Mandatory broadband access laws lead to higher residential fixed terrestrial broadband subscription rates, said the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics in a working paper Monday. That may be due to increased consumer choices or to lower costs in supplying broadband, it said. It said generally residents of multi-tenant environments are slightly less likely to subscribe to wireline broadband than non-MTE residents. The working paper doesn't specifically address the San Francisco regulation that's subject of a proposed partial pre-emption at Wednesday's FCC meeting (see 1906180053) but said no state mandatory access laws require building owners make their owned wiring available for sharing by multiple service providers. The working paper said 16 states and the District of Columbia had mandatory access rules at the end of 2016.

The FCC needs to “get creative” to address the homework gap, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Monday at Digital Equity Summit 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. “Nightly schoolwork now requires internet access” and the homework gap “is real,” Rosenworcel said. She cited Lee High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, where schools are lending wireless hot spots and computers to students who need them to do homework. Rosenworcel encouraged educators to make their voices heard in support of the E-rate program: “Make noise. Make a ruckus.” Under one proposal before the FCC, the E-rate and rural telemedicine programs “could share a single funding cap and slug it out for resources,” she said: “I do not support this approach. We have serious broadband problems in this country. And the FCC has a statutory duty to expand the reach of communications to everyone -- no matter who they are or where they live.” The FCC also needs “better data about where broadband is and is not so communities across the country can build on it to address the Homework Gap,” Rosenworcel said. She backed making more spectrum available for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use, and using spectrum auction proceeds to pay for better connections through a homework gap fund.

The deadline to comment on an NPRM to establish new budget caps on the USF is extended by two weeks to July 29, replies Aug. 26, said an FCC Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 06-122. Dozens of groups asked the agency last month to extend the comment period to Sept. 30, replies to Oct. 30, to allow time for rural schools to participate. The groups, led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and the National Consumer Law Center, supported an earlier request by the Education and Library Networks Coalition to "extend the comment period for this matter until at least the end of September 2019 to provide ample time for the Commission to hear the opinions of a major constituency of the E-rate program" because in mid-summer, "most school E-rate beneficiaries will not be able to inform the Commission's decisions on creating an overall universal service cap and possibly combining E-Rate and Rural Health Care program under a single cap." SHLB is "grateful that the Commission has extended the comment deadline, as every little bit helps," a spokesperson for SHLB emailed Friday. Advocacy groups and Democratic commissioners have raised concerns about the proposed budget caps, claiming they could pit the interests of schools and libraries against those of rural health facilities (see 1906030059).

Chairman Ajit Pai is “optimistic” the FCC “will have results to show” on the C band in the fall, he told a 5G workshop at the Congreso Latinoamericano De Telecomunicaciones Thursday. Last week, the agency got more comments on the C band (see 1907050035). The FCC also continues its work on making the 3.1-3.55 GHz band available for commercial use. Pai defended a draft order on the educational broadband service band, set for a vote Wednesday (see 1907050034). EBS rules “date back decades,” Pai said: “At that time, it was envisioned that this spectrum would be used for educational TV. But today, this band is dramatically underused, with much of this spectrum lying fallow. That’s unacceptable.” Pai also stressed the importance of 5G security. “5G will affect our militaries, our industries, our critical infrastructure, and much more,” he said: “The procurement and deployment decisions made now will have a generational impact on our security, economy, and society.” The world can’t make “risky choices and just hope for the best,” he said: “We must see clearly the threats to the security of our networks and act to address them. And the more that the United States and our regional allies can work together and make security decisions based on shared principles, the safer that our 5G networks will be.” Pai said he strongly supports the principles approved in May by the Prague 5G Security Conference (see 1905030052). In another speech at a universal service workshop at the congress, Pai said the FCC is rejiggering the USF program to make it more effective through reverse auctions. Pai said he has seen firsthand how well that approach works. An auction last year provided $1.5 billion to connect more than 713,000 unserved homes and businesses nationwide, saving $3.5 billion from estimated costs of those connections, he said. “Later this year, we will start the process of setting up a $20.4 billion broadband expansion program called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund,” Pai said: “Applying lessons learned from the recent reverse auction, this program will spur the deployment of high-speed broadband networks across more of rural America over the next decade.” Other work continues, he said: “We’ve increased subsidies for small, rural carriers, while giving them more aggressive buildout requirements. We’ve increased the budget for our rural healthcare program and are designing a connected care pilot program to realize the potential of telehealth solutions outside the hospital.” Commissioners will also vote Wednesday on an NPRM for a three-year, $100 million USF telehealth pilot program (see 1906180053).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai hopes Inter-American (CITEL) Telecommunication Commission participants next month walk away having agreed on protection limits that safeguard passive sensors on science satellites while maximizing 5G's use of the 24 GHz band, according to prepared remarks for the Congreso Latinoamericano de Telecomunicaciones (CLT) in Argentina posted Wednesday. He said other regions, such as the Arab Spectrum Management Group and the African Telecommunication Union, are "endorsing reasonable limits [and] the facts and physics make a compelling case for ... even less restrictive limits." An international mobile telecom designation in the 50 GHz band, with protections for incumbents, coming out of the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference could also help grow mobile services, Pai said. He said the U.S. hopes WRC-19 will generate a harmonization internationally of domestic rules promoting higher-powered outdoor use of the 5150-5250 MHz band. And he backed expanded use of the 37.5-39.5, 39.5-42.5, 47.2-50.2 and 50.4-51.4 GHz bands non-geostationary orbit satellite systems. Pai said he was the first FCC chairman to attend CLT.

T-Mobile and state attorneys general disagreed how timing of carriers’ disclosure about DOJ talks would affect the scheduled Oct. 7 trial date for the AGs’ lawsuit against the company's Sprint buy, in Friday letters at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They asked the court to resolve the differences. States repeatedly told carriers they couldn't agree to an Oct. 7 trial date unless they disclosed all agreements with DOJ, but defendants now suggest a delay in disclosure won't necessarily extend the trial date, plaintiffs wrote (in Pacer). T-Mobile agreed to divulge information by certain dates but doesn’t think a one-day delay requires postponing the trial, it said (in Pacer). Have a status conference to assess whether schedule changes are needed, the carrier said. State plaintiffs don't need as much deposition time as requested because they “are not operating on a blank slate,” having worked with DOJ in its yearlong investigation, T-Mobile said. States disagreed, saying they “are entitled to the discovery provided under the federal rules to prepare their case, obtain admissible evidence, and prepare the necessary expert analysis for trial.” States want all depositions in New York or California, with four optionally in other locations to accommodate witnesses, they said. That may be convenient for plaintiffs but not for all defendants’ employees, especially foreign ones, T-Mobile said. Meanwhile, the California Public Utilities Commission Tuesday afternoon hadn’t released a proposed decision, which would be required to get it on the Aug. 1 voting agenda (see 1907010040).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order Tuesday to grant ILECs forbearance from requirements to provide competitive LECs access to analog voice-grade copper loops on an unbundled basis at regulated rates and to offer for resale at regulated rates services that ILECs sell at retail (see 1805040016). Word came shortly after staff OK'd USTelecom's request to narrow its petition, itself approved shortly after the association's filing was posted. Pai's proposal would provide a three-year transition period to give CLECs and customers time to get alternative voice services. The draft doesn't grant forbearance from regulatory obligations governing broadband networks. USTelecom withdrew its remaining request for forbearance related to broadband, posted Tuesday, when the agency granted that request for withdrawal with an order in docket 18-141 Tuesday. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering called the withdrawal "a victory for small, local builders who deploy the fiber future." Given "robust competition in the voice market, these two mandates from the 1990s, which were intended to open monopoly local phone companies to competition in voice services, are no longer necessary," an FCC spokesperson emailed Tuesday. "These regulations are now harmful because they perpetuate reliance on legacy technologies and services and hinder the transition to next-generation networks." Commissioners plan to vote at their July 10 meeting on elements of the 2018 USTelecom petition for forbearance from requirements to make unbundled network elements such as transport loops available to CLECs at nonmarket rates (see 1906190044). USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter praised that coming vote, blogging favorably on other actions aimed at eliminating "outdated regulations and reporting requirements." Unresolved pieces to the USTelecom petition face a statutory deadline of Aug. 2.

State and national leaders should respect and protect municipal authority when promoting 5G wireless deployment, mayors said in one of two telecom resolutions adopted Monday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting. Some FCC members, Capitol Hill and state lawmakers “have wrongly characterized this balancing act among competing interests for the public rights-of-way and maintenance of local authority as barriers to 5G deployment and, instead, have put the interests of national corporations ahead of the needs of communities and imposing a one-size-fits-all policy which preempts existing state and local policies,” the resolution said. Municipalities should retain local ROW control and get fair market-based compensation, it said. Universal broadband access can’t be achieved through deregulation and pre-emption, it said. Congress should undo the FCC’s 2018 infrastructure orders by passing a bill introduced last week (see 1906270063) by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to undo the August and September orders, and a bill by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., to overturn only the September order (see 1902280046). Mayors sponsoring the resolution included San Jose’s Sam Liccardo, New York’s Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti and Philadelphia’s Jim Kenney, all Democrats. Mayors adopted a cable resolution about in-kind contributions that opposes “any regulatory proceeding or legislation that seek to alter the terms of existing franchises, including any effort to require that non-financial obligations be subject to offset against franchise fees.” Sponsors included de Blasio, Garcetti and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh (D).

New Street’s Blair Levin questioned comments by FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly last week at a Dynamic Spectrum Alliance conference that a consensus is emerging on some version of the C-Band Alliance’s proposal to sell the spectrum (see 1906270026). “O’Rielly specifically noted that the CBA auction proposal … is moving toward a transparent auction, with the question really being just ‘who conducts the auction,’” Levin told investors. “We agree that the CBA has moved significantly from its original position towards what a number of stakeholders recommended in terms of a sales process. We also agree that if the FCC sets the detailed parameters for the sale, it does not matter much who conducts the auction.” Levin disagreed consensus is developing on whether the auction should be based on sealed bid or a multi-round auction. There’s also no consensus on how much spectrum should be cleared, with Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr wanting more than the 200 MHz CBA proposes to clear, he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appointed the members of two Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee working groups, said a public notice Monday. Neptuno/SmartTecPort CEO Leticia Latino will chair the Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Job Skills and Training Opportunities working group and Connected Nation CEO Tom Ferree the Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities WG (see Personals section, this issue, for all members).