Consumer advocates and individuals urged the FCC to undo revocation of nine Lifeline broadband provider (LBP) designations and to move forward with other actions to help low-income consumers get access to high-speed services under the USF subsidy program. Free Press received more than 13,000 comments from people protesting FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's "attacks on Lifeline and supporting the expansion of the program to broadband," it said in a release. Pai has defended the Wireline Bureau's February LBP revocation decision (see 1702070062). Free Press joined reply comments of Voices for Internet Freedom members at the commission in docket 11-42, which were due Thursday. "Another 18,000 public comments were filed by Demand Progress, a digital rights group urging the FCC to support Lifeline and close the digital divide for those who need access most," Free Press said. Most initial comments contained similar pleas, but industry representatives didn't expect the FCC to reverse the bureau decision (see 1703170035).

A group of net neutrality supporters engaged in a silent protest “walk-out” from Thursday’s FCC commissioners' meeting during remarks by Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on contraband cellphones. The dozen or so protesters abruptly stood up from the audience as Clyburn spoke, all wearing white T-shirts that said “Protect Net Neutrality.” They then left the meeting room, escorted by security. The protesters were representatives from Free Press, Popular Resistance OpenMedia, Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press and Demand Progress, said a tweet from Free Press Campaign Director Candace Clement. In a video that Clement linked on Popular Resistance’s Facebook page, one of the protesters describes the walk-out as “an action to let the FCC know the movement is watching and a campaign is beginning to protect net neutrality.” The protesters didn’t interrupt Thursday’s meeting, which continued as they were escorted out. Also Thursday, the Senate OK'ed an override of FCC net neutrality privacy rules (see 1703230070).

Sprint urged the FCC to reject incumbent telco business data service proposals "and the dramatic price increases" they would spark, and instead adopt a BDS order "built on the consensus developed" after the commission issued an order and Further NPRM last May. Sprint submitted a detailed response at the FCC to the recent deregulatory BDS proposals of AT&T, CenturyLink and Frontier Communications (see 1703140046 and 1703210017). "There is no lawful basis for the Commission to accept these ILECs’ efforts to remove protections for the thousands of American businesses around the nation that buy dedicated broadband services," said the Sprint filing posted Thursday in docket 05-25. "At a minimum, if the Commission is considering a new proposal similar to the plans proposed by these ILECs, which would represent a fundamental course reversal, it must reveal its reasoning, conduct a new economic analysis that supports such a dramatic change, publish the details of its new proposal, and give the public an opportunity for notice and comment." Incompas emailed that it "agrees with Sprint that AT&T’s and CenturyLink/Frontier’s latest proposals for BDS will further rig the market for incumbents. The consequences of the proposals are undeniable. Small businesses, healthcare facilities, schools and libraries will end up paying more for BDS if they are adopted. In addition to raising prices and harming competition, investment in 5G infrastructure will be reduced. As the referee, the Commission must call the fouls when they see them." AT&T, CenturyLink and Frontier didn't comment.

T-Mobile representatives met with aides to all commissioners to argue the FCC is on the right track in its post-TV incentive auction transition plan. NAB essentially seeks a do-over on key aspects of the plan (see 1703170055), which may get some FCC support (see 1703220074). “The post-Incentive Auction Transition Plan allots sufficient time to accomplish the dual policy objectives of repurposing spectrum for wireless broadband use while ensuring continued vitality of the television broadcast industry,” T-Mobile said in a filing in docket 12-268. “As reflected in the record in the proceedings before the Commission and the Media Bureau, there are ample resources ready to be put into use, with more resources ready to come online as the market demand ramps up over the first 18-months of the transition.”

AT&T landline employees returned to work Thursday -- one day after walking off -- because the company committed to stop requiring “technicians to perform work assignments outside of their expertise and classification,” Communications Workers of America said in a news release. About 17,000 CWA workers in California and Nevada went on grievance strike and picketed call centers and offices over what they said is a recent AT&T practice of shifting the duties of the higher-paid systems technician to the lower-paid premises technician without appropriate compensation (see 1703220055). The carrier “engaged in discussion with the union to get these employees back to work as soon as possible,” a spokesman said. "We honor all of our agreements and the settlement reached clarified some work processes on assignments for a group of technicians." The telco and union still must come to terms on a new contract to replace the one that expired last April. “We went on strike to demonstrate to the country that we will not do more work for less pay, especially when it puts us in a position not to deliver the best possible service,” said Robert Longer, a Sacramento-based AT&T technician and CWA local official.

The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment on the next edition of its annual mobile competition report, the first under Chairman Ajit Pai. Throughout the Obama administration, the annual reports declined to say the industry is effectively competitive. The last report was released in September (see 1609230060). Under George W. Bush, the FCC concluded in a series of reports that the industry was competitive. The report is the 20th to Congress on wireless competition. "This Public Notice requests comment on the criteria or metrics that could be used to evaluate the state of mobile wireless competition," said a Thursday PN in docket 17-69. "Comment and information also is sought on industry data, competitive dynamics, and trending factors in the mobile wireless industry, including but not limited to, subscribership numbers, financial indicators (such as revenues or profitability), investment, pricing, and network coverage. In addition, the Commission actively endeavors to improve and refine the way it collects, analyzes, and reports on wireless industry information and data. The Bureau requests that commenters provide any other information that may inform the Commission’s analysis of the mobile wireless industry." Comments are due May 8, replies June 7.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he wouldn't “wade into” the argument over fake news (see 1703150063) because it's a “political debate." His remarks came during a news conference Thursday. News media “perform an important job,” Pai said, declining to respond to questions about whether he agreed with President Donald Trump that media outlets such as The New York Times and ABC News were fake news. “I’ve been very clear about the importance I place on First Amendment freedoms,” Pai said. “This is a political debate that is happening with political actors.”

Prometheus Radio Project sought FCC timing relief on a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on a broadcast radio decision in February that the group wants reconsidered. A Prometheus emergency petition for expedited special relief Wednesday asked that its FOIA request be dated as received on March 17 because it had followed "long established practice" in submitting it to an fcc.gov email address on that date, only to find out later that the commission had changed the procedure and required submissions through its website. The date of receipt triggers an FCC timeline for responding. Though staff said parties submitting FOIA requests to the old email address should have received a reply notifying them it was no longer operational, Prometheus said it didn't receive such notification. "Further research established that abandonment of the former procedure was buried on page six of a 35 page order issued just before last Christmas (see 1612150049) and that no press release or other public announcement was made of this significant alteration of procedure," said Prometheus, which called the absence of publicity "extremely unfortunate." The request seeks communications between or among FCC officials and Office of Management and Budget staff about rules and reporting requirements considered or adopted by the commission in its Feb. 23 order in docket 13-249 relaxing rules for AM stations using FM translators (see 1702230060). The records are "essential to the preparation of a petition for reconsideration due on April 10," it said. The FCC didn't comment Wednesday.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau said it rolled out v3.0 of its Network Outage Reporting System. “NORS Version 3.0 improvements will enhance the overall security and reliability of NORS and allow future evolutions to better support new analytic methods,” said a public notice. “The new version of NORS has four interfaces: (1) a web-based interface, (2) a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Application Programming Interface (API), (3) a Representational State Transfer (REST) API and (4) an Extensible Markup Language (XML) interface. The SOAP API, REST API and the XML interfaces are intended for use by companies that want to automatically file outage reports.” The bureau said it announced the new version Wednesday, but users were notified March 6. Under Part 4 rules, wireless and wireline carriers and cable, satellite and interconnected VoIP must report significant disruptions or outages to their systems.

General Motors executives warned of a threat to auto safety use of the 5.9 GHz band from opening the spectrum to Wi-Fi, in a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and senior aide Nick Degani, Friday while Pai was on his Midwest tour. “The purpose of the meeting was to update the Chairman on GM's latest efforts with the development, testing and deployment of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) for vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 13-49. DSRC technology has taken time to develop “because it is complex and proper testing was needed prior to deployment,” the automaker said. “GM understands the need for spectrum and if there is a way to share the 5.9 GHz band then GM is open to that concept but only under the condition that there is no harmful interference to the DSRC systems.”