Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., predicted Thursday that other Democrats will participate in the working group he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., formed to write a bipartisan net neutrality measure (see 1903120078) after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's Mozilla v. FCC ruling. The Oct. 1 decision largely upheld FCC rescission of 2015 net neutrality rules but said the federal agency can’t yet pre-empt states (see 1910010018). Wicker, Sinema and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai were among recipients of USTelecom's first “Broadband Heroes” awards, though Sinema didn't appear at Thursday's event. Wicker said the ruling is generally “good news” and will help improve chances for bipartisan consensus on net neutrality legislation. Lawmakers haven't shifted their views on rescinded rules since the ruling, which many see as a sign that movement toward a legislative deal's unlikely before the 2020 presidential election (see 1910010044). Wicker noted the importance of USTelecom member companies because they “will play a critical role in the deployment of 5G.” Pai emphasized the importance of career staff in shaping commission work, saying he's “simply pushing paper” in a Washington office.

The FCC should adopt technical rules to open the C band for 5G, while protecting fixed satellite service operations, AT&T said. The rules should employ “a Power Flux Density threshold for validating 5G harmful interference to FSS earth stations” and recognize that 5G channels more than 50 MHz from the FSS band edge "will have no measurable impact on earth station operation,” it said. The FCC should also address grandfathered telemetry, tracking and control earth stations “on a highly individualized basis, including requiring investments in site-specific interference management tools, and reject the potentially sweeping preclusive effect of … overbroad generic regulations,” AT&T said in docket 18-122, posted Wednesday. America’s Communications Association also renewed its attack on the C-Band Alliance plan (see 1910220065). “CBA’s work in progress seems to rely on the use of further video compression and elimination of standard definition feeds,” ACA said: “Such a plan to clear 300 MHz would require significantly more than three years to complete and would cause irreparable harm to all industries that rely on the C-band, particularly the pay TV industry.” ACA met with staff from the International and Wireless bureaus, the Office of Economics and Analytics and Office of General Counsel. The Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute (AVSI), meanwhile, filed data at the FCC on potential out-of-band interference from operations in the C band to radio altimeters using the adjacent 4.2-4.4 GHz band. The data is “very preliminary” but shows a decline in altimeter performance from increased use of the band for 5G. AVSI said the FCC should consult with the FAA “to assure public safety in the national airspace.” An altimeter measures the height of an aircraft above the terrain. CBA didn't comment.

Facebook and Amazon reported increases in Q3 lobbying spending over the same period in 2018 amid ongoing Capitol Hill antitrust interest in the tech sector. Disney, USTelecom and NetChoice were among those that said earlier Monday they increased spending (see 1910210077). Google reported a 50 percent drop to $2.98 million. Comcast, AT&T and NAB also had declines. Facebook said it spent $4.8 million, up nearly 70 percent. Amazon reported just over $4 million, an 11 percent increase. AT&T laid out $3.24 million, down almost 16 percent. Comcast reported just over $3 million, down more than 11 percent. NAB's dropped more than 12 percent to $2.98 million. NCTA increased expenditures more than 5 percent to $2.94 million. Verizon's spending increased 4 percent to $2.43 million. Charter's decreased 2 percent to $2.23 million. T-Mobile's increased more than 7 percent to $2.21 million. CBS' spending stayed level at $900,000. Fox upped expenditures almost 22 percent to $780,000. Dish Network increased 13 percent to $590,000.

America’s Communications Association attacked C-Band Alliance's proposal to reallocate the band for 5G. ACA questioned why CBA hasn't filed details on a new plan to repurpose closer to 300 MHz for 5G. ACA questioned whether other parties will have time to assess a new proposal before the FCC acts, as expected in December (see 1910100052). “CBA’s failure to submit its supposed new plan on a timely basis is far from the only problem with its evolving position,” ACA said in docket 18-122, posted Monday: “CBA would need to explain away its prior claims that 200 MHz is the maximum amount of C-Band spectrum it could possibly refarm. Making things worse still, CBA has had trouble proving to the satisfaction of C-Band users that it could repack them in 300 MHz without causing harm. Yet now it seems intent on jumping from one incomplete task to an even more daunting project.” CBA didn’t comment.

Comments on FCC-proposed FY 2020 regulatory fees will be due Nov. 22, replies Dec. 23, says Wednesday's Federal Register. It seeks comment on assessing all satellites it approves to communicate with U.S. earth stations, including foreign-licensed satellites with U.S. market access, on reallocating International Bureau full-time equivalents, on adjusting VHF broadcaster fees, and on lowering the fee for full-service radio station incubator licenses. The agency approved the NPRM in August (see 1908280021). In a docket 19-105 posting Tuesday, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters said it's unclear why the NPRM proposes only partial reduction in fees for incubator licensees instead of full reduction. They said waiving all fees for a license period "would profoundly demonstrate" endorsement of incubation and create big incentives to take part.

USTelecom sought clarification from the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. about how USF compliance might be called into question if participants in the high cost universal broadband portal edit their broadband mapping data as geocoding technologies improve. USTelecom said "a change to the fourth digit of a geocoded decimal (representing a change in accuracy of about 10 meters) would be a workable demarcation point for determining a change that required a deletion." Deleting and resubmitting a location would erase the year a broadband location was originally deployed, it said. "If a carrier 'deleted' a number of locations for a certain year and then those same locations were re-uploaded in the HUBB with a different deployment year, it could retroactively call into question the carrier's compliance." USTelecom with members AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated, Frontier and Windstream met with USAC and the FCC Wireline Bureau staff Wednesday, and the association said, posted Monday in docket 10-90, it "understood that if the carrier had previously met a deployment year's milestone, and then, by virtue of 'deleting' and resubmitting locations with better geocodes, fell under the milestone for a particular year," there would be no penalty "as long as the cumulative number of locations submitted to date for the life of the program remained above the current threshold."

The upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference will bring millimeter wave spectrum to 5G, said Grace Koh, heading the U.S. delegation, in an interview with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. International harmonization of spectrum will ensure “interference doesn't undermine the deployment of new services,” she said. If the world can agree on what bands should be used for 5G, “it makes the equipment much more interoperable, and it also makes it easier for operators to deploy," she said: “If we can all agree on what kinds of spectrum we want for 5G instead of piecemeal” allocations, “you have the ability to lower the cost of 5G deployment immensely.” The U.S. has been preparing for the WRC for years, she said. The nation's looking to make sure its plans for high-band “align” with and “sometimes even lead what the world is going to do on millimeter-wave spectrum,” she said. Koh sees 24 GHz as critical. Based on her travels, “every region of the globe is interested in identifying” that spectrum for 5G, she said. Another important WRC focus is satellites for broadband, she said. Without revised regulations, it will be “difficult to understand how they impact current satellites that do actually already provide critical services, and it will be difficult to figure out how to make sure that we get them up there in a safe and practical manner,” she said. The WRC will consider 47 agenda items, Koh said. The issues are “incredibly challenging,” she said.

The Supreme Court won’t hear Minnesota’s appeal of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that VoIP is an information service exempt from state regulation (see 1910090048). The high court denied the Public Utilities Commission’s petition for writ of certiorari Monday. Agreeing cert should be denied, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should, “in an appropriate case ... consider whether a federal agency’s policy can pre-empt state law.” Thomas doubts "a federal policy -- let alone a policy of nonregulation -- is ‘Law’ for purposes of the Supremacy Clause,” he wrote, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch. “Giving pre-emptive effect to a federal agency policy of nonregulation thus expands the power of both the Executive and the Judiciary.” The view of two justices has “no precedential value” but “is nonetheless an indicator of the difficulties of the FCC’s position on preemption of state net neutrality provisions based on its asserted policies of non-regulation,” emailed Benton Institute Senior Counselor Andy Schwartzman. The PUC didn't comment Monday. Charter Communications, which brought the original suit against the agency, declined comment. The telecom industry endorses a draft declaratory ruling, which the FCC will consider at commissioners' meeting Friday, on regulatory parity for 911 fees between VoIP and traditional phone services (see 1910210055).

With the C-Band Alliance proposal gaining ground, some continue to push for a more traditional FCC auction. “Handing over to private parties the management of critical spectrum with an uncertain return to taxpayers is exceedingly difficult to reconcile with Congress’s instructions to the Commission in Section 309 of the Communications Act, and risks running afoul of any number of procedural and substantive requirements,” the Competitive Carriers Association filed, posted Friday in docket 18-122: “A public auction would be on much more solid legal footing, and is also consistent with sound spectrum policy.” Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, opposed a private auction in a meeting with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “A private auction or sale would willfully ignore Congressional intent and precedent,” Calabrese said: “The Commission has no legal authority to authorize, let alone oversee, a private auction.”

Communications Workers of America urged Congress' Commerce and Judiciary committees to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. Five communications industry groups, including America’s Communications Association and NTCA, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to include “language to promote the use of buying group marketplace solutions” in a final STELA measure. Both legislative pushes came before a planned Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on renewal (see 1910160036). “Failure to reauthorize STELA means that more than 870,000 satellite subscribers, most of whom are rural customers, would lose access to network TV programming from the loss of the distant signal license,” said CWA Senior Director-Government Affairs and Policy Shane Larson in letters to the committees' leaders. “CWA has gained recognition of tens of thousands of [DirecTV] employees whose union contract provides good wages, benefits, and working conditions,” which STELA recertification “will help protect.” Larson sought permanent reauthorization, citing “lack of parity in the treatment of out-of-market licensing for cable and satellite providers.” The five industry groups said pro-buying group language, such as in the Modern Television Act (HR-3994), would give “buying groups used by smaller providers access to the same good faith protections afforded to large providers.” ITTA, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and WTA also signed the letter.