The FCC dropped its appeal of U.S District Court in Manhattan's summary judgment against it in a fight over a Freedom of Information Act request by New York Times Co. (see 2006260071), said a court mandate Tuesday (in Pacer, docket 18-cv-08607). The news outlet sued after being denied its request for the IP addresses and other data of net neutrality proceeding comments filed in the FCC electronic comment filing system.

The Office of Economics and Analytics laid out plans for FCC auctions in FY 2021, starting with the Dec. 8 C-band auction, in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Also teed up are auctions for the 2.5 GHz band, 3.5 GHz band, T band and FM broadcast construction permits. Commissioners vote on a 3.5 GHz NPRM Wednesday. Congress is rethinking a T-band sale (see 2009140020). The FM auction was delayed because of the pandemic (see 2003250052).

Before Wednesday's FCC meeting, commissioners voted to approve the order on caller ID authentication implementation and the order axing the requirement cable TV operators keep records in their online public inspection files about their interests in video programming services, the agency said Tuesday. The approved orders weren't released. People involved in the Stir/Shaken proceeding told us they expect no major changes to the draft order. The proceeding had gotten relatively little lobbying, probably because the Traced Act on robocalls is so detailed in its requirements, so a lot of key decisions are made by the statute already, said Kelley Drye telecom lawyer Steve Augustino. He said the bigger issue will be implementation by individual voice service providers, who will have to work carefully on what they have to change in their networks and in what time frame. Augustino said with the law setting the broad parameters, the FCC might be faced with waiver requests months from now as providers discover issues.

The FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau will terminate more than 1,000 dormant proceedings, including dockets on newspaper/broadcast cross ownership, the digital TV transition and old Section 214 applications, said an order in Monday’s Daily Digest. “We believe that termination of these proceedings furthers the Commission’s organizational goals of increasing the efficiency of its decision-making, modernizing the agency’s processes in the digital age, and enhancing the openness and transparency of Commission proceedings,” it said. Three proceedings that were proposed for termination were kept open after the agency received filings opposing their closing: docket 15-146 on preserving white spaces for unlicensed use, docket 14-261 on MVPD programming distribution and docket 15-99 on the World Radiocommunication Conference. The rest of the proceedings listed in the order’s attachment will be terminated after it's published in the Federal Register, the order said.

Two former transportation secretaries under President Barack Obama, Ray LaHood and Anthony Foxx, agree connected vehicle technologies will make the roadways safer, they told an ITS America webinar Monday. The FCC is expected to approve reallocating part of the 5.9 GHz band as early as next month (see 2009090058). “We’ve got to maintain and make use of the broadband that’s been reserved” for safety “and make sure that we work harder to accelerate the use of connections,” Foxx said. “You hit the nail on the head around reserving the full safety spectrum,” said ITS America President Shailen Bhatt. Studies show vehicle-to-vehicle communications “would save lives and prevent accidents,” LaHood said. Today “it has almost become standard equipment that cars are talking to one another and talking to the people that are driving the cars,” he said. LaHood’s message as secretary was that every day, people get into a vehicle and don’t think about safety, he said: “That was our job at DOT, to think about safety in every mode of transportation.” Foxx said pilot automated vehicle projects DOT did in New York City, Tampa and rural Wyoming while he was secretary provided useful data: “We wanted to look at what kinds of improvements can occur in different environments.”

RSM was approved as C-band transition relocation coordinator, in an FCC Wireless Bureau order Friday. Its nomination for the job of coordinating relocation work among satellite and earth station operators and 3.7 GHz service flexible-use licensees (see 2008030049) was unopposed, the bureau said. Still to be filled is the contested job of C-band clearinghouse (see 2008250032).

The FTC appealed for 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals en banc review of its antitrust case against Qualcomm (see 2008190043). Siding with Qualcomm, the court “blesses the continued stifling of competition in multi-billion-dollar markets for cellular-communications chips on which much of the digital economy depends,” the FTC filed Friday (in Pacer). The three-judge panel disregarded precedent by “elevating patent-law labels over economic substance,” by “holding that facially ‘neutral’ fees cannot violate” antitrust law, saying “harms to Qualcomm’s customers are ‘beyond the scope of antitrust law’ and demanding a showing of ‘direct’ harm to competitors," the FTC said. The errors “cast doubt on fundamental matters of antitrust principle and will encourage monopolists to cloak anticompetitive practices beneath false invocations of patent law,” the agency wrote. The company didn’t comment.

Vermont agreed to keep its net neutrality law on ice and ISPs agreed to stay their litigation challenging the law, at least until preliminary injunction decisions come in lawsuits challenging California's net neutrality law, under a stipulation (in Pacer, docket 18-cv-167) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Burlington. The litigation stay expires Jan. 30 if the preliminary injunction motions haven't been resolved, and the state won't enforce the law until 30 days after the stay's expiration. Vermont limited state contracts to net-neutral providers, and enforcement could have started in August under a previous hold (see 2008030043).

With an NPRM and order set for a vote Wednesday (see 2009210056), CTIA urged the FCC to reallocate the 3.45-3.55 GHz band for 5G. Others raised concerns in filings posted Thursday in docket 19-348. “Quick delivery of exclusive use, commercial licensed mid-band spectrum is critical to fueling our transition to a new, 5G economy,” CTIA said. The Aerospace Industries Association and Collins Aerospace, in a call with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, said the aerospace and defense industry “has long had access to the 3.3-3.55 GHz range on an experimental basis to conduct radar testing and research and development” and needs “continued and regular access.” T-Mobile is “encouraged that the Commission has proposed to license this spectrum on an exclusive basis, with full-power operations,” the carrier told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. It had questions about how spectrum sharing may work in the future: “Solicit comment on licensees’ abilities to work directly with federal agencies to promote individualized arrangements that both protect federal operations and maximize licensees’ ability to deploy the spectrum.” NCTA spoke with the O’Rielly aide to ask for additional questions on citizens broadband radio service “coexistence issues and license area options that could enable 5G spectrum access for new entrants and smaller carriers.” Amateur radio group ARRL opposed a proposal to delete the amateur secondary allocation at 3.3-3.5 GHz in the table of allocations, speaking with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks. The Amateur Television Network also raised questions: “Networks such as ours have shared the 3.4 GHz spectrum for decades. Although the primary use may change, please allow these efforts to continue in the 3.4 GHz band where technically feasible and on a non-interference basis. We make vital use of bits of spectrum that otherwise would be unused.”

Satellite and wireless interests remain miles apart on what protections upper microwave flexible use services (UMFUS) need from adjacent band non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) earth stations in motion (ESIM) in the 28.35-28.6 GHz band, per FCC docket 18-315 replies posted Wednesday. No one has shown how NGSO ESIMs differ from blanket-licensed fixed NGSO terminals or why a more restrictive out-of-band emissions (OOBE) limit is needed for 28 GHz NGSO ESIMs than for NGSO fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations or geostationary ESIMs, the Satellite Industry Association said. Viasat said wireless interests haven't shown technical analyses demonstrating any interference potential for UMFUS. Nor have they made "any credible claims" that current limits aren't enough to protect UMFUS when they propose OOBE restrictions for some earth stations in the 28 GHz band. Amazon's Kuiper said existing limits for NGSO ESIMs are sufficient because of the frequent handoffs and repointing to continuously mobile NGSO satellites cutting potential for in-line events. It said NGSO ESIM systems will likely maintain high elevation angles and avoid obstructions. Kepler also commented. Satellite interests are downplaying the interference potential of ESIM operations in the 28.35-28.6 GHz band to adjacent-band UMFUS operations, and the FCC needs to set the same OOBE limits for NGSO ESIM operators as all commercial wireless services, Verizon and U.S. Cellular said. CTIA backed that limit and supported keeping the 50 MHz guard band between NGSO FSS and UMFUS licensees.