Efforts to boost broadband in an infrastructure bill have appeal but face differences and uncertainties over the initiative's structure and size, speakers at a USTelecom event Thursday indicated. A telco executive urged using existing funding mechanisms and new tax incentives; a Senate Democratic staffer cited a plan to provide $20 billion for broadband through executive branch programs (see 1701240067); a House Republican staffer said his members are seeking to encourage broadband but are still working on a plan; and a Trump transition team member opposed repeating the 2009 broadband stimulus approach. The member said FCC restructuring should include an economics bureau; and an AT&T official cited its gigabit-speed efforts in six North Carolina cities.

In one of the first actions under new Chairman Ajit Pai, FCC staff approved 182 rural telcos to receive $454 million in annual broadband-oriented USF subsidies through the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM). Rural telcos called the action a boost for rural broadband, though some called for further funding efforts. Pai said he wants to ensure rural areas get fast web service. Meanwhile Tuesday, he named bureau chiefs and other key staff (see 1701240064).

Elevating Ajit Pai to chairman, as expected (see 1701200051), means the FCC can proceed directly into its new agenda under President Donald Trump, without complications of an interim chairmanship and a long waiting period for a new chairman to arrive. Pai’s positions are already well known -- he has been a commissioner since May 2012, a nearly five-year track record -- so there's relatively little uncertainty on where he stands on many issues. Before he was a commissioner, Pai worked for the FCC Office of General Counsel.

Industry lobbyists and officials told us Friday that Commissioner Ajit Pai, the FCC's senior Republican, is being tapped to lead the agency as chairman on a permanent basis. Spokespeople for President Donald Trump didn’t confirm the reports. The FCC was reduced to three commissioners Friday, as expected, with Tom Wheeler stepping down as chairman and no longer listed on the FCC website among commissioners. Pai has been seen as nearly certain to become chairman on at least an interim basis, and personally met with Trump in New York City less than a week before Friday's inauguration.

Congress may need to pass legislation to encourage federal agencies to relinquish their spectrum, commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross told the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday during his confirmation hearing. It was a first direct public comment on the topic by any officials affiliated with the incoming Trump administration. Spectrum was a frequent topic during the hearing, which lasted nearly four hours.

Senior Trump transition staff approved an FCC landing team action plan for the agency Friday, and everything "is moving forward," an informed person told us. "It’s what you’d expect from a Republican administration: it’s consistent with the views of [Commissioner Ajit] Pai and [Commissioner Michael] O’Rielly, the Republican platform, and what [President-elect Donald] Trump and [Vice President-elect Mike] Pence have been saying. There’s an emphasis on the use of markets and letting customers and businesses make choices."

Democratic House Communications Subcommittee leadership of Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., bodes well for the party in the new Congress, his colleagues told us Thursday after Commerce Committee Democrats selected him as subcommittee ranking member (see 1701120021). He will take over for Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who didn’t seek the position, and he said in an interview he will focus on preserving consumer protections from the FCC net neutrality order. He has been in office since 1995.

New USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said regulatory clarity and parity are key to spurring broadband deployment that connects everyone and everything. "Translating the Internet of Things into the Infrastructure of Things will take smart policy and even smarter public-private collaboration at all levels of government," he wrote in a Morning Consult commentary Wednesday. Spalter said clarity is needed for broadband providers that invested more in infrastructure, $1.5 trillion, than any other sector over the past two decades while being subjected to "Washington whiplash" -- "heady" talk of broadband importance mixed with "increasingly regressive policy decisions" undermining investment. "We need to reverse this troubling trend by establishing policies that encourage investment in new and better broadband," he wrote. He also backed a level playing field. "Telecommunications companies alone remain shackled to stale regulatory structures written in the rotary phone era or, at best, when the honk and screech of dial-up internet was the siren call of the future. These companies should be free to compete head-on with their cable and other rivals -- free from dated, discriminatory rules," he wrote. Spalter said the country must remain committed to a "connected nation" of people and things. "A new Administration and Congress present an opportune moment to take a fresh look at how we build for the future," he wrote. "Many believe a major push on infrastructure holds out the greatest hope for meaningful, bipartisan progress. It is essential that this push include broadband."

News Friday that Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., will lead the House Communications Subcommittee (see 1701060001) sparked a range of reactions from industry observers. They foresaw the potential for her to take action on what have often been partisan priorities on net neutrality and municipal broadband. She succeeds Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the new chair of Commerce, and was seen as having the edge among Commerce Republicans for the positions (see 1612300029), with people judging her both knowledgeable and effective but also divisive. The subcommittee overseeing the FTC also got a new head who is known to FCC watchers: Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio. Blackburn, an executive vice chairwoman for the transition team of President-elect Donald Trump, pledged last month the new Congress would get started on net neutrality legislation soon.

Incumbent telco and advertising groups asked the FCC to reconsider the broadband privacy order it approved on a 3-2 party-line vote in October (see 1610270036). The recon petitions of USTelecom, ITTA, the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) and others filed Tuesday follow an earlier petition from Oracle (see 1612220017). They give dissenting Republican commissioners, who will become the majority under incoming President Donald Trump, one vehicle to change the order and its rules. The privacy regulations were adopted after the FCC's net neutrality order reclassified broadband internet access as a Communications Act Title II telecom service, a decision that is also in the GOP crosshairs.