FCC efforts at opening up spectrum toward enabling 5G aren't singularly focused on enabling mobile technologies, with it trying to clear the route for continued and expanded satellite operations, said International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan at the European 5G Conference, in prepared remarks posted Wednesday. "We do not see this as a zero-sum game." He said the FCC has used flexible sharing that promotes coexistence, citing the spectrum frontiers order allowing more flexible earth station siting in the 28 GHz band. He said the U.S. experience shows such flexible approaches should get attention at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference. A successful WRC-19 would flow from such approaches to harmonized spectrum and a recognition that identifying bands for global use "does not have to be the zero-sum game it once was," he said. Sullivan said technology such as radio tuning ranges means global harmonization isn't limited to all regions having identical spectrum allocations.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's championing U.S. market access for SpaceX's planned broadband constellation probably reflects him wanting to elevate forward-looking satellite related items, an FCC official told us. Several said the SpaceX item circulated Wednesday doesn't seem to raise any obvious red flags that might result in eighth-floor opposition. Pai, announcing Wednesday the draft was circulated, said SpaceX and other non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite operators seeking licenses or U.S. market access are one potential way to bridge the digital divide. Satellite technology can reach rural or unserved areas that fiber and cell towers don't reach and provide more competition in areas that have terrestrial Internet access, he said. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement said, “The next generation of satellites will multiply the number of stations in our skies, creating extraordinary new opportunities for connectivity. The FCC will need to move quickly to facilitate these services and at the same time address new challenges with coordination and debris.” The FCC, Pai's office and SpaceX didn't comment. The commissioners at their June meeting approved OneWeb's application for U.S. market access for its 720-satellite NGSO constellation (see 1706220039). Space Norway and Telesat Canada NGSO applications were approved on circulation (see 1711030063). In a letter to the Office of Engineering and Technology earlier this month, SpaceX said it's planning for an upcoming launch of two test NGSOs, Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b.

From ensuring localism to redefining media markets amid shifting industry dynamics, the FCC's eighth floor has a variety of media priorities, media aides to the five commissioners said at a FCBA panel Tuesday. Mike O'Rielly aide Brooke Ericson said with the 2018 quadrennial review of ownership rules this year (see 1801080059), her boss hopes for a redefinition of media markets that better reflects the market. Chairman Ajit Pai aide Alison Nemeth said he has been clear about his goals of either modernizing or eliminating regulations, especially given how media rules often have gone long without any review. Mignon Clyburn aide David Grossman said she continues to push her independent programming NPRM, though the issue hasn't moved since its 3-2 approval in 2016 (see 1609290036). She also remains focused on localism and diversity, he said. While the media market has changed, that doesn't necessarily translate into greater accessibility, since many over-the-top services are out of reach to some consumers due to broadband unavailability or finances, he added. Asked about the effect of publicly releasing items in advance of monthly meetings, Jessica Rosenworcel aide Kate Black said it gives more time for finding compromise on items. Aides said it also reduces the amount of guesswork in ex parte meetings on what's in items, making for more-focused meetings. Nemeth said along with front loading bureaus' work, leaving less time for last-minute tweaks, it resulted in people increasingly skipping meetings with bureaus and trying to set up meetings with the eighth floor, "a bad move." Commissioner Brendan Carr aide Evan Swarztrauber said parties shouldn't skip meeting offices they think will disagree with then, since eighth-floor offices want to hear an array of viewpoints. Asked about the broadcast TV repacking time frame and financing, Nemeth said Pai's office has no reason to think it will go beyond 39 months, but the $1.75 billion fund is likely insufficient. She and Ericson said neither commissioner is interested in revisiting the OTT-as-MVPD proceeding. Asked about last month's false missile alert in Hawaii, Ericson said O'Rielly was happy with how the emergency alert system worked in distribution, and problems came in the alert generation.

The FCC asked federal courts to dismiss initial challenges to its net neutrality repeal, and said it won't forward them to a Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation for a venue lottery. The petitions for review are "incurably premature" because the repeal order and declaratory ruling haven't been published in the Federal Register, said similar commission motions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (here), the 1st Circuit (here) and the 9th Circuit (here) posted Monday. Seeking to protect their legal rights due to lingering uncertainty about a filing window, state attorneys general, Public Knowledge, Mozilla and New America's Open Technology Institute filed petitions in the D.C. Circuit, Free Press filed in the 1st and California's Santa Clara County filed in the 9th (see 1801160055). But parties also asked the FCC not to trigger the court lottery until the order is published (see 1801170049). The commission said such petitions aren't ripe until FR publication because the order resulted from a rulemaking and a declaratory ruling had "general applicability," not "particularly applicability," which is a form of informal adjudication subject to a quicker judicial timetable. Its motions recognized that in 2015, the agency forwarded "premature" petitions challenging its net neutrality order to the multidistrict panel, which held a lottery anyway. Given that outcome and the agency's clear-cut procedural views this time, the FCC "determined that the best course here is to await timely-filed petitions before referring any such petitions to the Judicial Panel." Petitioners can refile after publication, the commission motions said.

Chairman Ajit Pai asked Commissioner Mike O’Rielly to lead an FCC review of kidvid rules, O’Rielly said Tuesday. “My goal in reviewing the kidvid rules is to understand whether the rules the Commission imposed on broadcasters to carry out the Children’s Television Act -- in many cases more than two decades ago -- still make sense in today’s media marketplace.” Broadcasters support a change, but alterations to the children's TV rules could face strong public opposition (see 1802090051). No language or proposals on kidvid rules have been circulated, but O’Rielly’s aide Brooke Ericson told us Pai’s office had been getting a lot of questions on kidvid since O’Rielly’s recent blog post on the subject. Pai “appears to be supportive of this effort,” she said. O’Rielly would like to see the rules relaxed this year, which would mean a proposal would need to be issued by the summer, Ericson said. O’Rielly has had “good dialogue” with “family group representatives and evangelical organizations,” he said. Ericson, at an FCBA panel Tuesday (see 1802130042), said the commissioner is interested in making the children’s programming rules more flexible, not in doing away with them – particularly since that’s not possible under the statute. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn aide David Grossman said the availability of high-quality children’s programming on multiple platforms doesn’t automatically mean more accessibility because sizable minorities of low-income and Hispanic households get only over-the-air programming.

The FCC processed 846,574 applications and complaints in FY 2017, said the agency performance report, released at around the time of budget documents (see 1802120037). The agency met its goals for processing filings quickly, called speed of disposal (SOD), 98 percent of the time, the report said. “In six of the last seven years, the FCC met the SOD metrics for at least 96% of applications and complaints.” The exception was in 2013, when SOD was 92 percent. In all of the years covered by the report, International Bureau SOD numbers lag behind the other bureaus, and in 2017 it was the slowest bureau at 88 percent. Most other bureaus achieved 97 percent or 98 percent in FY 2017. “The International Bureau’s SOD goals are significantly affected by the process of consultation with the Executive Branch on foreign ownership issues,” said a footnote. The Media Bureau had the next lowest SOD number, 95.9 percent. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau had the highest SOD number in 2017, 99.7 percent.

The full FCC unanimously denied a complaint from Level 3 against AT&T over intercarrier compensation rules, said an order in Monday’s Daily Digest. Level 3, now part of CenturyLink, accused AT&T of assessing a required $.0007 per-minute tandem switched transport access service rate only when “tandem switching and transport traffic terminates to an AT&T Price Cap Carrier end office but not when such traffic terminates to the end office or equivalent facility of an AT&T affiliate that is not itself a price cap carrier.” The FCC said the rate applies only to traffic that terminates at a price-cap carrier end office: “The most reasonable reading of the rule, in context, is that the 'terminating carrier' must be a price cap carrier. We therefore disagree with Level 3’s assertion that the 'terminating carrier' can be a non-price cap carrier such as a CMRS or VoIP affiliate of AT&T.” Level 3 didn't comment.

The special displacement window for low-power TV and translator applications is April 10-May 15, the FCC Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force said in a public notice Friday. The FCC also released a channel study to allow LPTV and translators to identify new channels, and lifted the filing freeze on displacement applications, the PN said. The freeze will go back into effect when the displacement window ends May 15. The IATF and bureau will host a webinar on the channel selection data Feb. 28, the PN said. To be eligible to file during the window, LPTV stations must be both operating and displaced by the auction, the PN said. During the window, eligible digital broadcasters will be able to request a change in transmitter site of up to 48 kilometers from their existing community of license. Eligible analog broadcasters may propose a change in antenna location of up to 16.1 km. Full-power TV stations may begin filing applications for digital-to-digital replacement translators April 10. Opening the displacement window doesn’t “preclude the preservation of a vacant television channel,” a footnote said. Microsoft and advocates for unlicensed spectrum have been pushing the FCC to preserve vacant channels for unlicensed use in the TV bands. The notice also contains guidance for LPTV channel selection that references and uses language from a Microsoft filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-306. “Given the public interest in promoting the efficient use of spectrum,” LPTV and translators outside of the top 40 designated market areas are encouraged to pick new channels “that are adjacent to channels in use by other broadcast television stations to help provide flexibility in the future,” the PN said. There will likely be vacant channels available in many areas of the country even after the window, it said.

Federal efforts to halt state diversion of 911 fees may need to be strengthened, said FCC Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel Friday, the same week the agency sought comment for an annual report on the issue (see 1802080062). They said state and local 911 fees on consumer phone bills are supposed to help upgrade emergency calling systems. "But too many states are stealing these funds and using them for other purposes, like filling budget gaps, purchasing vehicles, or worse," they wrote in an opinion piece in The Hill. They said the FCC found "five states and territories suctioned almost $130 million from their 9-1-1 systems and another seven didn’t even bother to respond to our inquiry to examine their diversion practices. None of this is acceptable." They said federal public safety programs shouldn't be available to states that engage in 911 fee diversion, an effort that has begun in a $115 million 911 grant program under the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. NTIA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which are running the program, are barred from making grants available to jurisdictions that divert 911 fees, they said. "This can serve as a template for any other funds provided at the federal level, including in new infrastructure legislation," they wrote. "We may need to be more creative in order to build the right mechanisms to prevent fee diversion. This could include, for instance, precluding representatives from states that repeatedly divert 9-1-1 fees from participating on advisory panels and task forces that inform the emergency calling work of the FCC, NTIA and NHTSA. We also may need to examine more aggressive actions at the FCC’s disposal." NARUC and the National Counsel of State Legislatures didn't comment.

U.S. internet access connections rose 6 percent in 2016 to 376 million, the FCC reported in an item in Thursday's Daily Digest, counting connections of more than 200 kbps. Mobile internet connections grew 7 percent to 270 million and fixed connections grew 3 percent to 106 million. Among fixed connections, 23.2 percent had download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, 36.8 percent had between 25 Mbps and 100 Mbps, 22.1 percent had between 10 Mbps and 25 Mbps, 14.2 percent had between 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps, and 3.7 percent had less than 3 Mbps. There were 463 million retail voice phone service connections, also based on Form 477 data: 341 million mobile wireless (up from 335 million in 2015), 63 million wireline interconnected VoIP (up from 59 million) and 58 million wireline switched access (down from 65 million), the agency reported. Fifty-three percent of wireline connections were residential, and 58 million were served by ILECs (mostly by switched access), 63 million by others (mostly by interconnected VoIP).