CTIA asked the FCC to pause new Lifeline standards, in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. “CTIA remains concerned that the impending four-fold increase in minimum service standards for mobile wireless data from 2 GB to 8.75 GB” on Dec. 1 “as well as the phase-down in support for voice services, will severely hinder eligible low-income consumers' ability to choose Lifeline supported mobile wireless services." A TracFone proposal (see 1910310009) to instead require a monthly broadband data allowance of 3 GB while the agency explores a new standard is “a reasonable alternative to meaningfully increase the minimum service standards for mobile wireless data services, while mitigating the negative impact to low-income consumers,” CTIA said.

Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is headed to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to take part in the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference, FCC officials confirmed. Chairman Ajit Pai was at the opening stages and O’Rielly’s trip is timed so he can be there near the end of the conference. He's expected to return before the commissioners’ meeting Nov. 22. O’Rielly was at the last WRC in 2015 and is active in international spectrum issues. He said in a recent speech U.S. priorities should include pushing for 3.1-3.3 GHz to be among the bands studied for future wireless broadband and protecting the use of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi (see 1910240030). O’Rielly advocates a bigger leadership role for the U.S. in the ITU (see 1710050055).

The FCC postponed its November commissioners' meeting to Nov. 22, it said Tuesday. The meeting, still set for 10:30 a.m., had been scheduled for Nov. 19; the agency didn't give a reason.

Net neutrality advocacy groups asked the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit for a 28-day extension for petitioners and intervenors to petition for a rehearing or rehearing en banc of Mozilla v. FCC (case 18-1051), in an unopposed motion filed (in Pacer) Tuesday. They ask that the deadline be extended from Nov. 15 to Dec. 13.

The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee will meet Dec. 3, starting at 9:30 a.m. at FCC headquarters, says Tuesday's Federal Register. “The BDAC will receive status reports and updates from its three working groups: Disaster Response and Recovery, Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities, and Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Job Skills and Training Opportunities,” the FCC said.

AT&T warned of looming challenges to rules for the sale of the C band, in a meeting with FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson. “Some parties have asserted that the [C-Band Alliance’s] private sale of ‘clearing rights’ with winning bidders subsequently applying for licenses would violate the requirement that new spectrum licenses be awarded through a system of competitive bidding,” AT&T said in docket 18-122, posted Monday. “AT&T is also concerned that, without notice and comment to adopt detailed Commission rules governing the auction and the transition, various stakeholders may bring notice or arbitrariness claims under the Administrative Procedure Act and otherwise reduce their support for, and participation in, the reallocation process,” the carrier said: Risk remains of “judicial appeals, and because of the nature of the objections, those appeals could leave the proposed auction in an extended legal limbo that could delay reallocation of this spectrum for years.” America’s Communications Association, meanwhile, filed a new report from Vantage Point Solutions in docket 18-122 on the amount of fiber required under its C-band plan. The report said connecting all MVPD earth stations with fiber through the purchase of indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) on 300,000 route miles of existing fiber and the construction of 120,000 additional route miles, “as proposed in the 5G Plus Plan, is achievable within the plan’s 18-36 month timeframe for urban and suburban markets and five-year timeframe for rural areas,” said the filing. IRUs for 300,000 route miles of fiber “are relatively easy to acquire in today’s market, and fiber IRU availability is nearly ubiquitous in urban and suburban areas,” ACA said: MVPDs are “capable of deploying hundreds of thousands of fiber route miles annually, far more than the plan requires.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau settled with CenturyLink and West Safety Communications to end a probe into a multistate 911 outage on Aug. 1, 2018. Under consent decrees, CenturyLink agreed to pay $400,000 and West $175,000, and pledged to implement a compliance plan, the FCC said Monday. The 65-minute outage occurred when a West Safety Services technician mistakenly made a configuration change to the 911 routing network, resulting in many calls failing to route properly to 911 centers, the FCC said. In June, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to require more 911 reporting by CenturyLink after a state probe into the 911 outage (see 1906130053). “The August 2018 event was caused by a third-party vendor’s employee error,” a CenturyLink spokesperson emailed. “We quickly notified public safety officials in impacted areas,” then “focused our efforts on future reliability by working closely with our vendor to ensure improved processes were implemented to prevent this type of error from recurring.” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the FCC should have hit CenturyLink harder, especially as a repeat offender (see 1504060050). The settlement “does not address the repeat nature of the outages, and in fact the consent decree fails to even mention the 2015 action,” he said: “Today’s consent decree re-adopts measures previously instituted, including designating a compliance officer and developing and implementing a compliance plan reflecting industry best practices. Notably, even though the consent decree assigns fault for the outage at issue here to a subcontractor, the compliance plan contains nothing about better coordination and supervision of such parties.”

Incompas General Counsel Angie Kronenberg asked members Monday to share their perspectives on proposals for the FCC on how it should address the USF contribution factor to make the program more sustainable. She spoke at the end of a policy talk at the annual Incompas show in Louisville. She said Incompas, NTCA, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and other USF stakeholders have begun discussions toward an agreement on suggestions to overhaul the USF contribution system that they will take to the FCC. Last month, state members of a federal-state joint task force on universal service sent their own proposal to the FCC, which included an assessment of residential broadband (see 1910150045). During the policy panel, Inteserra Consulting Vice President Carey Roesel predicted the USF contribution factor, already at a record high this quarter of 25 percent, could reach 40 percent within three years if the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. don't make changes.

The few filings the FCC received on a September NPRM (see 1909060030) proposing that the agency fully transition its universal licensing system, its largest, from paper to electronic, were positive. Commenters said the FCC should do the same for other systems including for antenna structure registration. “The Commission’s recent efforts to modernize its filing and information retention systems have greatly improved public access to data, decreased costs for applicants and consumers, and improved efficiency for both the Commission and the companies it regulates,” Verizon said, saying more can be done. Applicants today can't file “two-step transactions, subleases, pre-close leases, and certain requests for special temporary authorization” in the ULS, the carrier said. “Lessees also cannot currently assign or transfer control leases in ULS,” Verizon said: “Instead, these applications must be filed on paper in Annapolis Junction [Maryland]. The office there then must forward the application to the appropriate FCC staff for processing. And the applicant must wait for a return package to ensure the application was filed.” AT&T urged the commission to “use this proceeding as an opportunity to consider other ways in which it can make its ULS and ASR systems more streamlined, transparent, and user-friendly. … AT&T believes the Commission’s rules for service of documents should be clear and consistent, and the Commission should proceed cautiously in changing these rules.” The Enterprise Wireless Alliance said electronic filing “should be the standard for all wireless application filings, authorizations, and correspondence.” Dealing with paper filings is time consuming, EWA said: “In EWA’s opinion, it is time for exempted classes of users to begin filing their applications electronically. The six-month period proposed in the NPRM should be ample to allow those parties to switch to a filing process that is used by many thousands of their peers.” The Blooston law firm group of rural wireless carriers noted that last year 5,000 of 425,000 ULS filings were manual and 15 of 7,000 ASR filings. “The Commission’s proposal is not unreasonable, provided that it is willing to liberally waive the electronic filing requirement in the event of electronic submission issues that occur from time to time,” Blooston said: “This is especially necessary for licensees in the Part 90 Private Radio Services, which were exempted from electronic filing when ULS was originally adopted.” Filings were posted last week in docket 19-212.

The FCC Wireline Bureau granted waiver to Lifeline subscribers sent letters from Universal Service Administrative Co. inaccurately telling them they had 90 days rather than 60 to recertify eligibility, in an order in Thursday's Daily Digest on docket 17-287. Lifeline subscribers must recertify eligibility every 12 months, and when USAC can't verify continued eligibility through its database, it sends a notification letter. Lifeline typically drops subscribers who don't recertify within 60 days, but USAC letters July 16-Sept. 18 gave 90 days. USAC corrected a system error Sept. 19 and is providing the correct 60-day deadline. By Oct. 7, about 16,000 Lifeline subscribers who had received the incorrect deadline had already recertified, but about 24,000 hadn't, or they recertified after the standard 60-day deadline.