Industry and state officials disagreed whether the FCC's Further NPRM to impose additional requirements for those seeking direct numbering resources would further efforts to curb illegal robocalls, in replies posted Tuesday in docket 13-97 (see 2110180045). Require applicants for direct numbering access to disclose foreign ownership information and those with authorization to update the commission of any ownership changes within 30 days, said attorneys general from every state and the District of Columbia. The AGs backed requiring applicants to certify robocall mitigation compliance or Stir/Shaken implementation and rejecting or revoking authorization if the applicant or holder is found to originate or transmit illegal robocalls. These "reasonable proposals will help curb illegal robocallers’ ability to misuse our nation’s limited numbering resources and circumvent the protections of the Stir/Shaken call authentication framework," they said. Requiring VoIP providers to adhere to state requirements is "reasonable and helps to ensure a competitive market while imposing safeguards on limited numbering resources," said the Michigan Public Service Commission. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission backed the 30-day notice for growth requests, and said it's the "only real means for state commissions to have a true sense of the entire universe of entities obtaining finite numbering resources." Allow state commissions to "assist the FCC and the Numbering Administrator to effectively oversee the use of numbering resources," said NARUC. Close "any perceived loopholes" in access stimulation rules, said Verizon, such as amending commission rules to qualify VoIP providers as access stimulators if they engage in such behavior. Verizon backed similar changes to the definitions of "end user" and "end office" that AT&T sought. Focus on "directly addressing any gaps in its existing frameworks" and avoid "imposing unnecessary, confusing, and/or duplicative requirements," said USTelecom. Don't adopt "new one-off rules that would apply uniquely to subsets of providers," said NTCA. The proposals "will make the robocalling problem worse," said RingCentral, Telnyx and Vonage. They "are neither necessary nor technologically neutral," said NCTA, which Microsoft and Lumen echoed. The "single most effective step" the FCC can take is a "targeted acceleration of the Stir/Shaken implementation deadline for those providers most likely to originate illegal robocalls," NCTA said.

The FCC’s 3.45 GHz auction ended Tuesday after 151 rounds, closing at nearly $21.9 billion (see 2111160070), the third-highest spectrum auction haul in FCC history. Bidders won 4,041 of the 4,060 available generic blocks. Analysts disagreed about how much interest there will be in the second phase where winners now have the opportunity to bid for frequency-specific licenses. The bids reflect an average price of 72 cents/MHz/POP, tweeted LightShed’s Walter Piecyk. “Assignment phase won't likely add much more $ or take too long,” he said: “We could find out who won this stuff by January.” The end was “anticlimactic” since bids rose above $21 billion Oct. 28 “which means that 78 rounds have passed where the incremental dollars gained were relatively small (at least for spectrum auctions),” blogged Sasha Javid, BitPath chief operating officer. The assignment stage shouldn’t mean significant extra dollars “given the way the auction is structured (typically less than 1% in additional proceeds),” but “we may see a little more activity than usual,” he said: “The coordination requirements with the DoD have created some differences between the blocks that were not fully captured in the categories created by the FCC.” Which big bidder dropped out in round 10 remains a mystery, though it looks increasingly less like Dish Network, he said. It also took longer than any other clock auction, and it’s unclear why the FCC didn’t do more to speed up bidding, Javid said.

The FCC doesn’t have an adequate record to consider adopting a new regulatory fee category, said NCTA in a call Friday with the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 21-190 Monday. “Nor is adoption of a new fee category for unlicensed spectrum users or broadband service providers warranted,” NCTA said.

The Office of Personnel Management released an updated guide to telework for federal agencies, plus a memo to agency heads on expanding telework programs. The National Treasury Employees Union is seeking more-flexible telework policies for FCC employees while bargaining about returning to in-person work (see 2111020067). “As we look to the future, OPM is encouraging agencies to strategically leverage workplace flexibilities such as telework, remote work, and alternative/flexible work schedules,” said OPM’s 2021 guide to telework. “Agencies demonstrated that they have been able to continue to carry out their missions effectively. As a result, agencies now have an opportunity to revisit how they were operating prior to the pandemic,” said the Friday memo to agency heads from OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. The FCC didn't comment.

CTIA asked the White House to direct the FAA and the aviation industry to work with the wireless industry on deploying the C band for 5G, starting in January. CTIA President Meredith Baker sought intervention in a Thursday letter to Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council. Industry officials warned Wednesday of extended delays as the FAA probes potential interference to radio altimeters (see 2111100068). “Aviation safety is critically important,” Baker said: “It is also not at risk due to C-Band 5G operations because there is no credible engineering evidence or real-world interference incidents to warrant delay in 5G deployment. The sole basis for the aviation community’s advocacy is an aviation industry association report released late last year asserting interference risks to aviation altimeters, but a review of the test parameters shows significant flaws and inconsistencies and raises serious questions about the report’s veracity.” If results were accurate, “altimeters in the United States would be functioning improperly today, even in the absence of 5G deployments,” she said. The White House didn’t comment Friday. The FAA should leave 5G in the C band alone, Free State Foundation bloggers said. “The FCC has legal authority over commercial spectrum -- and the FAA does not,” they said: The FCC shouldn’t “allow the integrity of federal commercial spectrum policy to be undermined by executive agencies making last-minute unsubstantiated complaints.”

Amazon supports U.S. policy initiatives “that focus on diversifying and expanding the semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging supply chain through building out domestic resources,” it said in comments posted Tuesday in docket BIS-2021-0036. Comments were due Monday in the Bureau of Industry and Security’s request for information on the global chip crunch to help the secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security prepare a report for the White House by the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order on U.S. supply chains (see 2109230038). Any new policy initiatives on the chip shortage should also focus on “preserving relationships with trusted partners outside the United States, and investing in the growth of leading-edge technology capabilities,” said Amazon. “We are particularly concerned about the current lack of U.S.-based manufacturing capacity or capability to produce leading edge semiconductors at or below 7 nanometers, which creates a significant gap" in the U.S. semiconductor supply chain, said the company. The “geographical diversification” of supply chains and “uninterrupted access” to semiconductor technology is “vital” to American companies, “including Amazon and our customers,” it said.

Communications is seeing "unprecedented amount[s]" of investment, especially as large telcos shift their businesses away from media and back to connectivity, CoBank economist Jeff Johnston reported Wednesday. The citizens broadband radio spectrum auction, by offering particularly small spectrum blocks, opened the door for small rural cities, homeowners' associations, universities and others to build carrier-grade wireless networks rather than rely on national wireless carriers, he said. That should drive big wireless investment, with the North American market topping $2 billion over the next seven years, he said. Bidding activity for broadband network overbuilders could heat up, if Atlantic Broadband's acquisition of WideOpenWest's Ohio assets is a portent of things to come, he said. Telcos' increased investments in fiber could be a competitive challenge for cable, as telcos' copper DSL markets traditionally were easy pickings, he said. "Now that the telcos have woken up and realized the media business isn’t for them, fiber is 'the new black.'"

The U.S. tech supply chain is “more constrained” than previously thought, but consumer demand for tech goods “remains robust,” reported S&P Global Ratings Monday. It’s forecasting supply constraints “will ease only slightly” in 2022, “as capacity additions are not likely to make a significant difference” until late in the year. “Semiconductor production is becoming structurally more capital intensive because manufacturing at the leading edge nodes is more complex,” said S&P. “Industry and governments have a greater desire for regional diversity to mitigate geopolitical risk,” and that bodes well for “semiconductor capital equipment makers,” it said.

Opposition filings to NAB’s proposal to increase the payor base for FCC regulatory fees are “myopically focused” on unlicensed spectrum instead of the unfair apportionment of the FCC’s costs, NAB said in reply comments posted in docket 21-190 Monday (see 2110230001). “It is patently unfair, unlawful, and contrary to the public interest” to require broadcasters to absorb fee increases to pay for FCC activities “that are primarily for the benefit of other entities in the telecommunications ecosystem.” “Reapportioning FTEs (full-time equivalents) of a bureau or office on an ad hoc basis” can create “significant uncertainty,” said CTIA. “NAB’s proposal would undermine future innovation in online services and reduce access to these benefits,” said the Entertainment Software Association. The FCC was “right” to reject NAB’s proposal in the 2021 regulatory fee order, “and it should likewise reject NAB’s latest attempt,” said CTA. WISPA and the Wi-Fi Alliance said there’s no legal basis for assessing regulatory fees against unlicensed spectrum users. Doing so would ignore the Communications Act, contravene FCC precedent and harm consumers, said the Wi-Fi Alliance. Filings from broadcasters backed NAB. “The vitriolic nature” of filings from opponents “shows a degree of entitlement to the Commission’s largesse that is borne of free-riding on the backs of broadcasters,” said a joint filing from state broadcast associations. The FCC must revise its rules to “impose regulatory fees on certain of those Big Tech entities that have to this point benefited from the agency’s regulation,” said a joint filing from network affiliate groups. The number of filings against more categories of operations being charged regulatory fees just shows how many parties benefit from FCC regulation but don't bear the costs, said foreign-flagged satellite operators Telesat, OneWeb, Kepler and SES/O3b. They have said experimental license holders, FCC auction participants, broadband internet access services, holders of equipment authorizations and operators of unlicensed spectrum database should start paying regulatory fees. CTIA disagreed, saying the idea would unfairly shift a disproportionate share of regulatory fees among regulated parties and be inconsistent with the commission's Section 9 regulatory fee policy. Scott Palo, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder's Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, said there's little evidence the FCC incurs big costs from experimental license holders, and imposing a regulatory fee could chill academic research that develops and tests new technologies.

The optical fiber that Corning supplies is a “critical enabler” for U.S. 5G deployment, and fiber networks “are the path forward to transmitting petabytes of data to people and devices instantly,” said the company in comments posted after hours Friday in docket BIS-2021-0021. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security sought industry comment to help the secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security prepare a report to the White House by the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order on supply chain disruptions in the “critical sectors and subsectors” of the information and communications technology “industrial base” (see 2111050041). Wireless networks “are moving from one optical connection per hundreds of thousands or even a million clients to one optical connection for fewer than 100” mobile phones, IoT devices or homes, said Corning. It continues to invest in R&D “at a much higher rate than our peers,” it said. The document is heavily redacted to hide information the company said “is not publicly available, pertaining to Corning’s business or trade secrets.” Also expunged are pages of Corning’s policy recommendations for identifying ICT supply chain risks and fixing the bottlenecks, except for a single sentence in a “workforce needs” section. Hiring, developing and retaining a high-skilled workforce, said Corning, is “paramount to the continued success” of ICT manufacturing. Q3 revenue in Corning’s optical communications business grew 24% year over year to $1.1 billion. It recently expanded its AT&T collaboration to bolster investments in fiber infrastructure, widen the availability of U.S. fiber-to-the-home broadband networks and speed 5G deployment.