Reply comments in the two FCC infrastructure dockets, wireless 17-79 and wireline 17-84, demonstrate that deep divisions remain between industry and local governments with no détente in sight. Replies were due Monday in both dockets: 17-79 and 17-84. “Removing barriers to wireless broadband infrastructure -- small cells in particular -- is essential to maintain U.S. leadership in advanced wireless broadband services and to realize the numerous benefits that 4G densification and 5G offer,” said Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless carrier. “Government action to speed deployment will unlock transformative economic and social benefits -- from smart cities and access to education and healthcare to gains in productivity, sustainability, and public safety,” said comments filed in both dockets. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association commented that the record "makes clear that the Commission has broad statutory authority to remove regulatory barriers to the deployment of fixed broadband networks, even if broadband Internet access service is restored to 'information service' classification" under Communications Act Title I. Google Fiber commented that there is "broad support" for a "one-time make-ready" pole-attachment process. But the U.S. Conference of Mayors' comments included joint resolutions calling on the FCC to: "preserve local zoning over cell towers and small cell sitings," "protect local police powers over rights-of-way and preservation of the right of a fair rental return on the use of public assets," expand the agency's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee to include more local government representatives, and "refrain from acting on infrastructure NPRMs until the new and expanded BDAC" issues recommendations. Industry is making it clear it has a clear agenda in both the wireless and wireline inquiries, said the cities of San Antonio, Texas; Eugene, Oregon; Bowie, Maryland; Huntsville, Alabama; and Knoxville, Tennessee. Industry wants the FCC to become “a national land use zoning board to oversee local land use authorities” as well as a “national right-of-way access and rate regulation oversight board,” the cities commented. NARUC told the FCC any rules should “be careful to respect the clear limits on its authority imposed by the plain text of the federal telecommunications law.”

T-Mobile will compensate low-power TV stations and translators that have to move multiple times after being displaced from spectrum purchased by T-Mobile in the TV incentive auction, the wireless carrier said in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 16-306 Monday. T-Mobile will “pay the reasonable costs” for stations that are displaced from its spectrum to move from a temporary channel to a permanent one, the letter said. “T-Mobile recognizes that some of these stations may need to move twice, and T-Mobile is willing to go beyond what is required and compensate these stations for the additional move,” the letter said. The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition said it “applauds” T-Mobile for “doing the right thing” considering the wireless carrier’s plans for rapid deployment, which will cause some LPTV stations to be displaced earlier than expected. T-Mobile expects to have “at least ten megahertz of 600 MHz spectrum clear and ready for deployment across an area covering more than one million square miles by the end of 2017,” the letter said. In the letter T-Mobile characterized the offer to pay for the relocations as a way to “further accelerate” broadband deployment using the spectrum it acquired in the incentive auction. “Only translator and LPTV licensees that must terminate existing operations due to T-Mobile’s 600 MHz band deployments that occur prior to the Special Displacement Window are eligible,” T-Mobile said. The program will exclude costs “necessary to resolve mutual exclusivity among licensees as well as other ancillary or consequential expenses that might be associated with relocation,” the filing said. The reimbursements also may not be available if the repacking timeline is “significantly altered or delayed,” T-Mobile said. T-Mobile previously offered up funds to help public television low-power facilities relocate (see 1706290066). NAB is "gratified" by the T-Mobile announcement, an NAB spokesman emailed. The reimbursement plan "recognizes the important role that low power TV stations play in providing quality entertainment and lifeline news and information to millions of TV viewers,” the spokesman said.

The FCC issued rural call completion and slamming-cramming rulemaking notices Friday that were unanimously adopted Thursday (see 1707130054). The rural call completion Further NPRM proposes to require covered providers of long-distance service to meet performance monitoring and accountability requirements, including as they hand off calls to intermediate carriers. It proposed to either change or eliminate 2015 data-collection and reporting rules. The slamming and cramming NPRM proposes to bolster consumer protections against carriers making unauthorized changes to their preferred telecom providers or inserting unauthorized charges onto their phone bills.

Corrections: A filing window for displaced low-power TV stations will be for all eligible LPTV stations, not just those displaced early (see 1707130060) ... The area an FCC draft public notice proposes to use as the minimum geographic area for bidding in a Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of broadband subsidies is census block groups (see 1707130059) ... The proposal to maintain CPB in FY 2018 at $445 million from the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee is considered programmatic and comes via an advance funding allocation for FY 2020 (see 1707130051).

FCC staff kept a Monday reply comment deadline for wireless and wireline infrastructure rulemakings. A Wireless and Wireline bureau order in Friday's Daily Digest denied the request of the National League of Cities and other local groups for a one-month reply extension in dockets 17-84 and 17-79 (see 1707070047). The groups cited the volume and complexity of initial comments and other reasons (see 1706160015 and 1706160041). Noting many commission rulemaking notices "raise complex issues involving a broad array of rules and attract large number of initial comments," the bureaus said to grant an extension on those grounds, absent other significant factors, would thwart the agency objective of conducting orderly proceedings and promptly resolving disputes.

The FCC and ILECs opposed a bid for a court stay of a business data service order that critics said unjustifiably deregulated monopoly ILEC services and will cause irreparable harm to BDS competitors and business consumers (see 1707050032). BT Americas, Incompas, Windstream and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee "argue the Order 'removes price regulation,' 'abandon[s] rate regulation,' and 'almost totally deregulate[s] rates,' leaving them 'without remedy if BDS rates rise,'" said an FCC filing (in Pacer) Thursday opposing the parties' request for a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. "Those contentions are false. The Order only eliminates one form of regulation -- setting prices in advance through price cap tariffs. It leaves in place a robust regulatory regime that protects petitioners from unjust, unreasonable, or unlawfully discriminatory rates and terms." The decision to streamline BDS price regulation was based on a substantial record and reasonable analysis, said the FCC, which attached a July 10 Wireline Bureau denial of a request for an agency stay of the order (see 1707100028). AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom also opposed (in Pacer) the request for a court stay: The order "eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens and spurs investment by modifying outmoded rules governing certain [BDS] offered by incumbent telephone companies over legacy technologies." The stay movants have asked the 8th Circuit to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit, which the agency and some ILECs also opposed.

The radio industry needs to be “front and center” in connected cars, regardless of how consumers “get their information from the dashboard,” Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan said on a Thursday earnings call, speaking of NextRadio’s FM smartphone app. “If they turn on their car and they see an embedded AM and FM radio with HD, that’s great,” he said. “If they turn on their car and they see what looks like an Android screen or an Apple screen, we’ve gotta be there.” Many Americans “are choosing to connect to their cars through their smartphones,” said Smulyan. “If you’ve got an Apple phone or you’ve got an Android phone and you plug them into your car, [NextRadio] seamlessly works in the dashboard and gives you a full interactive experience.” The radio broadcasting company in the next few weeks will launch “streaming-compatible versions” for Android and iOS devices, said Smulyan. NextRadio requires activation of the FM-reception chip embedded in virtually all smartphones. Activation is prevalent on many models of Android smartphones, not iPhones (see 1701060004). With international developments including FM chips in smartphones, the CEO said “we’re certainly still in the early stages of a very long process to make this a key component of the radio-listening experience." NextRadio FM-chip-activation agreements are in place with all major U.S. carriers, Smulyan said. “We’re now starting on manufacturer agreements.” Alcatel and BLU (Bold Like Us) “have been the first two,” he said.

Public Knowledge is asking the FCC to investigate the exposure of millions of Verizon customer records in a cloud server, discovered last month by a security researcher. PK Policy Fellow Yosef Getachew said Verizon failed to protect its customers' privacy, and also to notify them of the exposure. "The FCC is well within its authority to investigate Verizon’s data security breach and take appropriate enforcement action," he said. Neither the FCC nor a Verizon spokesman Thursday commented on PK's request for a probe. The Verizon spokesman said the investigation is ongoing and the company is working with the vendor "to make sure this never happens again." In a Wednesday news release, the telco said records of 6 million unique customers -- not 14 million as cybersecurity firm UpGuard initially blogged -- were exposed. "The overwhelming majority of information ... had no external value" and no Social Security numbers or Verizon voice recordings were exposed, said Verizon. There was "no loss or theft" of customer data, it added. UpGuard blogged Wednesday that its researcher Chris Vickery discovered the breach June 8 of the cloud server owned by Israel-based Nice Systems.

A draft order reshaping FCC Part 2 equipment authorization rules was approved by commissioners 3-0 Thursday, as expected (see 1707030014). They authorized labeling information to be provided to the consumer via a device’s electronic display. It's "an alternative to the requirement for etching or permanent labels on the exterior of devices, and manufacturers expect the use of electronic labeling rather than permanent physical labels to result in a measurable reduction in costs,” said a news release. Commissioners also eliminated a requirement that companies file with Customs and Border Protection FCC Form 740, the FCC’s unique import declaration form for RF devices. The FCC combined two separate self-approval procedures into one, “which will help reduce confusion as to which process applies to any given product,” the agency said. “The new combined process is called the Suppliers Declaration of Conformity and will allow device manufacturers to bring products to market in a more efficient manner while continuing to ensure compliance with the equipment authorization program.” Officials said the huge increase in wireless devices necessitated a rule change. Chairman Ajit Pai said the order was about modernization: “Our decades-old rules subject new technologies, like personal computers, to a more strenuous self-approval process than what is required for more established technologies. But PCs, of course, are no longer new and unfamiliar, and they have tried and true testing procedures, yet they are still subject to the stricter and costlier self-approval process.” Julius Knapp, Office of Engineering and Technology chief, said the commission’s authorization program is 50 years old: “It has been an instrument to ensure that radiofrequency devices comply with technical rules and share airwaves without causing harmful interference.” This is "significantly easing regulatory burdens, which will allow consumers to receive products in a more efficient and timely way,” said Julie Kearney, CTA vice president-regulatory affairs.

FCC commissioners diverged on how to assess open internet public comments, and outside parties continued to disagree on the significance of Wednesday's net neutrality Day of Action (DOA) (see 1707120017). Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will review all comments in the record and make a decision based on the law and other facts. The raw number of comments isn't as important as the substantive ones, he said at Thursday's news conference after the commission meeting. He declined to provide a timetable for action and said he didn't have any DOA conversations with participants. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said it would be "short-sighted" and "problematic" to ignore or discount individuals' comments. Docket 17-108 had 493,462 filings by late Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 7,382,933 (after 797,577 were posted Wednesday, and over 400,000 both Monday and Tuesday). Pai said the agency's electronic comment filing system seemed to be holding up despite the crush of comments. Demand Progress, a DOA organizer, called the protest against FCC-proposed rollback of Title II net neutrality regulation a "historic day" that "broke records." It said Thursday that DOA sparked at least 2 million comments to the FCC (some of them apparently not yet posted) and over 5 million emails and phone calls to Congress, with "tens of millions" of people seeing protest messages online. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office joined the DOA "to sound the alarm about the FCC's attack on net neutrality" and ask for people's support. But FreedomWorks said: "The response, largely from companies greatly benefiting from so-called net neutrality, was unimpressive. The fundamental problem with their message is that it is laughable. The average user's Internet experience today is no different than in 2014. ... Net neutrality is a solution without a problem." NCTA CEO Michael Powell said in a piece also distributed on Medium, which took part in DOA, "the duplicity of big tech’s call to action is revealed by asking are they willing to subject themselves to government regulation to ensure the internet is neutral rather than skewed in favor of their pocketbooks." The Phoenix Center said broadband and telecom capital spending "is down significantly in 2016." Incompas unveiled a poll saying Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump back current net neutrality protections by a 3 to 1 margin.