The California Public Utilities Commission sought more time to comply with FCC elimination of a federal Lifeline low-income USF port freeze for voice and broadband services (see 1711160021). With the new rule to take effect March 19, the CPUC asked for an implementation extension until July 15 so it can determine what, if any, changes are needed to the state's LifeLine program, said a waiver petition posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. Also this week, a Telrite emergency petition sought a waiver extension of recertification and other rules for Lifeline subscribers in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands until the Wireline Bureau determines it would be in the public interest to lift the waivers. The Alaska Telephone Association said FCC grant of relief to Lifeline providers in the state from several minimum service duties would give eligible low-income Alaskans living in remote areas "a choice between mobile wireless or fixed service at affordable rates." ATA's reply comments noted NTCA and WTA supported its petition and there was no opposition (see 1712060038). Hawaii's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands commended FCC efforts to address various policy initiatives raised in a recent NPRM, some of which faced much resistance in recent comments (see 1802210045 and 1802220061).

Betty Sanders, Charter Communications senior director, was speaking for herself and not her company when she expressed concern at NARUC that a proposed manual resubmission of number-porting requests, under an LNPA transition contingency rollback plan, would be a huge burden for Charter (see 1802130025).

Straight Path and Verizon paid a civil penalty of more than $600 million to the Treasury in connection with a 2017 settlement Straight Path entered into with the FCC Enforcement Bureau before the sale and transfer of its licenses to Verizon (see 1701120046). “This payment is the largest civil penalty ever paid … to resolve a Commission investigation,” the FCC said in a news release. “The settlement resolved an investigation into allegations that Straight Path failed to use the spectrum it was awarded, and thus violated the Commission’s buildout and discontinuance rules in connection with approximately 1,000 licenses in certain millimeter wave spectrum bands.” The agency said the licenses are important to 5G. The deal closed Wednesday.

Parties updated the FCC this week on the local number portability administrator transition, complicated by a dispute over a contingency rollback plan to incumbent Neustar if the systems of incoming LNPA iconectiv initially fail. North American Portability Management said the transition is progressing and remains on track for a "final acceptance date" of May 25 "but faces some risks." Backed by the FCC, NAPM's transition oversight manager (TOM) facilitated "intensive" daily sessions among stakeholders "in an effort to identify a mutually-agreed approach for contingency rollback" under the May 25 deadline, said NAPM's February LNPA report Wednesday in docket 09-109. "These sessions concluded on February 16, 2018 without agreement" (see 1802200051). Chairman Ajit Pai had asked the parties to agree by Feb. 16 (see 1802020070). "To mitigate risk during the active transition period, significant effort has been spent in establishing an industry-led contingency rollback plan," NAPM said.

President Donald Trump signed into law the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (S-96) Monday, the White House said. The House cleared the bill earlier this month along with the Kari's Law Act (HR-582), which Trump previously signed (see 1802090050 and 1802160032). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai welcomed the bill's signing, saying it was "unacceptable" that many rural Americans continue to have problems receiving long-distance calls. The new law "gives the FCC another tool to tackle this problem head-on," empowering the agency "to oversee a significant source of rural call completion failures: so-called ‘intermediate’ carriers who carry calls between originating carriers (on the caller’s side) and terminating carriers (on the recipient’s side)," he said. "The FCC now can also establish service quality standards for call completion by intermediate carriers, and the tools to hold them accountable.“

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., filed their long-promised Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal the FCC nixing 2015 net neutrality rules. It sets the stage for an anticipated months-long push to bring the measure up for floor votes (see (see 1712110050, 1712120037 and 1712140044). Doyle and Markey touted what they perceive as growing momentum for the resolution, during a news conference in conjunction with the day's net neutrality “Day of Action.” Neither chamber's version has guaranteed majority support. Fifty senators and 150 House members have publicly declared as supporters or co-sponsors. Markey and other lawmakers emphasized the need for “one more” Republican senator beyond Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to join in supporting the resolution for it to pass in that chamber. “Whose side are you on?” he asked Tuesday. Backers have been urging Republicans who haven't declared a position on the measure, including Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., to join them. Kennedy told us he hasn't made up his mind. “I had another long meeting today with the folks” at the Congressional Research Service, he said, noting he now has a “thick” file and he's “still adding” information on the pros and cons of the resolution. If more Republicans don't “wise up and join us” in supporting the resolution, Democrats will make it a “major issue” in November midterm elections “and we will win,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during the news conference. He vowed to force a Senate vote on the resolution before the 60 legislative-day timeline for using the CRA path expires (see 1712150049). Supporters of the 2015 rules' rescission criticized the CRA resolution, including Broadband for America, the Free State Foundation and USTelecom. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and 75 other municipal and local government officials jointly said in a letter to congressional leaders that they “strongly support” the measure. The Benton Foundation said it challenged the FCC net neutrality repeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

A ruling upholding FTC authority over ISPs is a consumer win, but more should be done, said Frank Pallone, D-N.J., House Commerce Committee ranking member. He was reacting to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision Monday affirming commission jurisdiction over the non-common-carrier activities of common carriers (see 1802260031). "The FTC can and should take actions to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive acts by companies when they’re not acting as common carriers," said Pallone. "But this decision does not fix the hole created by Republicans who stopped the FCC from enforcing strong privacy and data security safeguards. Consumers still lack adequate protections without clear rules of the road.”

Satellite, terrestrial and tech interests had numerous recommendations for Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, as the agency asked for input on releasing spectrum for commercial mobile services, license-exempt applications, satellite services and wireless backhaul services through 2022. The docket SLPB-006-17 comments were posted Friday. Intelsat said ISED should await outcomes of the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference on a variety of WRC-19 agenda items -- such as non-geostationary fixed satellite service (FSS) use of the 37.5-39.5, 39,5-42.5, 47.2-50.2 and 50.4-51.4 GHz bands -- before making decisions that might not be compatible with WRC-19. SES said ISED's conclusion that the 3.7-4.2 GHz band should be considered for mobile use is "unfounded" and that such mobile use could negatively affect downlinks there. It said if any additional services are introduced in the 24.75-25.05 GHz or 25.05-25.25 GHz bands, FSS needs to retain access on a co-primary basis. It also pushed for making the entire V-band available for satellite FSS use and for removing the restriction on FSS in the 39.5-40 GHz band to government use only. Telesat Canada said the current FSS allocation at 24.75-25.25 should be retained if spectrum is released in the 24.25-27.5 GHz band for terrestrial use. It also said the satellite industry has interest in the E-band and higher spectrum. ISED should make spectrum above 24 GHz available for flexible use across platforms (HAPS), including high altitude platform stations and consider licensing schemes that would let HAPS be used in the band to support 5G, Facebook said. It also backed making the 64-71 GHz band available for license-exempt use and for identifying other mid-band frequency for license-exempt use, such as the 6 GHz band. The Wi-Fi Alliance said spectrum sharing is possible in the 6 GHz band, and other bands could potentially be made available for sharing in the future. It also backed making the 5350-5470 MHz band available for license exempt operations in Canada and said it was essential that ISED continue to allow license-exempt operations in the millimeter wave spectrum. It said the agency should consider making the 5.9256-7.125 GHz band available for license-exempt use. Allowing commercial mobile broadband in the 814-824 MHz band, paired with 859-869 MHz, would mutually benefit the U.S. and Canada by maximizing the spectrum available for commercial mobile broadband in this band along the shared border, Sprint said. Microsoft said there should be "significantly more" license-exempt spectrum released in the 5, 6, 60 and 70 GHz bands.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision Dish Network designated entities should reasonably have anticipated how the FCC might adopt a new standard on effective control "sets a troubling precedent in administrative law," tech and other groups told the Supreme Court in a docket 17-1058 amicus brief posted Monday. The DDEs are appealing handling of AWS-3 auction bidding credits (see 1801290033). The amicus filers said the agency could have rejected SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless based on their short-form application when it was aware of their financial relationships to Dish, and "basic fairness" should require an agency at least warn an applicant about the possibility some financial relationship might make DE credits unacceptable. They said the "reasonably anticipate" standard invalidates bureau-level decisions as precedent, leaving counsel in major business dealings adrift without guidance. Signing were the Computer and Communications Industry Association, International Center for Law and Economics, Phoenix Center, Public Knowledge, R Street Institute and TechFreedom. The FCC didn't comment.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and other federal officials met Monday with eight state governors on President Donald Trump’s infrastructure proposal, which includes $50 billion in state block grants for rural projects, the White House told pool reporters. Broadband projects could qualify for the rural infrastructure money, which state governors will control, but Trump’s proposal contains no dedicated broadband funding (see 1802120001). Federal officials said the proposal could “increase access" to broadband and “improve rural infrastructure,” a White House spokeswoman said. Governors participating in the meeting were Mississippi's Phil Bryant (R), North Carolina's Roy Cooper (D), South Dakota's Dennis Daugaard (R), Colorado's John Hickenlooper (D), Alabama's Kay Ivey (R), Wyoming's Matt Mead (R), Nebraska's Pete Ricketts (R) and Alaska's Bill Walker (I), the White House said. The session was before a meeting between Trump and 39 governors on the administration’s shared priorities with state governments. Trump was criticized for not specifically mentioning broadband during his January State of the Union speech (see 1801310071). The White House has since repeatedly cited Trump's commitment to broadband (see 1802140052, 1802200050, 1802220064 and 1802230044). The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, meanwhile, plans a Thursday hearing on rebuilding infrastructure with Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, beginning at 10 a.m. in 406 Dirksen.