NTIA emphasized cooperation with the FCC on repurposing spectrum for commercial use in a Tuesday report part of work to implement President Donald Trump’s October memo directing development of a long-term U.S. national spectrum strategy (see 1810250018). The administration didn’t meet the July 22 deadline for completing the strategy, after the abrupt departure this year of NTIA Administrator David Redl and infighting between the FCC and Commerce Department on spectrum policy (see 1907310033). NTIA acknowledged the July 22 strategy deadline. Trump’s memo “does not specifically call for repurposing of spectrum,” but “its implementation will help inform policy-makers’ decisions and add to the spectrum management and planning tools they can use in considering potential repurposing,” NTIA said. The agency said the U.S. has made about 5.9 GHz of spectrum “available in bands that can be licensed and used to advance” 5G technologies, and 7.25 GHz more “is under active consideration or study.” America has made an additional 14.7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum available in low-band and high-band frequencies, with an additional 1.2 GHz of spectrum being proposed for unlicensed use, NTIA said. It didn’t detail the kerfuffle between Commerce and the FCC over NASA and NOAA assertions that commercial use of the 24-GHz band could interfere with adjacent systems used by the two agencies (see 1906120076). That was a part of the spectrum policy fight (see 1907180044). NTIA said it’s “working with federal agency spectrum users to assess and study the potential impact to in-band and adjacent-band existing and planned operations to establish any reasonable protection limits necessary to avoid interrupting critical missions.” The agency and FCC “sought to make spectrum available in all” frequency ranges, “from the 512-698 MHz UHF Television Band to the 95-GHz band and beyond.” NTIA said it will continue for the rest of 2019 to work with federal and non-federal stakeholders, including transitioning to commercial use of the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz AWS-3 bands. NTIA and the FCC will also continue to “build an infrastructure to support sharing” the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band and “continue to implement” spectrum repurposing provisions in the 2015 Spectrum Pipeline Act and 2018 Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act statutes.

The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau are extending from Friday until Sept. 11 the completion date of phase 5 of the post-incentive auction repacking because of Hurricane Dorian, said a public notice Tuesday. The extension is to “assure that viewers will not be required to rescan their TVs during this period and risk missing important emergency news and information,” said the PN. “This extension will permit each station to determine the appropriate transition timing for its station and its viewers based on the developing conditions in its market.” Stations in areas not affected by the storm are encouraged to continue transitions on the original schedule, the PN said. “We will continue to work with individual stations, including those impacted by Hurricane Dorian, on a case-by-case basis." The FCC has been “working throughout the weekend” on preparations for Hurricane Dorian, said Chairman Ajit Pai Monday. It's working with other agencies, communications providers and power companies to encourage coordinated service restoration efforts “making sure they implement lessons learned from Hurricane Michael,” Pai said. After that storm, Pai urged action on wireless resiliency and service losses due to utility work (see 1905210035). Commission staffers were deployed to survey RF spectrum in areas projected to be hit by Dorian, to help identify impacts and outages, Pai said. The agency activated the disaster information reporting system for several Florida counties and has staff on hand 24 hours a day to assist first responders and communications providers, Pai said. An agency webpage acts as a hub for Dorian-related information. Storm damage to 34 Florida counties was described as “minimal” in a Tuesday morning DIRS report. No public safety answering points were reported down or rerouted, and 0.2 percent of cell sites were out of service in the affected area. The report listed 6,884 cable and wireline subscribers as out of service, and no broadcast stations were reported off-air.

AT&T, not the Commerce Department, will operate FirstNet, and will collect, maintain and transmit personal identifying information over it, so Commerce has no legal obligation to prepare a privacy impact assessment (PIA) and couldn't meaningfully do one. So said AT&T in a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief Thursday (docket 18-2819, in Pacer) backing Commerce. The appeal involves a lower court's dismissal of a Freedom of Information Act suit accusing the agency of improperly denying documents about the FirstNet contract awarded to the carrier (see 1809260014). AT&T said it has no legal obligation to prepare a PIA because it's not an agency nor a party in the case. It said 2002 E-Government Act Section 208, requiring PIAs for new data collection, applies only to agencies and no court has read it as applying to a private entity's collection and dissemination of personal information. The 2nd Circuit Thursday also granted an appellant-plaintiff motion to file a late opposition to AT&T's motion to file the amicus brief. Oral argument is this week.

Ban any exclusive agreement between landlords and ISPs, forcing landlords to let multiple service providers access buildings, urged Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute in a docket 17-142 posting Friday. Comments on an NPRM on improved broadband access to multiple-tenant buildings, adopted at the FCC's July meeting (see 1907100020), were due. PK and OTI said the FCC limited its own authority by classifying broadband as an information service, since its authority specific to MVPDs only goes so far and not all broadband providers are MVPDs. They urged the agency adopt a Telecom Act Section 706 classification to give it clear authority to promote multi-tenant access. Or use ancillary authority. Small indie ISPs are the only real competition to the big entrenched cable ISPs and telcos, and whatever steps the FCC takes here, at the least don't harm ability of those indies to access multi-tenant properties, the Multifamily Broadband Council said. It said prohibiting or limiting arrangements where a provider has exclusive right to use in-building wiring would essentially allow mandatory sharing of in-use wiring, inconsistent with other commission findings. The Safer Buildings Coalition urged seeking comment on how the NPRM could affect public safety in-building and rooftop systems and contracts. The Wireless ISP Association, in comments to be posted, said revenue-sharing arrangements between service providers and landlords hurt if not eliminate competition and broadband deployment and should be prohibited. It said public disclosure of revenue sharing agreements isn't a viable alternative since there's no consumer benefit to such disclosures. Bar exclusive wiring and marketing agreements that make competitive entry more expensive, WISPA asked. Exclusive rooftop access agreements are anticompetitive and deter broadband deployment to multi-tenant units, it said. It said some state and local mandatory access regulations and policies aren't technology neutral.

The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Thursday. But a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest said “there is a strong possibility that DIRS will be reactivated for Hurricane Dorian if current projections concerning the path and intensity of this storm are correct.” DIRS was deactivated at the request of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the PN said. “Communications providers do not need to provide any additional reporting in DIRS in connection with this portion of Hurricane Dorian.” Friday, the Wireline Bureau granted temporary waiver of the phone aging rule for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Until May 29, providers in those areas can temporarily disconnect customers’ phone service at their request and reinstate them when service is reconnected. It applies to other areas that are declared to be states of emergency because of Dorian. To facilitate access to telecom after the hurricane, the bureau encouraged service providers to “port telephone numbers geographically outside a rate center to the extent it is technically feasible." The White House Friday authorized a declaration of emergency for Florida in connection with the storm.

The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s Sept. 19 meeting will hear 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, says an FCC notice for Friday’s Federal Register. BDAC meets at 9:30 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room.

The C-band clearing plan of America's Communications Association, Competitive Carriers Association and Charter Communications would spend "billions of dollars" on 120,000 new route miles of fiber to be deployed where there's no fiber or no redundant fiber, representatives of those three told FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith, per a docket 18-122 posting Thursday. Paying for that fibering with C-band auction proceeds is an economically viable solution to providing high-speed broadband to underserved locations including rural areas, they said.

Damage to communications in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “appears to be minimal,” said the FCC’s Thursday communications status report on Hurricane Dorian as of 11:30 a.m. EDT. “Typically, the worst effects of a hurricane are not felt until one or two days after the hurricane passes through.” No public safety answering points were reported down or rerouted, and 1 percent of cellsites were out of service in the affected area. Some 6,167 cable and wireline subscribers were listed as out of service in Puerto Rico, and 419 in the U.S. Virgin Islands. No broadcasters were reported off-air. The White House approved a declaration of emergency for the U.S. Virgin Islands, said a news release Wednesday evening. President Donald Trump OK'd one for Puerto Rico Wednesday as well. And the FCC activated the disaster information reporting system for both territories (see 1908280012).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appointed Indiana University business professor Jeffrey Prince Wednesday as chief economist. Prince will succeed Babette Boliek Tuesday, when she returns as Pepperdine University law school professor and associate dean-faculty research. Pai appointed Boliek last year (see 1807300044). The role typically lasts for one year. Prince co-directs Kelley's Institute for Business Analytics. He has written about “dynamic demand for computers, Internet adoption and usage, the inception of online/offline product competition, and telecom bundling,” the FCC said. Prince's “wealth of experience and research on the telecommunications market and Internet adoption will be of great value to the Office of Economics and Analytics and the entire” FCC, Pai said.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let challengers to FCC telecom discontinuance rules "supplement their argument that The Utility Reform Network ('TURN') has standing" in the case, by Sept. 6. "The panel will not consider any supplemental submission regarding the standing of any of the other petitioning organizations," said an order (in Pacer) Wednesday from the three judges who heard oral argument the previous day (see 1908270026). The jurists limited the supplement to 10 pages, in Greenlining Institute v. FCC. TURN was another petitioner in the case, 17-73283. TURN declined to comment, as did the FCC. Public Knowledge is "pleased that the court has provided us with the opportunity to resolve any lingering issues over standing," emailed Senior Vice President Harold Feld, who argued for petitioners in Seattle. USTelecom, which also got time at oral argument, didn't comment.