FCC adoption of Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposed relief order for storm damaged wireless and wireline carriers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1803160051) will help communications providers “prevail” in the face of the upcoming 2018 hurricane season, Pai said in an illustrated blog post about his recent travels to those areas. Pai’s post describes visits to damaged broadcast and wired infrastructure, and conversations with local officials about the difficulties caused by the storms. Pai saw broken utility poles, cable lines supported by bamboo stalks, and wrecked U.S. Virgin Islands station WTJX-TV Charlotte-Amalie, St. Thomas. Destroyed wired infrastructure is a “major problem,” Pai said. “Replacing it is hard and expensive.” Pai mentioned his meetings with the governors of both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and telecom officials in both territories. “There’s much to do in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to recover from last year’s hurricane season,” Pai said. “The FCC will continue to stand side by side with them throughout the recovery and restoration process.”

Lead petitioner ACA International hailed partial reversal of an FCC 2015 robocalling order, under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday (see 1803160006). ACA "is extremely pleased by the court’s thoughtful and careful consideration of the arguments the credit and collection industry made," said CEO Mark Neeb: The ruling "supports legitimate, law-abiding businesses and recognizes that technological advancements in the ways people communicate are good for society.” The FCC's Republican majority and industry parties had also praised the unanimous court ruling overturning smartphone and reassigned-number decisions of the 2015 order while affirming an agency standard for revoking consumer consent and the scope of an exemption "for time-sensitive healthcare calls" (see 1803160053). A Wiley Rein blog post of takeaways (it also did a ruling overview) said the court "signaled that it would be receptive to an FCC construction of the TCPA’s autodialing prohibitions that potentially would exclude from TCPA liability calls made using a wide variety of technologies that the FCC’s prior approach had included, including predictive dialers, preview dialers, or other dialing mechanisms involving human intervention." Attorneys Scott Delacourt and Eve Reed said of the reassigned numbers reversal: "This ruling is also potentially significant, in that it rejects the idea that calling parties should be deemed to know that they have called a reassigned number even if a single call does not provide them with actual notice that reassignment has occurred. The Court suggested that the FCC has identified a path forward on reassigned numbers with its proposal for a reassigned number database." On a reasonable opt-out standard, they wrote: "Although affirming the FCC, the Court’s ruling should provide some protection to callers from consumers who choose 'unconventional' methods of expressing their desire to opt-out of receiving autodialed calls where user-friendly means are available." Mozilla Fellow Gigi Sohn tweeted the ruling "demonstrates mostly how outdated the law is. Does Congress have the guts 2 update it?"

Parties asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to send FCC net neutrality litigation to the D.C. Circuit. Mozilla and others, which filed 13 petitions for review of a net neutrality repeal order in the D.C. Circuit, said the FCC and the two petitioners that filed in the 9th Circuit -- Santa Clara County and the California Public Utilities Commission -- don't object. The FCC and Santa Clara confirmed Monday they wouldn't oppose. The CPUC didn't comment. A court lottery chose the 9th Circuit, sparking speculation there could be a request to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit (see 1803090051). Transfer is warranted by "the convenience of the parties, the choice of forum made by the majority of the petitioners, and the fact that this Court's sister Court for the D.C. Circuit has considered virtually identical issues in inter-related proceedings," said parties' motion (in Pacer) Friday to the 9th Circuit in County of Santa Clara v. FCC, No. 18-70506 and consolidated cases. "This case is the fourth 'follow-on' phase in the review of the [FCC's] 'network neutrality' actions; all prior phases have been adjudicated by the D.C. Circuit. That Circuit has issued four decisions in these prior three proceedings ... Transfer is warranted in the interest of continuity." An attorney for one of the petitioners emailed: "It is entirely up to the discretion of the court and not easy to predict, but in the absence of opposition, the odds favor transfer." Joining Mozilla's motion were the Coalition for Internet Openness, Etsy, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Vimeo, Public Knowledge, National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America's Open Technology Institute, Center for Democracy & Technology, Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, NTCH, and the attorneys general for 22 states and the District of Columbia. “Given the clear infirmity of the FCC’s Order, we believe that any court in the country would conclude that the Order violates the law. Although the Ninth Circuit, as the home of Silicon Valley, would be an appropriate forum for this matter, we did not oppose the motion," said Danielle Goldstein, Santa Clara County counsel, in a statement. "It is not likely we will weigh in on this issue," emailed Brad Ramsay, general counsel of NARUC, which filed to intervene: "If we did, we would not take a position that differs from petitioner CPUC. But there are positives if the appeal is heard in either circuit." Pending intervenors American Cable Association, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom didn't comment.

The FCC is rechartering its World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee and soliciting applications for membership, it said Friday. The committee represents industry interests in spectrum decisions before the WRC, which will next meet in Geneva in November 2019. The renewed charter takes effect April 6 for a two-year term. “The Committee will focus on the international frequency spectrum issues identified on the WRC-19 agenda with the goal of identifying private sector/public priorities and objectives,” said a public notice. “The Committee will be charged with gathering the data and information necessary to formulate meaningful recommendations for these objectives.” Members should be prepared to serve on at least one working group and the time commitment "to each working group may be substantial," the FCC said.

USF rural healthcare subsidies will be cut 16 percent to individual providers and by 26 percent to consortia for the 2017 funding year ending June 30, said the Universal Service Administrative Co. Because RHC fund demand in recent years exceeded an FCC $400 million annual cap, pro rata cuts have been applied to providers. The commission in December waived the cap for this year (see 1712140054). The order "directed USAC to use any unused RHC Program funds from prior funding years to offset the proration for individual rural health care providers (HCPs), and afterwards for consortia if there were funds remaining," USAC said. "After applying these unused funds to individual HCPs, there were not sufficient funds to offset the proration for consortia as well. So, as per the FCC Order, only individual HCPs will receive this prior year funding. USAC will commit the unused funds, which amount to $31.35 million, for individual HCPs in both the Telecommunications (Telecom) and Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) programs." The proration factor for consortia in the HCF program is 74.47 percent, and for individual HCPs in both programs is 84.4 percent, it said. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition is "extremely disappointed" with cuts exceeding last year's 7.5 percent reduction, said Executive Director John Windhausen, citing market changes driving demand. "When rural Americans are struggling to obtain high-quality Internet connections and are also suffering from the closure of rural hospitals, the announced funding reductions -- which will lead to price increases for health care providers across the country -- will have a devastating impact on the quality of rural healthcare," he said, urging the FCC to "substantially increase" the cap for FY 2018. Numerous NPRM commenters backed a funding increase, though some said reforms were needed first (see 1802050026 and 1803070043).

The Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S., on whose recommendation President Donald Trump blocked Broadcom’s proposed Qualcomm buy on national security grounds (see 1803140057), faces workload challenges that may threaten “its ability to fulfill its objectives and address national security concerns,” GAO reported Friday. CFIUS “staff levels may not be sufficient to complete committee functions” because “the volume of transactions reviewed” increased more than 50 percent 2011-2016 with no corresponding increase in employees assigned to do the work, said GAO. Adding to that pressure was the growing “complexity of those reviews in terms of technology, transaction structure, and national security concerns,” it said. The Treasury Department, “as CFIUS lead,” needs to better coordinate efforts at the committee's 10 member agencies to bolster understanding of "the staffing levels needed to address the current and projected CFIUS workload associated with core committee functions,” it said. Treasury, in written comments for the report, said it’s working with the Office of Management and Budget “to determine current resource levels across the CFIUS member agencies and has encouraged agencies to assess their staffing needs,” it said. However, “Treasury noted that CFIUS does not have a centralized budget, and Treasury does not have the authority over CFIUS staffing levels at member agencies.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he looks forward to "successful and timely" regional cutovers from Neustar to iconectiv as local number portability administrator starting April 8, an agency spokesman confirmed, responding to our query about a description of his comments at a North American Numbering Council meeting Friday. He also congratulated iconectiv on successfully completing the first phase of the transition, for public safety and ancillary services, the spokesman confirmed.

Neustar warned the FCC not to expect a contingency rollback to the company's existing operations as local number portability administrator if a scheduled initial regional cutover to incoming LNPA iconectiv fails. If the FCC allows the Southeast Region cutover April 8, "there will be no contingency rollback (either automated or manual) to Neustar's database and services because the contractual and operational requirements necessary for such service would not exist," said the incumbent's filing Thursday to be posted in docket 09-109. Neustar offered in October 2016 to construct North American Portability Management's "preferred automated, reliable contingency rollback solution," the incumbent said. "Neustar estimated 6-9 months for development and a cost of approximately $1.5 million. The NAPM rejected Neustar's proposal on May 12, 2017. The current predicament--reaching the cutover deadline without the capability for a contingency rollback--was entirely foreseeable and is the result of poor decision making and planning on the part of the NAPM. To suggest otherwise is false." The FCC and NAPM didn't comment. T-Mobile was the latest telco to back the LNPA transition timetable and NAPM's contingency rollback plan. "Given the significant positive testing conducted by T-Mobile, as well as other service providers, we are optimistic that transition to the new LNPA will be successful," it said Wednesday, citing a "low likelihood of a catastrophic failure" requiring a contingency rollback to Neustar's Number Portability Administration Center. Other large carriers have made similar filings; Neustar and smaller providers voiced objections (see 1803140053, 1803130047 and 1803090031).

The FCC ruled vague phone fee descriptions may violate truth-in-billing rules and the Communications Act, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly partially dissenting. Responding to questions raised by a 2010 order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, an FCC declaratory ruling Thursday in docket 98-170 stressed "a final determination will require the court to apply our ruling to the facts at issue in the case," Gregory Manasher and Frida Sirota v. NECC Telecom, No. 2:06-cv-10749. Plaintiffs' petition to the agency alleged NECC violated the rules and the act "by billing, charging, and collecting monies" that "were unjustly, unreasonably, and deceptively billed as 'recurring fees' and 'other fees,'" the FCC said. "Plaintiffs also alleged NECC billed plaintiffs 'for amounts in excess of the actual cost for telephone services.'" NECC disputed the allegations. Both parties cited the Supreme Court's Global Crossing v. Metrophones, disagreeing whether the FCC had addressed whether a Section 64.2401 rule violation is unreasonable under the act's Section 201(b). The court referred the legal issue and eight questions on billing details to the FCC. The agency sought comment in 2012, drawing responses from two telco trade groups and consumer advocates. The commission ruling provided answers. O'Rielly said he's concerned the ruling could limit carrier discretion under 1999 truth-in-billing rules intended as "broad, binding principles" rather than detailed rules. "I disagree with the portions of this item that suggest that clarifying information must be contained on the bill itself," he said. He's "troubled" by the FCC action because the "flourishing voice market" is giving consumers various options: "This item should strike a more careful balance. Instead, its effort to explicitly or implicitly constrain billing practices could make compliance more burdensome for providers of legacy services or confuse consumers with more billing detail than helpful." NECC didn't comment.

HEVC Advance’s new royalty structure (see 1803140037) caps rates at 1 percent on the per unit cost of H.265-enabled devices. The patent pool lowered the royalties after getting licensee feedback that royalties above 1 percent were burdensome, it said.