Technology can mean more inclusion for people with disabilities, but only if that tech is designed to be accessible, said Karen Peltz-Strauss, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau deputy chief, at a National Consumers League event Wednesday, according to a written remarks posted online Friday. Too many websites remain inaccessible to people with vision loss, she said. But Peltz-Strauss said agency actions in recent years on high quality captioning, text-to-911 access, hearing aid compatibility and distribution of free communication devices to low-income people with disabilities "not only made the virtual world vastly more accessible [but] also created a greater awareness of the needs of this population." She also said the private sector is incorporating accessibility features into products more than ever.

The FCC shouldn’t hold back zero-rating services, which don’t count toward consumer wireless data limits, those on a Mobile Future panel said on a webinar Friday. Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council CEO Kim Keenan said intervention would be "chilling and devastating to consumer freedom and empowerment." Zero rating is important for connecting low-income and minority communities, she said. "There are a lot of people who are cost challenged and they can't just buy unlimited data.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at first praised zero rating, but has become more skeptical, she said. But the commission should wait and see what happens, intervening on a case-by-case basis if only there are bad actors, Keenan said. Panelists also supported sponsored data, where companies pay for a free-data service. It’s not a net neutrality problem, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. A smaller company could set a smaller budget for their sponsored data campaign, and it’s “not something that’s a huge capital expenditure to participate in,” he said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Bureau are watching closely efforts to evaluate the coexistence of LTE-unlicensed and Wi-Fi, OET Chief Julius Knapp said in a Friday blog post. Knapp said the FCC will start to move forward on certifying license assisted access (LAA) devices that have been submitted to the agency. “We are aware that equipment manufacturers have since developed devices based on this standard and we will proceed to grant equipment certification for LAA devices that meet the Commission’s rules,” he said. LAA is considered a close cousin to LTE-unlicensed. The Wi-Fi Alliance released its long-awaited test plan Wednesday (see 1609210069). “Throughout this process we have strongly encouraged industry to address and resolve sharing concerns while preserving the principle of permission-less access for unlicensed devices throughout the spectrum,” Knapp wrote. "We are pleased with the progress that has been made. OET and [the Wireless Bureau] will continue to closely monitor the roll-out of unlicensed LTE technology to ensure there is no detrimental impact on consumers." Consumers win "with the news that the FCC agreed with our position to authorize LTE services for unlicensed spectrum, which will help us meet users’ demands for mobile-first lifestyles,” CTIA said in an emailed statement. In a second blog post, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Friday that 5G was a major theme of his visit to Seattle and the Competitive Carriers Association conference. “In a separate visit to T-Mobile’s headquarters, I saw a demonstration of technology under development, including 5G technologies, and heard about the work they are pursuing to bring next-generation products to market,” Wheeler wrote. “It’s not just wireless carriers that have begun thinking about our 5G future. Boeing welcomed me to their facilities, where they are already using number of advanced fabrication technologies that rely on unlicensed spectrum, and they have begun exploring the possibilities of more robust 5G connectivity.”

Windstream cited "flaws" and Broadband Coalition "crocodile tears" in disputing CenturyLink arguments against business data service regulation, but CenturyLink said the critics were comparing "apples and oranges." Windstream said CenturyLink's opposition to Incompas/Verizon-proposed cuts in legacy BDS rates centered on claims that DS1 and DS3 service costs had increased. "This conclusion uses an inflated view of costs and completely ignores accompanying increases in revenues -- which are significantly outstripping costs (even as alleged by CenturyLink) and show that incumbent LEC BDS operations require greater commission oversight," said a Windstream filing Thursday in FCC docket 16-143. Windstream said CenturyLink data show that its "BDS revenue increases in recent years far exceed its supposed BDS cost increases," with net operating income per circuit rising by 47 percent over four years. “CenturyLink is crying a river of crocodile tears in hopes it can continue floating its boatload of BDS profits," said a release from the Broadband Coalition (comprised of EarthLink, Level 3 and Windstream). CenturyLink emailed in response: “Windstream and the Broadband Coalition are comparing apples and oranges by looking at all of our ILEC costs and revenues, but dividing them by special access circuits alone and ignoring all of our residential customers.” Replying to prior comments in the BDS docket, consultant Jonathan Baker made a detailed filing on behalf of Level 3 and Windstream, saying the presence of one nearby rival is insufficient to constrain the BDS prices of ILECs with market power. The Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee disputed it had made any accounting proposal similar to what AT&T alleged in a previous filing, but the group fleshed out its views on price cap rules. "If these requirements are what AT&T was attempting to target in its ex parte filing, then its hyperbolic mischaracterization of them merely confirms that Ad Hoc was correct to identify them as effective measures for incenting BDS providers to charge rates consistent with the Commission’s price caps rules," said an Ad Hoc letter. Former Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., now chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, wrote a commentary saying competition is the best way to promote BDS deployment and innovation. "Unjustified" FCC regulation that ignores economic realities would cause a BDS "investment depression," he wrote. Possible "benchmark" regulation would harm competitive fiber providers in their efforts to deploy new fiber networks, including for mobile backhaul, said a Uniti Fiber filing on meetings with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai backed a delay of the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition. Capitol Hill Republicans also are pushing for an IANA transition delay and are focusing on mandating it through proposed language in the short-term continuing resolution to fund the government when FY 2016 ends Sept. 30 (see 1609220067). The CR language would extend an existing rider in the Department of Commerce's FY 2016 budget that bars NTIA from using its funds during the fiscal year to execute the IANA transition (see 1609130050). The existing internet governance model “has been a tremendous success,” Pai said in a Wednesday statement. When NTIA announced in 2014 its intention to spin off its oversight of the IANA functions, ”I argued that the burden of proof was on those favoring this momentous change,” Pai said, and “getting it right is far more important than getting it done right now, and additional time to consider the merits of the transition would benefit all stakeholders.” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump earlier backed a transition delay (see 1609210070). Commissioner Michael O'Rielly backed a transition delay during a Tuesday International Bar Association conference. “All details of the transition must be worked out, fully considered and all questions answered before this transition goes any further,” O'Rielly said in prepared remarks.

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) approved a recommendation Thursday saying all information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders should stay informed about the needs of people with cognitive disabilities as communications technologies evolve. “Where appropriate, ICT stakeholders” should follow and participate in research, “learning about emerging standards and guidance from knowledgeable organizations,” the resolution said. ICT companies also should attend cognitive disability conferences and follow the discussions in online communities of people with disabilities and their caregivers, the resolution said. The FCC held a summit last October on communications difficulties faced by people with cognitive disabilities (see 1510280037). The DAC also got a report on potential problems with Apple’s new operating system, IOS 10.0.1, which offers text telephone (TTY) capabilities used by some with hearing disabilities. Toni Dunne, external affairs manager at Intrado, said 911 calls made using the service come through as “silent calls” at call centers. “IOS TTY does not send TTY tones to activate the TTY equipment at the 911 center,” she said. Christian Vogler, DAC member from Gallaudet University, confirmed the report. “Apple does know there are issues with the iOS; however, I don't know what their plan is at this time and I don’t know what your expectations are, but there are issues,” Vogler said. Apple didn’t comment. "With iOS 10 and a cellular connection on your iPhone, you can make TTY calls without any extra hardware," said an Apple support webpage. "You can also find transcripts of your previous TTY calls.”

Parties continued to offer a jumble of views on the FCC inquiry into whether advanced telecom capability (ATC) is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely way, as reply comments were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 16-245. CTIA said U.S. mobile broadband deployment was "the envy of the world, and by any reasonable metric" must be found to satisfy the mandate in Section 706 of the Telecom Act. The Wireless Infrastructure Association agreed, saying new mobile benchmarks aren't needed and the FCC should decline to require that both fixed and mobile service be available to reach a positive determination. But U.S. Cellular cited evidence in the record for a negative mobile broadband finding and requiring both mobile and fixed broadband availability in assessing ATC deployment. It also said "faulty data is compromising" FCC ability to make accurate mobile broadband evaluations, particularly in rural areas, and backed a new proceeding to fix the problem. T-Mobile said "constraints on critical input resources" continued to impede broadband availability, particularly spectrum for mobile broadband. The Wireless ISP Association said there is strong support for the FCC's proposal to keep its 25/3 Mbps fixed ATC standard. WISPA opposed a fiber group's proposal to use deployment of all-fiber networks, instead of data speed, as the standard, as well as Netflix's "self-serving proposal to introduce regulation of data caps and other usage-based pricing plans." Adtran voiced similar concerns about those proposals and a Deere proposal targeting broadband in agricultural areas. NTCA also backed the 25/3 Mbps fixed (and satellite broadband) standard, but is concerned about the "lingering inconsistency" with lower speed requirements for rural USF support. But the Utilities Technology Council said the fixed standard should be raised to at least 50/20 Mbps and take into account factors such as latency and jitter. The Power & Contractors Association also suggested the fixed standard be raised. ViaSat said the FCC should fully consider satellite broadband in making its ATC determination and opposed consideration of jitter. The Free State Foundation said any fair assessment of the facts would find broadband is being reasonably deployed to all Americans. Will Rinehart, technology director at the American Action Forum, said the FCC should focus on removing investment barriers and lower the speed threshold to an "economically supported competitive level of broadband service."

USTelecom cited "shortcomings" in the FCC's business data service collection of data and said "regressions using that data" don't support an inference of market power. "Imposing price regulation based on the flawed data runs the risk of discouraging investment, innovation and further entry, the costs of which could easily outweigh any modest price reductions that could be gained," the ILEC group said in a filing Wednesday in docket 16-143 on a discussion with Office of Strategic Planning Chief Paul de Sa and another OSP staffer. USTelecom also discussed the basis for its proposed test to deem a market competitive where two or more facilities-based competitors are present (see 1609120048). Communications Workers of America President Christopher Shelton noted CenturyLink recently announced plans to lay off up to 3,500 employees, reportedly in response to declining legacy revenue. "Surely, we don't want to see more of these headlines," said Shelton's letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "I know this is not a legacy you want for your tenure, but I fear we may see more of this if the Commission radically slashes" BDS rates. But Sprint urged the FCC not to delay implementation of new BDS rules as some parties have argued. A new order "should address mechanisms for expedited BDS challenge proceedings and the effect of changed BDS rules on existing and new BDS agreements," said a Sprint filing on discussions with de Sa, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero and a Wheeler aide.

The FCBA is restating a policy of keeping events on the record, except for when speakers request otherwise, President Robert Branson told us. He was responding to our Friday letter (see 1609160068) repeating our 2014 request that the association not make events off the record (see 1411280041). All FCBA committee co-chairs are getting a copy of the previous association policy, agreed to by the group's Executive Committee, on keeping events on the record when possible, Branson said Tuesday. Last week, FCC officials and others spoke off the record about political broadcasting rules at a Mass Media Committee brown bag lunch.

FCC involvement in writing “the substantive terms of any license” under the set-top box proposal would exceed its authority, NAB CEO Gordon Smith said in a call Friday with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The licensing plan would “fatally undermine the Commission’s stated goal of protecting content and respecting copyright and contracts,” NAB said. Public Knowledge disagreed, in a letter citing legal precedent for the FCC's proposed licensing body. The agency has the authority to “counter factors it believes may 'impede' competition, and as an expert agency, its decision-making is entitled to deference,” Public Knowledge said. “The case that some oversight is necessary to ensure that [multichannel video programming distributors]/device agreements do not undermine competition does not seem particularly difficult to make,” Public Knowledge said. “There is no support for claims that the FCC’s authority somehow does not apply to the apps-based proposal -- which is, after all, based on proposals put forward by the MVPD and programming industry themselves.” The FCC set-top plan also was endorsed in a letter from numerous rural advocacy organizations, including the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and Access Humboldt. “We urge you and your fellow Commissioners to stay strong and to side instead with consumers -- especially rural consumers -- who pay Big Cable and Big Content hundreds of dollars extra every year because of this monopoly they want to protect,” the rural groups said. The FCC should make clear in its final set-top order that “all components of the pay-TV ecosystem, including the pay-TV apps and the devices on which they are viewed, must be directly and unquestionably subject to the Commission’s accessibility rules,” said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and others in a meeting with aides to Chairmen Tom Wheeler Monday, said an ex parte filing. The apps and third-party devices will all be subject to the 21st Century Video Accessibility Act, the filing said. “Ensuring that all apps and devices are directly subject to the Commission’s accessibility rules, regardless of whether apps are preinstalled or downloaded later, is essential to ensuring certainty and consistency in application and enforcement of the rules.” The FCC didn't provide enough notice for a final set-top rule to apply to direct broadcast satellite, Dish Network and EchoStar said in a joint filing on meetings last week with aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai and Media Bureau staff. DBS providers would require a “gateway” device to comply with the proposed set-top rules, but the NPRM “did not seek comment on the issues related to such a device, much less propose actual rules to govern its design and operation,” the companies said. Rosenworcel is seen as a holdout on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's set-top box order (see 1609150045).