Retired Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty and IHS Markit Vice Chairman Dan Yergin were among the executives who met with President Donald Trump and some Cabinet members Tuesday at the White House's Strategic and Policy Forum, the White House emailed us. It said the meetings were to discuss the strategic priorities for various Cabinet secretaries and their agencies. Also among those taking part were White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, it said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he sought a deal with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on an alternative framework for exempting small ISPs from open internet enhanced transparency requirements. Pai was responding to a letter from Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, who voiced disappointment the FCC didn't consult with the congressman before circulating a draft order to exempt ISPs with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from the duties (see 1702140060 and 1701270058). Pai said he previously sought a bipartisan compromise and modeled his small-provider exemption order on Loebsack's Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, in an April 3 letter posted Monday in docket No. 17-18. "After I received your letter, I reached out to my colleague yet again to determine whether an alternative compromise would be amenable to her," Pai wrote in reference to Clyburn. "Unfortunately, my compromise proposal was rejected. Nonetheless, our action will help the nation's small Internet service providers better serve their communities, like the ones you mentioned in your home state." The FCC approved the exemption order 2-1 Feb. 23 over the dissent of Clyburn, who said there was no analysis to support raising the small-provider exemption level from 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers.

Broadband infrastructure legislation should target unserved areas and rely on reverse auctions, with the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF) program a good example, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information and Technology and Innovation Foundation, who wrote a report released Monday. Such bills should use "multiple tools, including both tax incentives and targeted financial support," he summarized. "It is important for broadband infrastructure spending to focus first on areas that are legitimately unserved rather than propping up duplicative, smaller networks or increasing available speeds beyond what is reasonably needed." He said CAF "is the most well thought-out" existing federal broadband effort, and its "reverse-auction mechanism is a model for allocating funds." The loan programs of the Rural Utilities Service is a bad example, he wrote: "RUS has faced accountability challenges, and many of the networks benefiting from its guaranteed loans ultimately creep into low-cost areas that are already served competitively. It would be a mistake to expand on this program as part of an infrastructure bill."

The FCC and allies and NATOA are at odds over the significance of a federal appellate court overturning the agency's solicited fax rule and what it means for a challenge of the commission finding of effective competition in the U.S. cable market. FCC intervenor NCTA in a letter (in Pacer) Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the FCC in a letter (in Pacer) Thursday, said Congress expressly gave the agency authority to make effective competition determinations in franchise areas. The FCC said the fight over the agency terminating franchising authorities' certifications to regulate cable rates in areas where there's effective competition is "plainly distinguishable" from the D.C. Circuit's ruling last month that the agency's solicited fax rule is illegal (see 1703310018). The regulator said its December 2015 conclusion of effective competition in most franchise areas nationwide was consistent with the Communications Act's text and legislative history. In its letter (in Pacer) Wednesday to the D.C. Circuit, NATOA -- which along with NAB and Minnesota's Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission is challenging the effective competition finding (see 1508280033) -- said the D.C. Circuit junk faxing ruling "definitively rejected" FCC rationale that its solicited fax rule was lawful as long as Congress didn't prohibit it, and that since Congress didn't authorize "mass sua sponte terminations of franchising authority certifications," the court should set aside the FCC effective competition order. NCTA rejected NATOA assertions that the D.C. Circuit decision means the only way for the agency to terminate franchising authorities' certifications is after a petition, as laid out in Section 623(a)(5) of the Communications Act, saying that section of code is about seeking relief from a franchising authority that exercises its rate regulation in violation of FCC standards, and is silent about effective competition determinations.

The FCC is rechartering its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council for a new two-year term, though with apparently less focus on cybersecurity than the CSRIC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler. The last CSRIC met the final time in March (see 1703150058) and no top FCC official spoke. Early in his chairmanship, Ajit Pai rescinded two cybersecurity items issued under Wheeler -- a white paper on communications sector cybersecurity regulation and a notice of inquiry on cybersecurity for 5G devices (see 1702060059). Wheeler appointed David Simpson chief of the Public Safety Bureau in 2013 because of his cybersecurity expertise (see 1402190030), and Simpson spoke frequently at CSRIC meetings while he was at the FCC. “The issues to be considered may include, but are not limited to: (1) the reliability of communications systems and infrastructure; (2) 911, Enhanced 911 (E911), and Next Generation 911 (NG911); (3) emergency alerting; and (4) national security/emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications,” the FCC said in a public notice. Nominations for membership are due at the FCC no later than April 24, the PN said. The new CSRIC will start work early in the summer, the FCC said.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the FCC should release a list of counties that would be deemed competitive in the business data services market and subject to price deregulation under a draft order tentatively slated for an April 20 vote. "The FCC should release this list immediately," she said in a statement. "This is the only way the public can truly evaluate the practical effects of the FCC’s proposed actions. If for some reason, that is unknown to me at this time, we cannot release this list expeditiously, we should delay our vote on the proposed Order until the public can see it ‘well in advance’ of a FCC vote." Incompas CEO Chip Pickering on April 4 urged release of the list of the competitive counties and said the draft order's competitive market test would cause 92 percent all locations using BDS to "see an end to protections against monopoly or duopoly pricing." The FCC's proposed action "will have serious ramifications" for the $45 billion BDS market, Clyburn said. "An integral piece of this proposed Order is a test to determine which counties will be deemed competitive, and thus deregulated. Chairman Pai has been a champion of transparency. It is puzzling, then, why he will release the text of the item, but omit a key appendix listing which counties are deemed competitive, until the Order is released. We have the information. It will become public when the Order is released. So why is it that the FCC has taken the position that it will vote on an Order before the public gets to see exactly what the Order does? Just what are we trying to hide?" A Pai spokesman dismissed Clyburn's call. Her "entire statement is based on a false premise; there is no such ‘appendix’ to the item," he emailed. "Moreover, it has been explained to Commissioner Clyburn’s office that publicly releasing the internal work product she is discussing at this point, which is not part of the Order, would violate the Trade Secrets Act. Finally, it is odd that Commissioner Clyburn had no problem voting on meeting items for over four years when the text of those items had not been made public. But now, she is calling for delay because information that is not part of a meeting item has not been made public.”

Contrary to what many Americans believe, the FCC and Congress don’t wish to harm their internet privacy, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Friday blog post in National Review. “These untrue accusations have generated borderline hysteria, to the point where, as an FCC commissioner, I was grilled by two friends on the topic at a recent wedding,” O’Rielly wrote. “To counter this misinformation, it’s important to understand how data is currently used in the Internet economy, which federal agencies oversee Internet privacy, and the effect of legislation recently enacted by Congress.” The “simple truth” is that data is critical to the internet economy and that's true for more than ISPs, O’Rielly said. “The heart and soul of today’s Internet economy is the collection of data, mainly for use in targeted advertising,” he said. “From commercial companies to political campaigns, advertising dollars are increasingly being spent on the web, rather than on traditional media. Jeopardize this arrangement and a vast number of free Internet features and functions will evaporate in short order.” Congress and the FCC want to ensure ISPs and companies like Google face the same rules, he said. “The disparate treatment of broadband providers as compared with all other Internet companies is important, and it helps explain the recent legislative activity (but not the attendant uproar).”

The FCC’s current repacking plan and timeline will lead to service disruptions for broadcasters in the repacking and some that aren’t, said NAB President Gordon Smith in a meeting with Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. “NAB continues to urge the Commission to adopt a flexible, balanced approach to repacking that is fair to all stakeholders, while avoiding disruption to existing broadcast service.” The transition plan has been appealed by NAB with a petition for reconsideration (see 1703170055). The plan “may result in viewers losing service despite the best efforts of broadcasters, vendors and Commission staff” because “broadcasters are required to cease operation on their pre-auction channels after 39 months, without exception,” the group said. “NAB is also concerned that the transition plan does not take into account the potentially significant impact the repack will have on non-repacked broadcasters, including FM radio stations.”

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and more than 50 other House Republicans sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Friday urging the agency to protect the privacy of consumers. The letter directs Pai to “continue ensuring that ISPs fulfill their promises to consumers regarding their use of data until the FCC remedies the [Communications Act] Title II reclassification, which incorrectly removed ISP’s from the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission,” said a committee news release. White House Director-Legislative Affairs Marc Short predicted last week the FCC will “take a fresh look” at ISP privacy rules once it has a full contingent of five commissioners (see 1704050027), after President Donald Trump signed a Congressional Review Act resolution repealing the rules (see 1704040059). “Protecting consumer privacy while allowing for innovation has been critical to American innovation,” the letter said. “Maintaining an environment that permits innovation without sacrificing consumer privacy is critical to our nation's future prosperity and the creation of new consumer services.”

Verizon urged the FCC to equalize business data service treatment and give parties time to adjust to potential regulatory changes as the agency considers a draft order eyed for a vote April 20 (see 1704030050). In meetings last week with aides to all three commissioners, Verizon "stressed the importance of a level playing field and the same set of rules for all providers" of BDS, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 05-25. "We also emphasized the need for a suitable transition period to allow companies to adjust to the proposed detariffing actions and for preserving existing contracts." In a filing posted Friday, CenturyLink and Frontier Communications urged the FCC to reject the arguments of Sprint (here) and Windstream (here) opposing the ILECs' proposal for nondominant BDS regulation (see 1703230051 and 1703280050). Sprint and Windstream "largely retread established ground by complaining that demonstrated competition has not yet yielded the below-market prices that they would prefer to pay," said CenturyLink and Frontier. CCMI telecom consultant Andrew Regitsky called the draft order "one of the most deregulatory decisions ever," saying it "would largely detariff and eliminate pricing rules for most ILEC special access services." It's "a major victory for ILECs and cable companies and a major loss for ILEC competitors," he said in a blog post Friday. He expected "outraged" ILEC critics to seek a court stay, pending further judicial review, and believes "a stay is possible, even likely." Regitsky said critics can argue they "had no idea this type of deregulatory decision was coming from" last year's Further NPRM "and had no opportunity to oppose it," in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. They also can attack the FCC’s market test for DS1 and DS3 channel terminations, "which relies on possible rather than actual competition to classify a county as competitive," he wrote. "We have a draft Order that is truly industry transforming, but is likely to face many legal challenges."