Verizon received nearly 130,000 U.S. law enforcement demands for customer data in the second half of 2016, it reported Friday. The figure is about 6,500 less than the first six months of 2016 and more than 10,000 less than the same period in 2015. Of the nearly 130,000 demands, more than 60,000 were subpoenas, more than 28,000 were orders, more than 10,000 were warrants and about 27,000 were emergency requests. General Counsel Craig Silliman said in a blog post that protecting its customers' privacy is a "bedrock commitment" and the company scrutinizes each law enforcement demand it gets. The company said it received 0-499 national security letters (NSLs) in the second half of 2016 from the FBI. The agency sought between 1,000-1,499 selectors or identifiers that typically refer to a phone number specifying a customer. The number of selectors is usually higher than the number of customer accounts, it said. Silliman said the company "received three NSLs over the past few years for which the non-disclosure requirements have been lifted."

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly cited blog posts criticizing the Public Safety Bureau's recent cybersecurity white paper, in a pair of tweets Thursday, saying the posts were “helpful” in highlighting issues with the commission's “authority & involvement in cybersecurity issues.” Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell and Shane Tews, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute's Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, separately criticized the white paper for exceeding its authority by proposing that the federal government needs to assert “appropriate” regulatory oversight over ISPs’ cybersecurity practices in the absence of clear market incentives to drive improvements (see 1701260020). Multiple industry lawyers said they believe the white paper is unlikely to influence FCC cybersecurity policies under new Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1701250077).

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn wants consumers frustrated with their phone, TV or broadband provider to tweet about their issues with the hashtag #consumersfirst, she said in a tweet Thursday. “Use #consumersfirst to share your story,” Clyburn said. “As an @FCC Cmmr [commissioner] I want to hear about it.” Putting consumers first means “robust #competition, #reliable service, no #surprisebilling, #innovation and an #openInternet for all,” she said in another tweet. Clyburn criticized the set-top box market as not being pro-consumer. “Consumers pay avg of $200+ per year to rent their #SetTopBox, grossing video providers more than $20b annually. Is this #consumersfirst?”

The FCC imposed conditions on a waiver it gave New York to use $170.4 million in Connect America Fund auction money for the state's own auction of rural broadband subsidies, but Commissioner Mike O'Rielly still partially dissented due to concerns (see 1701260047). The commission will maintain control over the CAF Phase II subsidy funds at all times, including by specifying where they can be awarded, limiting the amounts, and ensuring recipients comply with CAF oversight, said the order issued Thursday in docket 10-90. It conditioned the waiver on New York ensuring any state auction rule modifications are consistent with federal communications law, allow for the provision of CAF funds only to eligible entities, and don't conflict with other FCC requirements. The order said a core FCC objective is to ensure support doesn't go to areas where unsubsidized competitors already are providing qualifying broadband/voice services, and it ordered the Wireline Bureau to publish an updated list of such unserved census blocks in New York to determine which would be eligible for the CAF support. The FCC said it would condition its funding on New York committing to provide at least the same amount of support in subsidized areas, noting the state intends to make at least $200 million available. The commission also set reserve price restrictions on the federal distributions; and it waived CAF II auction broadband performance tier requirements but clarified that New York recipients of federal funding would face FCC public service obligations to ensure the rural services are reasonably comparable to urban services. In a statement, O'Rielly said he appreciated the FCC oversight and commended Chairman Ajit Pai "for his willingness to commit to pull the plug on this whole effort if it is not consistent with our universal service objectives." But O'Rielly said he was concerned the funding wouldn't be used efficiently, and said New York is a state that diverts 911 fees to unrelated purposes: "We should have received assurances that New York would cease this disgraceful practice." Without New York assurances of a "multi-round reverse auction or scarcity to drive down bids," he said the program could overpay for deployment in some areas. He voiced concern the waiver would also reduce competitive pressures in the FCC's nationwide CAF II auction.

The FCC should allow the Department of Homeland Security to be the lead agency on cybersecurity, said Shane Tews, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, in a Thursday blog post. The FCC Public Safety Bureau issued a white paper last week, before former Chairman Tom Wheeler's resignation, saying the commission can’t rely on organic market incentives alone to reduce cyber risk within the communications sector. The federal government needs to assert “appropriate” regulatory oversight over ISPs’ cybersecurity practices in the absence of clear market incentives to drive improvements, the white paper said (see 1701180082). Tews and others said they don't believe new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will consider making the paper's proposals commission policy (see 1701250077). Congress would do well to instead consider House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul's, R-Texas, planned DHS Reform and Improvement Act as the “best way for the government to facilitate information sharing in this way,” Tews said. McCaul said this month he planned to soon reintroduce the bill, which would reorganize DHS' National Protection and Programs Directorate as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency in a bid to elevate DHS' cybersecurity focus (see 1701050073). Pai has said other agencies have better legal standing and expertise to handle cybersecurity issues than the FCC, and the commission should only be a consulting agency, Tews said. “Establishing a systematic, reliable reporting process and a trusted repository for information-sharing across industries and the government would be a step in the right direction,” she said. “Now is the time to embrace the importance of the internet for our digital economy and to acknowledge the risks that come with the rewards.”

The FCC Consumer Advisory Committee plans to discuss the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard, incentive auction, consumer device security and spoofing and robocalling at its Friday meeting, said an agenda released Wednesday. Chairman Ajit Pai and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Deputy Chief Mark Stone will speak, it said. The meeting is 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room.

The FCC said it's speeding up the current phase of the forward incentive auction to four bidding rounds per day, with an eye on closing the auction. The change takes effect Monday. Increasing the number of bidding rounds is the usual practice for the agency as bidding activity slows. “We may make subsequent schedule changes based upon our monitoring of the bidding and assessment of the auction's progress,” the agency announced Thursday. The FCC also assured winning bidders it soon will have more information on the auction's assignment phase, with an announcement to come a few days after the forward auction ends. In the assignment phase, winning bidders of generic frequency blocks will bid on specific frequencies. “Within a few business days after the end of the clock phase, we expect to release a public notice announcing when bidding in the assignment phase will begin and providing information on assignment phase bidder education materials,” the FCC said. “The bidder education materials include an online tutorial and an assignment phase bidding system user guide.” It said a user guide “will allow bidders to begin familiarizing themselves with the functionality of the assignment phase bidding system, which is different from the one used for the clock phase.” The commission also plans a short preview period allowing bidders to log into the system “approximately a week after the bidder education materials become available online,” the FCC said. “After the preview period, we will provide bidders an opportunity to get familiar with bidding in the assignment phase by participating in a practice auction followed by a mock auction. Details about how the practice and mock auctions will be set up and when they will occur will be provided in the public notice we release after the clock phase concludes.” After 11 bidding rounds of Phase 4 of the auction, bidding stands at $18.54 billion. The FCC will hold two more bidding rounds Friday. Preston Padden, a consultant to station owners on the auction, said the notice makes clear the quiet period for the auction won’t be over anytime soon. “Today the FCC explained that the assignment round will last long after carrier bidding ends,” Padden emailed. “Broadcast bidding already has ended. It truly is crazy and unsupportable to continue the gag order on broadcasters.” Padden recently filed a comment backing an immediate end to the broadcaster quiet period (see 1701230046).

Daniel Berninger, who unsuccessfully challenged the FCC net neutrality order on First Amendment grounds (see 1610130014), said Chairman Ajit Pai is the right FCC leader to make a change. The founder of VCXC said the FCC should never have reclassified broadband as a common-carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act. “The 83-year history of Title II is riddled with powerful interests using its regulatory powers to slow down and kill the innovations of their competitors," said the VoIP expert in statement Tuesday. "Every day it is left in place hurts small businesses, blocks new consumer-friendly innovations and reduces the private investments necessary.”

Wireless interests are rallying behind, and satellite interests and allies opposing, the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) petition for changes in satellite earth station licensing rules, as was expected (see 1612270034), with a series of filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in RM-11778. Google Fiber said that since full-band, full-arc licensing results in inefficient use of the bands shared by fixed satellite service and fixed service, the FCC should start a rulemaking on the FWCC proposal and on broader rules changes to allow more use of the spectrum. It also brushed off Satellite Industry Association arguments, saying low rejection rates for FS coordination requests "may reflect nothing more than that those operators adjust their plans to avoid time-consuming and expensive coordination engagements." The National Spectrum Management Association said satellite operators should be licensed for as much spectrum as they need, but only the spectrum they actually need, letting other services access the rest. CBS, Disney, Scripps Network Interactive, 21st Century Fox, Time Warner and Viacom said in opposing the FWCC petition that they worried about negative effects on C-band satellite spectrum and its use in distributing to multichannel video programming distributors' headends and to over-the-top distributors. PBS said the FWCC proposal would mean, absent a waiver procedure, every earth station adjustment to a different transponder or satellite would require a license modification procedure that could take weeks or months. NAB said there's no evidence full-band, full-arc licensing is a problem, and plenty of evidence it has substantial public benefit. The association said the FWCC proposal is unrealistic because the waiver process "would be cumbersome and wholly ineffective to deal with situations that regularly occur with broadcasters' use of FSS earth stations and satellites." SES said the FWCC and its allies never acknowledge that the two extended Ku-band segments listed in the petition have FSS use limits aimed squarely at preserving FS spectrum access.

Chief Judge Merrick Garland was named to the panel reviewing NARUC's challenge to an FCC VoIP numbering order, which is set for oral argument Feb. 8 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Garland, whose 2016 nomination to the Supreme Court died after the presidential election victory of Republican Donald Trump, will be joined by Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Judith Rogers, said a brief order of the court in NARUC v. FCC, No. 15-1497. All three are Democratic appointees. NARUC argued the FCC couldn't give interconnected VoIP providers direct rights to phone numbering resources without classifying them as telecom carriers providing telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act (see 1604050013). The FCC and DOJ defended the commission's 2015 order as a "common-sense approach to telephone numbering" that eliminated needless telecom carrier middlemen, and they cited procedural and statutory arguments (see 1605200002). Intervenor Vonage also defended the order (see 1605260058).