Thomas Pahl, an attorney with Arnall Golden Gregory who previously worked at the FTC, was appointed acting director of the agency's Consumer Protection Bureau, said acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen in a Wednesday news release. Pahl replaces the current director, Jessica Rich, who will resign Feb. 17 (see 1702070002). Ohlhausen said Pahl's career reflects a commitment to consumer protection through enforcement and advocacy. The release said he worked on consumer protection issues including credit reporting and debt collection at his law firm. Pahl began working for the FTC in 1990 in various roles, including at the bureau's Advertising Practices and Financial Practices divisions. He also advised former commissioners Mary Azcuenaga and Orson Swindle, the release said. Pahl worked on antitrust and consumer privacy matters while at the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who served from 2003 to 2005. Pahl is an adjunct professor at the George Mason University’s Scalia Law School and a Federalist Society member.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn offered a "personal story" on the inmate calling service oral argument she attended Monday (see 1702060028). "I am sitting in the courtroom without my cellphones," she blogged the next day. "Like many who find themselves disconnected from their mobile device(s) for any length of time, I feel extremely uncomfortable and detached from the rest of the world. But whatever my discomfort, it pales in comparison to the day-to-day economic and personal torture felt by millions who remain on the wrong side of the economic justice divide and struggle to stay in touch with incarcerated loved ones. Innocent or guilty, too often poor and disenfranchised, millions of mostly black and brown families suffer mightily. They suffer because we who are sworn to serve them have turned our backs on the nation's most vulnerable communities." Clyburn said she was struggling with her feelings about her former state colleagues "who are steadfast in defending their positions against the FCC when it comes to inmate calling primarily on jurisdictional grounds. For years, I have not only asked, but begged them not to sit idly by as the people they were sworn to defend suffer mightily from a clearly dysfunctional inmate calling services marketplace. Most of them have elected to do nothing, but are quick to stand boldly and shout loudly about just how far they think we have overstepped our regulatory bounds. 'Do your job,' I scream silently this morning. 'If you'd bothered to act, we would not even be here today!' And at the risk of further straining some long-standing relationships, I will retire for the evening still asking: 'why won't you just act?!'" She added, "As I sit in a sea of blue, gray and black suits, I notice something remarkable and striking: The people poised to defend their positions this morning as well as those in the courtroom (with the exception of one judge, two employees and me) do not look remotely similar to the majority of the millions whose lives hang in the balance today. Calm down, I say to myself. Calm down, Mignon, and pray that just this one time, the angels of justice will smile brightly on us this morning." NARUC didn't comment.

Any Trump administration push for infrastructure investment shouldn't leave out "our 'invisible infrastructure' -- the unseen airwaves that enable wireless connections," wrote former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, now Carlyle Group managing director-buyout team, Global Telecommunications, Media and Technology group, in a Bloomberg column Friday. Pointing to McKinsey Global Institute estimates of IoT creating $4 trillion in economic benefits by 2025, Genachowski said that requires "we pay attention to invisible infrastructure." Along with spectrum being a limited resource, he said, "a significant amount of spectrum is still allocated for the uses of the past, not the needs of the future." Genachowski said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has "the experience and capability to develop new policies to unleash spectrum; the challenge will be to resist distraction and make it a high priority." Genachowski's spectrum recommendations: the FCC increase efforts to free up 500 MHz of spectrum for broadband by 2020; the agency, White House and Congress set "a bold target for 2030" that includes high-band spectrum for 5G; and free up additional unlicensed spectrum. Genachowski also pushed for more spectrum sharing: Current "allocations are decades old and inefficient -- with twice as much reserved for certain satellite uses as is needed, for example." He said there should be a push to remove barriers to broadband deployment through Congress and the White House giving the FCC greater ability to pre-empt "unreasonable" state and local restrictions and expanding dig-once policies. The piece has "terrific insights," Pai tweeted.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology released an updated version of the TVStudy repacking software Monday, it said in a public notice. V 2.1 includes an updated mode for evaluating interference between TV stations, “new map output types and options, support for additional or updated underlying data sources, and several new analysis modes,” the PN said. “While Version 2.1 includes changes necessary to facilitate application processing, it is consistent with the version of TVStudy being used during the course of the incentive auction.” The Media Bureau will use TVStudy “in processing construction permit applications during the 39-month post-auction period the Commission established for reassigned stations to transition to their post-auction channel assignments,” the PN said.

NCTA and USTelecom asked the FCC for a broad stay of the effective date of the enhanced disclosure rules in the 2015 net neutrality and broadband reclassification order. The motions of CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, Wireless Internet Service Provider Association, NTCA and American Cable Association "present compelling procedural and substantive grounds for granting immediate relief from the enhanced transparency requirements in order to avoid irreparable harm," said an NCTA and USTelecom joint filing Monday in docket 14-28. "Importantly, however, the arguments set forth in those motions support granting relief across the industry from the enhanced transparency requirements, rather than staying the requirements only for the members of the associations that filed the motions. Thus, if the Commission decides to grant a stay of the enhanced transparency requirements, it should do so for all providers of broadband Internet access service ('BIAS') -- fixed and mobile, large and small." Meanwhile, in another proceeding, public-interest groups said a separate industry request for an FCC stay of broadband privacy rules was unjustified. "Staying the broadband privacy rules would harm consumers and other parties, and would therefore not serve the public interest," said an opposition filing from Consumer Action and 17 other groups in docket 16-106. "The rules ensure consumers have meaningful choice, greater transparency, and strong security protections for personal information collected by ISPs. Granting a stay would leave consumers unprotected unless and until new rules are established, during which time ISPs could use the troves of sensitive information they collect without giving their customers a choice about whether or how it can be used or disclosed. Reliance on ISPs’ voluntary privacy policies is ill-advised because there is no enforcement mechanism, nor sufficient market incentive for ISPs to honor their promises." If the FCC is inclined to grant a broadband privacy stay, the Voice on the Net Coalition asked it to exclude the commission's "adoption of section 64.2010 of the Commission’s rules, and its elimination of section 64.2009 of the Commission’s rules which are directed to providers of regulated voice services."

The FCC asked a court to hold off on reviewing the agency's new process for designating Lifeline broadband providers, which is being challenged by NARUC and various states (see 1701310007). "Holding these cases in abeyance will allow the newly constituted Commission an opportunity to determine how it plans to proceed with respect to these cases," the FCC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a filing Friday (in Pacer) in NARUC v. FCC, No. 16-1170. "The United States does not oppose this motion. We are also authorized to state that petitioners and their supporting intervenor do not oppose a limited term abeyance of 90 days." The commission also asked the D.C. Circuit to hold in abeyance its review of challenges to FCC business data service tariff investigation orders for similar reasons. "Undersigned counsel is authorized to represent that Petitioner AT&T and Intervenor CenturyLink consent to the motion, Respondent the United States does not oppose the motion, and Intervenors Level 3 Communications, Sprint Corporation, INCOMPAS, and the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee take no position on the motion," said an FCC filing (in Pacer) Friday in AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1145.

White House officials “encourage independent regulatory agencies to identify existing regulations that, if repealed or revised, would achieve cost savings that would fully offset the costs of new significant regulatory actions,” said an administration memorandum last week, noting that certain requirements of a recent executive order on limiting regulations apply “only to those agencies required to submit significant regulatory actions to OIRA [Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs] for review under EO [Executive Order] 12866.” The memo, issued by OIRA Acting Administrator Dominic Mancini, offered interim guidance on the order President Donald Trump signed at the beginning of last week, which would require the nixing of two regulations for every one issued, and doesn't affect the FCC directly (see 1701300064). The memo provided answers about how agencies could bundle regulations designed for removal and adoption and different technical details of how the order would apply.

Chairman Ajit Pai could "make the FCC a great place to work again," said American Enterprise Institute scholar Roslyn Layton, who was on the Trump transition team for the agency. She said the latest commission ranking in the Best Places to Work in Government reports on the quality of life of agency employees suggests there's room for improvement. "Overall the FCC is ranked 20 out of 27 for similar mid-sized agencies, with less than average scores for all indicators," she said in a blog post Friday. "FCC staff report increasing dissatisfaction with the agency’s leadership since 2013 when Chairman Wheeler took office." The FCC had an overall score of 55 in 2009 (below the midsize agency median of 62); it jumped to 68 in 2010 and peaked at 71.3 in 2013 (the median was 62.8); but it was down to 61.5 in 2016 (the median was 68.4). Pai "has an opportunity to reverse the dismal and declining scores for empowerment, fairness, supervision, innovation, and strategic management," Layton wrote. "The FCC’s worst score is for Employee Skill–Mission Match which measures the extent to which employees feel that their skills and talents are used effectively. With some 600 lawyers and only 50 or so economists, the FCC today is not equipped to conduct even basic economic regulation," she wrote, partially blaming "byzantine federal hiring rules which impose job posting requirements for technical staff but not attorneys."

A rural electric/telco coalition voiced qualms about possible FCC bidding rules for a Connect America Fund fixed broadband subsidy reverse auction after a draft order circulated and was put on the tentative agenda for the Feb. 23 commissioners' meeting (see 1702020051). The draft adopts "weights to compare bids among service performance and latency tiers," and considers petitions for reconsideration, the agenda said. "We are concerned that, if weighting is not done right in the circulated item, it could undermine the prospects for a competitive auction by discouraging bidders looking to deploy higher speeds and greater network capacity in rural America -- the kind of speeds that most urban Americans take for granted," the rural coalition emailed Friday. "But we believe the Commission’s intent is to design an auction that will give all providers a reasonable opportunity to bid and win, that will capture real customer value over the life of the assets that are being supported, and that will ensure appropriate accountability for delivering services as promised to consumers in the covered areas. We’re eager to talk further with the Commission about how best to achieve these shared goals.” The statement was released on behalf of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, Midwest Energy Cooperative, HomeWorks Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Alger Delta Cooperative Electric Association, Great Lakes Energy, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Utilities Technology Council and NTCA. Reacting to the coalition's previous proposal, a Hughes Networks Systems Thursday filing in docket 10-90 said: "Although the Fiber Proposal purports to be a 'good-faith effort to build consensus,' it is in fact an effort to advantage fiber-based providers in the auction. Moreover, it would skew the auction results in favor of very expensive fiber-based broadband solutions, resulting in service to fewer locations. Instead, the Commission should adopt a more competitively neutral option such as Hughes’s proposal." Jennifer Manner, senior vice president of Hughes parent EchoStar, said Friday: "We’re glad to the see the FCC is moving forward with its CAF order and hope they adopt a technology-neutral approach that includes satellite so that all Americans, no matter where they live, can benefit from the program and receive quality broadband services for the lowest burden on the ratepayers that support the universal service fund."

Emergency 911 apps for smartphones may not be safe, cautioned public safety, phone companies and others, in comments last week in FCC docket RM-11780 about a National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) request for a proceeding on how smartphone 911 apps may interface with 911 systems (see 1612190055). Mobile apps are “not ready to replace traditional voice calls and SMS messages to 9-1-1, APCO commented. Apps could one day enhance 911, but critical issues must first be addressed, it said. The National Emergency Number Association supported an FCC proceeding, agreeing the apps are an opportunity but also a challenge for public safety. The apps must be held to the same standards as other parts of 911 systems, NENA said. AT&T said mobile 911 apps hold promise, but it has seen that certain apps can interfere with the normal operations of 911 calling provided by mobile service providers. “Wireless carriers cannot be the gate keepers for these third-party emergency services apps over which the carrier has no control,” AT&T commented. But it said there’s no legal basis for the FCC to assert authority over 911 apps, and it would be better to develop industry standards. NTCA also raised concerns about FCC legal authority, saying the FTC may be better positioned to act. ACT|The App Association agreed the FTC is a more appropriate venue. It commented that FCC actions could stunt growth of the app industry: “Emergency communications are no exception to the app revolution, and the Commission should ensure that its policies enhance, rather than disrupt, the benefits that this innovative ecosystem can bring to 911 communications.”