The FCC Media Bureau paused the nonbinding 180-day shot clock for Sinclair buying Tribune at Day 104 to give parties more time to comment by Nov 2, when the bureau will restart the clock, said a public notice Wednesday. The pause and additional comment round are intended to allow interested parties to react to Sinclair’s Oct. 5 responses (see 1710060055) to an FCC information request. “The Commission has a strong interest in ensuring a full and complete record upon which to base its decision,” the PN said. “Pausing the clock will ensure that commenters have additional time to review and comment on this new information.”

A fuller picture of broadcast operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands emerged in the FCC's Tuesday report on the impact of Hurricane Maria. In Puerto Rico, five TV stations were confirmed operational and nine out of service, compared with two operational and one out of service in Monday's report (see 1710160028). Eighty radio stations were confirmed operational and 51 out of service in Puerto Rico, compared with 72 operational and 33 out of service Monday. In the Virgin Islands, four radio stations were confirmed operational and four out of service, compared with two operational Monday, with no reports on TV stations. Information on wireless, wireline, cable and 911 operations was little changed; about 75.3 percent of cellsites were out in Puerto Rico and 55 percent of cellsites were out in the Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico's education secretary, the governor of Texas and the Texas Education Agency asked the FCC for urgent USF E-rate support to schools and libraries affected by hurricanes, in filings (here, here, here) posted Tuesday in docket 02-6.

The FCC and DOJ settled with Verizon over possible E-rate competitive bidding violations. The telco agreed to pay $17.325 million to the USF and $354,634 to the U.S. Treasury to resolve parallel investigations, said a commission release Tuesday. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn dissented, citing "over $50 million in harm." The company responded that New York City Department of Education consultant Ross Lanham was at fault, engaged in fraud without the telco's knowledge and the company worked to return money to the program.

Saying she's "deeply concerned" with the majority commissioners' priorities on localism, viewpoint diversity and communications services affordability, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn criticized the agency's most-recent mobile wireless competition report, according to prepared remarks for a Tuesday Media Institute speech. She and fellow Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel slammed the report when adopted along party lines 3-2 at the September commissioners' meeting (see 1709260045). She said the report, narrower in scope than past years', doesn't offer a route for supporting policies that would help increase wireless connectivity in rural areas. She also cited a variety of complaints about the Lifeline program and related universal service issues and pushed for a rulemaking, though saying she didn't have ready ideas on how to tackle removing barriers to entry for new providers. The FCC didn't comment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit ruled Tuesday that FCC policy of collecting information on multilingual emergency alert system notices without requiring such alerts is reasonable, denying (in Pacer) a petition for review from public interest groups including the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (see 1705110061). “If Congress intended to require multi-lingual communications in general, and multi-lingual emergency alerts in particular, we would expect Congress to have spoken far more clearly than it has done” said the majority opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh joined by Judge Karen Henderson. Judge Patricia Millett agreed with the majority in ruling the FCC hadn’t violated anti-discrimination provisions of the Communications Act, but said in a dissent the agency’s 11-year delay in deciding on multilingual EAS messages was arbitrary and capricious. “The problem of ensuring effective communication to the public during crises is too grave to be ensnared in seemingly interminable bureaucratic limbo,” Millett said. Despite ruling in the FCC’s favor, Kavanaugh needled the agency for operating on “bureaucracy standard time.” Communications Act provisions against discrimination don’t specifically compel the FCC to require emergency alerting in languages other than English, Kavanaugh said. The commission isn’t being arbitrary in not acting on multilingual alerts because there are legal and technical issues with enacting them, such as the lack of FCC authority over alert originators such as local governments, the majority said. It “would be reasonable for the FCC to flatly say that the alert originators (the federal, state, and local government entities) are the parties responsible for deciding whether and when to issue emergency alerts in languages in addition to English,” Kavanaugh said. The FCC plan to seek more information from EAS entities is a repeat of its previous information requests, and the court shouldn’t allow the agency to use it as a delaying tactic any longer, Millett said. “Choosing to repeat an inquiry that has twice been asked and answered, the Commission identified no reason to believe that round three of reporting would reveal new ways to address the multilingual problem.” The majority opinion suggested the agency cease delays. “The FCC should move expeditiously in finally deciding whether to impose a multi-lingual requirement on broadcasters, or instead to leave the issue with alert originators and others,” the opinion said. “At some point, the FCC must fish or cut bait on this question.” The League of United Latin American Citizens and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council said the decision wasn’t a total loss. “One point of agreement by all three judges is that the FCC has taken far too long to act,” the groups said in a news release. “Calling the FCC’s delay ‘bureaucracy standard time,’ the panel majority called on the FCC to ‘move expeditiously.’”

About 74 percent of cellsites remain out of service in Puerto Rico (slightly down from Sunday) and 55 percent of cellsites remain out of service in the U.S. Virgin Islands (same as Sunday), the FCC reported Monday in its Hurricane Maria communications update. It said both Puerto Rico public safety answering points are reported operational, as are the 911 call centers in St. Croix and St. Thomas. Amid continued widespread power outages, the FCC "has received reports of large percentages of consumers are without either cable or wireline service." Two TV stations are confirmed operational in Puerto Rico and one TV station is confirmed out of service in the Virgin Islands; and 72 AM and FM radio stations are confirmed operational in Puerto Rico and 33 are out of service, while two AM radio stations are confirmed operational in the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, Telrite asked the FCC to increase Lifeline monthly per-subscriber support by up to $25 for six months in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to help with recovery, conditioned on providers supplying enhanced voice and data offerings. Telrite filed the emergency petition on Oct. 6 but the FCC electronic comment filing system "encountered significant technical issues and disruptions" that day, so Friday the provider resubmitted the petition with a request it be accepted as filed on Oct. 6.

Commenters disagreed on proposed FCC rule changes to curb slamming and cramming -- when providers make unauthorized changes to consumers' preferred telecom providers or add unauthorized charges on phone bills -- as replies were posted Monday and Friday in docket 17-169. Filing for the first time in the rulemaking, ATIS, CenturyLink and Incompas voiced concerns about some proposals (see 1707130054), while the Communications Workers of America and Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission were supportive. Saying burdens outweighed benefits, ATIS opposed an FCC proposal to make an optional preferred interexchange carrier (PIC) freeze "the default so that consumers are automatically afforded this protection against slamming" without having to opt in. CenturyLink called slamming proposals "unwarranted" and "disproportionate," urging the FCC to focus on "targeted regulation only when" the benefits clearly outweigh costs, though it agreed with many cramming proposals. Saying competition could be harmed and choice limited for all-distance services, Incompas asked the FCC to reject the default PIC freeze and a proposal to require executing carriers to "double check" with customers to verify they wanted to change providers. CWA backed "strong protections against slamming and cramming that apply to all voice providers, whether traditional landline, interconnected VoIP, or wireless," and criticized telecom carriers' "unrealistic sales quotas" as "inconsistent" with anti-cramming efforts. PPUC said "regulatory experience," including of the FTC, "would seem to bely" industry arguments against new rules, "especially with respect to cramming." It said a "cramming prohibition should be codified and extended to all providers of voice communications, regardless of technology," and suggested slamming rules should also extend to all voice providers. Billing Services Group North America, CTIA and consumer groups filed replies after also filing initial comments (see 1709140023). BSG opposed proposals "to eliminate or require certification" of third-party verifications, to impose a default PIC freeze, and to block third-party billing. CTIA said the record showed that in mobile wireless "slamming does not exist and cramming has all but disappeared." Consumers Union and six other consumer groups said "enhanced cramming and slamming protections should apply to all voice customers."

The National Hispanic Media Coalition pressed the FCC to put consumer complaint materials into the open internet docket and seek comment. Though the commission released many documents in response to an NHMC Freedom of Information Act request for complaint materials, "a significant number of carrier responses, consumer rebuttals, emails, and email attachments were omitted from those productions," said the group in a filing posted in docket 17-108 Monday on a meeting with Wireline Bureau and Office of General Counsel officials including Bureau Chief Kris Monteith. NHMC representatives including ex-Commissioner Gloria Tristani made similar but shorter filings (here, here, here) on meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. NHMC said the FCC also apparently hasn't produced any consumer-commission interactions through an ombudsman email address since the prior ombudsman stepped down. "These omissions, which represent a clear failure by the Commission under its FOIA obligations, also make it impossible to conclude how the underlying complaints were ultimately resolved," said the group, which cited arguments for opening a new comment cycle. NCTA and USTelecom opposed (see 1709290049) a motion by NHMC and others (see 1709200033).

New Hampshire moved closer to opting out of FirstNet and rejecting the AT&T state plan, Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said Monday. Sununu signed an executive order establishing an opt-out review committee to mull regulatory and financial risks in pursuing opt-out. The New Hampshire Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee voted 15-0 to recommend opting out, Sununu said. It “determined from a technical standpoint that an opt-out of FirstNet is far and away our best option,” he said. The review committee “will seek clarification of certain proposed fees, as well as clarification of penalties that may be imposed by FirstNet if an opt-out were to fail,” the governor said. “These fees and penalties appear to be arbitrary and primarily designed to deter states from opting out of FirstNet plans.” Sununu urged key federal officials to assist the state “as we examine the numbers released by FirstNet and to ensure that states are being afforded their right to make their decisions with correct information.” New Hampshire earlier asked Rivada to provide an alternative plan (see 1609070063). A FirstNet spokeswoman said the AT&T plan is best for New Hampshire. "We look forward to continuing our consultation with the state and its public safety community throughout the decision-making process."

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly became perhaps the first Republican FCC member to speak against politics in licensing since President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday about opposing NBC's "license" (see 1710120028). O'Rielly is "pretty consistent on licensing and would not want politics to influence our decision-making,” he told a conference Friday, according to an aide who was present and TR Daily. “I believe in the independence of the agency.” Trump "is rightfully venting his experiences and disappointment with how the coverage has been occurring regarding his administration. I’ve been surprised how vitriolic" such reports have been, O'Rielly reportedly said. "President [Bill] Clinton got better coverage during the middle of impeachment than President Trump is getting these days.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel continued to oppose such Trump tweets (see 1710120019). "It's essential that the FCC in all that it does is careful to abide by the First Amendment when it engages in any policies involving broadcast licenses," she said in a CNN interview Sunday. "History won’t be kind to silence, and I think it’s important for all the commissioners to make clear that they support the First Amendment and that the agency will not revoke a broadcast license simply because the president is dissatisfied with the licensee’s coverage." Commissioner Mignon Clyburn expressed similar hopes about her FCC colleagues on such broadcast licensing (see 1710110075). “Revoking a broadcast license solely on [such] grounds would be inconsistent with the First Amendment," a Clyburn spokesman emailed Monday. "The Commission generally does not intervene in such cases because it would amount to replacing the journalistic judgment of a licensee with our own. The Commissioner is hopeful that her colleagues in the Majority share this view.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Monday to “condemn [Trump’s] attack and reassure our nation and our journalists that you will stand up for them and protect and defend their fundamental freedoms.” Trump’s comments “were alarming in both his disregard of the FCC’s independence and flagrant disrespect for freedom of the press,” Blumenthal said in a letter to Pai. “I ask for your unwavering commitment that you will ensure the First Amendment remains a cornerstone of our democracy and that you will not follow through on this direction from” Trump. Blumenthal similarly asked all five FCC commissioners in a series of tweets Monday to “stand up for our free press and reject” President Donald Trump’s “unacceptable, un-American threats.” The offices of Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr didn’t comment Monday.