Demand Progress, Public Knowledge and 55 other groups urged President Joe Biden to “not lose any more time” in picking a nominee to fill a third Democratic FCC seat given the commission’s current 2-2 political makeup (see 2101060055). “We recognize the pressing and time-consuming challenges this administration has faced since its earliest days,” but continuing to leave that unfilled “is incompatible with the goal of delivering open, affordable and reliable high-speed broadband to every home,” they said in a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The White House didn’t comment Monday.

Emergency alert system participants must renew their identifying information in the FCC’s emergency test reporting system by July 6 for the Aug. 11 nationwide EAS test, said a Public Safety Bureau public notice Friday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency last month announced the test date and an Aug. 25 backup date (see 2105040068). EAS participants must file “day of test” info by Aug.12, and post-test data by Sept. 27, the PN said. The simulation will include a test of the wireless emergency alert system.

SES' assertion to the FCC about its reservation of its rights in its legal fight with Intelsat (see 2106100062) "is legally meaningless and not binding on any entity -- be it the Commission, the Clearinghouse, Intelsat License LLC, or any other Intelsat affiliate," Intelsat said in filing Friday to be posted in docket 18-122. It said the C-band proceeding docket "is not the forum for SES to further attempt to buttress its weak arguments in litigation" not involving the FCC, C-band clearinghouse or other operators. It said SES' filing does underscore that the clearinghouse agreement the two incumbent C-band operators need to negotiate and sign "bears no resemblance to the framework or process that Intelsat, SES, and the former C-Band Alliance advocated for." SES didn't comment.

The Senate will have hearings soon on a federal privacy bill, said Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., during a Politico webinar Thursday. “We will hold hearings on a number of aspects, not only the substance of what should be included, but also enforcement, how to enlist state authorities, especially the states where there are now laws.” Congress doesn’t want to preempt states like California, he said. Blumenthal seeks an FTC rulemaking. “It may be time-consuming, but it will provide additional leverage and impetus for what we will do in Congress,” he said. “We’re way behind the rest of the world.” Blumenthal said he will consult with other members of the Commerce Committee on hearing dates: “This area is really ripe for action.” Subcommittee ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sees growing consensus. State officials are “perplexed” Congress didn’t move first, she said: “People are waiting for us.” Parents are “turning to us,” she said, “and saying there need to be some stronger rules of the road on online privacy. There need to be some punishments for misuse.” Discussions are further along among members than most people realize, she said. Blumenthal noted Facebook is planning Instagram for kids: “We’ve got to stop it. … It’s a disaster waiting to happen.” Legislation should require people opt in if they want to share data, Blumenthal said. “A strong national standard” should be “imposed across the board on all platforms,” he said. People should be able to transfer their data, he said. It won’t be easy to get anything through the Senate, he said: “The bandwidth here is sometimes limited and there are a lot of competing issues.” Lack of federal privacy rules hampered using data in a “sufficiently agile” way to respond to COVID-19, said Julie Brill, Microsoft chief privacy officer. No one knew “what the guardrails were,” she said. In the absence of a federal law, “states will move forward because policymakers want to address their constituents’ concerns,” she said. Brill hopes agreement can be reached on a federal law. There’s consensus “consumers are shouldering too much of the burden around privacy” and companies need to demonstrate they use data responsibly, she said: There’s understanding consumers need to correct their data and move it to another provider if they want.

The FCC found in AT&T's favor completely on its underlying complaint against Wide Voice when granting its complaint in part on Wednesday (see 2106090080). ... Eligible telecom carrier designation is required for winning FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bidders to complete their long-form applications and be designated as ready to receive support (see 2106080044).

AT&T in hindsight likely wouldn't have bought DirecTV because pay-TV universe subscriber losses were steeper than expected when the carrier started pursuing the deal, CEO John Stankey said Thursday during an Economic Club talk. He said DirecTV didn't generate the value long term that was expected. He said it's "entirely possible" the spinoff of the company's video business (see our report here]) could recapture some lost value, and said the WarnerMedia/Discovery spinoff and combination (see 2105160003) should generate big returns for shareholders, including him. "I intend to leave all my equity in that new business," Stankey said. While the deal goes through regulatory review, WarnerMedia is "full steam ahead" with initiatives such as launch of an ad-supported HBO Max tier this month and work on a CNN streaming product, Stankey said. The $65 billion for broadband the administration and Senate Republicans agreed on (see 2105270072) before talks collapsed potentially "knocks ... out" the rural digital divide problem, though that access likely will use a mix of technologies including wireless and satellite, along with fiber, and won't be as robust as will be found in less-rural areas, Stankey said. Left unaddressed is the affordability issue, which will require about $4 billion annually in subsidies, he said. That money could come from congressional appropriations or from excise or use taxes, he said. Asked about AT&T's $23 billion in 2021 C-band payments, he said it "will not be the last investment we make in spectrum" to meet increasing wireless data demands. Stankey said occupancy at AT&T's Dallas headquarters was about 20% a month ago, and is growing. He said the company will be in its "new hybrid mode" by summer's end, with all employees in one of three categories: in the office a couple of days a month, in the office a couple of days a week, and daily. He said a high percentage of AT&T workers would be hybrid: So far, the company is urging but not requiring worker vaccinations.

The FCC released rules for the 3.45 GHz auction, to start Oct. 5, in a Wednesday Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics public notice. The FCC will auction 4,060 10 MHz flexible-use licenses in the contiguous 48 states and Washington, D.C., the PN said. All will be for 15 years and renewable. Licensees may hold up to four 10 MHz blocks in the band in any market. Short-form applications are due July 21, upfront payments Sept. 2. Staff rejected complaints by the Rural Wireless Association and Blooston carriers that the timing is too aggressive. The timing “is not only consistent with the Commission’s historical timing between spectrum auctions, it is actually considerably longer than the period between most recent spectrum auctions,” the FCC said: “Neither RWA nor Blooston have made any attempt to explain how this auction differs from previous spectrum auctions such that potential applicants need an entire year to prepare.” The agency adopted a $25 million cap on bidding credit discounts for an eligible small business and $10 million on discounts for an eligible rural service provider, same as proposed. “We are unpersuaded by comments suggesting that the adoption of a $25 million cap has inhibited participation by small businesses in recent auctions,” the PN said. It relented on minimum bids. “Given the totality of the comments regarding the proposed minimum opening bid amounts and how they might affect potential new entrants and small carriers, we adopt revised, lower minimum opening bid amounts … as proposed by Verizon and supported by US Cellular and T-Mobile,” the FCC said. The notice adopts 3 cents per MHz/POP for partial economic areas 1-50, .006 cent for PEAs 51-100 and .003 cent for all other markets, with a minimum bid of $1,000. The agency had proposed 6 cents/MHz/POP for PEAs 1-50 and 2 cents elsewhere. The PN rejected AT&T’s request to address the “no excess supply” rule in cases where a bidder wishes to reduce demand from two blocks to none and only one block of that reduction can be applied due to insufficient excess demand. “We disagree with AT&T’s premise that a license for a single block of spectrum in the 3.45 band cannot be used efficiently,” the FCC said. “This auction will bring us closer to 5G service that is fast, secure, resilient, and most importantly, available across the country,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. It had sought comment in a notice commissioners OK’d 4-0 in March (see 2103170061).

Microsoft President Brad Smith spoke with FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on 5G, broadband, open radio access networks, the 12 GHz proceeding and a draft order on importation and marketing of devices, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-443. “Smith expressed support for the Commission’s adoption of its draft order allowing greater flexibility in the importation and marketing of radio frequency devices,” the filing said. In 12 GHz, Microsoft supports “ensuring that satellite operations in the … band are not undermined,” the filing said.

The FCC EDOCS electronic document management system suffered a system outage Monday that has been resolved, an agency spokesperson emailed Monday. The outage resulted in no generation of a Daily Digest Monday, nor were there any postings in EDOCS.

Industry trade groups said 21st Century Communications Video Accessibility Act rules are sufficient, but consumer groups want the FCC to examine and strengthen accessibility requirements for the online and streaming media due to problems that rose in use during the pandemic, per comments posted Tuesday in docket 21-140. “Acknowledge the wide range of Internet-Protocol-based multimodal communications services,” said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other groups for the hearing-impaired. They asked the FCC to complete rollout of real-time text, update TV closed captioning rules, “vigorously enforce” rules, migrate the Disability Rights Office to a new Office of Civil Rights, and seek more authority on accessibility from Congress. NAB, NCTA and CTA said the rules are sufficient. “There is no need for the Commission to update its rules implementing the CVAA,” said NCTA. “No additional obligations are necessary or appropriate” now, said NAB. “Leverage” the emergency broadband benefit and emergency connectivity fund to increase connectivity to the disabled, CTIA said. “Evaluate the accessibility of emergency information, government press conferences, and other critical sources of public information presented through television,” urged the American Foundation for the Blind. ACA Connects said the FCC “bizarrely” never made rule changes from 2016 on programmer closed captioning certifications effective: “It is well past time for the Commission to address this by publishing with dispatch the requisite Federal Register notice.”