The FTC Competition Bureau launched a task force to monitor tech industry competition and investigate anticompetitive conduct, the agency announced Tuesday. The commission is in the midst of a monthslong series of hearings for determining if policy changes are needed. Chairman Joe Simons acknowledged the link between the hearings and the new task force. The new entity is modeled after the agency’s merger litigation task force, launched by Simons in 2002 as competition director. That panel focused on hospital combinations and the retail industry. “It makes sense for us to closely examine technology markets to ensure consumers benefit from free and fair competition,” Simons said. The new group will include about 17 staff attorneys from divisions within the bureau, the FTC said, plus a tech fellow. Expertise includes online advertising, social networking, mobile operating systems, apps and platform businesses. Competition Director Bruce Hoffman, Deputy Director Gail Levine and Associate Director-Digital Markets Daniel Francis will oversee the task force. Tech markets “raise distinct challenges for antitrust enforcement,” Hoffman said. Centralizing expertise will let the bureau “focus on these markets exclusively -- ensuring they are operating pursuant to the antitrust laws, and taking action where they are not.”

The FCC asked a court to consolidate and hold in abeyance challenges to a September wireless infrastructure ruling-order. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should consolidate 13 local and industry petitions for review, with proceedings abated while the agency considers an administrative petition from some localities to reconsider the item to remove local barriers to small-cell deployment, said the commission's motion Monday in Sprint v. FCC, No. 19-70123 and other cases. Some anticipated this (see 1901250010). The reconsideration petition "raises substantially the same issues as those raised in the nine petitions for review filed" by localities, the FCC said. "Like those petitioners, the petition for reconsideration seeks review of the Order’s determinations regarding state and local fees and charges ... timelines for state and local authorizations... and the effective prohibition standard generally." The agency called it "common practice" to hold such cases in abeyance, given potential for regulatory updates. It said industry parties backed both requests, while local interests supported consolidation but not holding the cases in abeyance, with some reserving the right to seek to further consolidate them with a Portland v. FCC (No. 18-72689) challenge to an August ruling barring local moratoriums on deployment. "Industry petitioners and intervenors (all of whom love the FCC’s order) support the FCC’s motion completely," emailed Spiegel & McDiarmid attorney Tim Lay, who represents localities. "Municipal & municipal utility petitioners and intervenors, including our clients (all of whom hate the order), support consolidation of all of the cases ... but oppose the FCC’s request to place the appeals on indefinite hold ... because then the FCC could sit on the reconsideration petition, thereby blocking local governments’ ability to obtain timely court relief." He said by phone Tuesday he suspects localities will oppose the abeyance requests and expects a motion to be filed to consolidate all the cases. Sprint told us it would continue to respond directly to the court. Little Rock, the Missouri Association of Municipal Authorities and the FCC agreed (in Pacer) to dismiss their case (No. 19-70148). Portland and local intervenors Monday opposed (in Pacer) a previous FCC motion to hold in abeyance their challenge to the August ruling pending resolution of three petitions to reconsider that item (see 1902150039).

Comments on privacy to NTIA show “urgency, and a desire for American leadership” there, and that a “patchwork regulatory landscape” won’t work, Administrator David Redl said Tuesday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “We want to build consensus around a fundamentally American approach to privacy, built on the same bedrock principles that so many nations share,” Redl said. “We’ve been talking with dozens of stakeholders to better understand what the problems are, what we can agree upon, and how we can move forward.” The model must ensure people trust technology that's part of their lives, he said. Privacy and prosperity are both possible, he said. “Focusing on risks and outcomes is preferred to notice-and-consent approaches,” Redl said. “Few consumers bother to read long legal notices -- and it’s our view that giant compliance departments aren’t going to lead to better privacy outcomes for consumers. We don’t want companies creating checkboxes and regulators critiquing web design.” Redl touched indirectly on who will be allowed to provide telecom network equipment in the U.S. (see 1902260019). The administration is considering rules against equipment by Chinese providers (see 1902220066). Booths at MWC show many options for 5G equipment, he said. “When network operators around the world are deciding which equipment they’re going to use, their first thought should be: Do I value my customers’ privacy and data security?” Redl said: “Our four largest wireless carriers have clearly answered affirmatively.”

The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets March 8 at 1 p.m. EST, says a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. The meeting in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters will be the last under CSRIC’s current charter.

The FCC Technological Advisory Council will meet March 26 for what was supposed to be its year-end meeting in 2018. Planned for Dec. 5, it was postponed because of the funeral of President George H.W. Bush. A Jan. 15 meeting was scuttled because of the partial federal shutdown. The next meeting will be 10 a.m. March 26 at the FCC Commission Meeting Room, said a notice in Monday’s Daily Digest.

The FCC needs to decide the right amount of C band to allocate for terrestrial use and then set up a competitive bidding process, Charter Communications said in a docket 18-122 posting Monday. It said such an auction could take 12 to 18 months, with the spectrum "ready for 5G use" as soon as 36 months after an order. It said the agency could require bidders to reimburse satellite providers and earth station licensees for relocation costs, and pay a "reserve charge" that would be a percentage of auction revenue to compensate them for "intangible and other costs" stemming from giving up spectrum. It called the C-Band Alliance (CBA) proposal "unprecedented and unlawful" and said it runs against U.S. security and economic interests to let foreign-owned satellite operators decide the amount of C band designated for 5G. The cable operator said that so many wireless carriers, small satellite operators, technology companies, public interest groups and cable ISPs oppose the CBA proposal shows the legal challenges the FCC could face, while an agency-controlled reallocation is least likely to see delays due to litigation because it's squarely within authority. It said the CBA proposal would spawn "backroom deals" for spectrum, and the group's assertions of reallocation in 36 months are "fanciful" given the unprecedented nature of its plan. “Apparently it was legal and proper for the cable companies to make allocation and sale decisions for critical spectrum in 2012 when they sold their AWS privately to Verizon and kept all the proceeds," emailed CBA Executive Vice President Preston Padden. "This is the Washington swamp at its worst. Cable is simply trying to protect their monopoly on high-speed broadband in 85 percent of American homes."

An FCC draft item would address an Iowa Network Access Division (Aureon) tariff, said the circulation list, updated Friday. The Wireline Bureau in November launched an investigation into Aureon's tariff transmittal No. 38, including a look at an increase in Aureon's central office switching equipment investment (see 1811090053). The investigation "is applying ILEC-only accounting rules to Aureon even though" an FCC Nov. 8, 2017, decision "classified Aureon as a CLEC," emailed Fletcher Heald attorney James Troup, who represents Aureon. "If Aureon was a horse, what the FCC has done is similar to regulating a horse under rules for horses as well as rules for cars on the grounds that both horses and cars are modes of transportation. Consequently, Aureon is the only company in the entire country that is regulated as both an ILEC and a CLEC." The FCC didn't comment Monday. Also on the updated circulation list are two Enforcement Bureau orders (one in conjunction with the Wireless Bureau) and a draft broadband deployment report, announced by Chairman Ajit Pai last week and sparking mixed reactions (see 1902200057). Off the list was a draft order to amend Part 1 of the rules, including on a lockbox used to collect fees for the Enforcement Bureau (see 1812210072). The FCC circulated a draft order Feb. 13 to resolve an investigation on tariff revisions filed by South Dakota Network, which was also opened in November (see 1811290061).

Bridging the digital divide requires balancing responsibilities between local and national policymakers, but “the federal government has overstepped its appropriate role, constricting local governments’ abilities to craft locally tailored solutions,” Brookings Senior Fellow Blair Levin blogged Friday. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s arguments for local pre-emption are “factually flawed,” said Levin, adding that one-size-fits-all federal rules for local property use is “over the line.” Mayors like San Jose’s Sam Liccardo (D) can better focus on their communities’ interest because they are “answerable to local citizens far more than a far-off federal official, and they have obtained the consent of the governed in a way the federal official has not,” Levin said. “Different cities should be allowed to answer the question differently.” Carr didn’t comment.

The FCC Wireless Bureau Friday began a temporary freeze on nonfederal applications in the 3100-3550 MHz band. Industry officials told us the notice is potentially significant. The bureau also established a docket on the freeze, 19-39. A year ago, Administrator David Redl said NTIA would study use of the 3450-3550 MHz band for wireless broadband (see Ref:1802260047]). Redl said use depends on DOD's ability to find another location for military radar systems that operate there. Mid-band spectrum has been a continuing focus of carriers as they start to deploy 5G. “It’s great to see the FCC move forward today on the 3.45 GHz band,” said Kara Graves, CTIA director-regulatory affairs. “Policymakers realize how important it is to free up mid-band spectrum quickly, and this is a helpful step toward making this band available for 5G.”

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan's pay package exceeds $103.2 million, placing him third on As You Sow’s list of the S&P 500's “most overpaid” chief executives for 2019, said the social responsibility group Thursday. Its fifth annual report used a “regression analysis” of proxy statements and other public filings to compute “excess CEO pay” on the basis of “total shareholder return,” plus the percentage of shareholders who voted against their CEOs’ pay packages, said the group. Based on those metrics, the report pegs Tan’s excess pay at nearly $86.9 million, partly because a large proportion of Broadcom shareholders -- 38 percent -- voted against his pay package. Tan tried to spearhead Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm last year, but was forced to withdraw the bid after President Donald Trump killed it on national security grounds (see 1803150060). Disney CEO Bob Iger ranked sixth with a $36.3 million package and excess pay of $22.4 million, said the report. It said 55 percent of Disney shareholders voted against Iger’s package, placing Disney eighth on the list of highest percentage of dissenters. It was the second year in a row Iger placed among the top 25 most overpaid CEOs, said the report. Broadcom and Disney didn’t comment. “Overall CEO pay continues to increase,” but so, too, does shareholder “opposition to high CEO pay,” said the report.