Comcast and Charter Communications joining the CBRS Alliance will help create interest among major handset vendors for supporting the 3.5 GHz band, with end-user device availability being one of the issues that will dictate when the band is used commercially for mobile, said CableLabs Vice President-Core Innovations Pete Smyth in a blog post Thursday. He said commercial rollout also will be dictated by the availability of spectrum access systems (SAS), environmental sensing capacity (ESC) and commercial grade network equipment. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are looking at LTE deployment in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, he said. With Samsung's upcoming Galaxy 8 supposedly supporting band 42 and Sony announcing support of band 42 in an upcoming handset, "all of this bodes well for 2018," CableLabs said. It said SASs and ESCs are expected to be operational by year's end, which points to full spectrum availability next year.

Higher education and library groups asked the FCC to adhere to net neutrality principles in reviewing its 2015 open internet and broadband reclassification, to protect free speech and promote educational achievement and economic growth. "The proposed principles call upon the FCC to ban blocking, degradation, and 'paid prioritization'; ensure that the same rules apply to fixed and mobile broadband providers; promote greater transparency of broadband services; and prevent providers from treating similar customers in significantly different ways," said a news release Thursday on a letter sent to Chairman Ajit Pai. The groups sent a similar letter to House and Senate commerce committee chairmen and ranking members (release and letters here). Endorsing the principles were: the American Association of Community Colleges, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, American Council on Education, American Library Association, Association of College & Research Libraries, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of Research Libraries, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, Educause, Modern Language Association and Sacramento Public Library.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn lauded an FCC broadband health mapping platform as "a monumental step" that's building knowledge and awareness about the importance of advanced health services. Calling it "simply unacceptable" that 34 million Americans lack access to 25 Mbps connectivity and others can't afford it, she said the initiative is helping identify areas with "critical need" for broadband health solutions. "It is designed to assist those committed to closing infrastructure gaps, to ensure that everyone has access to the technology necessary, and enable quick and top-rated health care assistance," she said, according to prepared remarks Thursday at a state telehealth summit in Columbia, South Carolina: The interactive tool "will enable those in both the public and private sectors to access and analyze statistics about broadband connectivity, as well as health and other indexes on a national, state, and county level." Clyburn said the tool overlays broadband data with key health information down to the county level. "Using this data, the FCC also has been able to identify, what we call the 100 'critical need' counties, meaning those communities with limited broadband access and very high health needs," she said, noting the initiative was launched by a Connect2Health task force in August (see 1608020017). She said requests for the USF Healthcare Connect Fund, which has an annual budget of $400 million, "reached a historic high of nearly $378 million" in funding year 2015, the most recent available.

The FCC TV incentive auction drew to a close Thursday, as expected (see 1703270062). A statement on the incentive auction dashboard said: “Bidding in the incentive auction concluded.” The FCC soon will provide information on winners, said Gary Epstein, chairman of the Incentive Auction Task Force. “Today’s conclusion of the assignment phase formally brings all bidding activity in this multi-phase auction to a close,” Epstein said in an emailed statement. “The incentive auction has required unprecedented commitment from bidders as well as Commission staff, who from the moment that broadcasters made their initial commitments to the final bids processed this afternoon have worked each day to assist bidders and ensure a fair and successful auction. We are excited to share the results of the reverse and forward auctions and extensive information about the post-auction transition in the next few weeks.” The agency reminded bidders they remain under a quiet period. Before the end of the day Friday, “a document specifying the formats of the reverse and forward auction results files that will be publicly available after release of the Incentive Auction Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice will be available under the Data section of both the Auction 1001 and the Auction 1002 websites,” the FCC said. “An online tutorial on the immediate post-auction process for the forward auction will be available under the Education section of the Auction 1002 website.” The auction started in May and was the longest by far in commission history. “Today is the closing of an historic effort,” former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler emailed. “Beginning with the National Broadband Plan and the subsequent enactment of broadcast incentive auction legislation by the Congress, the FCC set out to do something that had never been done before: manage a two-sided spectrum auction. But the challenge was more than the buy-sell of the actual auction, the auction itself was proceeded by multiple FCC decisions related to the other various users of the spectrum in question, as well as the need to establish the rules for the auction itself -- rules that had never been tested before.” Wheeler said Epstein and his team deserve the credit for making the auction work. NAB is "eager to work with the Commission to ensure a smooth repacking transition that protects consumer access to local news, weather, community service and lifeline emergency programming,” the group said. “We look forward to working on a bipartisan basis with policymakers on a seamless transition."

Creation of gigabit opportunity zones got tentative bipartisan support from some lawmakers, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said at American Cable Association event Thursday, adding he hopes to see such zones incorporated into any national infrastructure spending plan or as a stand-alone. He has pushed the idea for these zones -- featuring tax breaks to encourage private-sector gigabit broadband deployment -- for months (see 1609130061). Pai said that with infrastructure investment being a top national priority, the agency is particularly focused on looking at rules to see what can be eliminated or revised so as to encourage infrastructure-related investments. He said the agency is reviewing options for how to revisit Communications Act Title II classification of broadband. "We want every consumer … to have that open internet experience," Pai said. "But networks need incentive to invest and innovate." He said he had no idea of the status of the draft order on circulation removing the network overbuild condition on Charter Communications (see 1702240029). Pai said he hasn't talked with other commissioners about it, though he supports the revamping because the overbuild requirement "accentuates the digital divide." The cable industry crowd repeatedly applauded Pai, a marked contrast from the frost between the industry and previous Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1605200037). "We don't view you as an enemy," Pai said, because Washington “recognizes this is the challenge of our time -- building a digital infrastructure across this country" -- and cable ISPs need incentives to make those investments. The FCC now has more focus on cable industry economic freedom, Macquarie analyst Amy Yong wrote investors Thursday. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, speaking before the ACA this week, was clear that some previous FCC rulings could be reopened and amended, such as the Title II ban on paid prioritization by ISPs (see 1703290026), Macquarie said. With net neutrality rules likely to be rolled back, providers will have more options for favoring or prioritizing content, but removing such barriers benefits consumers by letting providers enhance their services, Macquarie said. Asked about future video regulation issues, Pai said the current independent programming NPRM has keyed up some of these issues and will "hopefully ... give us a better sense of what's going on in the marketplace." He said the commission is "trying to figure out the appropriate role for the FCC ... in this space."

The Competitive Carrier Association filed in opposition to NAB’s FCC petition for reconsideration of the post-incentive auction transition plan, CCA said in a news release Wednesday. “NAB has tried before -- and failed before both the FCC and the DC Circuit Appeals Court -- to delay new broadband investment in the 600 MHz band, and I strongly encourage the Commission to reject any attempt to push back” the congressionally based 39-month repacking time frame, said CCA President Steven Berry. The NAB petition is “nearly 1,000 days past the deadline” to challenge the 2014 auction order, CCA said. The transition plan was issued as a public notice in January (see 1701270064). The NAB petition “wrongfully claims that the FCC failed to perform a comprehensive analysis in determining repacking timelines and procedures,” CCA said, calling it ”nothing more than a regurgitation of its former baseless arguments.” The planned 39-month repacking time frame “will benefit consumers, the industry and the economy, and I strongly encourage the FCC to dismiss NAB’s petition to avoid any further delay,” Berry said. NAB didn’t comment.

Litigation and assigning legal blame when things go wrong with IoT devices, including autonomous vehicles and drones, are complex issues, with tort law not necessarily having caught up with technology, said experts at a Chamber of Commerce event webcast Wednesday. Litigation isn't a great way to improve security or to help the complex ecosystem figure out who should be doing what, said Wiley Rein's Megan Brown. "The decision-makers are not expert, far from it. And there's a lot, currently, of definitional uncertainty in what we're even talking about in the Internet of Things." She said the litigation system is "anathema" to collaboration and a speedy response and could have a "chilling effect" on companies and innovators to continue to improve security. She said fear of litigation could affect collaboration on a product within a company where communication isn't privileged or subject to confidentiality. States need to develop modern standards for evidentiary rules and approaches and the public needs to be better educated on basic cyber hygiene and products, she said. VMware Deputy General Counsel Laurie Hane said existing legal instruments are "blunt," not nuanced and don't account for IoT complexities. NSS Labs CEO Vikram Phatak said things will get worse before they get better because consumers will lose confidence in the products. He said he favors more transparency in the process, and in the future there may be fewer IoT players who may be held to a higher standard. Companies using drones worry about different legal issues. Vice President and Counsel Kevin Frederick said State Farm uses drones for things such as roof inspections and in catastrophes because they a safer and more efficient. He said drones are going to crash, hit things and potentially injure people, but he said his company's concern is the absence of or inconsistent law on privacy, nuisance and trespass. This is complicated due to federal and state laws on authority over drones and potential violations, he said. Roger Nober, executive vice president-law and corporate affairs, said his railway, BNSF, uses drones to inspect tracks and bridges. His company worries about missing something in the large amount of data collected that could cause an incident, he said.

Similar to how scientists embrace "pragmatic skepticism," antitrust enforcers should be wary of adopting "antitrust scholarship," said acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen at the Antitrust Writing Awards event Tuesday. Enforcers can be wrong about the future and should use regulatory humility, which is "about understanding and internalizing the limits of our own knowledge when we wield the considerable powers entrusted to us," she said in prepared remarks. Since being named acting chairman, she has given speeches about leading the commission to investigate and enforce real rather than merely theoretical harms (see 1702170026 and 1702020020). Ohlhausen said she's willing to hear new theories but also would want to get as much "probative, reliable information" as possible and would be "pretty hesitant to embrace novel theories that conflict with the answers that the well-established antitrust toolkit already provides." Acknowledging she might get criticized for being too cautious and not creative enough, she said there is a "free market for new ideas in this field. ... The process is not always neat and tidy, but eventually the best ideas emerge from the rough and tumble world of critical skepticism intact."

The Incentive Auction Task Force released a public notice Wednesday on receiving payments for winning bids in the incentive auction and repacking reimbursement for full-power and Class A TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors. Those entities will use forms 1875 and 1876 to give the FCC the information necessary to make the payments, the PN said. Those receiving payments will also need to update their information in the updated commission registration system, the PN said. “The Commission does not control the precise date on which the U.S. Treasury makes each reimbursement payment or when each reimbursement payment is received in the account identified by the Eligible Entity or becomes available to the account holder.”

Securus received special temporary authority from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to test technology contraband interdiction systems (CIS) equipment in Crawfordville, Florida. Last week, commissioners approved rules and a Further NPRM targeted to speeding deployment of CIS (see 1703230056). “Contraband cellphone use is among the highest public safety issues for the Florida Department of Corrections and Securus has been contracted to test and deploy Managed Access Systems (MAS) to combat this problem,” said an application by Securus approved by OET Tuesday. “This STA is necessary to support expedited testing of new antenna types and locations as well as new software to support LTE, GSM, UMTS and CDMA that incorporates more advanced support for white listing, improved stability and other urgently needed features. Test results are needed to support long term carrier spectrum leases, which will replace this STA upon system acceptance.”