The reverse portion of Stage 4 of the incentive auction is expected to end Jan. 13, the Incentive Auction Task Forcesaid on the auction Public Reporting System Wednesday. The reverse auction will proceed with three rounds a day until Monday, and then go to four rounds a day, the PRS said. That schedule would cause the nominal final round, round 52, to fall on Jan. 13, but if two additional rounds are needed, the schedule will go to five rounds on Jan. 13 to end the auction on that day. “It is possible for the auction to take up to two additional bidding rounds beyond the point at which the base clock price has reached $0 if the final bidding status has not yet been determined for any VHF stations,” the IATF said.

Cable, wireless and other parties asked the FCC to reconsider privacy rules targeting broadband ISPs, joining local telcos, advertising groups and Oracle which had also filed petitions in docket 16-106 (see 1701030051 and 1612220017). NCTA said the FCC should withdraw the "unsustainable" regulations approved by Democratic commissioners because they exceed the agency's authority, arbitrarily and capriciously depart from the FTC's "long-standing and effective privacy framework" covering all Internet players, infringe on ISP free speech, and create "unworkable and conflicting" data security requirements that will cause "overnotification to law enforcement and consumers of putative data breaches." The order "compounds the errors" from the FCC's "ill-advised decision to reclassify" broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, NCTA said. The American Cable Association said the order "goes off the rails because it makes material errors on the law, facts, and policy." The "train wreck" can't be salvaged and the rules should be eliminated, and, if necessary, replaced with a framework grounded in the FTC's "time-tested" regime, the ACA said. CTIA said the rules undermine the FCC's stated goals and should be vacated, modified or clarified. The agency should at least take certain steps, including to "limit the scope of information to which the Rules apply to customer proprietary network information (CPNI)," reconsider limits on ISP use of financial incentives in exchange for customer information, and narrow data-breach notifications, it said. The Competitive Carriers Association said the FCC regime "will undercut" internet competition by saddling ISPs "with unparalleled, restrictive data use and sharing rules without the benefits of actually protecting consumers" and without giving small providers "appropriate relief." The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said the agency lacked legal authority and impermissibly combined the definition of CPNI with "personally identifiable information" and "content of communications" to create a broad new "customer proprietary information" category. If the commission determines it has authority, WISPA urged the agency to account for ISP/edge "asymmetry" that "its rules exacerbate" and provide further relief to small providers. CTA credited the FCC with improving its initial proposal but said its rules still fail "to ensure a coherent and consistent approach." Level 3 said the exemption for serving enterprise voice customers wasn't broad enough to account for differences with broadband access providers, and should be changed.

The FCC incentive auction Public Reporting System and its Electronic Comment Filing System experienced outages Wednesday that prevented users from accessing the auction bidding system or reading documents filed with the commission. Though ECFS' difficulties persisted into late afternoon according to several users of the system, the problems with PRS were cleared up less than 15 minutes after the Incentive Auction Task Force announced them, according to time-stamped announcements on the PRS system that have since been removed. The PRS announcement blamed the issue on internet connectivity problems. An FCC spokesman told us the problem affected about 80 documents, and was resolved by Wednesday afternoon, though it could take more time to provide access to the documents. The FCC said it is exploring the cause of the internet outage with its vendors. The spokesman said the issues are believed to be unrelated.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s frequent use of Twitter (see 1612280041) gives him a strong channel for communication if he becomes chairman, said James Toscano, a social media expert at Dots Matter. "Pai's current social media habits contribute to him being a 'high influencer' on the medium,” Toscano emailed. “Becoming chair will only enhance his stature there.” As leaders grow in responsibility, they should also develop a deeper sense of responsibility for their social media use and the policy ramifications of what they say, Toscano said. But as President-elect Donald Trump has shown, “a leader's authenticity on Twitter attracts followers, and speed of message delivery via Twitter allows leaders to interrupt -- and even own -- the news cycle,” Toscano said. “This poses major advantages in harnessing public influence for leaders, like Pai, who are willing to be a bit more spontaneous."

Calendar correction: The date of a 2 p.m. EST NATOA webinar on the election's impact on local governments is Jan. 9 (see http://www.communicationsdaily.com/calendar).

The Lifeline Connects Coalition suggested changes to the draft national verifier plan floated by Universal Service Administrative Co. (see 1612010043) for replacing the current carrier-based approach. USAC's draft plan for a national verifier of low-income consumer eligibility for Lifeline's subsidized telecom/broadband services "proposes features that would inhibit, rather than encourage, more efficient and effective enrollment and recertification," said LCC in comments posted Tuesday in FCC docket 11-42. The coalition -- which consists of American Broadband & Telecommunications, Blue Jay Wireless, i-wireless and Telrite -- made recommendations in five areas: "First, the National Verifier must include real-time review of enrollments, including where manual review of proof of eligibility is necessary. Second, the National Verifier should involve service providers early and often in the recertification process. Third, the National Verifier’s Tribal residency verification should include collection of the Tribal residency certification at enrollment and a safe harbor for service providers, and USAC should cease wasteful and unnecessary auditing of service providers. ... Fourth, service providers should continue to be able to facilitate dispute resolutions for applicants in real-time at enrollment as they do today rather than requiring applicants to separately submit documentation by mail or web portal. Fifth, the National Verifier should permit service providers to correct their snapshot totals when they certify their subscriber lists to USAC, and should afford service providers flexibility to make corrections and revisions to their reimbursement requests, including upward adjustments in limited, appropriate circumstances." USAC, which the FCC assigned the job of creating the national verifier, expects to release a "final" plan in January, though it's to be updated during implementation over the next three years (see 1612070015).

Roslyn Layton credited India with recognizing the value of free data but cited problems with its "aggregator" approach. Reversing a previous ban on differential pricing for data services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) now acknowledges free data can help the poor, said a Tuesday blog post by Layton, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and Trump FCC landing team member (see 1611290022). The "TRAI rejected three proposed models for free data and presents a new model in which 'third party aggregators' create the market for free data," she wrote. "Let’s applaud TRAI for recognizing the value of free data. Aggregation is a novel approach, but it is neither costless nor neutral. Moreover, the ruling creates a new problem of regulatory discrimination restricting how telecom service providers can participate in the market." Layton suggested the better way to discover the best free-data approach "would be to conduct a randomized control trial without regulatory discrimination." Indian telecom carriers could still challenge the TRAI's decision in court, she said, but for now the aggregator-based policy sets up a "de facto randomized control trial" as other south Asian nations have implemented various free-data programs that have increased broadband adoption. "It’s hard to see why some 446 million people in rural parts of India could not benefit from such programs, in addition to at least 80 million urban poor in the country," she wrote.

The next FCC commissioners’ meeting was moved to Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 10:30 a.m.. The meeting had been scheduled for Jan. 26. The FCC didn’t comment on the reason for the change.

The Enforcement Bureau raised the dollar amount of forfeiture penalties to adjust for inflation, said an order issued Friday. The increase is required by a 2015 law and will affect penalties assessed after the effective date of the increase, including penalties stemming from violations that predated the increase, the order said. For the 2017 adjustment for each penalty, the FCC used a multiplier (1.01636) calculated by the Office of Management and Budget and then rounded the result up to the nearest dollar. The penalty for common carrier discrimination, for example, went from $11,362 to $11,548, the order said. The order's effective date will be the day it's published in the Federal Register, the order said

Informal Working Groups (IWG) 3 and 4 of the FCC’s 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee are scheduled to meet next month, the FCC said in a Thursday notice. IWG 3 Space Services is to meet by teleconference 1-3 p.m. Jan. 10 and IWG 4 Regulatory Issues also by teleconference from 10 a.m. to noon the same day. All times are EST.