The FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus denied the petitions of Windy City Cellular and subsidiary Adak Eagle Enterprises for waivers of some of the commission’s high-cost rules, in an order released Monday (http://bit.ly/18lYiju). The carriers had asked for waivers of rules establishing a $250 per line monthly cap on high-cost universal service support. “WCC and AEE have not shown good cause for a waiver at this time,” the bureaus wrote. “Although WCC and AEE have submitted plans to reduce certain costs, these plans fail to adequately address key ongoing expenses, including, for example, disproportionate executive compensation relative to the size of the companies. Universal service support is a finite resource.” However, in order to “minimize any potential for disruptions” that might affect consumers on Adak Island, where the carriers operate, the bureaus gave WCC and AEE an additional six months of support at their current interim support levels, after which point they will be capped consistent with the rules.

Correction: Patrick Masambu is the deputy director general of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (CD July 12 p16).

AT&T said it will begin allowing its subscribers to upgrade their mobile devices on an annual basis through its new Next installment plan program. The plan, which AT&T will start offering July 26, will allow subscribers to pay for a new smartphone or tablet over a 20-month period, with an option to trade the device in after 12 months without making a down payment or paying activation, upgrade or financing fees. The plan allows customers to pay for the device in installments of $15 to $50 per month, AT&T said (http://soc.att.com/1apRlLC). AT&T’s announcement follows T-Mobile’s introduction last week of its Jump early upgrade plan, which allows its subscribers to upgrade to a new device twice a year for a $10-a-month service charge (CD July 11 p21).

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the “best thing” about Wednesday’s committee hearing on E-rate “will be Ed Markey on the committee,” during an interview at the Capitol. Markey, a Democrat, was sworn in as a senator Tuesday after winning the Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election to fill the seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry, a term that ends in 2015. Hill aides said it’s likely Markey will be named to the Senate Commerce Committee but he had not been formally named at our deadline. A committee spokesman had no comment Tuesday. Rockefeller told us he started pulling the strings to get Markey on the Senate Commerce Committee “a year and a half ago.” Markey is “a natural for it. He’s the E-rate guy in the House,” said Rockefeller. Rockefeller brushed off recent suggestions by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., that the FCC should seek to cap USF funding. “Chairman Walden has made a career out of making life miserable for me -- but I'm still smiling,” Rockefeller told us. Rockefeller, the original author of the E-rate program, said he was unconcerned by Walden’s recent letter urging FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn to implement a cap. “What they do on E-rate in the House is not going to go in the Senate, so he is free to do whatever he wants.” Walden had urged Clyburn to cap the overall fund at current levels and refer any USF expansion proposals to the Federal-State Joint Board on “whether to adopt expansion proposals and, if so, how to implement them within the cap,” according to the letter (CD July 16 p3). Clyburn previously circulated an NPRM ahead of Friday’s commission meeting tied to President Barack Obama’s proposal to modernize the E-rate program to ensure that schools and libraries are connected through broadband of at least 100 Mbps with a target of 1 Gbps (CD June 7 p7). The Senate Commerce Committee’s E-rate hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell. Scheduled to testify at the hearing are Sheryl Abshire, chief technology officer at Louisiana’s Calcasieu Parish School System; Linda Lord, state librarian at the Maine State Library; Patrick Finn, senior vice president-public sector at Cisco Systems; and James Coulter, co-founder at TPG Capital.

New York City wants to know whether businesses are interested in getting fiber the city lacks. New York City Economic Development Corp. issued a request for expressions of interest on the selection of one or more industrial business zones as the site where a provider will build a fiber ring, said NYCEDC. “Interested respondents should explain how expanding fiber optic networking in their geographic region will impact local businesses,” the city said (http://bit.ly/14awhIN). Local and commercial businesses suffer from inadequate broadband, it said -- these businesses “lack modern fiber-based infrastructure and are often asked by ISPs to pay tens of thousands of dollars to pull fiber wiring to their buildings.” Respondents may submit questions by July 25, and answers will be posted by Aug. 2. NYCEDC is holding an information session the morning of July 23. Responses are due Aug. 15. “After the selection of one or more IBZs [industrial business zones], NYCEDC will issue a public Request for Proposals to all City ISPs with cable or fiber franchise agreements to determine the approach for fiber construction within the designated IBZ,” said the agency.

Dish Network opposed AT&T’s claims that Dish’s E-block analysis is flawed. AT&T failed to substantiate its argument on “inflated” base station signal levels “because it has not demonstrated any flaw with the methodology or models Dish utilized to produce the results in question,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-69 (http://bit.ly/18YTT5m). The FCC should reject AT&T’s argument that Dish should have examined interference beyond 1 km, it said. While the DBS company concludes that the lower power E-block deployment presents a worse ground-level scenario, Dish also said such a scenario “is harmonized with neighboring base station transmissions, and as such, presents no practical interference risk to commercial LTE devices.”

Broadband investment has powerful economic implications for Iowa, said Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham in a Tuesday guest blog for Iowa LinkedUp. “Facebook, Google and Microsoft all have announced massive investments in the state in recent months totaling billions of dollars,” she said (http://bit.ly/13rH3Et). “These projects -- state of the art data centers that will power the activities of these global powerhouses -- have placed faith in Iowa’s broadband infrastructure.” She described how farmers and businesses have come to rely on and need this connectivity, prompting a need for “continuing sound policies” that translate into “these fields of opportunity.”

Three TechFreedom executives slammed local governments for slowing broadband deployment, in a Tuesday Wired op-ed, focusing on “pre-deployment barriers” companies have to navigate. They looked at right-of-way costs and other elements municipalities control. “Local governments and their public utilities charge ISPs far more than these things actually cost,” wrote President Berin Szoka jointly along with Legal Fellow Matthew Starr and Strategic Director Jon Henke (http://bit.ly/12Hvx7G). “For example, rights of way and pole attachments fees can double the cost of network construction.” They praised how municipalities welcomed Google Fiber in the Kansas City area and told people to stop blaming cable companies for lack of upgrades in general. “It’s a vicious circle,” they said. “And it’s essentially a system of forced kickbacks. Other kickbacks arguably include municipal requirements for ISPs such as building out service where it isn’t demanded, donating equipment, and delivering free broadband to government buildings.”

Eight House Democrats asked acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn not to adopt spectrum auction rules that exclude certain carriers from bidding in the forward auction. “We hope the commission will avoid any action that would serve as an impediment to the successful build out of FirstNet,” said the letter sent to Clyburn Tuesday. “We are concerned that the commission may take action which would have the effect of excluding entities in the forward auction authorized by the [Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation] Act. All carriers should have a meaningful opportunity to bid for spectrum.” The letter asked the FCC to avoid repeating the “mistake” it made in the commission’s prior effort to auction the upper 700 MHz D Block spectrum for public safety use. “Instead we hope the commission will adopt transparent and simple rules to encourage participation by the broadest possible group of broadcasters and wireless providers because doing so will contribute in great part to a successful auction that in turn will generate the revenues needed to fulfill our shared commitment to public safety and achieve the other goals in the Act,” said the letter. It was signed by Reps. John Dingell of Michigan; Eliot Engel, N.Y,; G.K. Butterfield, N.C.; Gene Green, Texas; Bruce Braley, Iowa; Jim Matheson, Utah; John Barrow, Ga.; and Paul Tonko, N.Y. The FCC did not comment. The House Communications Subcommittee plans an oversight hearing on the FCC’s spectrum incentive auction, as was expected (CD July 11 p20), on July 23 at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn. Scheduled to testify are: NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan; Gary Epstein, chairman of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force; Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition; Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile, vice president-federal regulatory affairs; Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge; and Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory affairs.

The FCC sought comment on a TV station’s request to move from Channel 51 as part of a pact with a lower 700 MHz A block wireless licensee, the only part of the dial on which there’s not a freeze on such full-power channel substitutions. KGAN Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a voluntary relocation agreement with King Street Wireless for the station to move to Channel 29, with the broadcaster saying that would remove any potential interference to a wireless operation adjacent to Channel 51 in Cedar Rapids, said a Media Bureau NPRM (http://bit.ly/191jlY7). Comments are due, in docket 13-182, 30 days after the rulemaking released Tuesday appears in the Federal Register, replies 15 days later.