FCC Chairman Ajit Pai hopes dig once to lay fiber conduits "becomes the law of the land," suggesting it's critical to increasing backhaul capacity to support 5G wireless. He said low-earth-orbit satellite constellations promise to expand rural broadband and lower latency. "Satellite innovation is really coming along well," he told a Geeks Without Frontiers conference Tuesday. The difficult broadband business case in high-cost areas is worsened by unnecessary rules, he said, vowing to continue deregulatory remedies: "We've made a lot of progress. There's still a ways to go." He said the Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction saved $3.5 billion, allocating $1.5 billion in broadband subsidies over 10 years for connecting over 700,000 locations estimated to need $5 billion. He plugged FCC "technological neutrality" letting wireless providers, electric utilities and Viasat be among new CAF recipients competing to serve rural customers. Pai highlighted other efforts to push broadband, including plans to auction 5 GHz of commercial spectrum over the next 18 months, and opening the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi use. The FCC is looking at unlicensed opportunities from low-band spectrum to the 95 GHz band, he said. Pai said there are "exciting times to come" in broadband-enabled "vertical" applications like teleheath, and IoT and artificial intelligence have potential upsides for healthcare.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson "suggested" he "would be supportive of approving" T-Mobile's planned buy of Sprint "with no conditions, but would not support one with conditions that empowered a new competitor like DISH or Cable," New Street Research analysts wrote investors Sunday, citing a discussion with him at an AT&T analyst day Thursday. The discussion took place after the webcast event, analyst Vivek Stalam told us Monday. Stephenson "noted that a large number of Democratic states’ attorneys general might oppose the deal or demand such a condition," the analysts wrote: "Interesting that he would express support in a way that would, if taken as evidence of the deal’s likely impact, undercut the odds of approval, but we don’t think the DOJ staff or others will take his comments as evidence. We do agree with him that the states’ attorneys general remain a risk but would add that some Republican states’ attorneys general, such as in Tennessee, are also apparently involved [in] state efforts to study and perhaps litigate to block the deal." AT&T didn't comment. The proposed transaction raises "considerable competitive harms ... with few, if any, countervailing, merger-related public interest benefits," filed the Communications Workers of America on meeting FCC staffers, including a 50-page presentation posted Monday in docket 18-197. CWA said the deal would result in "fewer jobs and higher prices" and "concentrate valuable spectrum in a combined T-Mobile/Sprint in almost two-thirds" of counties. T-Mobile and Sprint oppose a CWA motion seeking deal hearings at the New York Public Service Commission (see 1812030029).

Incoming Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) defeated Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) for the open seat of term-limited Gov. Rick Snyder (see 1811290035).

Much of official Washington is closed Wednesday in honor of late President George H.W. Bush, 94, whose state funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. that day at the National Cathedral. The Copyright Office, FTC and NTIA will be closed, spokespeople told us, as will the FCC. Filings at the FTC and FCC won't be due Wednesday and now must be submitted Thursday. Dec. 5 won't "count in computing filing periods of less than seven days," said an FCC public notice. Items on commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting agenda can be lobbied on through Thursday, 24 more hours than under the usual sunshine period. The CO online registration system will remain available, its spokesperson said. Neither chamber of Congress will hold hearings for at least some of this week, and some votes may not occur. Among hearings that were scheduled before Bush's death and now postponed: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Wednesday at the House Judiciary Committee, and one of its subcommittees Tuesday with the heads of the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division. Thursday's House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the Ray Baum Act law is rescheduled for Dec. 11. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is closed Wednesday, the clerk's office said. President Donald Trump ordered federal "executive departments and agencies" closed that day. Their heads "may determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must report for duty," Saturday's executive order said, "for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need." Wednesday's FCC Technological Advisory Council gathering was postponed. The Technology Policy Institute won't hold Wednesday's lunch event on privacy. The International Institute of Space Law emailed that its annual Galloway space law event goes on as planned Wednesday other than NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine canceling his keynote.

An investigation by the FCC inspector general didn’t reveal any evidence FCC Chairman Ajit Pai acted improperly by not volunteering that he had been called by then-White House Counsel Don McGahn in connection with Sinclair's since-abandoned deal for Tribune (see 1812030055), said a Nov. 26 report released Monday. “We are pleased that the Office of Inspector General has confirmed for a second time that there were no improper actions taken during the Sinclair-Tribune review process,” said the agency, calling allegations against Pai “spurious.” During a July House oversight hearing, ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., asked Pai if he would make public any discussions with President Donald Trump or White House staff about Sinclair/Tribune transaction. Pai said he would, within ex parte rules, but didn’t mention a phone call with McGahn about the deal that took place just a few days before the hearing, according to the report. “Although Chairman Pai could have disclosed his discussion with White House Counsel McGahn in response to this question, we do not believe that Chairman Pai made a ‘material omission,’” the report said. Pai wasn’t required to disclose the conversation under ex parte rules because McGahn didn’t express any views on merits of the proceeding, the IG said. McGahn asked what action Pai was taking, and Pai explained he had proposed designating the matter for hearing, as he had already publicly announced, the report said. Pai later disclosed the call at an August oversight hearing. The Pallone letter that triggered the IG investigation also referenced an August FCC news conference where Pai was asked if anyone in the White House had contacted him or FCC staff about the deal, and Pai replied: “No one in the White House has contacted us to express a view about the merger.” Laws prohibiting false statements don't cover comments to the media and “therefore no further analysis of this exchange is warranted,” the report said. By offering Congress “truthful but incomplete” answers, Pai demonstrated a lack of candor, the same issue over which Sinclair/Tribune was designated for hearing, said Georgetown Institute for Legal Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman. The FCC didn't comment.

Rural telco groups endorsed a draft FCC order to offer increased USF support to rate-of-return carriers in exchange for more 25/3 Mbps broadband deployment, tentatively set for a Dec. 12 vote (see 1811210032). The draft "would take substantial steps toward fulfillment of statutory mandates with respect to predictability and sufficiency, promote the effectiveness of existing USF support mechanisms," promote network investment, and ensure service availability "on a reasonably comparable basis between rural and urban areas," filed NTCA, on meetings with aides to all commissioners and with Wireline Bureau staffers (here and here), posted through Friday in docket 10-90. Meeting aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, ITTA backed "increased funding for A-CAM [Alternative Connect America Cost Model] carriers and attendant commitments to buildout at additional locations at speeds of 25/3 Mbps; ensuring sufficient and predictable support for legacy rate-of-return carriers; a new model offer for legacy carriers; and separate budgets for the model-based and legacy programs." Nebraska A-CAM Companies support "adoption of a voluntary offer of additional funding up to $200/month per location for existing A-CAM recipients, with modified deployment obligations, as set forth in the draft order," filed consultant Carol Mattey, on meetings with O'Rielly and aides to all commissioners (here and here). They backed "extending a new offer of A-CAM support to all companies not currently receiving A-CAM support and would not limit such an offer to those companies that would receive less support under the model than their current support." USTelecom discussed with O'Rielly aides how the draft compared with proposals submitted by associations and "addressed the potential impacts of a second ACAM offer and the lack of a challenge process in determining overlap."

Executive branch departments and agencies have a Feb. 21 deadline for initial reports to NTIA on their anticipated spectrum needs over the next 15 years, with final reports due April 23, the agency said Friday. By April 23, they also are to start a review of their current frequency assignments and quantification of their spectrum usage. That data should help federal and nonfederal spectrum users and regulators in their look for "long-term collaboration opportunities," NTIA said.

A widely viewed clip of Sinclair anchors nationwide repeating company talking points was shown at a panel on the decline of local news with journalism experts. President Andy Burness of Burness, which represents nonprofits and organized Thursday's panel, showed the Deadspin news website clip from earlier this year. "Sinclair is a rebuttal in their view to the dominance of the left wing on major networks," said Boulder, Colorado, blogger Dave Krieger, fired earlier this year from the Daily Camera for running an editorial that slammed the newspaper's hedge-fund owner, Alden Global Capital. "That’s their motivation." Krieger and Nicco Mele, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, agreed the likes of Sinclair aren't a new trend, as politically slanted or driven news in the U.S. dates back a few hundred years. "Ideologically driven news doesn’t bother me too much," Mele said. "There’s a long tradition of it in America." What's important is that consumers know what that slant is and that the content is truthful, attendees were told. Panelists warned that's not always the case on social media. "You frequently don’t know that you’re making an ideological choice in your news consumption" such as on Facebook, Mele said. For traditional media, panelists made a pitch for more diversity, as wider representation of women and other groups in tech and telecom is drawing attention including from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1811280035). Such efforts need to begin even before job applications are filed and reviewed, Krieger said. Mele recounted that when he was a Los Angeles Times executive several years ago, "the newsroom was overwhelmingly white. I do think that hurt the business in a substantial way." Tronc, which returned to the Tribune Publishing name, separately earlier this year sold the paper to a local billionaire who has pledged to hire staff and make other changes. "Over the past several years, the Los Angeles Times has made increasing diversity within our newsroom a top priority, to better serve the community," a spokesperson emailed. "Each year we make progress." She said 36 percent of the paper's journalists aren't white, compared with 23 percent in U.S. newsrooms overall in a recently released survey that said it had low participation. Since 1984, the paper has had a program to "develop" young journalists and to increase diversity, she noted.

AT&T left the American Legislative Exchange Council, after Verizon's departure about two months earlier (see 1809180036). Right-wing activist David Horowitz drew controversy when he spoke in August at an ALEC event in New Orleans. “We have ended our membership with ALEC and their convention speaker was a key factor in the decision,” said an AT&T spokesperson Thursday. ALEC "values partnerships with Communications companies and stakeholders across the business community," a spokesperson emailed. "Decisions made by businesses are unfortunately not always issue based, and are a product of highly charged political times. ALEC has and continues to work with the telecommunication and technology industries on deregulation, innovation, privacy and intellectual property policy." Charter Communications isn't an ALEC member, a spokesperson said. Other ALEC telecom members CenturyLink, Comcast and NCTA didn’t say if they will also leave.

FCC commissioners seem open to giving states and territories access to national outage data in the network outage reporting system (NORS) and disaster information reporting system (DIRS), said Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau Chairwoman Sandra Torres Lopez in a Thursday interview before scheduled meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Torres met Wednesday with FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, she said. The federal body has had a flurry of meetings recently on NORS access (see 1811210018). Torres is optimistic the FCC will open access. Her agency responded to requests for information including about confidentiality, a concern raised by industry. The territorial government needs the information “to keep the people ... informed” about the status of recovery, she said. In FCC meetings, the she argued for additional funding to help the island further recover from 2017 hurricanes and reach unserved areas, Torres said. Pai last week suggested Puerto Rico may need even more USF support for recovery (see 1811230018). The territory needs more than the $117 million in short-term support from USF, Torres agreed. It needed the money “yesterday” but is working through the process, she said. One year after Hurricane Maria, infrastructure restoration remains a challenge, Torres said. Puerto Rico faces at least weekly brownouts, with brief telecom outages, she said.