T-Mobile and state attorneys general disagreed how timing of carriers’ disclosure about DOJ talks would affect the scheduled Oct. 7 trial date for the AGs’ lawsuit against the company's Sprint buy, in Friday letters at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They asked the court to resolve the differences. States repeatedly told carriers they couldn't agree to an Oct. 7 trial date unless they disclosed all agreements with DOJ, but defendants now suggest a delay in disclosure won't necessarily extend the trial date, plaintiffs wrote (in Pacer). T-Mobile agreed to divulge information by certain dates but doesn’t think a one-day delay requires postponing the trial, it said (in Pacer). Have a status conference to assess whether schedule changes are needed, the carrier said. State plaintiffs don't need as much deposition time as requested because they “are not operating on a blank slate,” having worked with DOJ in its yearlong investigation, T-Mobile said. States disagreed, saying they “are entitled to the discovery provided under the federal rules to prepare their case, obtain admissible evidence, and prepare the necessary expert analysis for trial.” States want all depositions in New York or California, with four optionally in other locations to accommodate witnesses, they said. That may be convenient for plaintiffs but not for all defendants’ employees, especially foreign ones, T-Mobile said. Meanwhile, the California Public Utilities Commission Tuesday afternoon hadn’t released a proposed decision, which would be required to get it on the Aug. 1 voting agenda (see 1907010040).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order Tuesday to grant ILECs forbearance from requirements to provide competitive LECs access to analog voice-grade copper loops on an unbundled basis at regulated rates and to offer for resale at regulated rates services that ILECs sell at retail (see 1805040016). Word came shortly after staff OK'd USTelecom's request to narrow its petition, itself approved shortly after the association's filing was posted. Pai's proposal would provide a three-year transition period to give CLECs and customers time to get alternative voice services. The draft doesn't grant forbearance from regulatory obligations governing broadband networks. USTelecom withdrew its remaining request for forbearance related to broadband, posted Tuesday, when the agency granted that request for withdrawal with an order in docket 18-141 Tuesday. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering called the withdrawal "a victory for small, local builders who deploy the fiber future." Given "robust competition in the voice market, these two mandates from the 1990s, which were intended to open monopoly local phone companies to competition in voice services, are no longer necessary," an FCC spokesperson emailed Tuesday. "These regulations are now harmful because they perpetuate reliance on legacy technologies and services and hinder the transition to next-generation networks." Commissioners plan to vote at their July 10 meeting on elements of the 2018 USTelecom petition for forbearance from requirements to make unbundled network elements such as transport loops available to CLECs at nonmarket rates (see 1906190044). USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter praised that coming vote, blogging favorably on other actions aimed at eliminating "outdated regulations and reporting requirements." Unresolved pieces to the USTelecom petition face a statutory deadline of Aug. 2.

State and national leaders should respect and protect municipal authority when promoting 5G wireless deployment, mayors said in one of two telecom resolutions adopted Monday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting. Some FCC members, Capitol Hill and state lawmakers “have wrongly characterized this balancing act among competing interests for the public rights-of-way and maintenance of local authority as barriers to 5G deployment and, instead, have put the interests of national corporations ahead of the needs of communities and imposing a one-size-fits-all policy which preempts existing state and local policies,” the resolution said. Municipalities should retain local ROW control and get fair market-based compensation, it said. Universal broadband access can’t be achieved through deregulation and pre-emption, it said. Congress should undo the FCC’s 2018 infrastructure orders by passing a bill introduced last week (see 1906270063) by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to undo the August and September orders, and a bill by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., to overturn only the September order (see 1902280046). Mayors sponsoring the resolution included San Jose’s Sam Liccardo, New York’s Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti and Philadelphia’s Jim Kenney, all Democrats. Mayors adopted a cable resolution about in-kind contributions that opposes “any regulatory proceeding or legislation that seek to alter the terms of existing franchises, including any effort to require that non-financial obligations be subject to offset against franchise fees.” Sponsors included de Blasio, Garcetti and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh (D).

New Street’s Blair Levin questioned comments by FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly last week at a Dynamic Spectrum Alliance conference that a consensus is emerging on some version of the C-Band Alliance’s proposal to sell the spectrum (see 1906270026). “O’Rielly specifically noted that the CBA auction proposal … is moving toward a transparent auction, with the question really being just ‘who conducts the auction,’” Levin told investors. “We agree that the CBA has moved significantly from its original position towards what a number of stakeholders recommended in terms of a sales process. We also agree that if the FCC sets the detailed parameters for the sale, it does not matter much who conducts the auction.” Levin disagreed consensus is developing on whether the auction should be based on sealed bid or a multi-round auction. There’s also no consensus on how much spectrum should be cleared, with Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr wanting more than the 200 MHz CBA proposes to clear, he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appointed the members of two Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee working groups, said a public notice Monday. Neptuno/SmartTecPort CEO Leticia Latino will chair the Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Job Skills and Training Opportunities working group and Connected Nation CEO Tom Ferree the Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities WG (see Personals section, this issue, for all members).

Tech and telecom policy issues barely factored into the second 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate Thursday, unlike during the first debate Wednesday, which included a proposal from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to break up big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon (see 1904170046 and 1906270010). Two presidential hopefuls on Thursday dinged Amazon -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., faulted CEO Jeff Bezos for the extent of his wealth and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang criticized the company for not paying any income taxes last year. Yang and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., cited concerns about automation of the economy. Technology “is automating away millions of jobs,” Yang said. Swalwell emphasized the U.S. “must be a country where technology creates more jobs than it displaces” and said he has “seen that anxiety across America where manufacturing floors go from 1,000 [employees] to 100 to one.” South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said China is using technology “for the perfection of dictatorship,” citing that country's major investment in R&D “so they can run circles around us” on artificial intelligence.

The advent of data privacy laws, such as Europe's general data protection regulation, creates a "potential tension" with trade sanctions compliance, said Ramsey Kazem of Spark Compliance Consulting Thursday at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Conference. GDPR and other laws in various stages of implementation in U.S. states "tend to be very protective and restrictive on how you use personal data," he said. This may "often conflict with sanction laws, which requires companies" to do "more with the personal data that they possess in terms of screening their third parties, screening their business partners, screening their customers," said Kazem. "So it's not difficult to see how the GDPR" and other data privacy restrictions "could conflict with, for example, U.S. sanctions laws." Further complicating the issue for companies is that "neither the U.S. nor the EU recognize the other's laws as a legitimate basis" for not complying, he said. Companies will need to examine the potential risks of such a conflict, Kazem said. "In some instances there may not be an easy answer and a company may be forced to choose between the lesser of two evils." As a result, data privacy considerations "must be at the table" while a company is developing a sanctions law compliance program, Kazem said.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere and President Michael Sievert spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Chief of Staff Matthew Berry by phone Saturday about the company buying Sprint. Legere and Sievert "discussed the commitment to divest the Boost business,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-197: “They also discussed the status of the transaction … generally.” In May, T-Mobile/Sprint agreed to sell Boost, Sprint’s prepaid business, and to make other concessions to win FCC OK (see 1905200051).

The date of an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation program on robotics innovation is July 16. See our calendar.

Ericsson said it plans to build its first fully automated factory in the U.S. to manufacture radios that will “boost network capacity and coverage, including rural coverage, as well as 5G radios for urban areas.” The Swedish company is one of the few alternatives to Huawei for 5G gear. U.S. policymakers are concerned about the use of Huawei equipment (see 1906190054). “We continue to focus on working closely with our customers and supporting them in the buildout of 5G globally and in North America,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Ericsson executive vice president-head of networks, Wednesday. “We conclude months of preparations and can move into execution also in the U.S.” The location hasn’t been announced. It will employ about 100 workers, the company said. “Building 5G equipment in the United States is good for our economy, good for the supply chain, and good for the rapid rollout of the next generation of [U.S.] wireless connectivity,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.