FCC Chairman Ajit Pai kept a busy schedule during the last part of his Southwest road trip Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday, Pai was in Reno, tweeting he would be “exploring Western #Nevada infrastructure” at a roundtable with Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev. Wednesday, Pai met with Arizona broadcasters and Arizona State University professor Subbarao Kambhampati to discuss artificial intelligence. Also Wednesday, Pai went for a ride in Chandler, Arizona, in a (Alphabet/Google) Waymo self-driving car. “Impressive reactions to speed bumps, construction crews, & more!” Pai tweeted. Pai said he met with the Bureau of Land Management‘s team in Arizona on siting issues.

Oral argument in FTC's fight against AT&T Mobility at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled for Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. in San Francisco, the court said. The 9th Circuit agreed in May to an en banc review after the commission appealed a panel ruling that jettisoned its case against AT&T, alleged to have inadequately informed customers of its data-throttling program (see 1705090068). The ruling has larger implications regarding FTC authority to oversee ISP privacy (see 1608290032).

The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee next meets Sept. 18 and will consider a recommendation from its Robocalls Working Group on blocking of unwanted calls, the FCC said Wednesday. Also on the agenda is the usual round of staff briefings, a notice said. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the FCC commission meeting room.

Iridium is trying to fence off the 29.1-29.25 GHz band from CTIA's proposed high-band spectrum road map, saying terrestrial mobile services there wouldn't fit terrestrial 5G use. In a docket 14-177 filing posted Friday, Iridium said the FCC explicitly didn't rope in the 150 MHz as possible terrestrial mobile spectrum in the 2015 high-band spectrum NPRM, and CTIA in its road map (see 1707140055) doesn't give much reason for changing that, especially since the 29.1-29.25 GHz band is far smaller than the other contiguous blocks in which CTIA wants terrestrial mobile operations. Iridium also said its own co-primary status in the band means exclusive terrestrial use there, as CTIA wants, can't happen. Iridium said network operators and equipment makers agree that terrestrial 5G will need more than 150 MHz of contiguous spectrum, and the band can't be harmonized internationally since the ITU hasn't designated it for consideration as a 5G candidate band. With the band supporting a co-primary incumbent satellite network, the odds it could also support nationwide terrestrial 5G are "slim to non-existent," Iridium said. CTIA didn't comment.

NAB had a reality check for a coalition of tech companies that filed a letter at the FCC asking the agency to preserve three TV white spaces stations in every U.S. market for “innovative broadband technology.” The Monday letter, by Voices for Innovation, doesn’t mention Microsoft’s proposal to use the TV white spaces (TVWS) spectrum for rural broadband (see 1707110015). NAB tied the letter back to Microsoft in a statement Wednesday. “Using even the most wildly optimistic TVWS database numbers, TVWS advocates just need to connect 33,999,132 more devices to bring broadband Internet to 34 million Americans without access,” NAB said. “Despite sitting on the sidelines for years during the TVWS experiment, Microsoft now demands that the FCC oust television broadcasters and their viewers to pave the way for free spectrum for TVWS advocates. This would jeopardize local broadcast news, programming and lifeline emergency information for millions of Americans.”

The FCC should focus on consumer choices in defining advanced telecom capability under Section 706 of the Telecom Act, blogged Mark Jamison, American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar and former Trump transition team member. He noted that the FCC's recent notice of inquiry on whether ATC is being adequately deployed (see 1708110034) asked how to define the broadband-like capability. "Don't customers define broadband every day? Why not simply watch what they do?" he wrote Wednesday. Most of those commenting on the NOI "will be pundits, special interests, and companies with skin in the game," he wrote. "Their self-interests will influence their input. Maybe the FCC is asking the wrong people." He said the FCC should gather data on what customers are buying and correlate it with factors such as geography, demographics and local business economics to identify problems and changing patterns; it could then do a cost-benefit analysis to craft solutions through a reverse auction of USF subsidies. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn voiced concern Aug. 8 about the NOI's desire for comment "on whether the Commission should establish a speed benchmark based on the speed tier consumers are subscribing to" (see 1708080070).

The California Public Utilities Commission urged the FCC to keep net neutrality rules and their legal underpinnings through Communications Act Title II broadband classification. A "review of the comments has not identified any other legal basis for retaining nondiscriminatory rules," said a CPUC reply in docket 17-108. "The CPUC further agrees with commenters encouraging the FCC to act in a way that assures nothing prejudices States’ reserved authority under various provisions of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the 1996 Telecommunications Act." Reply comments continued to be posted this week in batches (the extended deadline is Aug. 30). Almost 1.5 million public comments were posted in the docket Tuesday, but only 569 more had been posted Wednesday by late afternoon. The cumulative total of comments is now 21.85 million.

Google parent Alphabet Access said the FCC should approve the Broadband Access Coalition’s (BAC) proposal for the 3.7 GHz band (see 1708100037). But satellite commenters continue to raise concerns. “A range of commenters demonstrate that these changes would improve broadband service across the country, especially in underserved areas and locations where purchasers lack a competitive provider,” Alphabet said in replies in RM-11791. “Because the 3700-4200 MHz band represents 500 megahertz of prime but underutilized mid-band spectrum, the Commission should take action to improve utilization.” Alphabet's comments are important because Google also supports a rival plan for the band by an Intel-led group (see 1708080050), a BAC proponent told us. The BAC plan isn't the answer and would interrupt satellite operations across the band, the Satellite Industry Association said. “Neither the BAC nor any other party has proposed a framework that would adequately protect existing and future satellite operations,” SIA said. “The BAC Petition’s approach would undercut, not advance, its stated goal of bridging the digital divide.” SIA member Intelsat also opposed the BAC proposal. Technology provider NetMoby endorsed the BAC proposal. The 3.7 GHz band is the largest “underutilized swatch of spectrum” below 6 GHz managed by the FCC, NetMoby said. The coalition's three lead members are Mimosa Networks, the Wireless ISP Association and New America’s Open Technology Institute. “Shared access to this high-quality spectrum can narrow the high-capacity broadband gap in rural and other low-density areas, while increasing competition in areas where consumers have only one choice for high-speed service,” Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America told us Wednesday. “As a fiber substitute, fixed wireless can fill the void between fiber, where it’s too expensive to trench, and mobile, which cannot yet provide enough capacity to be an adequate substitute for fixed broadband at home or work.” The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition is a member of BAC and supports the proposal, Executive Director John Windhausen said: “Rural areas are struggling to find sufficient broadband capacity, and this is especially true of community anchor institutions, who need much higher capacity than residential consumers. 5G technologies, while exciting, are largely an urban play and rural areas are likely to fall further behind unless there is more focus on rural broadband solutions.”

A court adopted a business data service case briefing schedule and format proposed by litigants last week. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday issued a brief order (in Pacer) granting the CenturyLink motion (in Pacer) Friday on behalf of all petitioners, respondents and intervenors in four challenges to the FCC's April BDS order in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296 and consolidated cases (see 1708170031). Under that motion, opening briefs of two sets of petitioners that believe the order was overly regulatory or overly deregulatory are due Sept. 26, with the brief of respondents FCC and DOJ due Nov. 10, briefs of different intervenors supporting different parts of the order due Nov. 17, and reply briefs of petitioners due Dec. 11 (final briefs incorporating an appendix are due Jan. 2).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and new FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr both were on the road Tuesday. Pai was at a tribal consultation at the Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tuesday afternoon. The event was closed to the public and the FCC didn’t have an immediate readout on what was said. Wireless carrier officials told us Tuesday that cutting the cost of siting small cells and other wireless facilities on tribal lands remains a challenging area for industry. “Look forward to going west to discuss closing the digital divide with Navajo Nation,” Pai tweeted early in the day. Carr was in North Carolina at the start of a trip focusing on job creation and other economic issues. Carr “will be learning more about the important role that tech and telecom policies can play in creating jobs, spurring investment, and growing the economy for the benefit of all Americans,” a spokesman said. “Great to be in the Tar Heel state today,” Carr tweeted. “Will tour a fiber manufacturing plant & visit a broadband deployment site.” Carr later tweeted: "Visited a Charter call center today in Charlotte. ... Great to hear about the new jobs being added here."