Cellular and data service reaches more than half of Metrorail tunnels in the District of Columbia area, said the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Wednesday. Cellular service from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless is available in all Metro stations and more than 50 of 100 track miles covering parts of all six lines, said WMATA, announcing three new “wireless ready” tunnel segments: 5.6 track miles between Ballston and Rosslyn, 4.8 miles between Rosslyn and Metro Center, and 7.4 miles between College Park and Fort Totten. WMATA expects total coverage by mid-2020. It’s an “important milestone,” but “there is much work left to do to eliminate rider and employee risk for those using the other 50 percent not connected,” FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a statement. “We have to do this quicker and the new year must bring new ways to do just that.” O’Rielly last summer lightly praised a WMATA update (see 1808020005) after earlier slamming the organization as incompetent (see 1802220026).

Intelsat and SES “anticipate” they will have to procure eight new satellites to implement the C-Band Alliance’s plan for the band, and, if it's accepted, they are ready to do so, emailed Preston Padden, CBA head-advocacy and government relations, to FCC commissioners and top staff, posted Wednesday in docket 18-122. “This assessment is based on future demand currently expressed by CBA member’s customers,” Padden explained. “These new satellites will enable Intelsat and SES to operate approximately the same amount of capacity to carry video and other services that they have today in 500 MHz, but using only 300 MHz of spectrum.” The satellites are key to clearing the C-band, he said: “No other plan before the Commission contemplates the procurement of 8 new satellites." All current C-band users would continue to be served in C-band and their expenses for filters and "other reasonable transition expenses" would be paid by CBA. Padden stressed the new satellites will be launched only under his group's plan. He said other plans "ignore the necessity of creating incremental capacity to maintain current user services." Every "plan for clearing C‐band spectrum, other than the CBA plan, necessarily would reduce the capacity for today’s C‐band users," he added.

Comments are due Jan. 17, replies Feb. 19 on an FCC biennial review of telecom regulations that may no longer be necessary due to "meaningful economic competition" among providers. "We seek such comment for all rules that are outdated, archaic, or otherwise not in the public interest," said a public notice of bureaus and offices in dockets including 18-375 and Tuesday's Daily Digest. The PN said pleadings must be filed with each bureau or office with jurisdiction over an applicable rule.

A C-Band Alliance (CBA) proposal for the C-band is probably still in the lead (see 1811140061), but “the amount of opposition and concern that was expressed was clearly significant and from parties across the board,” Dynamic Spectrum Alliance President Kalpak Gude told us Tuesday: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s statement “of needing to go slow, also suggests that the CBA proposal is in more trouble than may have been anticipated.” Gude has questions about AT&T’s alternate proposal. “Their proposal makes no sense to me,” he said. “Either a private sale happens, or the FCC will run the sale. Not sure what it means for a private sale to occur and there to be a so much government control and involvement. I am not even sure if that would be legal.” Gude agreed the issue of windfall payments to C-band incumbents is growing. “One thing that is not yet covered is that the U.S. would be the only government allowing the satellite operators to make any money from the sale of this spectrum," he said. In Europe, “home of three of the four satellite operators, they took away some of the C-band and gave, or will give, all revenue to taxpayers,” he said. “The CBA proposal is for these foreign operators to get compensated by taking money from U.S. taxpayers where they could not in their home markets. I think this issue is going to only get bigger.” ABS Global, Hispasat and Embratel Star One, filing as the small satellite operators, said clearing a portion of the band through a market-based mechanism “could have merit.” They said CBA's plan is “self-serving, inequitable and anything but market-based.”

With a partial shutdown possible of federal agencies not fully funded through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the FCC Tuesday slightly updated its plans. The continuing resolution funding the FCC and other agencies expires at midnight Friday. If a shutdown is implemented, 245 employees, 17 percent of the total, would keep working. Those figures are similar to September estimates. "If a potential lapse in appropriations is imminent, the FCC will determine whether and for how long prior year funds are available to continue agency operations during a lapse. If prior year funds are available, employees will be notified that the FCC will remain open beyond a lapse and directed to report to work as usual," the notice said. "If the prior year funds are unavailable, or such funds are exhausted during the lapse in appropriations, the agency will furlough employees." The administration "would like to see Congress pass an appropriations bill that fully funds our government and that allows the president to protect our border and provides substantial border security funding," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, per a shared-media outlet report.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is in Israel this week for meetings. “An honor to represent @FCC & US Gov‘t this week in Israel!” he tweeted. “Look forward to working with counterparts like [Communications Minister Ayoob Kara] & meeting entrepreneurs, students, and others.”

T-Mobile denied it’s a target of an FCC investigation whether top wireless carriers submitted incorrect coverage maps (see 1812070048) for the Mobility Fund Phase II auction, responding to the Rural Wireless Association. “T-Mobile has not been contacted by the Commission regarding the agency’s announced investigation into alleged violations of the MF-II 4G LTE data collection and has no reason to believe that T-Mobile is involved,” the carrier said in a Friday filing in docket 10-208. “RWA’s vague and irresponsible statements regarding T-Mobile’s MF-II maps are unsupported by any evidence and are patently false.” RWA said earlier T-Mobile in some cases appeared to report “its future 4G LTE coverage” rather than current coverage. New Street Research’s Blair Levin emailed investors that even if the allegations against T-Mobile are found to be true, they wouldn't affect FCC consideration of T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint. Levin also cited reports that Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. review of T-Mobile/Sprint is proceeding quickly, with approval likely in light of the companies’ agreement not to buy Huawei equipment. “If so, that seems to eliminate a small but material risk factor that had developed in light of the opposition expressed by a secretive organization named Protect America’s Wireless,” Levin said. Industry officials said Monday clearance of the deal by CFIUS appears imminent. A Monday report by the Economic Policy Institute said the deal would drive down wages. “Average weekly earnings for retail wireless workers would decline by between 1 and 3 percent in most affected labor markets, with earnings falling by as much as 7 percent in the most-affected labor markets,” said the report, paid for by Communications Workers of America. T-Mobile didn't comment.

More municipal broadband-network allies said FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly's concerns (see 1812130073) about such ISPs infringing on free speech are off base, while those often opposed to regulation told us they shared such fears. O’Rielly "cannot identify a single instance of a municipal broadband network infringing on anyone’s freedom of speech," said Executive Director Deb Socia of the Next Century Cities group of communities including Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "Local government officials have a Constitutional obligation to uphold free speech." Others we surveyed also couldn't think of an instance of a public ISP infringing on citizens' First Amendment rights. Baller Stokes President Jim Baller, whose law firm represents local interests, told us he disagrees "with most of Commissioner O’Rielly’s arguments." Others agreed with the commissioner. As they are government-run entities, First Amendment curbs on limiting speech "would likely apply to municipally owned broadband networks," emailed American Legislative Exchange Council Communications and Technology Task Force Director Jonathon Hauenschild. "They would likely face lawsuits and find their terms of service heavily questioned by federal courts." Other than sometimes public ISPs in unserved areas, generally, "such services should not be offered by government in competition with private sector providers," ALEC recommends. O'Rielly is rightly "concerned that muni broadband networks could get into the business of censorship by imposing speech codes that prohibit speech deemed 'impermissible' by local governments," emailed Richard Kaplar of The Media Institute. "The First Amendment protects against such censorship at all levels of government." The institute, which Friday said Kaplar advanced to president-CEO (see personals section), is where the commissioner gave his earlier speech opposing muni broadband that drew opposition, prompting his response in Thursday's blog. NCTA and USTelecom declined to comment Friday.

One of the chief challenges for the U.S. at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) will be balancing the spectrum needs of satellite and international mobile telecommunications, especially as those use cases are increasingly "crammed together" in the spectrum bands, NTIA head David Redl said at a U.S. ITU Association meeting Friday. While that also was a fight at WRC-15, the world is now further along in development and deployment, meaning there's more relevant data guiding the discussions, he said. Also a big challenge is agenda item 1.13, regarding spectrum between 24.25 GHz and 86 GHz for mobile broadband, he said. Some issues that might have been particularly contentious at the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications have died down. "Six years, in internet time, is an eternity," he said. Other topics, like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, will continue to be ITU hot buttons for the foreseeable future, he said. He said a big reason the U.S. wanted American Doreen Bogdan-Martin elected head of the ITU Telecom Development Bureau (see 1811010052) is its perception a leadership change was needed to help push along connectivity globally. He said the U.S. wants to see the ITU's focus not just on connectivity "but connecting them in a way that makes them equals … connects them to the global economy.” Redl said he didn’t know when the U.S. would appoint its WRC-19 delegation leadership, as that's in the purview of the State Department and he was not privy to those discussions. But NTIA, FCC and State Department staffs will have a lot of preliminary work done when the delegation leadership is decided, he said.

The FCC Technological Advisory Council meets Jan. 14, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., in the Commission Meeting Room, said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. The meeting had been scheduled for Dec. 5, postponed due to the death of President George H.W. Bush (see 1812030032).