The FCC granted eight requests for special temporary authority for licensees in Puerto Rico since Wednesday, said a tweet Thursday from Matthew Berry, chief of staff to Chairman Ajit Pai. “In the last 24 hours, the FCC has granted 8 STAs to carriers to help reestablish communications in Puerto Rico.” The FCC and Public Safety Bureau didn’t comment.

The House Communications Subcommittee all but formally announced Friday it's planning an Oct. 25 FCC oversight hearing, publicly releasing invitations to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the other four commissioners. The subcommittee sought confirmation from commissioners by Friday. The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. House Communications sent out the invitations amid calls from top House Commerce Committee Democrats for a hearing at which they could pressure the FCC commissioners to “disavow” President Donald Trump's recent tweets and comments in which he threatened to challenge NBC licenses over the network's reporting on his administration's activities. But a House Commerce GOP aide told us planning for the FCC oversight hearing predated the Democrats' request by “several weeks.” Trump's comments were seen as a threat to the freedom of the news media but unlikely to lead to any action (see 1710110075). Trump doubled down Wednesday, tweeting that TV network news coverage “has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” Trump's comments “alone may already be chilling free-speech across the country,” said Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., Thursday: “That is why we and others have called on” Pai to disavow Trump's comments and to pledge not to follow through on threats to broadcasters' licenses. “Despite our calls, [Pai] has refused to say if he agrees” with Trump, the Democratic lawmakers said. “We therefore ask for a hearing as soon as possible with all five FCC Commissioners so that they can publicly and under oath commit that they will not threaten broadcasters or their licenses because of the content of their reporting. Every day that goes by without comment from the FCC Chairman is a continued threat to the First Amendment.” Trump's additional comments on challenging broadcasters' licenses drew criticism from other lawmakers, including Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “Words spoken” by the president “matter,” Sasse said: “Are you tonight recanting of the oath you took” at the Jan. 20 inauguration “to preserve, protect, and defend the First Amendment?” The FCC didn't comment.

The full FCC unanimously approved a $404,166 fine for a New York City man whose broadcasts on an unlicensed radio transmitter interfered with New York Police Department communications, said a forfeiture order released Wednesday. April-August 2016, Jay Peralta broadcast threatening messages and fake alerts to the NYPD, including false bomb threats and false officer-in-distress calls, said a release. He acknowledged in a written statement that the NYPD provided to the FCC that he made nine such calls, the release said, and he also is facing criminal charges. Peralta didn’t respond to the FCC’s April notice of apparent liability (see 1704140052).

The FCC resumed the 180-day shot clock on CenturyLink's $34 billion buy of Level 3. The clock restarted Friday after the FCC completed its review of the applicants’ supplemental materials. The FCC counted that day as 170, Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith said in a Tuesday letter in docket 16-403. Wednesday was Day 175, said the webpage for the transaction. The California Public Utilities Commission -- the last state OK needed -- plans to vote on the deal at its Thursday meeting (see 1710030021). DOJ OK'd the deal last week, and commission OK is expected. “We’re focused on meeting our target transaction closing date of mid-to-late October," a CenturyLink spokeswoman said.

FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny joined FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in voicing concern about ringless voicemail potentially being exempt from anti-robocalling rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. "A new way to unleash a scourge of unwanted intrusions via #robocall. @JRosenworcel I think this is a terrible idea," tweeted McSweeny Tuesday. Rosenworcel Monday tweeted: "Hello, anybody home? Anybody who thinks ringless voicemail is a good idea? How is this not a new #robocall nightmare?" A Rosenworcel aide said even though petitioners withdrew a call for the FCC to declare ringless voicemail isn't subject to TCPA regulation, the commission could say that for purposes of its TCPA anti-robocalling rules, the service is a call. An FTC spokeswoman didn't comment.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said digital literacy and affordability are vital to efforts to bridge the digital divide. She supported efforts to remove regulatory barriers to broadband deployment, but said rolling out fiber to homes "is not the same as making service available to the residents" if they can't afford it or use it. "What if they do not have a computer? And what if they do not understand the relevance of broadband to their lives," she said in remarks to the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit in Missoula Monday. "Too often, we declare 'mission accomplished' when we’ve connected a home that has been forever without, but I challenge you to take a more nuanced view. We should only claim victory, when a consumer is meaningfully using their connectivity, to take advantage of the economic, educational, and healthcare opportunities, it affords. ... In short, we must fight against the perpetual and persistent issues surrounding connectivity inequality. Do you think that those in rural America should be relegated to second-class broadband? I don’t. Nor do I believe, that the urban poor should be digitally redlined."

The best rule for regulation is the digital age is “less is more,” FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a speech Tuesday to the International Institute of Communications’ International Regulators Forum in Brussels. On wireless and other issues, the FCC needs to stop protecting against hypothetical harms, O’Rielly said. “The FCC has many ex ante rules comprised of technical rules and construction metrics for licensees,” he said. “These appropriately promote spectral efficiency, interference free services, deployment and certainty for our licensees. However, the FCC does maintain a considerable number of old rules that can, and should, be eliminated because of competition, especially as over the top services experience greater maturity.” O’Rielly cited the general conduct standard in the 2015 net neutrality order, calling it “a vague rule that empowered the Commission’s enforcement personnel to saunter around issuing penalties and stop orders against any practice or service it deems harmful to the Internet.” The FCC posted the remarks.

Wireless service slowly is being re-established in Puerto Rico, with 78.9 percent of cellsites down Tuesday, compared with 81.1 percent the day before, the FCC said in Tuesday's Hurricane Maria update. It said 18 of the island's 78 counties have no cellsites up, vs. 23 counties. It said satellite cells on light trucks and terrestrial cells on wheels have been deployed. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, 60.3 percent of cellsites are out, same as Monday, including 100 percent of cellsites in St. John. The FCC said two Puerto Rico TV stations and nine radio stations are off the air. The FCC said both public service answering points in Puerto Rico are operational as of Tuesday, as are the 911 call centers in St. Croix and St. Thomas, with location information for wireless callers and VoiP callers intermittently available. Meanwhile, Hurricane Nate had "virtually no effect on communications" during the storm or afterward, with no TV or radio stations knocked out of service and one cellsite out in Alabama, the agency said in its update Monday. It deactivated its disaster information reporting system for Nate at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The FCC said it granted an experimental license for Project Loon, led by Google parent Alphabet, to help provide emergency wireless service in Puerto Rico. The project provides coverage through a network of balloons. Loon has consent agreements to use land mobile radio spectrum in the 900 MHz band from carriers in the commonwealth, the FCC said Saturday. “More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck, millions of Puerto Ricans are still without access to much-needed communications services,” Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “We need to take innovative approaches to help restore connectivity.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will give a "Morning in Digital America" speech Tuesday (6 p.m. PDT) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Pai "will outline his vision of the future of U.S. communications policy -- inspired by President Reagan’s principles -- and explain how his agenda of cutting red tape, promoting innovation, and establishing rules that encourage infrastructure investment will bring prosperity and hope to millions of Americans currently trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide," said an agency advisory Friday.

Judges asked parties for proposals on how to deal with two inmate calling service cases on Securus Technologies' challenges to the FCC's 2013 and 2016 ICS orders, after court rulings against a 2015 ICS order. Judges David Tatel, Thomas Griffith and Cornelia Pillard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued two brief orders (here and here in Pacer) Friday asking litigants to file motions within 30 days to govern the two pending cases, Securus v. FCC, Nos. 13-1280 and 16-1321. They noted the D.C. Circuit's recent decision not to rehear en banc (see 1709270009) another panel's June ruling reversing key parts of the commission's 2015 ICS order, including intrastate rate caps, in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 (see 1706130047). The 2013 order set interim interstate rate caps (see 1308120049). The 2016 reconsideration order raised interstate and intrastate rate caps from the 2015 order to account for correctional facility costs but without restricting ICS provider site-commission payments to authorities (see 1608040037).