DOJ agreed to clear CenturyLink's planned buy of Level 3 with conditions in a consent decree subject to court review, CenturyLink said Monday. "The consent decree requires the combined company to divest certain Level 3 metro network assets and certain dark fiber assets," said a company release. "The combined company is required to divest Level 3 metro network assets in three metro areas: Albuquerque, N.M.; Boise, Idaho; and Tucson, Ariz. ... The consent decree also provides that the combined company will divest 24 strands of dark fiber connecting 30 specified city-pairs across the country in the form of an Indefeasible Right of Use, a customary structure for such transactions. Because the fibers are not currently in commercial use, this divestiture will not affect any current customers or services." Separately, DOJ and other "Team Telecom" agencies said they wouldn't object to the transaction on national security, law enforcement and public safety grounds, provided that the FCC conditions approval on CenturyLink compliance with a letter of assurances (LOA). "After discussions with representatives of CenturyLink and Level 3 in connection with the [proposed transaction], the Agencies have concluded that the commitments set forth in the 2017 LOA will help ensure that those agencies with responsibility for enforcing the law, protecting the national security, and preserving public safety can proceed appropriately to satisfy those responsibilities," DOJ said in a letter in docket 16-403 Monday that said Justice had the concurrence of the Defense and Homeland Security departments (the LOA was attached). Among CenturyLink commitments: nominate an LOA security officer; establish points of contact for law enforcement; ensure its domestic communications infrastructure and operating personnel can comply with lawful electronic surveillance requests; take all reasonable steps to physically secure that infrastructure and prevent unauthorized access; report any information indicating "unauthorized third-party access to, or disruption or corruption of, a Covered Cable System" or "any material breach" of LOA commitments; and provide certain annual reports. The companies have said they expect the deal to close in mid-to-late October (see 1709120013). The FCC's nonbinding 180-day "shot clock" for review of the transaction remained paused on Day 170. DOJ didn't comment Monday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai or his representative on the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System subcommittee to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council will be exempt from ex parte rules for matters that occur as part of subcommittee business, said an FCC public notice Friday. Participation in the committee by Pai or Pai’s designee is required by statute, the PN said. “This treatment is appropriate since communications to the Chairman or the Chairman’s designee as Subcommittee members, like comments on a Notice of Inquiry, will not directly result in the promulgation of new rules.” Since the subcommittee may look at subjects that are also pending commission proceedings, the agency won’t rely on information gathered through the subcommittee unless it’s first placed into the record of the relevant FCC proceeding, the PN said.

FirstNet gave official notice of state plans to governors, triggering a 90-day shot clock ending Dec. 28 for governors to decide whether to accept AT&T radio-access-network plans, the authority said in a Friday news release. FirstNet delivered final state plans the previous week but couldn’t start the clock until NTIA provided funding level determinations (see 1709270056). Governors now have that funding information and an NTIA spokesman said Friday the agency likely would release it publicly that day or Monday. “As the governors look to make their decisions, we will continue to work closely with the states to ensure the network meets the needs of their first responders,” said FirstNet CEO Mike Poth. Also, FirstNet and NTIA plan Monday to publish an environmental impact statement for the south region of the national public safety broadband network, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. FirstNet has opt-ins from 24 states and territories; the other 32 are still considering. Earlier last week, FirstNet announced Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) opted in. Oregon and Washington state said they will jointly release a request for proposals for alternative RAN plans covering both states. The states plan to issue the RFP within two weeks and close the solicitation five weeks later, the Washington governor’s office said. The governors haven’t decided to opt out, it said. AT&T at FCC meetings discussed FirstNet (see 1709290054).

With recent hurricanes knocking out 911 in many areas, the FCC Public Safety Bureau gave more time to file annual 911 reliability certifications for covered 911 service providers, among other steps late last week to provide leeway amid hurricane damage. A Friday public notice in docket 13-75 extended the deadline to Oct. 30 from Oct. 15. “Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have caused significant damage in the areas within their respective paths, including storm surge, wind damage and flooding,” the bureau said. “They also appear to have damaged communications networks, resulting in service disruptions and outages throughout these areas.” The Media Bureau extended a deadline for placing quarterly reports and equal employment opportunity information in the public file to Nov. 13 for broadcasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said a PN Friday. The main public safety answering point in Puerto Rico was taken offline Wednesday, and the St.Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, call center is completely down, the FCC said in Friday’s Disaster Information Reporting System release. The Federal Emergency Management Agency “has reported significant damage to the building.” Large numbers of cable and wireline customers are still out of service in the affected areas, and few radio and TV stations are on-air, the report said.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she's pursuing her FCC reauthorization bill despite recent delays in work to revise a draft of the bill that circulated in July and was discussed at a House Communications oversight hearing (see 1707190051, 1707250059 and 1709220055). “Our proposed reauthorization bill includes relief from the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, a proposal that has had some bipartisan support in the past,” Blackburn said during a Media Institute event Wednesday evening. “We should at least be able to agree to this slight nod to reality as a first step in considering further reform.” Also at the event, Tegna CEO Dave Lougee said localism is an antidote to America’s increased tribalism, and broadcasters need regulatory changes to continue providing locally focused content. “Localism undermines division,” Lougee said. He's “optimistic” the FCC will loosen ownership restrictions to allow broadcasters to better compete with large companies in other media. “We have to move away from archaic rules and anachronistic market definitions,” Lougee said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating deaths Wednesday of three broadcast tower workers in Miami-Dade County, Florida, said Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue and OSHA spokesmen. OSHA doesn’t release preliminary information on investigations, but it confirmed the workers were employees of Texas-based tower company Tower King II. A Fire and Rescue spokesman told us the men were killed after equipment collapsed, causing them to fall hundreds of feet. In an interview last month, Tower King II CEO Kevin Barber told said his crew was preparing for a job in Florida connected with the post-incentive auction repacking, and his firm is one of a very limited number that could take on the most challenging tower work (see 1708160050). Tower King II, The National Association of Tower Erectors, NAB and tower owner Sunbeam Television didn’t comment. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly tweeted a link to TV news coverage of the incident Thursday morning. "May God please welcome them & bless their families. So sad," O'Rielly said.

Petitioners challenged an FCC business data service order from different directions in opening briefs to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made available Wednesday and Thursday. The order (see 1704200020) should be vacated because it "unreasonably deregulated" incumbent telco BDS rates, said Access Point, Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, Alpheus Communications, BT Americas, Incompas, Granite Telecommunications, New Horizon Communications, Sprint, Windstream and XChange Telecom in Citizens Telecommunications of Minnesota v. FCC, No. 17-2296. They said price-cap ILECs -- including AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon -- "built extensive networks as franchised monopolists, and dominate the [BDS] market because their local facilities reach virtually every business" in their regions. "It is often economically infeasible for BDS providers seeking to compete with the ILECs to deploy local facilities, so they must purchase them from incumbents," said the brief of the BDS competitors and business customers. "Similarly, carriers seeking to provide competitive voice services must buy incumbent facilities, particularly to serve businesses with multiple locations." But Citizens and CenturyLink asked the 8th Circuit to vacate a 2 percent "X-factor" the FCC applied to reduce ILEC legacy BDS rates in areas remaining under regulation to account for productivity gains. "The FCC chose a 2.0% X-factor that significantly overstated efficiencies in the provision of rate-regulated BDS offerings and ignored evidence of slower productivity growth among such services relative to others," said the ILECs' brief (in Pacer). "It also failed to account for evidence of declining utilization of these services, which has caused the per-unit cost of providing these services to remain steady or even increase. The resulting X-factor forces excessive annual rate reductions not supported by the record." Citizens and CenturyLink asked for 20 minutes of oral argument. The BDS competitors and business customers suggested the court divide 30 minutes of oral argument between themselves and the commission, but not give time to Citizens and CenturyLink, which "advance the frivolous contention that the FCC should have completely deregulated" BDS rates.

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee meets Oct. 16, starting at 9 a.m. at FCC headquarters, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. Among topics will be reports on “technical and practical challenges of supporting compatibility of real-time text with refreshable Braille displays and similar assistive technologies” and ways to “accelerate the integration of real time text by public safety answering points,” the notice said.

Commenters mostly backed possible FCC creation of a database for reassigned numbers to help curb unwanted robocalls. They also generally called for a "safe harbor" from Telephone Consumer Protection Act liability, in replies posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 17-59 to comments on a notice of inquiry (see 1708290033). "Initial comments demonstrate overwhelming support for the establishment of a robust database of reassigned numbers and reflect virtual unanimity for the creation of a safe harbor," said the Credit Union National Association: "CUNA urges the Commission to move forward quickly to the next stage of this proceeding by issuing" an NPRM. The agency "should move forward with establishing a comprehensive reassigned number database and an associated TCPA safe harbor as contemplated in the NOI," said Comcast. Others supported establishing the database with some sort of safe harbor. The National Consumer Law Center and other consumer groups asked the FCC to require parties using a safe harbor to meet a set of conditions. Numbering administrator Neustar opposed creating the database. "Commercially-available solutions like Neustar’s can accurately combine information from multiple datasets and deliver reliable information quickly and efficiently so that callers can avoid placing robocalls to phone numbers that have been reassigned," it said. CTIA urged caution, given complexities.

T-Mobile “has no issue with voluntary adoption of ATSC 3.0 technology," but is “concerned” about calls for an FCC mandate to “force inclusion of the technology” in smartphones, it told Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff in Tuesday meetings, said a filing Wednesday in commission docket 16-142. “Counter to the assertions of NAB” that it and its fellow 3.0 petitioners never called for tuner mandates (see 1709250053), “several parties, including NAB members, have argued for Commission action to mandate ATSC 3.0 reception in mobile devices,” said T-Mobile. Its PowerPoint presentation to FCC staff listed the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance of low-power TV interests as calling for a tuner mandate in smartphones when 3.0 broadcasts are available to 25 percent of the U.S. population and noted that NAB TV board members Sinclair and Gray have seats on the alliance board. Other 3.0 “mandate proponents” include Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia and Sinclair’s One Media subsidiary and Mark Aitken, Sinclair’s vice president-advanced technology, T-Mobile said. The carrier referenced One Media's May 9 comments in the FCC's 3.0 rulemaking in which it appeared to dip a toe in the water of backing future tuner mandates, though it actually stopped well short of asking the commission to impose them now (see 1705110053).The PowerPoint also referenced an Aitken quote from our Sept. 13 report (see 1709120020) in which he said that “our concern, be it demonstrated by T-Mobile and others, is that, in fact, the free market is not functioning the way that regulators believe it can or should.” That report also quoted Aitken as saying: “To be clear, we’ve not asked for a mandate. We believe in the free market. We hope that the free market can prevail.” The PowerPoint said T-Mobile was the "largest winner of 600 MHz band spectrum" in the incentive auction, and is "working to rapidly deploy competitive wireless services" in that band.