FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel’s media aide Kate Black has written a guidebook for women seeking political office with actress and comedy podcaster June Diane Raphael, Rosenworcel tweeted Tuesday. According to the publisher, Represent is structured around a 23-point checklist for female candidates at every level of office. The book will be published in September.

Calendar corrections: The date of an AT&T event on privacy is Feb. 5. ... The URL for a Free State Foundation telecom event is here.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler questioned whether the administration is fully committed to cybersecurity as industry moves on 5G. A Monday opinion in The New York Times builds on his recent blog post (see 1901140038). “Leadership in 5G technology is not just about building a network, but also about whether that network will be secure enough,” Wheeler said. “And the 5G ‘race’ is more complex and dangerous than industry and the Trump administration portray.” Wheeler cited self-driving cars: “When 5G enables autonomous vehicles, do we want those cars and trucks crashing into each other because the Russians hacked the network? If 5G will be the backbone of breakthroughs such as remote surgery, should that network be vulnerable to the North Koreans breaking into a surgical procedure? Innovators, investors and users need confidence in the network’s cybersecurity if its much-heralded promise is to be realized.”

T-Mobile is the best positioned among U.S. carriers “to deliver real 5G whenever that reality actually materializes,” BTIG’s Walter Piecyk wrote investors Friday. “T-Mobile’s deep and unused low-band spectrum should enable it to launch real 5G before all of its peers. T-Mobile should therefore be considered a primary 5G investment opportunity for investors whether their acquisition of Sprint is approved or not.” The analyst said if the deal isn’t approved, T-Mobile likely will spend $20 billion on spectrum over the next two years. A likely target is Dish Network’s band 66, which includes AWS-4 downlink spectrum and AWS-1 and paired AWS-3, he said. “If that block or Dish’s band 70 is not an option, $20 billion would provide a healthy budget for C-Band spectrum that could become available as early as 2020,” he said. “Unfortunately, C-Band will not likely be usable for several years.” Meanwhile, T-Mobile Friday named Ulf Ewaldsson, ex-Ericsson, senior vice president-technology transformation, reporting directly to Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray. (See also the personals section of this publication's issue).

Reps. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., raised concerns Thursday about the FCC's C-band NPRM, saying in a letter released the next day the commission should seek a “balanced” approach for terrestrial use of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band. Reply comments on the proposal were due in December (see 1812110054). “This balance must consider protection of the existing services upon which consumers rely, as well as the associated investment by incumbent users of this spectrum,” the lawmakers wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Nearly every television viewer and radio listener depends on C-band spectrum to reliably receive content” and satellite licensees on the band “and their content delivery customers have invested billions of dollars in the launch of satellites and construction of earth station infrastructure to deliver this content” to consumers. “We do not oppose examination of new, additional uses of the C-band,” Cardenas and Kinzinger said. If the FCC moves to open the band up for spectrum reallocation, it should at minimum “ensure that incumbents are made whole for costs incurred as a result of any new services or shared uses in the band.” The FCC must oversee any spectrum reallocation on the C-band, the lawmakers said. “Tens of millions of Americans rely on the C-band to receive news, entertainment, weather and sports content every day,” said the American Cable Association, NAB, NCTA and NPR. “It’s critically important for the FCC to ensure that any changes to C-band spectrum usage must preserve interference-free access to this popular radio and TV content.” The C-Band Alliance's plan for that spectrum “is completely consistent with this letter,” emailed Advocacy and Government Relations Head Preston Padden on Friday. “While making spectrum available for 5G, CBA’s Members will continue their 99.999% reliable C-band service to all current customers and cover the costs of the transition including purchasing and installing filters. No other plan does this.” The FCC didn't comment.

Regulations.gov is back online for users after an outage for much of Thursday. The website where many agencies, but not the FCC, accept filings and post documents reportedly had said originally it was offline due to the partial government shutdown. Later Thursday, it blamed "system issues." Friday, it was back online. The site is expected to remain online during the rest of the government-funding impasse, a help-desk staffer told us. He confirmed the tech issue wasn't shutdown-related, saying the site resumed working at around 5 p.m. EST Thursday. The EPA, which helps manage regulations.gov, didn't comment. The agency, which runs Energy Star, is closed for the shutdown, says EPA’s website. All Energy Star “tools, resources, and data services will not be available” for the “duration,” it says.

A U.S. District Court rightly ruled Pacer fees were unlawfully set above the amount authorized by Congress but was too permissive in allowing the fees to fund some non-Pacer expenses, said the National Veterans Legal Services Program, National Consumer Law Center and Alliance for Justice in a docket 19-1081 appellant opening brief (in Pacer) Wednesday. They asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse the lower court's denial of their motion for summary adjudication on liability and its partial grant of the government's cross-motion for summary judgment and remand the case to the District Court. DOJ didn't comment Thursday.

A federal court panel denied an FCC stay request to postpone Feb. 1 oral argument on challenges to its net neutrality reversal order (see 1901170055), as some expected (see 1901150011). Judges Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Stephen Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday denied a commission motion for a delay that was based on the lapse in appropriations, said the brief order, citing opposition to the request in Mozilla v. FCC, No. 18-1051. That panel will review the case on the merits. The FCC Tuesday said petitioners challenging the order opposed the motion, and petitioner Incompas Wednesday filed opposition (see 1901150058). The FCC and others noted a previous D.C. Circuit ruling that such stay denials constituted "express legal authorization" for agencies to comply with court requests for oral argument or briefing, despite Anti-Deficiency Act restrictions during the partial government shutdown. The denial "does now enable us to adequately prepare," emailed an FCC spokesperson Thursday. Incompas is "glad the court ruled so quickly," and looks forward to presenting its "case to save net neutrality and keep the streaming revolution going," emailed Incompas General Counsel Angie Kronenberg. Mozilla didn't comment.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said businesses "must be able to challenge the reach and basis" of agency orders "used in litigation to purportedly subject them to enormous damages," including FCC Telephone Consumer Protection Act regulations. "TCPA lawsuits are a cottage industry and a scourge on legitimate businesses ... who have little warning that reasonable communicative activities may generate crushing litigation," said the Chamber's Supreme Court amicus brief Tuesday backing neither side in PDR Network v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, No. 17-1705. "The Court should ensure that its disposition of this case does not undermine the regulatory certainty and national uniformity promoted by the Hobbs Act, while also protecting private businesses’ due process rights to defend against unwarranted liability inflicted by the FCC’s prior interpretations of the TCPA." PDR argued a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Hobbes Act ruling in its fax case stripped a district court of jurisdiction to review an FCC "unsolicited advertisement" decision (see 1901090045). The Supreme Court hasn't validated the argument that federal courts are "statutorily bound" by an agency statutory interpretation that's "unambiguously unlawful," said Oklahoma, Texas and other states backing petitioners. "Yet that is what Respondent argues and what the court below held." That "creates a Hobson’s choice: either monitor the Federal Register and challenge every guidance document within 60 days of promulgation, or forever waive any statutory or constitutional defense to private suits," they wrote, suggesting: "U.S. Courts of Appeals have exclusive jurisdiction over direct challenges to final orders that have the force of law, but defendants in private suits always retain the ability to raise constitutional or statutory defenses -- even if they conflict with how federal agencies have interpreted the relevant statutes."

The heads of House Commerce panels want the big four wireless carriers and other CEOs to describe location sharing deals, which have drawn scrutiny in recent days as some operators end the practice. Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio; Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., requested information from T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon and aggregators Zumigo and Microbilt. "This practice of selling and sharing of location information through multiple entities potentially impacts hundreds of millions of American customers," they wrote the companies Wednesday. "We are deeply troubled because it is not the first time we have received reports and information about the sharing of mobile users’ location information involving a number of parties who may have misused personally identifiable information.” Legislators want answers to several questions by Jan. 30. Like AT&T and Verizon, Sprint will end location data-sharing agreements (see 1901110042) with third parties, including deals companies consider beneficial to customers like roadside assistance, a spokesperson emailed Wednesday. Sprint ended deals with data aggregators last year but maintained arrangements impacting things like roadside assistance and bank fraud, the spokesperson said: “We implemented new, more stringent safeguards to help protect customer location data, but as a result of recent events, we have decided to end our arrangements with data aggregators.” The FCC didn’t comment. AT&T cited a previous statement about ending such agreements, and the others didn't comment.