The path forward for Senate Commerce Committee consideration of Jessica Rosenworcel's nomination (see 1706140002) to be an FCC commissioner remained uncertain, with industry lobbyists seeing traditional pairing of Rosenworcel with an as-yet-unnamed third Republican commissioner the likeliest possibility. President Donald Trump said Tuesday night he planned to renominate Rosenworcel to a new term as a Democratic FCC commissioner, months after the White House withdrew her and other nominees held over after former President Barack Obama left office (see 1703020067). The Rosenworcel announcement didn't mention a nominee for the FCC's vacant GOP seat.

The FCC should increase the funding cap on alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM) support to $200 per location, TDS Telecom CEO Dave Wittwer and other executives said in a Monday meeting with Chairman Ajit Pai at the company’s headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. The TDS executives said increasing the A-CAM budget would maximize rural broadband deployment, said a Wednesday ex parte filing in docket 10-90. TDS executives supported an ITTA and USTelecom petition to ease business data service regulations for some rural telcos by allowing them to opt into recently adopted relief for price-cap carriers (see 1705250065). “This step would free model-based carriers that opt in from unnecessary regulatory burdens, such as cost studies, and provide them with the flexibility necessary to compete more vigorously in the market for business data services,” TDS said.

Net neutrality supporters signaled Tuesday they plan what they hope will be a major protest heading into July 17, the deadline for filing initial comments at the FCC on a May NPRM. Major internet companies are joining for an “Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality” July 12. Commissioners had approved, 2-1, an NPRM that examines the 2015 rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, approved under Democratic then-Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1705180029). Current Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly voted to proceed with the rulemaking and have shown no sign they're rethinking their support for overturning the earlier order.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency hires outgoing FCC Chief Information Officer David Bray as director of NGIA's new Office of Ventures and Innovation; he tells us he will start the job probably in late July ... Telecommunications Industry Association names Wes Johnston, ex-Gores Group, CEO; David Heard had been interim CEO and remains chairman ... USTelecom hires from Frontier Communications Jeremy Pederson as vice president-government affairs ... CTIA hires as directors-cybersecurity: Rob Cantu, ex-Energy Department, now in the Department of Technology and Cybersecurity, and Melanie Tiano, ex-FCC Enforcement Bureau, also for privacy, in the Office of the General Counsel.

Do not originate "is no substitute for authentication, but USTelecom’s efforts showed that DNO can prevent a certain subset of narrowly defined and harmful calls from reaching consumers,” the group said in a meeting with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on a report the association earlier presented to the agency’s Robocall Strike Force. “Applied in a narrow and tightly controlled manner, DNO can be an effective tool for mitigating large and medium scale attacks,” said Kevin Rupy, USTelecom vice president-law and policy, said in a filing in docket 17-59. The FCC is examining ways to curb illegal robocalls (see 1703230035).

Critics of the FCC business data service order expect large telcos to raise prices for telecom rivals and business customers under new deregulation they're due to gain in a couple months. But incumbent telco representatives said that the order recognizes BDS competition is increasingly exerting market pressure and that removing price caps provides industry incentives to deploy cutting-edge fiber networks, including for 5G backhaul. FCC officials said they expect growing BDS competition, including from cable, and noted the Federal Register was scheduled to publish the order Friday, triggering its effective date in 60 days. They spoke at an FCBA panel Wednesday.

FCC Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Mignon Clyburn backed means-testing USF support for broadband/telecom service in high-cost areas. It's "time to fix a fundamental structural defect" in the program, which is the subsidization of communications access for people "who don't need or deserve governmental assistance," they said in a rare joint blog post Wednesday. They sought comment on various questions and hope to bring the issue before the commission "in the very near future." O'Rielly recently said he and Clyburn were working on a draft item (see 1705180061). Representatives of Chairman Ajit Pai, USTelecom and NTCA declined comment.

A court panel rejected Neustar arguments and deferred to the FCC in denying the incumbent local number portability administrator's challenges to agency decisions choosing Telcordia (iconectiv) as the next LNPA (see 1705260016). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel concluded the commission's "process and recommendation were proper exercises of" authority.

ITTA and USTelecom asked the FCC to ease business data service regulations for some rural telcos by allowing them to opt into recently adopted relief for price-cap carriers. "Rate-of-return carriers that receive universal service fund ('USF') support based on theoretical cost models (termed 'model-based rate-of-return carriers) must comply with legacy regulation only for their BDS offerings," said a petition for rulemaking Thursday. "Costs of such rate-of-return regulations for these carriers now outweigh the benefits of the regulation." The petition "requests that model-based rate-of-return carriers be permitted to opt into existing price cap regulation for their provision of BDS, subject to certain conditions. ... Continued compliance with rate-[of]-return-based rate regulation, including tariffing, tariff review plans, cost studies, and associated requirements, entails significant costs that are difficult for model-based rate-of-return carriers to recover in the competitive marketplace."

Rural telco groups and CenturyLink urged FCC caution in revising separations rules for how costs are allocated between the federal and state jurisdictions. ITTA said the FCC should eliminate the separations regime for price-cap carriers. Comments were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 80-286. The FCC recently extended a freeze on jurisdictional separations rules for 18 months while a federal-state joint board attempts to develop new proposals (see 1705150064).