The FCC Further NPRM on emergency alert system testing and false alerts approved by commissioners 3-1 Thursday (see 1807120059) and in Monday's Daily Digest has comments due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 30 days later. It has several pages that list questions in three sections, including on false alert reporting and delivery of wireless emergency alerts to handsets. That section examines how performance of WEAs to wireless devices is measured and reported: “We are concerned that inconsistent WEA delivery not only fails to deliver potentially life-saving information to the public, but also can erode consumer confidence in alerting systems. Accordingly, we seek comment regarding WEA delivery issues that stakeholders have encountered or are aware of, either in connection with a live alert or with a regional end-to-end test.”

Two FCC information collections will take effect Tuesday after being approved by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, under rules to be published the same day in the Federal Register. The first stems from a 2016 Connect America Fund Alaska Plan order in docket 10-90 to provide $1.5 billion in broadband-oriented USF support cumulatively over 10 years to fixed and mobile providers in high-cost areas of the state served by rate-of-return telcos and their wireless affiliates (see 1608310067). The information collection had to be revised to reflect subsequent reporting orders. The second concerns information collection under a Feb. 22 payphone compensation order to roll back audit, reporting and other rules the agency called outdated (see Notebook at end of 1802220045). An order adopted June 7 (see Notebook at end of 1806070021) in docket 17-169 to take further actions against telephone slamming and cramming practices takes effect Aug. 16 under another rule for Tuesday's FR. Also in Tuesday’s FR, ATSC 3.0 information collection requirement clearance was announced (see 1807160014).

The EPA is encouraging smart home companies to “get in on the ground floor” and consider energy use “from the beginning,” said Abigail Daken, an environmental engineer at the agency. With smart home products gaining popularity, doing such will help manufacturers provide the functions consumers want with the least energy use, she said on an EPA Wednesday webinar. Connectivity within a system is an opportunity for cost savings and better user experience, said Daken. She cited a set-top box that must warm up after a “deep sleep.” In a connected home, it can turn on when the alarm system is disengaged, she said. User experience and energy-saving modes “work better together if occupancy information is shared” in a smart home, she said. The EPA is focusing on occupancy now as the most promising area for savings, and could later add co-optimization of devices, she said. The agency is gathering information from industry on how it would understand the performance of smart home systems. Typically, that process leads to a specification and products could be certified. But Energy Star Lighting Program Manager Taylor Jantz-Sell said the smart home isn't like other Energy Star standard practices for individual product specs because it’s a combination of products, some already Energy Star-certified. It’s a combination of hardware and occupancy data that could be “baked in” to hardware, or located remotely, and automated services working together, she said. “It’s a whole new arena for us,” she said.

Tribal groups and Lifeline providers asked a court to stay FCC tribal Lifeline restrictions, pending judicial review of their challenges to an order in late 2017 (see 1711160021). The FCC decisions to prohibit resellers from receiving enhanced tribal Lifeline support and to narrow the geographic scope of tribal lands will "disconnect eligible low-income Tribal members from phone and broadband service," and were made without meaningful consultation with affected tribes, said the motion (in Pacer) Friday of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority, National Lifeline Association, Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless and Easy Telephone Services, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in NLA v. FCC, No. 18-1026. The Wireline Bureau July 8 denied the parties' request for an administrative stay (see 1807060011). The D.C. Circuit Friday granted (in Pacer) an unopposed revised briefing schedule on underlying petitions challenging the order, with the DOJ/FCC brief due July 23, and petitioners' reply brief due Aug. 20. At the FCC, the NLA backed a Q Link Wireless emergency petition asking the FCC to direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to implement an application programming interface for its Lifeline national verifier of consumer eligibility for the low-income USF subsidy program. Comments are due in August on the petition (see 1807120004 and 1807050046).

The FCC upheld a January Wireless Bureau order on Dish Network designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless and their AWS-3 auction bidding credits. The bureau gave the DEs 90 days to renegotiate business arrangements with Dish and show how they qualify for their AWS-3 auction bidding credits (see 1801240053). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in August upheld FCC denial of those bidding credits, but gave the DEs a chance to negotiate a solution to Dish's de facto control (see 1708290012). “The process established in the Order on Remand to be responsive to the Court’s mandate and we affirm the Order on Remand,” the FCC said in Friday's Daily Digest. “The mandate does not require the Commission to hold 'responsive, back-and-forth discussions' with the Applicants. Nothing in Section 402(h) of the Act or the Court’s mandate limits the FCC’s discretion under Section 4(j) of the Act so as to require the FCC to ‘negotiate iteratively’ with Northstar and SNR Wireless in the fashion they now contemplate.” The companies didn't comment.

Commissioners renewed licenses of Fox Television Stations' WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and WNYW New York over a concurrence from Jessica Rosenworcel, despite opposition from some groups to those stations. The licenses now expire June 1, 2023, FCC records show. An order published in Friday's Daily Digest denied applications by Free Press, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Voice for New Jersey and United Church of Christ for review of a Media Bureau 2014 order renewing WWOR's license (see 1408110046) and petitions by the last two of those groups to deny renewals for both stations (see 1411040061) over concerns of a Fox inaccurate report to the agency and WWOR not serving the needs of its audience, specific obligations the station uniquely faces. Thursday, the agency released letters dated June 28 Chairman Ajit Pai wrote New Jersey's two Democratic senators saying he circulated a draft to resolve WWOR's then-pending renewal application. "The Bureau acted reasonably in finding that inaccurate statements made by Fox in the context of ex parte communications did not warrant further review or nonrenewal of Fox’s license," said the new order. "Because of our action in the 2014 Quadrennial Recon repealing the NBCO [Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership] rule, Fox’s joint ownership of these properties is now permissible under our current [cross-ownership] rules and the challenge to the Bureau’s grant of a temporary waiver is therefore moot." The bureau had given Fox temporary waiver to own both stations and the New York Post. Friday, the company declined to comment, and some of the challengers didn't comment. The order didn't contain a statement from Rosenworcel, whose office didn't comment further; an agency official noted the commissioner hadn't issued such a response. The offices of Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, the senators who had written Pai, also didn't comment Friday. Booker and Menendez wrote Pai in January asking him to consider WWOR’s “persistent refusal” to “abide by its legal obligations to provide the people of Northern New Jersey with local news and information.”

Consumers plan to spend less on technology this back-to-school season, which will have total sales of $82.8 billion vs. $83.8 billion last year, found a June poll from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics that Amazon cited Thursday. The company was pushing such specials for its upcoming Prime Day event, beginning Monday. The biggest change by category is tech, said Mark Mathews, NRF vice president-research. Laptops, tablets and smartphones have become “an everyday part of household life and aren’t necessarily a purchase parents save for the start of the school year,” Mathews said. Still, Amazon said more than a third of back-to-school and off-to-college shoppers reported shopping for school items there during 2017 Prime Day, with NRF forecasting a 2018 rise to more than half. Comcast focused on Prime Day delivery theft. “Porch pirates,” it said, “may also be looking to snag the latest goods at the expense of unsuspecting consumers.” Amazon began Amazon Key last fall as a Prime membership benefit in 37 cities, controlling access to customers’ homes.

The developer of the radio industry’s NextRadio FM smartphone app conceded Thursday it's no closer to swaying Apple to unlock FM chips in its iPhones but vowed it won't stop lobbying the company on NextRadio support (see 1701060004). “No, we are not any closer,” Ryan Hornaday, Emmis Communications chief financial officer, emailed us Thursday. Other broadcasters and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai have unsuccessfully urged Apple on the issue (see 1709280060). That company “controls the real estate inside their phones and has simply been unwilling to activate the FM chip, despite it being in their phones,” said Hornaday. “Apple always weathers this storm" of public opinion and "refuses to budge," he continued. "We will not give up the fight, but we are not winning.” Apple didn’t comment. NextRadio is giving the radio industry “a remarkable opportunity for data attribution” to enhance selling advertising, said Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan on a Thursday earnings call. The radio station owner is “far along in discussions in changing the focus of NextRadio, with significant input and partnership from major radio broadcasters,” he said. Emmis and its radio industry "brethren" believe strongly that "if we can provide rich data analytics" to advertisers, "we can regain the strength" that radio had, even in the face of digital competition from Google and Facebook, said Smulyan. Radio historically has had the unique advantage of providing “audio messages” that “really lock into people’s heads, but because of the rich data attribution characteristics of Google and Facebook, that advantage has been lost,” he said.

DOJ appealed a federal judge's ruling that rejected its antitrust complaint and cleared AT&T to take over Time Warner. DOJ filed a brief notice with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday in USA v. AT&T (No. 1:17-cv-02511-RJL) that it's appealing the June 12 final judgment entered by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon (see 1806120002 and 1806120060). The department sued the companies in November to block the deal, alleging the combined company would be too big an anti-competitive risk to rival video distributors. AT&T General Counsel David McAtee said in a statement: “The Court’s decision could hardly have been more thorough, fact-based, and well-reasoned. While the losing party in litigation always has the right to appeal if it wishes, we are surprised that the DOJ has chosen to do so under these circumstances. We are ready to defend the Court’s decision at the D.C. Circuit.” AT&T/TW "is a bad deal for consumers and competition," said John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge senior counsel. "Since it has gone forward, AT&T has already raised prices for its DirecTV Now video service, more than doubled the mysterious ‘administrative fee’ it tacks on to most of its wireless bills, and raised the price of some of its wireless plans while removing the HBO subscription that it had previously included. Judge Leon’s decision contained numerous errors, and we believe the DOJ’s position should be vindicated.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans the first nationwide test of wireless emergency alerts to wireless devices using the presidential level code on Sept. 20, FEMA said in an FCC filing. FEMA sought waiver of FCC rules to let wireless carriers participate in the test, to start at 2:18 p.m. EDT and be transmitted throughout the U.S. and its territories. On the same day, FEMA said it plans the fourth in a series of nationwide tests of the emergency alert system, to start at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The WEA test “is necessary because it will determine if carrier WEA configuration, systems, and networks can and will process a Presidential WEA delivering the message via all WEA enabled cell sites with minimal latency,” FEMA said in docket 15-91. “FEMA proposes to conduct this test in September in conjunction with National Preparedness Month.” FEMA said tests of public alert and warning systems can “assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine what technological improvements need to be made.” The WEA test will instruct wireless subscribers: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”