The General Services Administration approved the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee charter renewal, the FCC said in Friday's Federal Register. The FCC said it plans to charter BDAC “on or before” March 1 for a new two-year term.

Chairman Ajit Pai cited FCC action timelines and other efforts to improve 911 calling and responses as part of an "all-of-the-above" approach to public-safety communications. He expects to adopt rules later this year on Kari's Law provisions to require building and campus multiline telephone systems to let users dial 911 directly, he said in remarks at a National Emergency Number Association event Friday. The FCC is working to meet a September deadline for implementing a Ray Baum's Act mandate to ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with 911 calls, regardless of technology. He expects to move later this year on a "Z-axis accuracy" standard in a proceeding aimed at pinpointing wireless 911 callers' vertical location in multistory buildings. He said the FCC is reviewing how best to improve wireless 911 call routing -- plagued by "upwards of tens of thousands" misrouted calls -- to ensure it's based on the location of callers and not cell towers. Pai said wireless providers are "making meaningful progress" toward meeting "stringent" location accuracy standards on 70 percent of calls in 2020 and 80 percent in 2021 to help responders find the callers. Since some states continue to divert 911 fee funds to other purposes, he's ready to work with Congress and stakeholders to ensure all such fees strengthen public safety communications. Pai's "continued engagement will keep pressure on those states stealing critical 9-1-1 fees to change their awful ways & prevent new states/territories from joining," tweeted Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "New Congressional action would be welcome for habitual states that divert (NY, NJ & RI)."

A judge vacated a briefing schedule after Jason Prechtel, the FCC and General Services Administration resolved the journalist's remaining records-release claims in a lawsuit over agency handling of Freedom of Information Act requests for electronic comment submission details. U.S. District Court in Washington Judge Christopher Cooper granted a joint motion (in Pacer) that said additional briefing on the issue is no longer needed, and all that remained was Prechtel's claim for attorneys' fees and costs, said a notice Wednesday in docket 1:17-cv-01835 (in Pacer). Cooper ordered the parties, as they proposed, to file a joint status report by March 27 updating the court on negotiations to resolve the final claim.

Mike O'Rielly expressed interest in another term as FCC commissioner once his current one expires, while taping a recent episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators, an aide confirmed Wednesday. His five-year term expires June 30 (see 1412170031).

Privacy legislation is a growing focus in states beyond California, especially in light of the EU general data protection regulation (see 1901100018), said Abbie Gruwell, National Conference of State Legislatures policy director, at an FCBA lunch Wednesday. Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada and Oregon have approved similar laws giving people more control of how their data is used, she said. Lots of legislators are asking about how data brokers work “and how they can be regulated,” Gruwell said: “Disclosure is a good first step.” Among other trends is legislation on wiretapping, location data and biometric data, Gruwell said: States “are trying to keep up with technology.” They're moving away from regulating data use by specific industries to “overarching data-privacy laws,” but “nobody else has come close to California yet,” she said. Many of the state telecom bills this year are focusing on small cells, said Angelina Panettieri, National League of Cities principal associate-technology and communications. Some of the legislation is “interesting,” she said. In Mississippi, one bill would allow public utilities and rural co-ops to offer broadband, she said: “They sort of moved further towards the center of pre-emption.” Maryland has two small-cell bills, one endorsed by industry and chambers of commerce and the other by municipal groups, she said. “We’re still waiting to see what’s happening there.” Bethanne Cooley, CTIA senior director-state legislative affairs, highlighted legislation aimed at speeding siting of small cells and cutting deployment costs. Estimates are industry will need more than 800,000 small cells in the next few years, Cooley said. “If we’re paying $100,000-plus per small cell, we’re never going to get to 5G and we are in a race,” she said. So far, 21 states have passed pro-industry bills, she said. Small-cell measures are alive in five states with about “a half dozen” more to come during the 2019 session, she said. “All bills are different,” she said. CTIA is telling the states that despite work the FCC is doing on siting, and an FCC shot clock, they need to pass their own legislation, Cooley said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pressed major voice service providers to implement a call-authentication framework in 2019 to help combat call spoofing, saying he'll consider regulation if it appears some won't meet that timetable. "American consumers are sick and tired of unwanted robocalls, this consumer among them," Pai said Wednesday linking to his 2018 exchanges with industry parties. "It’s time for carriers to implement robust caller ID authentication. Uniform adoption will help improve authentication throughout the network and make sure no consumer gets left behind." He applauded providers committing to institute the Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs/Secure Telephony Identity Revisited (Shaken/Stir) framework in 2019. "This goal should be achievable for every major wireless provider, interconnected VoIP operator, and telephone company -- and I expect those lagging behind to make every effort to catch up," he said. "If it appears major carriers won’t meet the deadline to get this done this year, the FCC will have to consider regulatory intervention." In November, Pai wrote 14 industry players demanding they begin providing caller ID authentication to consumers in 2019, and received responses on their plans (see 1811200027). "While some carriers committed to rollout these services in the coming months, others hedged, citing concerns that other carriers appear to have already addressed," the FCC said. CTIA "member companies are working hard to implement tools and coordinate with government officials in an effort to relieve consumers from the pain of unwanted robocalls," responded Scott Bergmann, senior vice president-regulatory affairs. "SHAKEN/STIR can help give control back to consumers by creating a framework to identify unverified calls." Some other telco and cable trade groups didn't comment.

As Samsung began taking preorders this week on 8K smart TVs (see 1902110050), Chris Chinnock, executive director of the 8K Association, reports little new progress getting Samsung-inspired 8KA off the ground. The nonprofit was formed at CES to address 8K, including challenges of procuring native content and encouraging launch of 8K streaming services (see 1901100027). IHS Markit doesn’t see 8K TVs as a large opportunity for some time, emailed Paul Gagnon, executive director-research and analysis, Tuesday. IHS forecasts all vendors this year will ship 43,000 8K TVs in North America, 338,000 sets globally. Panasonic’s participation shows 8KA has global ambitions. Panasonic is collaborating with NHK to bring 8K broadcasts to Japanese consumers by the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Chinnock saw a report Monday that Samsung officials are "reaching out to their competitors,” including LG Electronics and Sony, to join 8KA. “We will invite them,” he told us. LGE declined comment Tuesday. Sony said Tuesday it won't join 8KA because it thinks 8K "definition" work is better handled by groups like CTA. 8KA hopes to “set up committees within the month to start work, which will take time, of course,” said Chinnock. The group’s website lists plans to form five committees, from promotion to content and certification, plus distribution and technology. April’s NAB Show “is on our radar for something next,” said Chinnock. “The wheels grind slowly with lots of big players.”

NTIA said it's working with eight states to improve a national broadband map: California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. The states will provide data and other inputs. The updated map "will help policymakers around the country make better decisions as they devise broadband expansion plans,” said NTIA Administrator David Redl Tuesday. A 2018 appropriations act mandated NTIA update the map by working with state partners. The initial eight states are geographically diverse, participate in an NTIA state network and have active broadband initiatives, said the agency, which expects to seek further input from other states and jurisdictions. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., called this "another positive step" and said her state will "benefit from being a key player" in broadband expansion efforts.

Ex-Quintillion CEO Elizabeth Pierce pled guilty to wire fraud and identify theft in a scheme to induce investors to sink more than $250 million into her Alaska-based company's fiber network, said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York Monday. Pierce, also FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee ex-chair, admitted to engaging "in a brazen, multi-year scheme to obtain over $250 million from investors by misrepresenting that she had guaranteed revenue contracts with multiple telecommunications services companies," said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Pierce, now of Austin, is to be sentenced May 16, said the office. She pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count, carrying a 20-year maximum sentence, and eight counts of aggravated identity theft, each having a mandatory two years' imprisonment, with at least two of those years to be consecutive to any wire fraud term. Pierce's arrest in April (see 1804130055) led the Project on Government Oversight to seek an FCC investigation into her BDAC work (see 1804180038). The agency last year played down her role, and Chairman Ajit Pai told a lawmaker in the fall he and staff weren't aware of the DOJ probe before Pierce resigned as BDAC chair in September 2017 (see 1810040051). The commission declined comment Tuesday.

The FCC Wireline Bureau recommended keeping a five-year E-rate budget approach for Wi-Fi and other internal connections under "category two" school and library funding. A data review found "numerous ways in which the category two budget approach has resulted in a broader distribution of funding that is more equitable and more predictable," the bureau reported Monday in docket 13-184, noting supportive comments in the record. It said a prior "two-in-five" rule limiting category two funding to individual schools and libraries to two out of every five years was "ineffective." Staff recommended the FCC consider modifying the "category two budget approach to enhance" E-rate support for high-speed connectivity, including by "raising the funding floor if the Commission finds that insufficient funding is deterring participation by schools and libraries at the funding floor."