The FCC denied a pair of petitions for reconsideration by NTCH on the agency's allowing Dish Network to convert 2 GHz band satellite spectrum for terrestrial wireless use, as expected (see 1808130040). In an order released Thursday, commissioners said NTCH hadn't shown it met the threshold requirements for justifying reconsideration and it separately denied them on their merits. It said NTCH's arguments on whether modification of the 2 GHz licenses constituted a fundamental change needed to be raised during the course of the rulemaking, and its license changes were "neither fundamental nor radical." It dismissed NTCH arguments the AWS-4 band should be limited to terrestrial operations, saying that goes beyond the scope of the proceeding to establish service rules for the spectrum. The agency denied NTCH's application for review of the H Block auction procedures (here), saying the company criticized the aggregate reserve price setting, but didn't identify any statute, regulation, precedent or policy that goes against setting an aggregate reserve price. It denied NTCH's application for review of the Wireless Bureau allowing Dish to use AWS-4 spectrum for uplinks or downlinks and an extended AWS-4 buildout deadline (here), saying it hadn't shown the bureau decision caused NTCH any harm. NTCH outside counsel Don Evans of Fletcher Heald said the company will challenge the FCC orders in court. He said the orders ignored that the H-block auction "was rigged," with the Dish waiver being granted on the assumption the company would bid what it ultimately did.

U.S. internet platforms, network providers and policymakers should collaborate on rules for "public accountability in the digital marketplace" to ensure privacy, competition and operational openness, or else "business practices" will be "dissected by others," warned ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, now a Shorenstein Center fellow. "Internet capitalism has replaced industrial capitalism," he wrote Thursday. "The challenge ... is to assure the workings of a digital economy while mitigating excess and providing stability and security for both companies and consumers. ... Ignoring the gathering policy storm is not an option." Digital platforms offer many benefits but "have aided Russian interference in the electoral process, impacted child development, and propagated disinformation, bigotry, and hateful speech," he said: They "devastated the economic underpinnings of quality journalism and established a level of marketplace dominance not seen since the early Industrial Revolution." If the U.S. doesn't act, foreign governments will write the rules, he said. While network providers recently won an FCC fight "to discriminate amongst the traffic that arrives" (see 1808160073), he said, the battle continues, and dozens of states are beginning to investigate or take actions affecting both networks and platforms.

The Northern Mariana Islands should make sure no money is diverted from a proposed 911 fund, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Wednesday letter to Gov. Ralph Torres (R). In a July 21 letter to O’Rielly, Torres said the territory doesn’t have a 911 system or active public safety answering points and thus isn’t collecting fees or charges. “The current structure provides emergency response calls to all municipal governments through dedicated telephone land lines with individual telephone handset units handled by radio dispatchers under the Department of Public Safety,” the governor said. Lawmakers are drafting a bill to create emergency 911 and next-generation 911 systems, with a 911 surcharge, he said.

FirstNet is in the first year of its five-year buildout plan (see 1808140036).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau sought additional information from Snapchat, licensee of trunked land mobile radio station WQVZ814 in Santa Monica, California, on whether the company was properly monitoring its transmissions on output frequency 464.1975. The bureau said it investigated after a compliant. Snapchat didn’t comment.

The FTC approved Entertainment Software Rating Board-proposed changes to a self-regulatory program on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (see 1805070041), the agency announced Tuesday. ESRB proposed changing the definition of “personal information and data,” based on new commission guidance on audio recording collection. Commissioners 5-0 incorporated some privacy concerns from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy and Electronic Privacy Information Center, which proposed alterations. For example, the first two groups proposed the FTC “include language that would make it a requirement -- instead of a suggestion -- to limit collection of ‘personal information and data,’” the agency said.

The National Association of State 911 Administrators said the FCC should beef up 911 reliability rules. Industry commenters questioned the need for annual certification requirements. Replies in docket 13-75 largely tracked initial comments in which APCO and the National Emergency Numbering Association urged the FCC to impose new 911 reliability rules and industry backed streamlining existing rules (see 1807170034). The Public Safety Bureau sought comment in June on 911 network reliability and whether current rules should be “modified to adapt to advancements in technology or other changes.” NASNA said the current reporting requirement for covered 911 providers is working. “The annual certification process is useful to state 911 administrators,” NASNA said. “It enables them to know what each individual provider has warranted on record. When issues arise, it enables them to work with the covered 911 service provider and the Commission to resolve those issues.” Less frequent certifications wouldn’t work, the group said: “A lot can change in a network in the course of 12 months.” AT&T urged overhauling the rules, "to eliminate wasteful, low-utility reporting practices." Such information "is almost never used by any of the intended beneficiaries,” it noted. Alternatively, the FCC could narrow the scope of the information required and reduce the frequency of reporting to every three years, AT&T said. ATIS would support eliminating the certification requirement: “There is no evidence that this requirement has had any significant impact to network reliability or resiliency.” T-Mobile said the FCC should leave the current rules in place. “The importance of the issue is reflected in the size of the record compiled when the Commission first considered adopting rules to improve the reliability and resiliency of 911 communications networks,” the carrier said.

The administrative law judge proceeding on Sinclair buying Tribune “must go forward” despite the deal’s dissolution, ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Tuesday. The hearing should continue to allow Sinclair to present evidence on its behalf and demonstrate FCC independence in the face of President Donald Trump’s tweet condemning the hearing designation order, Wheeler said. Tribune announced the collapse of the deal and a related lawsuit against Sinclair last week (see 1808090042). Trump's use of “such pejorative and judgmental terms” means the agency “has a responsibility to uphold the honor and integrity of its processes and not to allow a shadow to hang over its proceedings,” Wheeler said. “President Trump has hung a cloud over the FCC.” Attorneys for Sinclair wrote a letter to the general counsel of the Brookings Institution arguing the company didn’t deceive the FCC in response to a previous blog of Wheeler’s, he said (see 1807250057). Deciding whether to continue with the hearing is a “legacy defining decision,” for current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Wheeler said. Pai's choosing “a backroom consent decree deal” over a hearing would leave “serious unanswered questions,” Wheeler said. “How will the Commission treat Sinclair’s future transactions, its petitions to renew existing licenses when they expire, its future retransmission consent negotiations with cable operators that rely on good faith, or the new ATSC 3.0 television standard that it sponsors?” After taking “a victory lap for being tough on oversight,” Pai has to choose between giving “a pardon to the friend of the president” or continuing the hearing, Wheeler said. Sinclair didn’t comment.

The proposed third tranche of 25 percent Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports targets equipment “critical for the build-out” of 5G, IoT and “big data,” says K.C. Swanson, Telecommunications Industry Association director-global policy, in prehearing testimony posted Monday in docket USTR-2018-0026. Swanson is scheduled to testify Aug. 21, day two of four days of Office of U.S. Trade Representative hearings. Requests to testify were due Monday under the deadline USTR Robert Lighthizer extended when announcing Aug. 1 he will “consider,” under President Donald Trump’s direction, raising the third tranche of proposed duties to 25 percent from 10 percent (see 1808010073). The “network-based technologies” in which U.S. companies lead the world “depend on underlying hardware,” said Swanson. “Taxing that hardware,” as tariffs on network servers, gateways and modems would do, will raise costs for consumers, she writes: That "stands to discourage U.S. adoption of advanced technologies in a period of growing global competition.” Duties "will hit so many of the telecom products essential to the operation of the internet,” Swanson says. More than 10 million Americans use the computer networking products Zyxel Communications sources from China under certain tariffs hearings for home internet access and for “network computers in the workplace,” commented the company. Its largest customers include CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell and Hawaiian Telecom, it said. Zyxel’s router products “are used to proliferate broadband throughout the U.S.,” it said. With 34 million Americans lacking "an affordable and reliable broadband connection,” government levies would run counter to DCC and other broadband initiatives, the company said.

AT&T said the FCC should adopt a shot clock of 60 days for small cells collocated on existing poles and 90 days for small cells placed on new poles. The company said in docket 17-79 deployment is in some cases dictated by local hurdles. In Lincoln, Nebraska, “high fees have delayed its residents the benefits of AT&T’s small cell deployments,” it said, citing similar problems in other cities in the state. “AT&T has for now focused more of its small-cell operational resources in the region on Des Moines and other Iowa communities, where cost-based fees and other predictable benefits of small cell legislation have created a more favorable environment,” it said. The carrier similarly hadn’t deployed any small cell sites in Portland, Oregon, “due to its annual recurring [rights-of-way] access fee of $7,500 per node plus an annual recurring fee to attach to city-owned infrastructure in the ROW in the amount of $5,500 per node downtown/$3,500 per node in other areas,” it said. The cities didn't comment. Siting rates and fees for wireless infrastructure deployments should be “cost-based, transparent, and non-discriminatory,” said CTIA and Wireless Infrastructure Association officials in a meeting last week with Will Adams, aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. “Updated siting policies at the federal, state, and local levels play a key role in enabling the wireless industry to deploy the thousands of small cells needed to create capacity for today’s 4G LTE networks and build out" 5G, said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-79. “Rates and fees that are based on a locality’s costs to review applications and, where applicable, manage right-of- way use will ensure that localities can recoup expenses resulting from management of wireless siting, while promoting broadband deployment.” Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended steps commissioners took on wireless infrastructure rules in March (see 1803220027), in a letter to Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., posted Monday. “Our wireless infrastructure rules have been a poor fit for the 5G networks of the future, and our efforts to unleash spectrum for consumer use will be moot if carriers can't deploy the physical infrastructure needed to bring next-generation services to the American people,” Pai said. “The Commission's recent action on this front is a giant leap forward in updating our wireless infrastructure rules.” Pai stressed that the FCC had done extensive consultation with tribal groups prior to approving the order.