The FCC’s Rural Broadband Experiment was a success, with 575 bids from 181 different entities covering homes and small businesses in more than 75,000 census blocks in rural areas in every state in the country, said Jonathan Chambers, chief of the FCC Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, Wednesday in a blog post. The amount of funding requested was nine times higher than what was available, he noted. “It appears that the auction succeeded in drawing bidders who believe they can provide service very economically,” he said. “For example, when we compared the bids to the amount of support calculated by the FCC's cost model, the total requested in the auction in the aggregate is less than half the model-based support for those census blocks.” The amount offered was relatively small, Chambers said, at $10 million a year for 10 years, "or just over two-tenths of one percent of the FCC's $4.5 billion annual fund for rural universal service support." Some predicted bidding would focus on just the lowest-cost eligible census blocks, Chambers wrote. But bidders “sought support in all types of geographic areas with varying cost characteristics, with the majority of bids in the most expensive to serve areas that will be eligible for Connect America Phase II support,” he said. Next, the FCC is starting the process of reviewing low bids, he said. Provisionally selected bidders must demonstrate technical and financial qualifications and obtain a letter of credit and designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier, before they can start receiving funding, he said. “At the same, time, we are starting to design a rural broadband auction on a larger scale. While hard questions remain, we are glad to have results from this experiment to help guide our answers, and we are appreciative of the interest shown by every bidder in the auction.”

Sinclair’s court challenge against the FCC’s incentive auction order is really about continuing the broadcaster’s “longstanding advocacy neither to reallocate nor to auction broadcast spectrum,” said the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition in an intervenor brief filed in support of the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Since EOBC includes NAB members, the coalition is intervening only in Sinclair’s case, the brief said. The brief also took issue with Sinclair’s argument against the 39-month construction deadline for repacked broadcasters after the auction. “The post-auction transition period reasonably balances the competing public interest objectives of preserving television service and expediting the introduction of new wireless service on reclaimed spectrum, the brief said. EOBC also supported the FCC stance that two independently controlled stations nationwide participating in the auction would fulfill its competition requirement. Sinclair has said the order should require that the two stations be in the same market. “Sinclair’s real complaint is with the policy choice for an Incentive Auction and not with the FCC’s implementation of the choice Congress made,” the EOBC said. The Competitive Carriers Association, CEA and CTIA also filed an intervenor brief supporting the commission Tuesday. Sinclair and NAB are “overreading” the congressional reference to OET-69 in the Spectrum Act, CCA, CEA and CTIA said. “Petitioners contend that Congress ordered the Commission to conduct an unprecedented and exceedingly complex spectrum auction using (1) archaic software that would make a timely auction impossible and (2) outdated, inaccurate factual inputs,” the brief said. “Congress did no such thing.”

It's time for the FCC to wrap up the selection of a local number portability administrator, said Telcordia executives and lawyers for the company in a series of meetings at the FCC, with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and aides to other commissioners. “Telcordia has been pushing to bring competition to number portability administration for the past ten years,” the company said in a filing in docket 09-109. In that period, there have been three “major contract extensions” and modifications of the LNPA contract with Neustar and the cost of the contract had “skyrocketed,” from $200 million in 2005 to about $500 million in 2015, Telcordia said. “Any further delays will significantly harm consumers.” Neustar fired back. “Once again, Ericsson is impatiently stamping its feet just as the FCC is seriously digging in to the many important issues raised by this botched process," a spokesperson said. "Ericsson must know that a full and thorough evaluation will find that the company falls short when it comes to meeting the needs of all carriers and consumers.” Ericsson is the parent of Telcordia.

There's an “overwhelming record” in favor of “bright line” net neutrality rules reclassifying broadband as a Title II service, particularly based on filings from startup Web companies, Marvin Ammori, fellow at the New America Foundation, told FCC General Counsel Jon Sallet in a recent meeting, said an ex parte filing posted by the FCC Monday in docket 14-28. The FCC should forbear from most parts of Title II but retain Sections 201, 202 and 208, he said. But Free State Foundation President Randolph May said in a blog post in The Hill that reclassification would encourage other nations to impose more restrictions on the Internet. “Despite any protestations to the contrary that may be uttered by U.S. officials, the FCC's action regulating Internet providers will speak louder than any justifications the agency may offer,” he wrote. “Other countries, like China, Iran, Cuba and Russia, with unmistakable designs on exerting more control over Internet communications, will seize upon the FCC's new claim of regulatory authority as a justification for their own actions.” Public Knowledge also called for Title II reclassification in a filing at the commission. “In the wake of President [Barack] Obama’s full-throated endorsement of robust Open Internet rules based in Title II authority, Public Knowledge hopes the Commission is moving quickly to protect the future of the Open Internet,” the group said.

The FCC has made progress on streamlining its processes, said Diane Cornell, special counsel to Chairman Tom Wheeler, in a blog post Monday. The reforms include an internal “rocket docket” that provides guidelines for accelerated review of applications for review. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is closing an additional 751 dormant dockets, Cornell also said. Other reforms include internal circulation of streamlining “best practices,” and expanded online filing options and automated password reset for the commission registration database, Cornell said. The automated reset saves time by “forestalling the approximately 75,000 password-reset requests received annually,” Cornell said. More news on process reform will come in the new year, Cornell said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force said Friday they've scheduled three webinars on the TV incentive auction for January. The first, on the forward auction, is to start at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Jan. 12, with a session to follow on the reverse auction Jan. 15 at the same time. A third webinar on the integration of the two auctions is Jan. 20, also at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. More information is to come.

Michael Glover will replace Craig Silliman as head of Verizon’s Public Policy, Law & Security organization, the company said Friday. Silliman is to replace Randy Milch as general counsel, effective Jan. 1, the carrier previously announced (see 1412090031). Glover is a veteran of Bell Atlantic and law firm Vinson & Elkins. In a second move, Kathleen Grillo, senior vice president-federal regulatory affairs, is getting new responsibilities, overseeing federal regulatory legal affairs as well, Verizon said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was named “December Porker of the Month,” by Citizens Against Government Waste, a Thursday news release said. The organization cited the commission’s $1.5 billion increase of the E-rate spending cap earlier this month (see 1412110049) as a “high-tech holiday spending spree.” The increase “does not include any reforms of the program’s burdensome administrative procedures and lengthy application process, nor does it reduce wasteful spending,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said in the release. The FCC had no comment.

Comments on the FCC’s auction comment public notice are due Jan. 30, and replies Feb. 27, the commission said in the notice released Wednesday. Along with details of the methodologies for calculating opening bids, identifying impairments and the progression of the auction, the PN contains technical appendices on auction mechanics and a rough flow chart on the remaining steps leading to its start. “We intend to begin accepting applications to participate in the broadcast television spectrum incentive auction in the fall of 2015, and to start the bidding process in early 2016,” the PN said. Specific dates will be finalized in the upcoming Auction Procedures PN, and the FCC “will endeavor to give several months’ notice” before the application filing deadline for auction participation, Wednesday’s PN said. “Parties who may be interested in participating in the reverse or forward auction should regularly monitor the LEARN website,” the FCC said. “The Comment PN is filled with complicated schemes to hold down payments to the broadcasters the FCC needs to attract for a successful auction,” Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden said in an email Wednesday. “Our Coalition will provide the FCC with data driven alternatives and hope they are serious about having an open mind."

The FCC World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (WAC) met for the seventh time Wednesday at FCC headquarters to receive updates from its working groups before the WRC slated for next November. There was no discussion or debate and the meeting was over in about 20 minutes. WAC Chairman Scott Harris, chairman of Harris Wiltshire, said all of the working groups had made “extraordinary” progress. “This has been about the smoothest WRC preparatory process I can recall and we are in the final stages of our work,” he said. The WAC represents commercial interests as the administration prepares unified U.S. positions before next year’s WRC. WAC documents are posted online.