Presentations to the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee and subcommittees and groups will be treated as exempt presentations for ex parte purposes, said a notice Wednesday. It said such treatment is appropriate since presentations to CAC won't directly result in promulgation of new rules, and the FCC won't rely on the proceedings or information submitted to CAC in pending proceedings. CAC is next scheduled to meet Friday (see 1704270051).

The FCC wasted no time in opening a pleading cycle on an NCTA/USTelecom request to clarify broadband speed disclosure requirements. Comments are due June 16, replies July 3 on the petition for declaratory ruling, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 17-131. The FCC should act to ensure broadband speed disclosure duties are harmonized and maintain industry flexibility in light of state efforts to mandate various requirements based on "unreliable performance metrics," said the petition filed Monday. It noted the agency was poised to open a broadband open internet proceeding (see 1705160063).

Qualcomm sued Apple iPhone manufacturers Compal Electronics, Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron, opening a new front in the Apple-Qualcomm patent licensing battle. Apple sued Qualcomm in January on claims the smartphone chipmaker gouged Apple for billions of dollars in patent royalties on technologies it didn't own (see 1701230067). Qualcomm countersued (see 1704110026). Qualcomm also faces an FTC complaint the manufacturer had a monopoly in baseband processors used in cellphones and other devices (see 1701170065, 1704040040 and 1704040037). Qualcomm’s lawsuit against the manufacturers, filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego, claims the firms are in breach of patent licensing agreements and other commitments to Qualcomm by refusing to pay royalties on products they made for Apple, which also include iPads, at the company’s behest. Apple faces a separate lawsuit for interfering in Qualcomm's licensing agreements (see 1704200016). The firms entered into the agreements before they began making iPads and iPhones and are still paying royalties on all non-Apple products, Qualcomm said. “We cannot allow these manufacturers and Apple to use our valuable intellectual property without paying the fair and reasonable royalties to which they have agreed," said Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg in a news release. "As Apple continues to collect billions of dollars from consumer sales of its Qualcomm-enabled products, it is using its market power as the wealthiest company in the world to try to coerce unfair and unreasonable license terms from Qualcomm in its global attack on the company.” Apple pointed to CEO Tim Cook’s statement during the company’s Q2 earnings call (see 1705030051) that Qualcomm is “trying to charge Apple a percentage of the total iPhone value” when its patents are just “one small part of what an iPhone is.”

Thirty entities called for infrastructure legislation to connect "anchor" institutions to high-speed broadband networks, particularly in rural areas, as expected (see 1705160019). "[W]e urge you to include adequate funding for broadband infrastructure, made available through an open, market-based application process, and to ensure that schools, libraries, health clinics, and rural communities can obtain world-class broadband access to the Internet," said a letter from the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and 29 other organizations and companies to President Donald Trump. Anchor institutions are "gateways" to communities, said SHLB Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen on a conference call Wednesday with others. He said direct funding is needed to connect them in high-cost rural areas, where tax credits don't work well. Ellen Satterwhite, an information-technology fellow at the American Libraries Association, said investment in anchor institutions "leverages other federal dollars." Libraries have relationships with various agencies and others working on small business and veterans issues, she said. The FCC Connect America Fund does good work, but the signatories support allocating funding to another agency, Windhausen said. NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service did laudable jobs distributing broadband funds under the 2009 economic stimulus package, he said. Fatbeam CEO Greg Green acknowledged there was some "overbuilding" during the stimulus programs, but said projects fostered competition and lowered institutional costs. He said Fatbeam builds fiber networks near airports, hospitals and other key locations to maximize benefits. "That anchor tenant is so critical" and Fatbeam always connects it to a long-haul network, he said. "We don't want an island."

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee plans its second meeting under Chairman Ajit Pai June 16, starting at 9 a.m., said a public notice. The DAC is to receive updates from each of its four subcommittees -- emergency communications, relay/equipment distribution, technology transitions and video programming, the FCC said. The meeting will be in the Commission Meeting Room.

ZVRS lobbied FCC Republican commissioners on the video relay service rate plan of "nondominant" providers, which it called "the most viable proposal to advance" agency goals for VRS and the Telecom Relay Service Fund. "It is also the only proposal that brings rates closer to costs for small, medium and large size providers," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-51 on a meeting CEO Sherri Turpin and others had with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide. "It is critical for the Commission to maintain the proposed rates for four years and apply them retroactive to January 1, 2017 in order to stabilize the non-dominant VRS providers who have been devastated by declining rates under the glide path." Former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth agreed "the joint rate proposal is the most sensible option at this juncture and explained why maintaining a tiered rate structure for VRS makes sense given the current state of the market," said the filing. ZVRS, the parent of CSDVRS and Purple Communications, made a similar filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. Asked by O’Rielly about "skills-based routing," Turpin said "skills-based routing should not increase costs to the Fund because it will provide for faster, more efficient, and better quality conversations," it said.

Southern Light and Uniti Group told FCC leadership of problems when they try to install facilities in public rights-of-way, including "recalcitrant state Department of Transportation agencies, delays associated with issuing the requisite permits, and some municipalities demanding excessive franchise fees for small-cell deployments." When Southern Light "cannot make use of the rights-of-way on a bridge, for example, the costs associated with fiber deployment can increase 15 to 20 times which can lead to making deployment to certain areas economically infeasible," said a joint filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-84 on meetings with all three commissioners and aides. "In a number of states, companies must negotiate with numerous local governments which can require years of effort, reducing competition and increasing costs." Separately, the Wireline Bureau issued a public notice in docket 17-99 seeking comments by May 30, replies June 6 on the proposed transfer of control of Southern Light to Uniti Group.

NCTA and USTelecom asked the FCC to clarify broadband speed disclosure rules to ensure harmonization and industry flexibility amid state mandates. They said the commission established a national regime for measuring and disclosing broadband internet access service (BIAS) speeds, and "is poised to launch a proceeding that may further update that regime," but states are trying "to mandate different disclosures based on unreliable performance metrics." The commission should act "to avoid a patchwork of inconsistent requirements and to protect its authority to maintain a uniform national framework for this interstate service," said an NCTA/USTelecom petition posted Tuesday. It said the agency gave flexibility to comply with transparency rules, with a "safe harbor" for providers disclosing their average downstream and upstream speeds during peak demand. "The Commission should prevent this framework from being undermined by issuing a declaratory ruling confirming that a broadband provider’s description of speeds based on this average peak-hour metric complies with the Commission’s transparency requirements and, unless and until BIAS is no longer classified as a telecommunications service, that such a characterization of actual broadband performance is just and reasonable," the petition said. The FCC should reaffirm that BIAS providers retain flexibility to comply with transparency rules "through alternative disclosures beyond" the safe harbor, the groups wrote. "Such a ruling -- along with a confirmation that broadband providers can meet these obligations through website disclosures, and a clarification that it is consistent with federal law for broadband providers also to advertise maximum speeds -- would reinforce the primacy of federal law on these matters. ... Protecting the Commission’s authority to establish national, uniform rules is particularly important ... as the Commission is about to launch a proceeding to put in place a national 'light-touch framework' to govern BIAS providers and preserve a free and open Internet."

The FCC listed counties deemed “competitive” in the lower-speed business data services market and subject to price deregulation under the commission’s April BDS order. The agency released the list Monday. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Incompas called for its release before commissioners' vote last month (see 1704100068); the FCC proposed releasing it in an April 28 notice (see 1705010019). Incompas is "shocked by the number of counties, including several rural counties, targeted by the FCC for broadband price hikes," emailed the CLEC association's General Counsel Angie Kronenberg. Incompas is still studying the list, "but it is apparent now why the FCC wanted to withhold this information from the public and Congress until after the BDS vote," she said.

DOD began “circulating among some members” of Congress feedback on the first November 2015 draft of Mobile Now within days of the draft spectrum bill’s unveiling, according to the responses to a Freedom of Information Act request that Communications Daily filed last year with NTIA. Responses to this request were largely supplied in the final months of 2016 (see 1612160062, 1612200031 and 1612220020), but NTIA gave us a final selection of documents this month. The latest result included several pages of entirely redacted text, presumably encompassing the attachment listed in the non-redacted email exchanges as DOD's assessment of Mobile Now. NTIA Chief Counsel Kathy Smith told us in a May 5 letter that the records are being withheld due to the FOIA exemption protecting "inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with an agency." Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., wrote the 2015 draft, and, after extensive negotiation with the Obama administration, pared it down. That less-aggressive version stalled on the Senate floor last year and is stalled again on the Senate floor now, in both cases due to an unrelated FCC nominations concern. David Quinalty, a telecom policy aide to Thune, sent the “DoD assessment” of the first Mobile Now draft as an attachment to a Nov. 13, 2015, email to NTIA officials “in case you have not yet seen it,” he said. Quinalty referred to talking with NTIA officials that day “to discuss the Administration’s views” on the draft bill, citing the DOD document's circulation among some Senate offices. “Between our conversation and the DOD document, we feel quite confident we can satisfactorily address the Administration’s concerns.” Earlier responses to this FOIA request showed a harsh administration critique of the draft but make no mention of such a DOD-penned document circulating on Capitol Hill then. DOD concerns were known during those 2015 months of negotiation due to comments from senators and staffers (see 1511180058). Upon receipt of this DOD critique in the Nov. 13, 2015, email exchange, NTIA Chief of Staff Glenn Reynolds forwarded the document within eight minutes to Aalok Mehta and Ben Page, both of whom then worked in the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Hannah Merves, then a policy adviser in the White House National Economic Council. “For awareness,” Reynolds told the Obama administration officials.