The Lifeline Connects Coalition suggested changes to the draft national verifier plan floated by Universal Service Administrative Co. (see 1612010043) for replacing the current carrier-based approach. USAC's draft plan for a national verifier of low-income consumer eligibility for Lifeline's subsidized telecom/broadband services "proposes features that would inhibit, rather than encourage, more efficient and effective enrollment and recertification," said LCC in comments posted Tuesday in FCC docket 11-42. The coalition -- which consists of American Broadband & Telecommunications, Blue Jay Wireless, i-wireless and Telrite -- made recommendations in five areas: "First, the National Verifier must include real-time review of enrollments, including where manual review of proof of eligibility is necessary. Second, the National Verifier should involve service providers early and often in the recertification process. Third, the National Verifier’s Tribal residency verification should include collection of the Tribal residency certification at enrollment and a safe harbor for service providers, and USAC should cease wasteful and unnecessary auditing of service providers. ... Fourth, service providers should continue to be able to facilitate dispute resolutions for applicants in real-time at enrollment as they do today rather than requiring applicants to separately submit documentation by mail or web portal. Fifth, the National Verifier should permit service providers to correct their snapshot totals when they certify their subscriber lists to USAC, and should afford service providers flexibility to make corrections and revisions to their reimbursement requests, including upward adjustments in limited, appropriate circumstances." USAC, which the FCC assigned the job of creating the national verifier, expects to release a "final" plan in January, though it's to be updated during implementation over the next three years (see 1612070015).

Roslyn Layton credited India with recognizing the value of free data but cited problems with its "aggregator" approach. Reversing a previous ban on differential pricing for data services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) now acknowledges free data can help the poor, said a Tuesday blog post by Layton, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and Trump FCC landing team member (see 1611290022). The "TRAI rejected three proposed models for free data and presents a new model in which 'third party aggregators' create the market for free data," she wrote. "Let’s applaud TRAI for recognizing the value of free data. Aggregation is a novel approach, but it is neither costless nor neutral. Moreover, the ruling creates a new problem of regulatory discrimination restricting how telecom service providers can participate in the market." Layton suggested the better way to discover the best free-data approach "would be to conduct a randomized control trial without regulatory discrimination." Indian telecom carriers could still challenge the TRAI's decision in court, she said, but for now the aggregator-based policy sets up a "de facto randomized control trial" as other south Asian nations have implemented various free-data programs that have increased broadband adoption. "It’s hard to see why some 446 million people in rural parts of India could not benefit from such programs, in addition to at least 80 million urban poor in the country," she wrote.

The next FCC commissioners’ meeting was moved to Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 10:30 a.m.. The meeting had been scheduled for Jan. 26. The FCC didn’t comment on the reason for the change.

The Enforcement Bureau raised the dollar amount of forfeiture penalties to adjust for inflation, said an order issued Friday. The increase is required by a 2015 law and will affect penalties assessed after the effective date of the increase, including penalties stemming from violations that predated the increase, the order said. For the 2017 adjustment for each penalty, the FCC used a multiplier (1.01636) calculated by the Office of Management and Budget and then rounded the result up to the nearest dollar. The penalty for common carrier discrimination, for example, went from $11,362 to $11,548, the order said. The order's effective date will be the day it's published in the Federal Register, the order said

Informal Working Groups (IWG) 3 and 4 of the FCC’s 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee are scheduled to meet next month, the FCC said in a Thursday notice. IWG 3 Space Services is to meet by teleconference 1-3 p.m. Jan. 10 and IWG 4 Regulatory Issues also by teleconference from 10 a.m. to noon the same day. All times are EST.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler won’t be at CES next week, but all three commissioners expected to be at the agency Jan. 20 are planning to attend, aides to all three confirmed. Wheeler withdrew from going to Las Vegas for the chairman’s annual interview with CTA President Gary Shapiro, usually the regulatory highlight of every CES. Past chairmen have used the keynote appearance as an opportunity to make news. An FCC spokesman said Wheeler had another commitment. FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn and Mike O’Rielly are expected to appear with FTC commissioners on a 2017 preview panel Thursday. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez is scheduled to hold a one-on-one session with Shapiro.

President-elect Donald Trump touted Sprint’s Wednesday announcement that it would bring 5,000 jobs to the U.S., which a carrier spokesman confirmed to us was part of an earlier commitment from parent company SoftBank to bring 50,000 jobs to the U.S. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son met with Trump earlier this month and made that pledge then (see 1612060073). “Yesterday’s announcement was a demonstration of how we are creating the jobs and fulfilling the commitment,” a Sprint spokesman said. “I just got a call by the head people at Sprint, and they’re bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States, they’re taking them from other countries, they’re bringing them back to the United States,” Trump said Wednesday, not mentioning the earlier pledge. “And Masa and some other people were very much involved in that, so I want to thank them.” Trump was “intimately involved” with making the deal happen, incoming press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Thursday. “Sprint’s CEO called him yesterday. … Obviously we’ll continue to follow up on this and make sure it happens. But you’re going to see more and more of this. … I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.” A Sprint news release said it “will begin discussions immediately with its business partners, states and cities to determine the right locations in the U.S. to create these jobs” and it “expects to fulfill this commitment by the end of its fiscal year 2017 and will provide additional details when they are available.” The jobs “will support a variety of functions across the organization including its Customer Care and Sales teams,” Sprint said. The carrier issued a statement from CEO Marcelo Claure expressing excitement about working with Trump. The president-elect and Spicer also touted 3,000 jobs they said would be brought to the U.S. by OneWeb, a satellite firm SoftBank invested $1 billion in this month. SoftBank announced the jobs figure in its Dec. 19 release on that investment, saying it’s “expected to create nearly 3,000 new engineering, manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S. over the next four years.” There's speculation Sprint may try to merge with T-Mobile under the incoming administration (see 1612090053).

CTA President Gary Shapiro can’t sit back and placate critics of President-elect Donald Trump who “would have me spend the next four years just waiting for a new president,” he said in a Tuesday LinkedIn post in which he expressed hope that Trump's acumen as a business leader will be the "silver lining" of his presidency. To help the tech industry succeed, “we need the right public policies in place,” Shapiro said. “So I must identify opportunities to work with the incoming Trump administration to promote innovation, grow the economy, create high-wage jobs and collaborate on pro-tech policies.” Shapiro, after months of harshly criticizing Trump the candidate (see 1611090038), said he has been surprised “at the vitriol on social media” expressed about his public tweets and commentaries warming to “the positive actions a Trump presidency can produce,” he said. “America has voted, and I choose to be optimistic and see a positive path forward, especially regarding the economy.” Shapiro “genuinely” wants to work with the Trump administration “to foster our industry and build products and services that change our world for the better,” he said. Trump’s Dec.14 outreach to tech leaders in which the president-elect struck a conciliatory tone (see 1612140060) “underscores his commitment to working with our industry -- not against it,” Shapiro said.

Gigi Sohn, a top aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, has left the building. Sohn’s last day was Tuesday, an FCC spokesman confirmed. Sohn tweeted that starting Jan. 16 she will be a leadership in government fellow at the Open Society Foundations. “I want to thank my wonderful @FCC colleagues, from the security guards 2 the Commissioners 4 making me feel like one of the family.” Sohn tweeted Tuesday. Sohn was president of Public Knowledge before going to work for Wheeler three years ago.

The FCC is seeking comment on dozens of rules it adopted in 2001 through 2004 and on what kind of economic impact they have had or might have, it said in a public notice Wednesday. The agency said under the Regulatory Flexibility Act it will review in the next 12 months which rules might need to be amended or rescinded to minimize economic impact. Comments will be due 90 days after Wednesday's notice is published in the Federal Register, the agency said.