T-Mobile has peeled Mississippi from states’ lawsuit against the carrier buying Sprint. Attorney General Jim Hood (D) said he reached agreement with T-Mobile to make Mississippi-specific commitments. T-Mobile agreed to deploy 5G to at least 62 percent of the state’s general and rural populations, with speeds of 100 Mbps or more, said Hood’s office. “The parties also made limited price commitments and … vowed to decrease prices as supply increased, particularly as DISH enters the mobile market.” Hood “confirmed that there would be no retail job loss and that new stores would be opened in rural areas,” his office said. T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted applause. Last month, Illinois joined what's now 16 AGs suing the carriers at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 1909030060), while Arkansas joined 11 other states supporting the deal (see 1909100052). Florida settled claims earlier this month (see 1910020025). "With every passing day, we continue to build a strong case that this mega-merger is bad for innovation, bad for workers, and bad for consumers," responded a spokesperson for New York AG Letitia James (D), leading the lawsuit. "And we look forward to presenting these arguments in court."

The FCC should take up the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directive to collect diversity data and “redouble” equal employment opportunity efforts, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told the Media Institute at the group’s Free Speech America Gala Monday night. African-American owned TV stations -- 12 -- is such a small portion of the 1,300 total U.S. TV stations that it’s closer to zero percent than one, Starks said, making similar points to those he struck last week at the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters (see 1910030059). “No longer can it rely on bad data and analysis while ignoring its obligations,” Starks said of the commission. “Given the historic problems we’ve had with broadcast diversity, new research like disparity studies identifying past discrimination in licensing could be critical.” The FCC can design programs based on race, ethnicity and gender “so long as we are careful and provide a well-supported reason,” Starks said.

Despite FCC opposition, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted local governments’ request to expedite oral argument on the various challenges of the commission’s wireless infrastructure orders (see 1910040016). “The Clerk shall calendar these petitions as soon as practicable,” the court wrote in a Monday order (in Pacer). It referred the localities’ other request to split the case into two oral arguments to the assigned panel. “This case is being considered for an upcoming oral argument calendar in Pasadena,” said a separate entry Monday in docket 19-70123. The court asked parties to consider February and two subsequent sitting months in its schedule. The FCC didn’t comment Tuesday.

New York asked the FCC to delay the Oct. 23 hard launch of the national verifier in that state. “It would very likely cause otherwise eligible low-income consumers to be denied Lifeline benefits during this transitional period,” the Public Service Commission petitioned Monday in docket 11-42. “Real hardship could be imposed on low-income New Yorkers.” A big problem is Universal Service Administrative Co. can’t yet access state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid databases, the PSC said. The FCC’s recent announcement of national Medicaid database (see 1909180026) access is “laudable,” but “we estimate that this new verification process has the potential to assist with the automated verification of up to at most 60 percent of the Lifeline eligible population,” the PSC said. New York agencies are “working diligently with USAC” to set up an application programming interface connection for verifying state SNAP recipients, but the “process of establishing a data agreement and API connection with New York is both technically and legally complicated,” the PSC said. The commission cited NARUC’s July resolution recommending suspension of the hard rollout (see 1907240043). The FCC declined comment.

Six days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled partly for the FCC (see 1910010018), President Donald Trump tweeted that "we just WON the big court case on Net Neutrality Rules! Will lead to many big things, including 5G. Congratulations to the FCC and its Chairman, Ajit Pai." Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel responded: "This is wrong. The court told the FCC it couldn't stop states from making their own #NetNeutrality rules. It also sent a bunch of issues back to the FCC." Many want Congress to step in (see 1910010044).

The FCC opposed expediting argument about wireless infrastructure orders challenged by local governments at the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Cities asked the court last month to hold argument quickly on the small-cell and moratorium orders, and later have separate argument on the agency’s one-touch, make-ready ruling (see 1909250017). “These cases do not satisfy this Court’s standard under Ninth Circuit Rules 27-12 and 34-3 to expedite oral argument or to prioritize these cases over other pending cases, especially given the Tenth Circuit’s earlier order finding that Movants will not suffer irreparable harm during the time these cases are under review,” the FCC and DOJ motioned Friday (in Pacer). “Given the number and breadth of issues presented and the extensive briefing before the Court, we believe it best to schedule argument in the ordinary course to ensure that the argument panel has time to review those voluminous materials and ample opportunity to prepare prior to holding argument.” The request to have two arguments instead of one “appears to conflict” with the order consolidating the cases and assigned to the same panel, the agency said. “We understand that order to have contemplated that these cases be argued together.”

T-Mobile thinks moving programming transmissions from the C band to fiber is critical. It proposes an incentive auction. “The primary goal of this proceeding is clear” -- to lead on 5G -- so the U.S. must “make hundreds of megahertz of spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band available for terrestrial use,” said a filing in docket 18-122, posted Thursday on a series of FCC meetings: “An important component of maximizing the amount of C-band spectrum for 5G services includes the use of an alternative transport mechanism, such as fiber, to ensure the reliable delivery of the content currently carried by satellites using the spectrum.” The company opposes a plan by the C-Band Alliance, which isn't based on moving operations to fiber (see 1909180061). The carrier met with the leaders of the International Bureau, the offices of Economics and Analytics and of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Bureau staff. The Educational Media Foundation, meanwhile, told officials it makes significant use of the band to distribute programming to stations. Changing its operations to address reallocation “would impose significant cost on EMF,” the nonprofit said. EMF met with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel and aides to the other commissioners.

Those “behind the illegal effort to fake public opposition” to net neutrality should be held accountable, said Free Press Senior Director-Strategy and Communications Timothy Karr, after a Thursday report that two data firms working for industry group Broadband for America submitted millions of fraudulent FCC comments opposing Title II Communications Act net neutrality in 2017 (see 1812030034). “We can see the money trail that reportedly leads from the largest cable and phone companies through their front group Broadband for America and into the hands of those paid to defraud the public,” said Karr. “It’s not right that the agency is still not talking about this mess -- or fixing it,” tweeted Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, calling “shameful” FCC “continued silence.” Rosenworcel urged the agency early last year to investigate fake filings (see 1801290054). "The Restoring Internet Freedom Order was based on a careful examination of the law and the facts, not substance-free form letters, such as the nearly 8 million identical one-sentence comments supporting Title II regulation that were tied to email addresses from FakeMailGenerator.com,” emailed an FCC spokesperson. BfA says it backs "Congress pursuing and enacting thoughtful, permanent and bipartisan legislation that enshrines the core principles of an open and inclusive internet." It didn't comment now.

The Wireline Bureau is taking comments through Oct. 31, replies Nov. 15, on Universal Service Administrative Co.'s drop-down menu options for FCC Form 470 applicants use to solicit bids from service providers for E-Rate eligible services, said a public notice on docket 13-184 and in Wednesday's Daily Digest. It seeks to improve the menu to address concerns about the current drop-down menu, reduce administrative burdens and minimize applicant confusion. Menu changes would be available in time for bidding on funding year 2021, the bureau said. It wants changes to be intuitive, technology neutral, searchable and compliant with the program's rules. Stakeholders wanted changes to the form in time for the FY 2020 bidding cycle (see 1808170022). In a letter in Wednesday's Daily Digest, Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and FCC Managing Director Mark Stephens outlined guidance on how USAC should treat E-rate applications for which an applicant mistakenly selected a drop-down menu option on form 470 that didn't fully reflect the services for which it intended to seek bids: Don't "deny any remaining pending application or issue a commitment adjustment for any application solely because the applicant selected the 'Internet Access: ISP Service Only (No Transport Circuit Included)' drop-down menu option and subsequently selected on its FCC Form 471 a service that delivers Internet access to its premises."

Florida backs the T-Mobile/Sprint settlement with DOJ, the department said Wednesday. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) joins Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota in settling claims involving the deal, DOJ said. “Florida has been one of the states leading this investigation since the beginning, and I am pleased that they have chosen to join our settlement after completing their thorough review,” said DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim. Wednesday at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger denied as moot a motion by the group of state AGs challenging the deal. Deutsche Telekom voluntarily agreed Tuesday to comply with the AGs’ request that the court order it to re-review T-Mobile/Sprint documents that DT withheld as privileged (see 1910010066).