Government needs to get a better handle on the continuing lack of broadband competition in rural America, the Competitive Carriers Association told NTIA and the National Science Foundation. NTCA also urged the government to develop new data sources to more accurately gauge the status of broadband deployment. NTIA posted the filings made in response to a September request for comment on a national broadband research agenda (see 1610120045).

Early signs are that the industry attack on draft ISP privacy rules will center on the FCC’s determination of what kind of data is considered “sensitive” information requiring opt-in consent before it can be used or shared. USTelecom and NCTA already raised concerns the draft rules include eight categories of sensitive data, a broader definition than under the FTC’s privacy framework (see 1610060031).

An FCC draft order would create bifurcated regulation of business data services, with telco legacy DS1 and DS3 offerings (up to 45 Mbps) subject to price-cap regulations -- including rate cuts -- while higher-speed and packet-based services such as Ethernet would face only general common-carrier requirements and complaint-driven enforcement, senior commission officials said Friday. There would be no geographically based competitive market tests, said one official on a call to answer reporter questions about Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposed BDS framework, which was summarized in a fact sheet (see 1610070027).

The FCC invited pleadings on a USTelecom petition for a temporary waiver of certain rules so Lifeline providers can continue enrolling consumers in the federal USF low-income subsidy support program based on state-specific criteria in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. (see 1610040049). Comments are due Oct. 21 on the petition, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 11-42.

ISPs will be required to get express, opt-in consent before using or sharing eight categories of sensitive information, under the privacy rules circulated (see 1610060021) by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to his fellow commissioners Thursday for a vote at the Oct. 27 commissioners meeting. But ISPs wouldn’t have to seek consent on all of the data Wheeler proposed in an NPRM (see 1603310049). The early reaction to the plan was mostly positive, even from advocates of strong privacy rules. But NCTA and USTelecom had concerns.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler shifted gears on ISP privacy, refocusing proposed rules on protecting only “sensitive” information, he confirmed in a blog post Thursday. The change was expected, and along the lines of what we had reported this week. Under his proposal, circulated for an Oct. 27 commissioner vote, ISPs would have to obtain opt-in consent before using or sharing sensitive information. The agency also issued a fact sheet.

Nine wireless providers asked to become "Lifeline Broadband Providers" (LBPs) under the FCC's new federal process for designating carriers eligible for the low-income USF subsidy support program. Assist Wireless, Blue Jay Wireless, Easy Telephone Services, Free Mobile, i-Wireless, Karma Mobility, Telrite, TruConnect Communications and Ztar Mobile filed LBP applications posted Tuesday in docket 09-197. All of the applicants said they met the requirements for streamlined, 60-day treatment designating them as LBP eligible telecom carriers (ETCs). Lifeline's new broadband-oriented support begins Dec. 2 under rule changes the FCC adopted in March, the effective dates for which were announced Monday (see 1610030040). NARUC and individual states are challenging the FCC's LBP process -- which allows providers to become eligible in multiple states or even nationally -- as circumventing state ETC authority under the Communications Act (see 1606030053 and 1607010057). Meanwhile, USTelecom asked the commission for a limited waiver of certain rules in order to permit Lifeline providers to "continue enrolling consumers in the federal Lifeline program based on state-specific program and income eligibility criteria" in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. The waiver should expire at the earlier of 18 months from its grant or 60 days after the state notifies the FCC and all ETCs in the state that it has aligned its eligibility criteria with the federal criteria, the ILEC group's petition said.

Intervenors defended the FCC net neutrality order against petitions for rehearing a court panel's June ruling upholding the order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit twice before disagreed with FCC net neutrality decisions and provided "valuable guidance" the agency "faithfully and correctly applied," said a joint response (in Pacer) Monday from Cogent Communications, Dish Network, Free Press, Incompas, Netflix, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and other intervenors in USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063. Industry petitioners again attacked the rules even though the panel ruling doesn't conflict "with precedent or any issue of exceptional importance," they wrote. "As far as Intervenors can determine, this Court has not, in recent memory, ever granted rehearing to address such fact-bound and case-specific complaints." In another response (in Pacer), Full Service Network, which was denied in its challenge to FCC forbearance relief, asked the court to reconsider the panel ruling and precedents on which it relied. FSN said the ruling conflicted with other precedents and raised exceptional issues "because of the massive judicial expansion of agency authority inherent in that decision." Calling itself "the skunk at the party," FSN said the statute required the FCC to classify broadband as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act, but the commission decision to forbear from much ISP regulation was "unreasonable." The FCC and DOJ recently defended the order (see 1610030029).

USTelecom named Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter its CEO, replacing Walter McCormick effective Jan. 1. Spalter has broader tech industry experience and held "key positions in national security policy and technology management" in President Bill Clinton's administration, a release said Tuesday. USTelecom narrowed its search recently, but Spalter's name didn't surface in early September (see 1609090008).

The FCC and DOJ said an appellate court should deny industry appeals of a ruling upholding the commission's 2015 net neutrality and broadband reclassification order. The three-judge panel carefully examined industry objections to the order and "rejected them in their entirety," said the FCC/DOJ response (in Pacer) Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in USTelecom et al. v. FCC, No. 15-1063 and consolidated cases. The panel's ruling was "entirely correct" and consistent with Supreme Court analysis in its 2005 NCTA v. Brand X decision and the D.C. Circuit's precedent in two previous net neutrality decisions, Comcast v. FCC in 2010 and Verizon v. FCC in 2014, the government said.