The full FCC unanimously denied a complaint from Level 3 against AT&T over intercarrier compensation rules, said an order in Monday’s Daily Digest. Level 3, now part of CenturyLink, accused AT&T of assessing a required $.0007 per-minute tandem switched transport access service rate only when “tandem switching and transport traffic terminates to an AT&T Price Cap Carrier end office but not when such traffic terminates to the end office or equivalent facility of an AT&T affiliate that is not itself a price cap carrier.” The FCC said the rate applies only to traffic that terminates at a price-cap carrier end office: “The most reasonable reading of the rule, in context, is that the 'terminating carrier' must be a price cap carrier. We therefore disagree with Level 3’s assertion that the 'terminating carrier' can be a non-price cap carrier such as a CMRS or VoIP affiliate of AT&T.” Level 3 didn't comment.

The special displacement window for low-power TV and translator applications is April 10-May 15, the FCC Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force said in a public notice Friday. The FCC also released a channel study to allow LPTV and translators to identify new channels, and lifted the filing freeze on displacement applications, the PN said. The freeze will go back into effect when the displacement window ends May 15. The IATF and bureau will host a webinar on the channel selection data Feb. 28, the PN said. To be eligible to file during the window, LPTV stations must be both operating and displaced by the auction, the PN said. During the window, eligible digital broadcasters will be able to request a change in transmitter site of up to 48 kilometers from their existing community of license. Eligible analog broadcasters may propose a change in antenna location of up to 16.1 km. Full-power TV stations may begin filing applications for digital-to-digital replacement translators April 10. Opening the displacement window doesn’t “preclude the preservation of a vacant television channel,” a footnote said. Microsoft and advocates for unlicensed spectrum have been pushing the FCC to preserve vacant channels for unlicensed use in the TV bands. The notice also contains guidance for LPTV channel selection that references and uses language from a Microsoft filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-306. “Given the public interest in promoting the efficient use of spectrum,” LPTV and translators outside of the top 40 designated market areas are encouraged to pick new channels “that are adjacent to channels in use by other broadcast television stations to help provide flexibility in the future,” the PN said. There will likely be vacant channels available in many areas of the country even after the window, it said.

Federal efforts to halt state diversion of 911 fees may need to be strengthened, said FCC Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel Friday, the same week the agency sought comment for an annual report on the issue (see 1802080062). They said state and local 911 fees on consumer phone bills are supposed to help upgrade emergency calling systems. "But too many states are stealing these funds and using them for other purposes, like filling budget gaps, purchasing vehicles, or worse," they wrote in an opinion piece in The Hill. They said the FCC found "five states and territories suctioned almost $130 million from their 9-1-1 systems and another seven didn’t even bother to respond to our inquiry to examine their diversion practices. None of this is acceptable." They said federal public safety programs shouldn't be available to states that engage in 911 fee diversion, an effort that has begun in a $115 million 911 grant program under the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. NTIA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which are running the program, are barred from making grants available to jurisdictions that divert 911 fees, they said. "This can serve as a template for any other funds provided at the federal level, including in new infrastructure legislation," they wrote. "We may need to be more creative in order to build the right mechanisms to prevent fee diversion. This could include, for instance, precluding representatives from states that repeatedly divert 9-1-1 fees from participating on advisory panels and task forces that inform the emergency calling work of the FCC, NTIA and NHTSA. We also may need to examine more aggressive actions at the FCC’s disposal." NARUC and the National Counsel of State Legislatures didn't comment.

U.S. internet access connections rose 6 percent in 2016 to 376 million, the FCC reported in an item in Thursday's Daily Digest, counting connections of more than 200 kbps. Mobile internet connections grew 7 percent to 270 million and fixed connections grew 3 percent to 106 million. Among fixed connections, 23.2 percent had download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, 36.8 percent had between 25 Mbps and 100 Mbps, 22.1 percent had between 10 Mbps and 25 Mbps, 14.2 percent had between 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps, and 3.7 percent had less than 3 Mbps. There were 463 million retail voice phone service connections, also based on Form 477 data: 341 million mobile wireless (up from 335 million in 2015), 63 million wireline interconnected VoIP (up from 59 million) and 58 million wireline switched access (down from 65 million), the agency reported. Fifty-three percent of wireline connections were residential, and 58 million were served by ILECs (mostly by switched access), 63 million by others (mostly by interconnected VoIP).

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn suggested a rural "health safety net" to help address obesity, a shortage of primary care physicians and other problems in communities lacking robust communications access. "Almost half of U.S. counties are 'double burden' counties, where there are elevated levels of chronic disease, and low levels of broadband connectivity," she said in prepared remarks Thursday to the National Rural Health Association. "Rural counties are 10 times as likely as urban areas to be low broadband, high diabetes areas. ... Perhaps it’s time for us to evolve our thinking, grow our vision, and create a 'health safety net,' for rural America. Instead of accepting the facts as they stand today, should we shake our heads and concede that some people will always fall through the cracks? Let’s aim higher, by intentionally meeting the health needs of every single American, regardless of where they live, and let’s leverage broadband technology to do so. While connectivity may not resolve every single health challenge, it certainly has the capacity to solve most of them." The FCC is focused on rural broadband deployment through targeted subsidies, removing deployment barriers and promoting competition, she said.

Telecom players backed FCC efforts to ensure the transition from Neustar to iconectiv as local number portability administrator is completed on time without disruptions. They also sided with the manual contingency plan of North American Portability Management and its transition oversight manager (TOM) over Neustar's call for an automated solution (see 1801290046). With an April 8 regional system cutover nearing, telecom carriers and groups cited the importance of the plan to roll back LNPA functions to Neustar "in the unlikely event" that the initial handoff to iconectiv fails. Discussions between the key players broke down "despite the availability of a well-thought contingency roll back plan initially developed by the TOM and iconectiv, with participation and input provided by Neustar, and ultimately accepted by the NAPM," said a filing Tuesday in docket 09-109 by USTelecom, CTIA, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, CenturyLink, AT&T, Frontier Communications and Consolidated Communications on a discussion Friday with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. They said NAPM, after consulting with stakeholders, decided on a process that was consistent with industry practices, created efficiencies and aligned with the transition timeline. "The TOM facilitated at least five industry meetings, in which it was decided that a manual, rather than automated, contingency roll back process would be the most reasonable approach," said the parties. But noting recent public comments and filings suggesting the transition is at risk (see 1801250037), they asked the FCC to encourage the parties "to resolve this issue in a way that maintains" the timeline, and "to focus on the task at hand and avoid any rhetorical exchanges that undermine confidence in the LNPA transition." Pai Friday sent a letter to NAPM, the TOM, Neustar and iconectiv demanding they report back on a solution by Feb. 16 (see 1802020070). NAPM backed Telcordia (iconectiv) opposition to Neustar's request the FCC remove confidentiality protections from Article 19 of a "Master Services Agreement" covering iconectiv as the new LNPA (see 1801310042).

CTA, groups representing drone makers and users and aviation industry associations asked the FAA to investigate a video that shows an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) flying directly above an airliner making its final approach at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. A video hit the internet Friday. “This careless and reckless behavior endangers the safety of our airspace for all users,” said Monday's letter to acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, included in an email blast the next day. “We urge the FAA to use its full authority to investigate, identify, and apprehend the operator of this UAS flight and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. We also encourage the FAA to work with law enforcement in Las Vegas and Nevada to pursue all applicable charges within their authority.” The agency said it's investigating. “Although details are still emerging about the nature of the operations, it seems certain that the stunt violated FAA regulations,” blogged Wiley lawyers Sara Baxenberg and Josh Turner. “The only questions appear to be which ones, and how many?”

The Senate approved the House-passed version of the Kari's Law Act (HR-582) Monday by unanimous consent. The bill, which the House unanimously passed in early 2017, addresses direct 911 dialing. The House previously passed the bill in 2016 (see 1605240057). The Senate also approved its version (S-123) in August as part of a deal to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr as FCC commissioners (see 1708030060). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai lauded Senate passage, saying the bill “will help ensure that every call to 911 directly connects those in need with those who can help.”

The FCC should extend Comcast/NBCUniversal conditions or impose new ones that reflect the current market, or at least strengthen program access rules, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., co-wrote Monday on Bloomberg's website. They said DOJ should investigate anticompetitive threats posed by Comcast/NBCU. Justice and the FCC didn't comment. Clyburn and Blumenthal said Comcast has a history of violating conditions of its NBCU approval, noting the company was forced to extend its unbundled broadband offering to a fourth year and criticisms over cable channel placement of competitor Bloomberg (see 1206280043). Comcast said the FCC conditions expired and there's "no credible basis" for extending or modifying the consent decree or conditions. "For seven years during a time of rapid change in the video and broadband markets, Comcast met or exceeded all of the commitments and obligations under the deal," it said, saying none of its six annual reports to the FCC detailing its compliance track record was ever challenged or objected to. Clyburn has criticized the end of conditions on the deal (see 1801220030).

Department of Transportation officials are working to “determine what went so horribly wrong” in two separate Amtrak crashes last week “and they'll identify what needs to be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told pool reporters Monday. Three people died in the two crashes -- one in Crozet, Virginia, of a train carrying dozens of Capitol Hill Republican lawmakers to their retreat in West Virginia (see 1801310046), and a second incident early Sunday when a Miami-bound Amtrak train crashed south of Columbia, South Carolina. National Safety Transportation Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Sunday that positive train control “could have avoided” the South Carolina crash, in which the Amtrak train hit an idling CSX train. An Amtrak engineer and conductor died in that incident. The House Transportation Committee’s Railroads Subcommittee is planning a Feb. 15 hearing on PTC implementation that will include Amtrak, Federal Railroad Administration, NTSB and industry officials.