New York Times Co. asked a court to order the FCC to release documents that "will shed light on the extent to which" Russian government agents and nationals "interfered" with the notice-and-comment process for the agency's 2017 decision to "abandon" net neutrality regulation. "Despite the clear public importance of the requested records, the FCC has thrown up a series of roadblocks, preventing The Times from obtaining the documents" under a Freedom of Information Act request, said a complaint Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in case No. 1:18-cv-08607. The Times said it repeatedly narrowed its FOIA request in the hopes of expediting release of the records. The FCC has responded "with protestations" it lacked "technical capacity," invoked "shifting rationales for rejecting" requests and misapplied a FOIA privacy exemption "to duck the agency's responsibility," the publisher said. The FCC is "disappointed that the New York Times has filed suit to collect the Commission’s internal web server logs, logs whose disclosure would put at jeopardy the Commission’s IT security practices for its Electronic Comment Filing System," emailed a spokesperson. "Just last week the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the FCC need not turn over these same web server logs under the Freedom of Information Act.”

Hurricane Florence is still affecting communications service in North Carolina, the only state for which the FCC’s disaster information reporting system is still active. Thursday’s report showed 270,688 cable and wireline subscribers out of service in the state, compared with 283,327 Wednesday (see 1809190048). Out-of-service cellsites in North Carolina went to 3.7 percent from 4.3 percent. Two public safety answering points in North Carolina still were rerouting 911 calls to other PSAPs. One TV station, Free Life Ministries’ WHFL-CD Goldsboro, remained out of service, along with 21 FM stations and two AM stations.

Pushback from some major cities against the draft order on next week's agenda on local and state regulatory authority over small-cell deployments (see 1809140012) is no surprise, since those markets will enjoy 5G rollout regardless of what potentially onerous regulatory burdens they enforce, said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr at a Media Institute lunch Thursday. Earlier that day, he likewise defended the order at another event (see 1809200007). He told the luncheon that the support the FCC has gotten from smaller cities and rural areas for the draft order is more important than concerns. He said cutting regulatory burdens for deployment is expected to free up sizable economic resources that then change the business case for deploying in smaller communities. The draft order is patterned in many ways after laws in multiple states on small-cell deployment, with "reasonable" caps on fees and shot clocks for dealing with applications, he said. Asked about lack of a "deemed granted" provision in the draft order, he said that wasn't seen necessary because of the shot clock language. Carr sounded what have become familiar themes about the heated U.S.-China rivalry over leading in 5G deployment. The last such major tech inflection point was the move from 3G to 4G, and the U.S. global dominance then "transformed our economy," Carr said, saying China sees being first in 5G as "a chance to flip the script" and dominate tech space. He said, along with freeing up spectrum for 5G, the U.S. has an "infrastructure challenge."

An interview with Senate Commerce Committee member Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., is the first of what will be a series of interviews with women involved in digital technology and media, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday as she debuted her Broadband Conversations podcast. Rosenworcel said future episodes will feature guests including Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant; San Jose, California, Chief Innovation Officer Shireen Santosham; and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved Nominet UK as a database system operator in the TV white spaces. Nominet’s system was subject to a 45-day public trial, OET said in a Wednesday order in docket 04-186. “It has satisfactorily addressed concerns received after this trial regarding the ability of its database system to exchange certain data with other database administrators, register information on fixed devices, and provide accurate channel availability information,” OET said.

The FCC Office of General Counsel rejected an appeal of its response to a Freedom of Information Act request for not citing any particular errors, according to a dismissal on delegated authority in Wednesday's Daily Digest. Ryan Shapiro, an attorney with transparency group Property of the People requested records of payments to or from “Trump-related Properties” and the FCC responded with unredacted records that consisted primarily of regulatory fees, the dismissal said. Shapiro appealed the response and questioned the adequacy of the search, but didn’t identify specific issues, the filing said: “You stated that you wished to continue with your appeal as it is [your] general practice to administratively appeal such matters for the sake of thoroughness. ... We conclude that you have not raised any material issues with the response to your FOIA request that would merit review by the Commission.” Property of the People didn’t comment.

The FCC will hear a presentation on the Connect America Fund Phase II auction of subsidies for fixed broadband and voice services, and its results (see 1808280035), said the agenda Wednesday for the September 26 commissioners' meeting.

The number of cable and wireline subscribers out of service because of Hurricane Florence slightly declined Wednesday, after rising sharply earlier in the week, said the FCC disaster information reporting system report. Wednesday’s report shows 283,327 subscribers out of service in North Carolina, down from 285,725 Tuesday. (see 1809180058). South Carolina’s outages dropped to 29,104 from 30,053. Out-of-service cellsites in the area hardest hit by the storm improved from 4.1 percent to 2.2 percent. There were still two public safety answering points in North Carolina and one in South Carolina rerouting 911 calls to other PSAPs. There were still three out of service TV stations in North Carolina and twenty-three FM stations and three AM stations were listed as out. Late Wednesday, the Public Safety Bureau deactivated DIRS for Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The system remains active for North Carolina.

The FCC is "poised to examine and reconsider" how it combats illegal robocalling under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Chairman Ajit Pai said, responding to Reps. David McKinley, R-W.Va., Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., and Ken Buck, R-Colo., in exchanges posted (here, here, here) Tuesday in docket 18-5. Citing various anti-robocalling efforts, he said it's "time for the Commission to establish robust consumer protections in line with federal law," given a March U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling that struck down key parts of a 2015 agency order interpreting TCPA provisions (see 1803160053). "As I predicted in my dissent, the last Administration's order has left both the American customer and American enterprise worse off," he wrote. "This cannot possibly be what Congress intended." He noted that the FCC in May "sought comment on the definition of an 'automatic telephone dialing system,' the treatment of calls to reassigned numbers, and the scope of a consumer's right to revoke prior express consent to receive robocalls." It also sought further comment "on reconsidering the Broadnet decision and the 2016 Federal Debt Collection Rules, as well as the interplay between the Broadnet decision and the Budget Act amendments," he added. In an exchange with Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., Pai defended the FCC's recent adoption of one-touch, make-ready pole attachments as facilitating broadband deployment while protecting worker safety and the public (see 1808020034). The agency "is heading forward, not backward," he wrote. "We're favoring competition, not the status quo. We're pressing for gigabit fiber, not fading copper. We're embracing the promise of new entrants that want nothing more than a chance to compete, not the fears of incumbents who always find a way to say no."

Initial applications to bid in the FCC’s first high-band spectrum auctions were due 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The agency eventually will publish a list of short-form applications, both those deemed complete and incomplete. The 28 GHz auction starts Nov. 14 and 24 GHz auction about one month after completion of the 28 GHz auction. Cowen’s Paul Gallant wrote investors earlier Tuesday that one big question is whether Dish Network will jump in. “If Dish submits an application, it could complicate any merger or spectrum sale discussions with wireless carriers” because of anti-collusion rules, he noted: But talks are still possible as long as a company “cordons off its bidding team from its deal team.” Gallant is also watching other non-carriers that file applications. “No pre-auction analysis would be complete without noting the distant possibility of Amazon, Google or some other deep-pocketed, non-traditional bidder jumping in,” he said. Dish has gone big in other auctions, especially the AWS-3 and TV incentive auctions.