The FCC ranks No. 17 among 27 midsize federal agencies for 2018 in an online list Wednesday by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Its 64.4 engagement score, based on such aspects as effective leadership, employee skills-mission match, training and development, work-life balance and pay, is up 1.6 from last year, down from a 71.3 high in 2013. The agency’s male-female ratio is 50.6 to 49.4. On racial diversity, it’s 58.3 percent white, 28 percent black or African American, 9 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic/Latino, with the remaining Native American, multiracial, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and unspecified. The Office of Managing Director ranks 196 of 415 for agency subcomponents. In the same midsize category, the FTC rates No. 1 with an engagement score of 84, up 2.6 from last year, continuing its upward trend. GAO ranks No. 4. Among large agencies, the Commerce Department ranks No. 3 of 17 agencies, DOJ is No. 10 and the Department of Homeland Security is last. Rankings for Commerce subcomponents include: the Patent and Trademark Office , 60; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 86; NTIA, 144; and NOAA,154.

To improve FCC mapping, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel suggested "three C’s of broadband cartography." They are coordination with state public service commissions and the departments of Commerce and Agriculture and Ag's Rural Utilities Service; having correct information; and creative ideas like a Mobility Fund (MF) pre-auction audit by Universal Service Administrative Co. Friday's announcement of an FCC probe of carrier accuracy for MF Phase II broadband maps (see 1812070048) "is a welcome development," she told a Pew event Tuesday according to prepared remarks, but "we have a mess on our hands." So "while this investigation proceeds, we have a golden opportunity to revisit our wireless deployment data and rethink how we populate our maps," she said. It's good that earlier in 2018, the FCC, after more than three years, updated the National Broadband Map, but the wired broadband map had inaccuracies, she said. Her home was wrongly listed as having broadband services available that it actually lacked, she said. The agency declined to comment.

DOJ and the FCC “will undoubtedly” have the same concerns about Nexstar buying Tribune (see 1812070038) as they did with Sinclair’s attempt to buy Tribune and “require numerous station divestitures,” said Howard Stirk Holdings CEO Armstrong Williams in a Broadcast & Cable commentary Monday. HSH is a frequent “sidecar” partner of Sinclair and was to receive divestitures from Sinclair/Tribune. HSH’s high employment of minorities wouldn’t be possible without its relationship with Sinclair, Williams said: It was “shocking” opponents of the Sinclair deal opposed the Sinclair spinoffs to HSH and claimed Sinclair was giving HSH an undermarket price, he said. Those claims were “unsubstantiated,” Williams said. Nexstar/Tribune is "an historic opportunity to advance minority ownership and diversity within the context of the divestiture requirements the FCC and the DOJ will have,” Williams said. “As one of the only African-American owners of television stations in the nation, I sincerely hope this happens.” The acquirer's "focus on localism remains a key element of our broadcast platform and supporting" the FCC’s "key initiative of increased media ownership diversity complements this strategy” said a Nexstar spokesperson. “The Company has a long-term, well-documented record on this front.”

The FCC Office of Economics and Analytics opened, the FCC said Tuesday. “The communications sector is a major part of America’s economy, and our rules can substantially affect incentives of companies and consumers,” said Chairman Ajit Pai. “This new office will ensure that strong economic analysis and data analytics inform our efforts.” Giulia McHenry, from NTIA, is acting chief and Wayne Leighton, who has been overseeing development of OEA, will be acting senior deputy chief. Also named: Eric Ralph and Andrew Wise, both acting associate chiefs, and Rachel Kazan, acting chief of staff. The four divisions are Economic Analysis, with acting Chief Emily Talaga; Industry Analysis, with Rodger Woock acting chief; Auctions, with acting Chief Margaret Wiener; and Data, with acting Deputy Chief Anne Levine. Others include FCC Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger, with agency Chief Economist Babette Boliek and Deputy Chief Economist Jonathan Levy. “This will be a single office to bring together the great economic and data work already being done by FCC staff,” McHenry said. The FCC approved the office in January over dissents by Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and then-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (see 1801300026).

The FCC is discontinuing the national broadband map it inherited from NTIA, which used platform technology and June 30, 2014, data that are "dated." The map and its application programming interface will be decommissioned Dec. 21, blogged Rich Mansfield, Office of Managing Director associate chief information officer, Friday. He noted the FCC released a new fixed broadband deployment map in February that's updated twice annually -- including in September with June 2017 Form 477 data (see 1809100059) -- and has mobile broadband data and other resources available, including a collection of maps. An FCC spokesman confirmed Monday the new broadband map and other resources will remain available.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment by Jan. 9, replies Jan. 24 on how to ensure wireless carriers and backhaul providers better coordinate with each other and other stakeholders, before, during and after disaster. It asked about efficacy of the wireless industry’s wireless resiliency cooperative framework. In November, the FCC sought information from seven wireless carriers on implementation (see 1811060052). “The Bureau seeks a deeper understanding of the extent to which the Framework currently addresses issues associated with backhaul support for wireless service in such natural disasters,” said a public notice in docket 11-60. “We seek input from the public on these questions to better inform our understanding, as well as potential recommendations to the Commission on proposals that could help facilitate restoration of service after outages.” The PN seeks comment on including backhaul providers in the framework.

Rural telco officials are hopeful the FCC will approve a draft order offering rate-of-return RLECs more USF support if they will deploy more 25/3 Mbps broadband. The draft is on the agenda for Wednesday's commissioners' meeting. "I haven't heard any opposition," WTA Senior Vice President Derrick Owens told us Monday, declining to make a prediction but backing the draft: "The draft order showed us what we were looking for. Our folks thought it was favorable and helpful to them in deploying more broadband." ITTA "supported the draft order and we’re hopeful the commission will adopt it," said President Genny Morelli. Chairman Ajit Pai appears to have the votes for the draft order, said an industry representative, who expects the vote to be unanimous. There might be "discrete issues that one or more commissioners are vocal about," possibly in concurring, the representative said: "But I don’t see any dissents." Pai responded recently to numerous letters from lawmakers, including Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., seeking increased rural telco USF support. In exchanges posted Friday in docket 18-5, Pai highlighted the draft's main elements: (1) offering RoR carriers "another opportunity to opt in to model-based support," guaranteeing a "revenue stream for a decade in exchange for meeting specified buildout requirements"; (2) "ensuring support is sufficient by offering additional funding to carriers that currently receive model-based support and who agree to meet increased buildout requirements ... [and] increasing funding for carriers who do not receive model-based support"; (3) making the program more predictable by setting a new long-term budget for [RoR] carriers who choose not to opt in to model-based support and ending arbitrary funding cuts"; and (4) "increasing the target speeds for subsidized deployments from 10/1 Mbps."

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us Monday night he's abandoning plans for an amendment to FY 2019 federal spending legislation that would force the FCC to revisit its Mobility Fund phase II broadband-service coverage data (see 1812050049). Wicker cited the FCC's decision last week to investigate if top wireless carriers submitted incorrect coverage maps in violation of MF II rules (see 1812070048). Longstanding concerns about the FCC's broadband mapping tactics “would be moot” given the new investigation, Wicker said. “I don't think the [MF-II] auction will proceed any time soon based on the investigation that's going to be required.”

The FCC “wants to create flexibility for broadcasters to do new things that are beyond their core,” but the free “component is still really important,” said Martha Heller, chief of the FCC Media Bureau Policy Division, at the TV of Tomorrow conference in Manhattan. “A big part of our regulatory framework is that we’re obviously requiring broadcasters to continue providing at least one free over-the-air channel to consumers. Beyond that, we recognize that spectrum is going to be much more efficient in this new standard.” Local-simulcast rules on 3.0 “are an important part of this to make sure that consumers don’t lose access to the stations they can get today,” since 3.0 won’t be backward-compatible, Heller said Thursday. Over-the-top video delivery services can be a “template” for many things stations can do with 3.0 in addition to providing linear, terrestrial TV services, said John Hane, president of the SpectrumCo consortium that includes Nexstar and Sinclair (see 1812070038). "Think about an OTT platform that doesn’t rely on a broadband connection being there all the time, that has some of the most valuable programming available for free.” Hane personally envisions "a base-layer video, and give that away free” in "standard definition," he said. “We could add enhancement layers that add HDR and other capabilities” that could be advertising-free under a subscription model, he said. He wants broadcasters to “think about an OTT platform that could be received everywhere on capable devices, whether there’s a broadband connection or not.”

With targets such as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Verizon, plus speculation about his own political ambitions, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's monologue at the FCBA Chairman’s Dinner Thursday was a wide-ranging roast. Noting the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup win, Pai said it's "interesting the Capitals won only after they dropped Verizon from the building. Correlation? Causation? I don't know." He joked that Amazon didn't buy a table at the dinner "because the FCBA refused to fork over $600 million in subsidies." Facebook has faced controversy about privacy violation allegations and antitrust uncertainty, he said, but its "recent search innovation will ensure nobody in China will know about any of it." He singled out those at the American Cable Association table as "the only folks ... to be mentioned positively in a tweet by the president" (see 1811130039). Likening T-Mobile's planned buy of Sprint to the sitcom The Office, Pai said it's "up to the FCC to decide, are they more like Jim and Pam or Dwight and Angela? Because I never thought Dwight and Angela's relationship was necessarily in the public interest. A bunch of investment analysts now have to binge watch The Office." Pai said if the communications universe received a false emergency alert about an inbound ballistic missile due in 30 minutes, like the one received by Hawaiians in January (see 1801160054), Fight for the Future "would immediately start organizing a net neutrality 25 minutes of action" while "NAB would ask the FCC to extend the 39-month incentive auction repacking ... before Washington is destroyed." Sizable portions of the monologue involved sports. Pai, gushing about Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, said, "If the Big Lebowski and a Reese's mug had a baby, it would be Pat Mahomes." The event also featured a "car karaoke" video of Pai and a variety of people -- from Richard Wiley of Wiley Rein to former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn -- singing along with Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" while he drove. Digs at Communications Daily were included. Pai asked attendees if they had read Comm Daily's brief report on wireless pet collars (see 1812030015), saying they can be worn not just by dogs, and his administration is all for "pet neutrality." Pai said he downloaded issues of publications including Comm Daily into an artificial intelligence program that wrote part of this monologue for him. In a serious moment, Pai honored deceased President George H.W. Bush and a number of FCC employees.