DOJ urged a federal court to stop California from enforcing its net neutrality law to “avoid ongoing, irreparable harm to the United States and its interests.” DOJ filed an amended complaint and motion (both in Pacer) for preliminary injunction Wednesday in resumed litigation at the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California (see 2008030043). The department argued the state law is preempted under the Constitution’s supremacy clause and fails a conflict preemption test. “California has imposed stringent regulation on interstate broadband communications in a way that directly contradicts" the FCC's "validly adopted regulatory scheme" and the Communications Act principle “that the Federal Government -- not individual States -- has exclusive regulatory authority over interstate communications," it said in case 2:18-cv-02660. California is trying to overwrite FCC policy for the nation, the department argued. ISPs “cannot apply two separate and conflicting legal frameworks to Internet communications -- one for California and one for everywhere else. This impossibility means that California’s rules effectively are the only ones that matter.” ISP associations that sued California over the same law filed their own motion and amended complaint (in Pacer) Wednesday. The California law "is preempted under principles of field, express, and conflict preemption," said ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom, saying their members "would be irreparably harmed if subjected to that unconstitutional law during the pendency of this litigation." A California Justice Department spokesperson said, "We are reviewing the complaint and look forward to defending California’s state net neutrality protections."

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday evening that makes permanent for rural communities an expansion of Medicare recipients’ eligibility to receive 135 types of services via telehealth. The EO rolled back permanently for rural Medicare recipients some restrictions on eligibility enacted in March as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and other laws (see 2003250046). Congressional Telehealth Caucus co-Chair Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and four other caucus members filed the Protecting Access to Post-Covid-19 Telehealth Act last month to make this permanent (see 2007160077). White House officials told reporters the EO is intended to signal Trump wants Congress to expand all Medicare recipients’ eligibility for telehealth. “I’m taking action to ensure telehealth is here to stay,” Trump said during a news conference. American Telemedicine Association CEO Ann Mond Johnson Tuesday said the EO will “ensure individuals receive the care they need during." There's “more work that needs to be done, on both the Federal and state levels, to cement these gains and make permanent the waivers,” Johnson said in a statement. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to modernize our healthcare system.” Connected Health Initiative Executive Director Morgan Reed wants "legislation to ensure that the Medicare patients will have access to digital health services regardless of where they live or where they happen to be when they conduct a virtual visit."

Dish Network picked network services provider Tucows as a “technology partner” for its retail wireless business, said the companies Monday. Most U.S. Ting Mobile subscribers became Dish customers Saturday. Tucows positioned Ting for “easy to use services” and “simple value pricing,” said a March 4 annual report. Tucows finished 2019 with 289,000 Ting customers, down from 296,000 in 2018, it said. Dish said the agreement will speed its “digital and operational capabilities in wireless.” Transferring the Ting Mobile subs to Dish frees Tucows to focus on its mobile services enabler business of which Dish becomes the first customer. The Boost acquisition from Sprint thrust Dish “into the retail business in a way we didn’t expect,” said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a recent investor call (see 2005070049).

House Commerce Committee Republicans on Monday requested a classified State Department briefing on TikTok, days after President Donald Trump threatened to ban the Chinese social media platform from the U.S. Microsoft is continuing talks to buy TikTok, after CEO Satya Nadella discussed it with Trump, it said Sunday: “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns." It's committed to acquiring TikTok "subject to" a complete review, it said. House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, Ore.; House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, La.; and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash., raised concerns about the video app and alleged ties to a Chinese company doing secret face recognition and data harvesting. Walden and Rodgers cited previous complaints about TikTok on children’s privacy, corporate governance and COVID-19. Banning TikTok would threaten U.S. jobs and the livelihood of American content creators reliant on the app, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro said: “In a week where many policymakers have called for more competition in the tech sector, undermining one of the fastest-growing social media platforms would be a step in the wrong direction.” ACT|The App Association said it's encouraged by ongoing negotiations for Microsoft to buy TikTok: “While this is an ongoing negotiation with no guaranteed outcome, we strongly urge policymakers to avoid a government intervention in banning TikTok that could result in an unprecedented geofencing of access to an online service used by 50 million Americans a day and create significant disruption to the app economy.” The State Department didn’t comment. The Microsoft blog suggests Trump “at least tentatively blessed the deal,” said Cowen analyst Paul Gallant. The deal could strengthen Facebook’s argument against antitrust scrutiny, and it might invite more attention on Microsoft from policymakers in Washington, he said.

The FCC seeks comment on NTIA’s petition asking for rules clarifying Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2007280053), Chairman Ajit Pai announced Monday. “Longstanding rules require the agency to put such petitions out for public comment ‘promptly,’ and we will follow that requirement here,” he said. “I strongly disagree with those who demand that we ignore the law and deny the public and all stakeholders the opportunity to weigh in on this important issue.” The agency should welcome “vigorous debate,” not curtail it, he said: “The American people deserve to have a say." The "feedback" is "over the next 45 days." Commissioner Geoffrey Starks suggested Congress is the proper venue: “I’m sure this Public Notice will generate a spirited discussion. Perhaps when comments are in we can package up the whole docket and send it over to Congress -- where this debate belongs.”

Reverse the FCC Public Safety Bureau’s July designation of Huawei and ZTE as a national security threat to communications networks and the communications supply chain and terminate the designation proceedings (see 2006300078), the Chinese companies told the FCC separately. “The Bureau had no authority to enter the final designation or even conduct these proceedings,” said a Huawei filing posted Friday in docket 19-351: The bureau “violated Commission precedent and the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to support its final designation by a preponderance of actual, reliable evidence in the administrative record. ... The Bureau largely ignored or failed to meaningfully address extensive evidence that Huawei is a leader in developing and implementing cybersecurity measures, and that it is not controlled or unduly influenced by the Chinese government.” The designation was “infected by unconstitutional congressional pressure and the Commission’s unconstitutional prejudgment against Huawei,” the company said. “The Bureau erred in its overly-broad application of the Supply Chain Security Order, contradicting the intent of Congress as codified in the Secure Networks Act,” ZTE said in docket 19-352: It “erred in not considering all available evidence and in concluding that ZTE did not dispute its assertions.”

Tech companies told the FCC it should reject reconsideration petitions from CTIA, Verizon and the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition seeking changes to 6 GHz rules, approved 5-0 in April (see 2004230059). Other comments divided on what the FCC should do. Oppositions were posted Thursday in docket 18-295. “None presents any argument that would justify altering the carefully reasoned decisions in the Commission’s order,” said Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks: “Most of the petitions merely repeat arguments already raised in the proceeding that the Commission explicitly rejected.” New America’s Open Technology Institute said similar. “The conclusions the Commission reached in its 6 GHz Report and Order were both well-reasoned and based on an extensive record,” the group said. The petitions “seek to delay or disrupt unlicensed access to this critical spectrum and all the innovation it has the potential to unleash,” said NCTA. “The sharp increase in fixed bandwidth demand resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of spectrum to better enable distance learning and teleworking and the importance of interference-free wireless backhaul links,” said the Wireless ISP Association. “Bare disagreement with the Commission’s conclusions -- without demonstrating any flaws in the Commission’s rationale for reaching those conclusions -- is insufficient grounds for granting reconsideration,” the Wi-Fi Alliance said. Southern Co. supported FWCC’s complaints. “The Commission relied upon hypothetical simulations, rather than actual field testing, to reach a determination that unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band would not cause harmful interference to primary, licensed incumbent operations,” the utility said: “Preliminary bench tests and field tests using the parameters established in the Report & Order have already raised concerns about potential harmful interference to licensed microwave systems.” The Utilities Technology Council backed the FWCC. “Interference must be prevented before it occurs, not after the fact because it will be far too late to undo the damage that could result," UTC said. Nokia supported higher power levels urged by Verizon.

The iconectiv petition asking the FCC to move to a competitive bidding process for selecting a toll-free numbering administrator (TFNA) (see 2006300003) got no clear industry consensus in docket 20-174 postings Thursday. AT&T said the TFNA's tariff use "is an anomaly" compared with competitive bidding and contracts the FCC uses for other numbering administrators. Going to a competitive process for the local number portability administrator resulted in hugely reduced costs, it said. Also backing the petition, USTelecom said FCC use of competitive bidding for numbering services shows market-based approaches lead to more efficiency. Now isn't the time to change TFNAs since the pandemic has been a major disruption to so many businesses already, and such a switch raises the risk of some kind of interruption that could hurt those relying on toll-free numbers, Unisys said. No one has shown that incumbent TFNA Somos hasn't been doing the job adequately, it said. Iconectiv should be commended for pointing out lack of Somos transparency, but its petition is meritless because it says TFN rates have gone up without reason when it's common knowledge Somos has been doing sizable technology upgrades, responsible organization Vanity International said. "This is nothing but a land grab by a 3rd party venture fund," it said. Iconectiv's complaint about use of a tariff-based approach would hold true no matter who is TFNA, and it would be nice to have multiple providers, but that isn't technologically feasible now, said EZ Texting. Somos is an independent, nonprofit TFNA, and someone else selected through competitive bidding might focus on cost control to the exclusion of protecting the public from scammers using toll-free numbers, Duke Energy said. Establishing a competitive bidding process for selecting a TFNA needs to carry guarantees the new TFNA provides the scam protection services Somos does, it said. Make sure new rules don't significantly interfere with or require changes to the way providers interface with the TFNA and don't require costly changes, said ATIS. Somos, in posting on meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel, said any consideration of changing processes to select a TFNA and changing the tariff structure requires issuing an NPRM. It said the current system "is working well." Its comments said similar.

Change the FCC’s draft inmate calling service order, set for a vote next week (see 2007160072), to either eliminate transaction fees on a single call or make clear the fees are capped at the allowed ancillary service amount, NCIC Inmate Communications said. “The draft Remand Order would perpetuate and codify the unjust and unreasonable single call rates that certain ICS service providers charge inmates and their families,” NCIC said: “The Remand Order would permit ICS parties to pass through egregiously-high third-party transaction fees, so long as they do not mark up the fee. In 2015, the FCC prohibited flat-rate calling, but certain ICS providers continue to charge between $9.99 and $14.99 for the completion of a single call” by “charging a per-minute rate subject to the interstate ICS cap, but then tacking on a third-party transaction fee,” NCIC said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-375. The United Church of Christ sought tweaks, in calls with aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. It’s good the draft requested comment on lowering interstate rates, and “the rates ultimately adopted should be lower than the proposed rates,” it said: UCC “is pleased that the draft … proposes to end the distinction between debit and collect calls and to lower the differential between jails and prisons and to vastly reduce the significantly higher rates dependent upon the size of a jail. The proposal to address international rates for the first time is welcome. The FCC should also seek comment on the particular needs of prisoners who are deaf and hard of hearing.”

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry applauds CTA’s decision canceling CES 2021 as a physical show and moving it all-virtual (see 2007280034), she told CEO Gary Shapiro in a North Virginia Technology Council video chat Wednesday. CTA co-produces NVTC’s webinars and Shapiro sits on its board. “Kudos to you for making such a sizable decision,” Barry told Shapiro when he asked how she reacted to the news. “It was clear the decision prioritized safety above all else.” Barry, a Minnesota native, said some of her “perspectives" on mentoring changed after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis police custody not far from corporate headquarters. “CEOs now more than ever need to be in constant learning mode,” she said. “Your whole career, you look for mentors who are more accomplished than you and can help you get to that next level. My perspective now is I need to surround myself with people who are completely different.” Work from home happened “almost overnight, literally,” said Barry. Telework “started with people being interested in products,” she said. “It’s turning into productivity,” she said. “It’s less about I need a computer, and it’s more about I need a comfortable home office space.” Telework forced Barry to reinstall a landline, she said. “My cell reception is awful, and I have so many calls that I needed something stable.” As work from home grew progressively longer, “you’re not just buying an iPad, you’re trying to figure out how do I create a productive space.” And “work flexibility is going to stick, said Barry. The days are over of “everyone needing to be in the office all the time to get their work done,” she said. Remote learning is “another space where we were forced into change,” said Barry. There are “pockets of places” where school districts “have done an amazing job” transitioning, she said. “But across the U.S., I think you can see a pretty big gap in distant learning capabilities.”