FCC commissioners voted to discontinue the option of manual fee payment for four types of application fees for Office of Engineering and Technology services, said an order released Friday on docket 19-334. The fees are for experimental radio services, assignment of grantee codes, advance approval of subscription TV systems, and certification of equipment approval services. “Electronic payment of fees for the services processed by OET reduces the agency’s expenditures,” the order said.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania led a letter with nine other committee Democrats Friday seeking an FCC update by Nov. 29 on its investigation into wireless carriers' location tracking practices, including the sale of customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1805240073). House Commerce Democrats criticized the investigation during a May FCC oversight hearing (see 1905150061). “Despite announcing” the probe more than a year ago, “the FCC has failed, to date, to take any action,” Pallone and the other Democrats wrote Chairman Ajit Pai. “Time is running out since the statute of limitations gives the FCC one year to act.” Also signing were Commerce Vice Chair Yvette Clarke of New York; Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui of California; and Reps. Tony Cardenas, Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney of California; Debbie Dingell of Michigan; Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico; Darren Soto of Florida; and Peter Welch of Vermont. House Commerce “has repeatedly urged you to act quickly to protect consumers’ privacy interests, and unfortunately you have failed to do so,” the lawmakers wrote. “Reports indicate that these carriers have stopped the sharing of real-time location data with data aggregators. This is good news. Nevertheless, we are concerned that the Commission is shirking its obligation to enforce the Communications Act and the rules it has issued to protect consumers’ privacy.” The agency “received” the letter and is “reviewing it,” a spokesperson said.

Q Link and the National Lifeline Association weren't part of a Nov. 5 CTIA filing endorsing a TracFone proposal for the FCC to set a minimum 3 GB data allowance for broadband Lifeline customers instead of the 8.75 GB requirement set to take effect Dec. 1 (see 911060040). NaLA and Q Link filed, posted Thursday in docket 11-42, defending their earlier proposal. NaLA wants to make sure eligible telecom carriers in states without substantial subsidies to add to the basic federal Lifeline subsidy of $9.25 monthly can continue to offer voice and broadband service bundles on a non-co-pay basis. It suggested setting alternate minimum service standards in states without their own subsidies. Otherwise, new Lifeline enrollment "will be further diminished if not virtually eliminated in $9.25 states," NaLA said. "CTIA's latest filing does not reflect the broad coalition of Lifeline service providers it had represented before." CTIA and other industry members petitioned over the summer to delay implementing new broadband minimum service standards and delay reducing voice support until a Lifeline market study due in mid-2021 is evaluated (see 1907010055). NaLA said CTIA members Telrite and Boomerang also support the NaLA approach, as do Lifeline providers Amerimex Communications, Assist Wireless, Cintex Wireless, Easy Wireless, i-wireless, NewPhone Wireless and TruConnect. CTIA didn't comment.

Different levels of government should improve coordination in emergencies and reduce barriers to telemedicine, the FCC Intergovernmental Advisory Committee reported, released Thursday. IAC covers delivering multilingual emergency alerts to people who speak in different languages or have communication disabilities, improving communications among state, local, tribal and territorial government on emergency alerting system procedures, enhancing coordination for disaster resiliency efforts, and reducing regulatory barriers to telemedicine. There are “valuable insights and recommendations that will help inform the work of the FCC and that of our state, local, Tribal, and territorial government partners,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The FCC should develop “non-language-oriented” alerts based on symbols and colors to address the current paucity of multilingual emergency alerts and alerts intended for those with disabilities, said the multilingual alerting report. “Use of universal colors, symbols and sounds takes the language barrier out of the equation.” IAC suggested that state emergency communication committee alerting plans include reaching non-English speakers and the disabled. To prevent and minimize the repercussions of incidents such as the January 2018 false missile alert in Hawaii, SECCs should require state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) governments to regularly hold annual meetings of their emergency managers, said another report. The FCC should consider formalizing requirements that states document such meetings, the report said. Direct state EAS plans to involve social media protocols that include the specific SLTT entities that will issue messages, and the contents of such messages, it said. The FCC should update rules to require SECCs adopt recommendations from the agency’s report on the Hawaii incident to deal with and prevent false alerts, the document recommended. Those include changes to software to separate tests from real alerts, redundant lines of communication, and protocols for handling false alerts. Best practice “is to actually plan and coordinate with each other on a regular basis during ... normal, non-emergency, working conditions,” the disaster resiliency report said: Locate critical communications facilities and access roads and make recovery crews aware of critical lines to avoid damage. Wireless providers should set up roaming agreements in advance of disasters, and more work is needed to ensure public safety communications interoperability, it said. Barriers to telemedicine include limited technical support in rural hospitals, physician concerns over reimbursement, and complexities of credentialing and privileging for telecare providers, the IAC reported.

Companies and associations urged opening the 6 GHz band for sharing with Wi-Fi, writing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “The Wi-Fi industry powers 13 billion devices worldwide,” said Tuesday's letter in docket 18-295: “Wi-Fi has become the single most important wireless technology for American consumers and businesses.” The letter notes no new mid-band spectrum has been made available for Wi-Fi for 20 years, “causing a severe shortage for a wireless technology that handles 75 percent of mobile data traffic.” Apple, Boingo Wireless, Broadcom, Charter Communications, Cisco, the Consortium for School Networking, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Juniper Networks, Marvell, Microsoft, Netgear, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Philips North America, Public Knowledge, Qualcomm, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Sony Electronics, Wireless ISP Association and Wisper Internet were among signers.

CTIA asked the FCC to pause new Lifeline standards, in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. “CTIA remains concerned that the impending four-fold increase in minimum service standards for mobile wireless data from 2 GB to 8.75 GB” on Dec. 1 “as well as the phase-down in support for voice services, will severely hinder eligible low-income consumers' ability to choose Lifeline supported mobile wireless services." A TracFone proposal (see 1910310009) to instead require a monthly broadband data allowance of 3 GB while the agency explores a new standard is “a reasonable alternative to meaningfully increase the minimum service standards for mobile wireless data services, while mitigating the negative impact to low-income consumers,” CTIA said.

Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is headed to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to take part in the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference, FCC officials confirmed. Chairman Ajit Pai was at the opening stages and O’Rielly’s trip is timed so he can be there near the end of the conference. He's expected to return before the commissioners’ meeting Nov. 22. O’Rielly was at the last WRC in 2015 and is active in international spectrum issues. He said in a recent speech U.S. priorities should include pushing for 3.1-3.3 GHz to be among the bands studied for future wireless broadband and protecting the use of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi (see 1910240030). O’Rielly advocates a bigger leadership role for the U.S. in the ITU (see 1710050055).

The FCC postponed its November commissioners' meeting to Nov. 22, it said Tuesday. The meeting, still set for 10:30 a.m., had been scheduled for Nov. 19; the agency didn't give a reason.

Net neutrality advocacy groups asked the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit for a 28-day extension for petitioners and intervenors to petition for a rehearing or rehearing en banc of Mozilla v. FCC (case 18-1051), in an unopposed motion filed (in Pacer) Tuesday. They ask that the deadline be extended from Nov. 15 to Dec. 13.

The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee will meet Dec. 3, starting at 9:30 a.m. at FCC headquarters, says Tuesday's Federal Register. “The BDAC will receive status reports and updates from its three working groups: Disaster Response and Recovery, Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities, and Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Job Skills and Training Opportunities,” the FCC said.