at least two U.S. circuit courts of appeal by Monday, the lottery deadline in the net neutrality repeal case (petitions can still be filed through April 23). Thirteen were filed in the D.C. Circuit: by Mozilla, Vimeo, Public Knowledge, New America's Open Technology Institute, 23 state attorneys general, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, NTCH, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Etsy, Coalition for Internet Openness (Etsy and five other companies), Center for Democracy & Technology and Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee. Two were filed in the 9th Circuit: by the California Public Utilities Commission and Santa Clara County.