The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment on the next edition of its annual mobile competition report, the first under Chairman Ajit Pai. Throughout the Obama administration, the annual reports declined to say the industry is effectively competitive. The last report was released in September (see 1609230060). Under George W. Bush, the FCC concluded in a series of reports that the industry was competitive. The report is the 20th to Congress on wireless competition. "This Public Notice requests comment on the criteria or metrics that could be used to evaluate the state of mobile wireless competition," said a Thursday PN in docket 17-69. "Comment and information also is sought on industry data, competitive dynamics, and trending factors in the mobile wireless industry, including but not limited to, subscribership numbers, financial indicators (such as revenues or profitability), investment, pricing, and network coverage. In addition, the Commission actively endeavors to improve and refine the way it collects, analyzes, and reports on wireless industry information and data. The Bureau requests that commenters provide any other information that may inform the Commission’s analysis of the mobile wireless industry." Comments are due May 8, replies June 7.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he wouldn't “wade into” the argument over fake news (see 1703150063) because it's a “political debate." His remarks came during a news conference Thursday. News media “perform an important job,” Pai said, declining to respond to questions about whether he agreed with President Donald Trump that media outlets such as The New York Times and ABC News were fake news. “I’ve been very clear about the importance I place on First Amendment freedoms,” Pai said. “This is a political debate that is happening with political actors.”

Prometheus Radio Project sought FCC timing relief on a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on a broadcast radio decision in February that the group wants reconsidered. A Prometheus emergency petition for expedited special relief Wednesday asked that its FOIA request be dated as received on March 17 because it had followed "long established practice" in submitting it to an fcc.gov email address on that date, only to find out later that the commission had changed the procedure and required submissions through its website. The date of receipt triggers an FCC timeline for responding. Though staff said parties submitting FOIA requests to the old email address should have received a reply notifying them it was no longer operational, Prometheus said it didn't receive such notification. "Further research established that abandonment of the former procedure was buried on page six of a 35 page order issued just before last Christmas (see 1612150049) and that no press release or other public announcement was made of this significant alteration of procedure," said Prometheus, which called the absence of publicity "extremely unfortunate." The request seeks communications between or among FCC officials and Office of Management and Budget staff about rules and reporting requirements considered or adopted by the commission in its Feb. 23 order in docket 13-249 relaxing rules for AM stations using FM translators (see 1702230060). The records are "essential to the preparation of a petition for reconsideration due on April 10," it said. The FCC didn't comment Wednesday.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau said it rolled out v3.0 of its Network Outage Reporting System. “NORS Version 3.0 improvements will enhance the overall security and reliability of NORS and allow future evolutions to better support new analytic methods,” said a public notice. “The new version of NORS has four interfaces: (1) a web-based interface, (2) a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Application Programming Interface (API), (3) a Representational State Transfer (REST) API and (4) an Extensible Markup Language (XML) interface. The SOAP API, REST API and the XML interfaces are intended for use by companies that want to automatically file outage reports.” The bureau said it announced the new version Wednesday, but users were notified March 6. Under Part 4 rules, wireless and wireline carriers and cable, satellite and interconnected VoIP must report significant disruptions or outages to their systems.

General Motors executives warned of a threat to auto safety use of the 5.9 GHz band from opening the spectrum to Wi-Fi, in a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and senior aide Nick Degani, Friday while Pai was on his Midwest tour. “The purpose of the meeting was to update the Chairman on GM's latest efforts with the development, testing and deployment of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) for vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 13-49. DSRC technology has taken time to develop “because it is complex and proper testing was needed prior to deployment,” the automaker said. “GM understands the need for spectrum and if there is a way to share the 5.9 GHz band then GM is open to that concept but only under the condition that there is no harmful interference to the DSRC systems.”

About 17,000 AT&T landline workers in California and Nevada walked off​ the job Wednesday after contract negotiations apparently broke down. The company showed “disrespect to the bargaining process by changing the work assignments of workers without bargaining as required by federal law,” Communications Workers of America said in a news release. “AT&T reneged on an agreement to resolve the dispute without any explanation.” Striking workers picketed call centers in California and Nevada, and CWA filed an unfair labor allegation with the National Labor Relations Board, the union said. Workers are protesting a recent AT&T practice of shifting the duties of the higher-paid systems technician to the lower-paid premises technician without appropriate compensation, said Rob Pais, an AT&T technician for 18 years and a local CWA leader. Earlier this week, workers in Escondido, California, went on a grievance strike about that issue and now all 17,000 workers in California and Nevada joined in support, Pais said in an interview Wednesday. “My family depends on this job,” he said. “We’re on strike because the company is not bargaining with us in good faith on our contract.” Pais said he long had good wages, but the company moved in “the wrong direction.” Workers are prepared to strike “until we get a fair contract, no matter what it takes,” he said. The telco is in talks with the union to get employees back to work soon, a said. “A walkout is not in anybody’s best interest, and it’s unfortunate that the union chose to do that.” AT&T is “very prepared to continue serving customers,” he said. “We’re a customer service company and we plan for all contingencies, whether related to weather, natural disasters, work stoppages or any other factors.” Workers voted in December to authorize a strike, and nearly 80 elected officials supported the union workers last week (see 1703140034). Last month, AT&T wireless workers threatened a separate strike in 36 states (see 1702090054).

FCC staff are required under Chairman Ajit Pai to share information with all commissioners, not just the chairman, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a blog post Wednesday. That’s in contrast to under Chairman Tom Wheeler, said O’Rielly, who also appeared to refer to Wheeler as “Brutus Buckeye,” the Ohio State University mascot. Wheeler is an alumnus of Ohio State and a vocal fan of its athletic teams. “In too many conversations, some of the most knowledgeable people in the building seemed to be under direction not to share certain information or answer certain questions,” O’Rielly said. “Sometimes I would get a wry smile, other times it was a blank stare, and occasionally there was a more honest response that the information wouldn’t be forthcoming. Frustrating indeed.” One of Pai’s “most welcomed” process reforms has been a directive that “all staff will not withhold information requested by Commissioners or fail to share information that is pertinent to the many matters before us,” O’Rielly said. The previous commission's priorities shouldn’t be the priorities of this one, he said, describing the policy as “deleting Brutus Buckeye from our memory banks.” O’Rielly’s office didn’t comment on whether the mascot’s name was a reference to Wheeler, and Wheeler declined to comment on the blog post.

District of Columbia Courts warned that some D.C.-area residents are getting robocalls, asking them to pay money they owe on a court matter. “What differentiates these calls from other scams is that the caller ID system has been manipulated and shows a DC Court-issued telephone number on the caller ID display,” said a warning message. “The District of Columbia Courts never solicit payments through telephone. All official court correspondence is processed through the U.S. Postal Service. Do not respond to these telephone calls.” FCC members are to vote on a draft NPRM and notice of inquiry on fighting robocalls at their meeting Thursday (see 1703020063). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn tweeted Tuesday: “Latest phone scam targeting @DC_Courts shows why @FCC action to target and eliminate unlawful #robocalls is critical."

Higher Ground (HG) doesn't understand possible interference issues arising from its planned satellite earth station network for various broadband applications, with its "deficiencies in the relevant physics and engineering" putting fixed services (FS) at risk, said the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition in an FCC International Bureau filing Tuesday. FWCC said HG's promise to comply with out-of-band emissions limits -- in response to concerns raised about adjacent channel interference -- is "troubling" since those are different problems. The coalition said HG assertions that low signal strength and small likelihood of proximity to an FS station means low risk of adjacent channel interference have no analysis to back them up. It said HG shows deficient technical understanding when it tries to argue there won't be interference from unwanted reflections in the environment. The filing responded to an HG ex parte filing earlier this month on meetings between CEO Rob Reis and International, Wireless, Public Safety and Homeland Security bureau and Office of Engineering & Technology representatives about FCC authorization of its earth stations and the subsequent opposition (see 1702100055). The firm argued the earth station transmit power levels will be a hundredth of point-to-point microwave stations' and that its software will let an earth station transmit only if its emissions are at least 6 dB below thermal noise at an FS receiver in line of sight. The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association in filings Monday (see here, here and here) said it opposed HG's use of 5925-6425 MHz band, which it said could interfere with 6 GHz microwave paths. HG outside counsel Adam Krinsky of Wilkinson Barker -- echoing language in HG's consolidated opposition to the applications for review filed by FWCC, Enterprise Wireless Alliance, Utilities Technology Council and APCO -- emailed us Tuesday that the FCC, after more than 18 months of dialogue with the company and numerous demonstrations, concluded its interference protection regime "provides necessary safeguards against harmful interference and granted Higher Ground’s application. The applications for review are based on ‘what if’ speculation, they don’t provide any technical analysis or support, and they disregard the Order’s finding.” FWCC in a reply Tuesday said the only proof HG's system will prevent interference comes from the firm's statements. With no one ever before having done unilateral coordination of mobile transmitters among fixed receivers, "the stakes here warrant the Commission asking for more in the way of assurance than a further repetition of HG's own claims," FWCC said.

The FCC approach to spectrum interference should take into account the level of sunk investments behind any use of the airwaves, the Phoenix Center says in a paper set to be released Wednesday. “Put bluntly, regulatory policy towards interference concerns should favor those licensees with more ‘skin in the game,’” said co-author and Phoenix Chief Economist George Ford in a news release. “While federal agencies must repurpose spectrum to create value, they also must avoid destroying value through the unartful management of interference.” The FCC must avoid any repurposing of spectrum that doesn’t take into account the significant investments of network operators, the center said. Otherwise, companies will cut their investments and the value of the spectrum will also deteriorate, the center said. “The Center’s model of interference dictates that license holders who have made little or no sunk investment in capital to generate benefits from their license would receive little relief under an optimal rule, but those licensees with substantial sunk network investments would receive expansive treatment by the regulator.” The paper offers as an example the “saga” of LightSquared, since rebranded Ligado. “Ligado has labored for years to repurpose 40 MHz of satellite spectrum for terrestrial mobile broadband use, thereby increasing the spectrum’s market value,” the paper said. “However, Ligado’s proposal has been held up by serious and ongoing interference concerns.” Ligado "will review today’s report closely, but at first glance, it does not appear to contain any new or updated information,” an official said. “We have demonstrated that we are committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders. ... We are confident that our planned satellite and ground-based network can peacefully co-exist with our spectrum neighbors.”