A group of content and edge providers, led by Aquto, asked the FCC not to clamp down on zero rating, the practice of giving some apps an advantage over others on wireless networks, as a part of broader net neutrality rules. The issue is widely viewed as among the trickiest facing the FCC as it finalizes rules (see 1411140046). “Sponsored data and zero-rating arrangements hold great promise for content and edge providers, whether they are new entrants or incumbents, who can use them to promote innovative offerings, attract new customers, and grow a robust subscriber base,” the companies said. “Sponsoring the delivery of Internet data is merely a more modern incarnation of toll-free calling or free shipping, which for decades have provided undisputed benefits to businesses and consumers alike.” The companies urged the FCC to “avoid taking any action that would limit the flexibility of Internet service providers to offer, or of content and edge providers to use, plans of this sort.” BBA Studios, DataMi, LotusFlare, Syntonic and Wazco also signed the letter.

Louisa Terrell, formerly of Facebook and Yahoo, was named adviser to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Terrell “will lead a number of long-term planning initiatives and will serve as a liaison with federal agencies and stakeholders,” said a Friday news release. She also worked for the Obama White House as a special assistant for legislative affairs and was chief of staff for Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. She replaces Sagar Doshi, special assistant to Wheeler, who is leaving.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force will take its “roadshow” outreach efforts to broadcasters to Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee between February and May, it said in a public notice Wednesday. The first session will be in Philadelphia Feb. 9. Subsequent locations will be announced in future public notices, Task Force Chief Gary Epstein told us at an otherwise off-the-record FCBA event Wednesday. “Broadcasters in markets where we have not scheduled an information session are encouraged to attend the closest session,” said the PN. The information sessions will be in several cities in most states, including Nashville, New York and New Orleans. In each city, members of the Task Force and representatives of investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. will hold a general session on the auction and repacking, and also be available to meet with individual broadcasters confidentially, the PN said. The sessions are limited to broadcasters and their representatives, it said: “Presentations to Commission personnel directed to the merits or the outcome of the matters raised in the Comment Public Notice or other pending proceedings will require the filing of an ex parte notice, but any broadcaster that must make such a filing need not disclose its identity.”

President Barack Obama framed broadband as one of his “bread-and-butter issues,” previewing his State of the Union address slated for Tuesday night. “We’re working with the private sector to increase Internet access for communities that feel left out, to increase competition and to protect our privacy and security -- and that’s just been in the last month,” Obama said in a video released Monday. Obama has outlined major goals in this space, pressing the FCC to develop strong net neutrality rules and to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband.

The FCC should make public draft texts of proposals to be taken up at commission meetings at the same time they're circulated to commissioners, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a blog post Friday. O’Rielly called for the change in August (see 1408080031). He said now he understands the texts of items aren’t posted in advance of meetings because “it could be harder to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act,” and that “it could be more difficult to withhold documents under the Freedom of Information Act,” the post said. Neither argument is “persuasive or insurmountable,” O’Rielly wrote. His spokeswoman declined to detail who at the agency made those arguments. The agency didn't comment on O’Rielly’s blog. The concern about the APA, O’Rielly wrote, is that it requires the commission to review all comments and ex partes in a proceeding and respond to any substantive issues. “The concern is that, if we provide a copy of the draft item, we will get more specific comments and ex partes that staff will have to address when finalizing the item," said O'Rielly. "That is, we might actually get constructive feedback based on facts about what is in a draft that require us to roll up our sleeves and explain why we’ve made certain decisions and discarded alternatives.” Calling it a “logistical issue” and not a legal one, O’Rielly said the commission’s “capable and hardworking staff and managers” would be “up to the task” of dealing with it. O’Rielly also disputed a concern that releasing a draft of an agenda item “would make it harder to justify withholding other drafts or even internal emails about various drafts. … I am confident that our talented lawyers at the agency can handle it.” O’Rielly also said he has a sense that there are “some unspoken objections to the proposal” -- that “parties could be in a better position to figure out which edits have been requested by which offices.” He’s not troubled by that prospect, O’Rielly said. “Having worked on the Hill where members put their names on amendments, I am comfortable being associated with my requested edits,” the post said. The current process, O’Rielly said, can lead parties to have “limited or even incorrect knowledge of what is in a draft item, and therefore raise arguments that may be, through no fault of their own, untimely, unnecessary, or misdirected. That, in turn, requires staff to spend time sifting through red herrings rather than considering focused input that could strengthen the reasoning and ultimately the legal sufficiency of the item.”

Comments on how the proposals in the incentive auction comment public notice could affect the FCC’s Regulatory Flexibility Act analyses of the auction’s effects on small business are due Feb. 13, the same day as other comments on the PN, the Wireless Bureau said in a notice Thursday. Replies, like replies on the auction PN, are due March 13. Paperwork Reduction Act comments on the information collection procedures connected with the auction will be due 60 days after Thursday’s notice is published in the Federal Register, the bureau said.

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) said it supports the goals of the White House’s plans to increase access to affordable high-speed broadband (see 1501140048), but said the plan doesn’t adequately address “the much larger challenge of broadband adoption that continues to promulgate second class digital citizenship among more vulnerable populations that include people of color, seniors, people with disabilities, and the poor.” The White House’s plan also doesn’t address how to end digital redlining, the practice of refusing to deploy broadband in low-income communities on par with service to wealthier communities, MMTC said in a statement. Industry groups continued to react Wednesday and Thursday to the White House’s plan, with Comptel CEO Chip Pickering saying in a statement that the “renewed focus on removing regulatory barriers and improving investment incentives are more steps in the right direction to ensure that American consumers can enjoy faster broadband services and lower costs.” The plan means Obama has joined with “Americans who are standing up for the right of local communities to bring high-speed broadband to their residents, no matter how small their community is,” Public Knowledge Vice President-Government Affairs Chris Lewis said in a statement.

The FCC needs to step up its shift toward electronic communications, Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said in a blog post Wednesday. Pointing to recommendations in a February report on FCC process reform that all bureaus with licensing responsibility move to electronic means of communication, O'Rielly put the onus on the Office of the Managing Director to implement the shift: “What is the hold-up on completing this very reasonable review of our licensing and notification processes, and why haven’t other actions been taken to move towards electronic recordkeeping and communications?” O'Rielly praised the shifts to paperless licensing that already have happened, as in the Wireless Bureau seeking input on the Universal Licensing System and the Antenna Structure Registration System having a paperless option. “Considering that the Commission issues almost half a million wireless licenses and authorizations per year at a cost of over $300,000, this could result in substantial savings,” O'Rielly said. He pointed to recent enforcement actions related to conventional mail -- such as an applicant not receiving notices of delinquency sent to the wrong address -- as evidence of the advantage of electronic communications. “Chairman Wheeler set the Commission on the right path on this particular item, but now we need to follow through at a much swifter pace," O'Rielly said. "The process reform initiative and the Chief Information Officer completely agree this is a priority area, and are working hard on it," said an FCC spokesman in an email.

President Barack Obama will declare his support Wednesday for FCC pre-emption of state laws restricting municipal broadband and will file a letter with the agency in support of pre-emption, said National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients on a call Tuesday with reporters. The commission is currently considering whether to pre-empt laws in North Carolina and Tennessee in response to petitions filed by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina. Obama is expected to announce his support for FCC pre-emption during a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as part of a proposal to increase access to affordable high-speed broadband, Zients said. The administration “is making its view clear,” as it did when Obama announced his support for Communications Act Title II reclassification in November (see 1411100035), Zients said.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's visit last week to CES led her to conclude that diversity in the tech world is improving, but more needs to be done, she said Tuesday in a blog post. “As I tried to cover the more than 2.2 million net square feet of exhibit space, I could not help but notice that there seemed to be more people of color on the floor and presenting at the exhibits than in prior years,” she said. “While notable, there is clearly more that can and should be done.” Clyburn cited reports that African-American women in the tech industry receive less than 1 percent of venture capital funds available each year. The wireless everywhere world in display at CES also points to the need for the FCC to restructure its voice-only Lifeline adoption program to also support broadband, she said. “News flash: The technology to enable the ‘Internet of Everything’ is not two or three years away,” Clyburn wrote. “It is here today, but as regulators, we must never forget that all consumers must have access to broadband in order for that [sic] virtuous reality exists when everyone benefits.”