The FCC's current landlord is attempting to deprive the General Services Administration of its discretion to choose the commission's next headquarters, said developer Trammell Crow in a partially redacted filing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Current landlord Parcel 49C, an affiliate of Republic Properties, argued there was a conflict of interest (see 1609010075) in the GSA's selection of a new FCC HQ in the Trammell Crow owned-Sentinel Square, near North Capitol and L streets NE in Washington's NoMa district. CBRE, which GSA contracted to broker the FCC's search for a new home, owns Trammell Crow, the eventual winning bidder. CBRE also represented Parcel 49C. This wasn't a conflict because the information and employees involved were kept separate at the intertwined companies, Trammell Crow said. “Procurement information was properly contained within a firewall at CBRE,” said the filing. ”No procurement information had been shared between CBRE and Trammel Crow Company.” Parcel 49C's allegations amount to an “unsupported conspiracy theory,” Trammell Crow said. The real estate developer also took issue with Parcel 49C's arguments that the FCC's requests for its new building -- which include an 11-1/2-foot ceiling on the first floor and a backup power source -- are “unduly restrictive of competition.” Parcel 49C “would prefer the FCC remain in its antiquated building as is, in order to increase its profits,” Trammell Crow said. “Binding precedent, however, instructs that this Court will defer to an agency’s determination of its own needs.” Parcel 49C didn't comment Wednesday.

Sprint and Verizon pushed business data service regulatory proposals, but cable companies, telcos and unions objected to them, in filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-143. Commissioners may consider BDS action at their Oct. 27 meeting, the tentative agenda for which is due for release Oct. 6. Sprint said the BDS joint proposals of Incompas and Verizon were the "best path" to ensure "non-competitive market conditions" don't hurt business customers and incumbent rivals, including wireless carriers rolling out 5G mobile broadband networks that need more backhaul. AT&T is engaged in an "eleventh-hour effort" to block changes and preserve its "lucrative dominance," said a Sprint filing, which included an extensive overview of "the overwhelming evidence in support" of the Incompas/Verizon framework and separate "backstop remedies." Verizon disputed Comcast arguments the cable company was a BDS "private carrier" (not a “common carrier”) and should be subject to different rules. Verizon said it backed exempting post-2006 Ethernet providers from proposed benchmark regulation. But NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom said the record showed BDS was "intensely competitive" and provided "no basis" for Incompas/Verizon regulatory proposals. In a meeting with staffers, they urged the FCC to adopt NCTA's proposal to regulate only where companies have market power. CenturyLink said Incompas/Verizon proposals would cut rates in BDS offerings below 50 Mbps and extend them to Ethernet services in noncompetitive areas through benchmark regulation affecting most price-cap ILECs except Verizon, which would see "little, if any, impact." The agency can justify "no more than minimal" reductions to DS1 and DS3 rates based on "X-factor" productivity analysis, said CenturyLink, which said regulation undercut 5G. Frontier Communications and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers urged the FCC not to impose "draconian" ILEC rate cuts that would threaten union jobs in favor of competitors that blocked organized labor and provided lower pay and benefits. Dorsey Hager, executive secretary of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, asked the FCC to revise proposals that are based on "data that is out of date." Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell disagreed that Incompas/Verizon proposals were a compromise, given their increasingly common wireless-oriented interests. Verizon would reap the benefits of lower BDS rates out of region but wouldn't have to lower its own Ethernet rates, he said in a commentary.

NCTA's annual INTX trade show is no more, President Michael Powell said in a blog post Wednesday. "We are now exploring new and better ways to tell our story, to gather our community, to advance our growth and present our vision of the future," Powell said. "We believe large trade show floors, dotted with exhibit booths and stilted schedules have become an anachronism." INTX 2017 was to have been in Washington, D.C. That show won't be held, an NCTA spokesman told us. The move follows NCTA's rebranding earlier this month (see 1609190017).

A California nonprofit that advocates for cellphone radiation warnings alleged a conflict of interest by a federal judge overseeing a dispute between CTIA and the city of Berkeley, California. CTIA is challenging in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the city’s cellphone warning ordinance for RF emissions (see 1609130045). In a news release Tuesday, the California Brain Tumor Association urged Judge Michelle Friedland to recuse herself from the three-judge panel hearing the case. The nonprofit alleged Friedland’s husband, Daniel Kelly, works as an engineer at Tarana Wireless, which designs 5G wireless equipment and is funded by AT&T and T-Mobile USA parent Deutsche Telekom. The U.S. carriers are members of CTIA. Berkeley City Council Member Maxwell Anderson said: “It is appalling to learn that a judge in this case may have possible wireless industry conflicts of interest. It is especially important this be investigated given Judge Friedland’s husband is a key employee of a firm linked to several major players in the trillion dollar wireless sector.” The nonprofit’s head, Ellen Marks, said she hasn’t submitted the allegations to the court. CTIA declined to comment. The court didn’t comment.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., would have preferred some additional policy items discussed during the first presidential debate Monday between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, he told reporters Tuesday. “A lot of issues didn’t get covered last night that are pretty big issues,” Thune said. “Issues that have been talked about in the campaign -- immigration, of course, was one. I think there were some opportunities for Trump on the cyber issue that he didn’t probably follow through on enough. If they’re talking about the economy and national security and the courts and things like that, I think those are things the American people care a lot about. And I don’t think there was probably as fulsome a discussion as there could have been.” Trump agrees with Clinton that “we should be better than anybody else” on cybersecurity, he said Monday. “The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society.” Clinton, who has a detailed tech and telecom agenda, also touted her infrastructure plans, which she wants to kick-start at the beginning of her administration, and cited jobs in technology. Thune initially predicted Trump would come up with his own tech agenda by the time of the debates (see 1606290073).

The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do a nationwide emergency alert system (EAS) test Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. EDT, FEMA said in a reminder news release (see 1609130060). The test will be similar to more commonplace EAS tests -- “this is a national test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test” -- except the message will indicate the nationwide scope, FEMA said.

If the FCC moves forward with privacy rules for ISPs, it should align those rules with its customer proprietary network information rules, Verizon said in a letter. Verizon representatives reported on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staff. “We discussed the benefits of harmonizing the Commission’s CPNI rules for voice services with any new rules addressing broadband privacy,” said a filing on the meeting in docket 16-106. “Many customers purchase both services from Verizon and other carriers and a single set of rules will benefit consumers and providers through simplified notices and processes. … Harmonization also would provide the Commission with the opportunity to update its existing but outdated voice rules, including those related to authentication that may inhibit providers from taking advantage of new, more secure technologies." The FCC is considering privacy rules for ISPs, with a final order expected at October's commissioner meeting (see 1607070052).

Moderators of the presidential and vice presidential debates should ask the candidates what they would do to promote increased access to affordable high-speed broadband, several groups urged the moderators Monday. The groups said they want the moderators to pose this question: “Home broadband internet access has become an essential tool for education, employment, civic engagement, and even healthcare. Yet 34 million people still lack access to affordable high-speed internet. What will you do as president to help expand access to affordable high-speed internet for everyone in America?” The groups include Common Cause, the Communications Workers of America, Demand Progress, Engine and Public Knowledge. Voters must understand the candidates’ plans for low-cost broadband access, they said in a letter to the five moderators. "Both candidates have promised major investments in infrastructure development, and broadband internet should be a part of these plans,” they said. Lawmakers told us Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's broadband infrastructure plan has bipartisan potential but raises questions about the funding source (see 1609230040). Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hasn't mentioned broadband when discussing infrastructure investment. The three topics for Monday's debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, were to be: America's Direction; Achieving Prosperity; and Securing America. CTA President Gary Shapiro also detailed what he would like to see from the debate. "Unfortunately, some of her proposals, such as 'free' Wi-Fi, carry staggering price tags that go unmentioned in her tech agenda," Shapiro said of Clinton's plans in a Monday blog post. "Trump promises to push 'pause' on all new rules and review all previous rules  --  a tall order, though it certainly sounds attractive. Unfortunately, Trump remains as vague as ever, saying only that excessive regulation costs our country upwards of $2 trillion a year." Shapiro hopes for attention on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the sharing economy, the deficit and immigration, he said. The candidates should talk about how to overhaul agencies, including the FCC, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance said in a blog post. The FCC “continues to assert more power (even after being rebuked by the courts) on net neutrality, expansion of government broadband, and privacy,” the group said. “TPA wants to hear from both candidates how they would fix our agencies and how they would reduce the rules and regulations being promulgated at a rate that is costing the economy more than a trillion dollars in economic activity each year.”

The Rural Utilities Service “will aim to double its annual investment in telecom broadband loans in Indian Country -- to $50 million in FY17 -- and dedicate staff to providing tribes with technical assistance to help unlock existing resources,” the White House said in its fact sheet for Monday’s Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, saying the administration is "prioritizing tribal connectivity." The White House-proposed budget also “proposed significant investments in education information IT to enhance broadband and digital access for students at [Bureau of Indian Education]-funded schools,” the fact sheet said. It said the administration already has, “as part of ConnectED, an initiative designed to connect schools and libraries to the digital age, the [FCC] E-rate program provided broadband, Wi-Fi, and telecommunications funding to 245 tribal schools serving over 60,000 students and 31 tribal libraries last funding year." Starting Dec. 1, it said, "the enhanced Lifeline program subsidy, which is available to low-income people living on Tribal lands, can be used to help cover the cost of broadband service.”

Cable interests, AT&T and competitive fiber providers continued to lobby the FCC against potential business data service (BDS) regulation they say would be unjustified. Rate regulation of Cox Communications offerings "will significantly impact BDS investment decisions, particularly on competitive providers," said a Cox filing Monday in docket 16-143 on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "We urged the Commission to reject competitive market tests ('CMTs') based on overly granular areas such as census blocks or specific locations, and to reject CMTs that would require multiple competitors before finding a market competitive. We noted that such tests would lead to exceedingly broad price regulation that is not supported by the record." Cox said any new regulation should be limited to incumbent telco TDM-based services where they have substantial market power. The American Cable Association opposed any rate regulation of nonincumbent BDS providers, which merit "light touch" regulation, said ACA on a meeting with General Counsel Howard Symons, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero and another staffer. AT&T said a competitive market test should deem a census tract competitive if at least two providers have deployed fiber facilities within 2,000 feet. AT&T questioned the proposals of competitors, including Incompas/Verizon, that would count competitors only if they have actual customers or connections in the relevant area. It also made filings on: "endogeneity" problems it said plagued market power conclusions based on regression analysis conducted by FCC consultant Marc Rysman (here); a study disputing Sprint arguments (here); and various BDS issues discussed with Symons, DelNero, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler and other staffers (here). Lightower Fiber Networks and Lumos Networks argued against regulating competitive fiber provider rates, as did Uniti Fiber. Granite Telecommunications urged the FCC to "delink" a tech-transition wholesale platform service remedy from the BDS proceeding and retain the wholesale "regulatory backstop" until it completes an examination of the wholesale voice platform market. The Quilt, a nonprofit group representing research and education (R&E) networks, asked the FCC not to sweep R&E networks into the same BDS regulatory category as commercial providers.