With 5G needing "substantial and sustained infrastructure deployment," the FCC's newest member wants "more attention on this issue and potential solutions," including job training, he told a Labor Department workshop Tuesday on wireless apprenticeships and workforce development. Acknowledging "no direct regulatory role for the FCC," Commissioner Brendan Carr noted a "shortage of skilled workers that can deploy the small cells, distributed antenna systems, and other network facilities." The move to fifth-generation wireless networks "is going to require substantial and sustained infrastructure deployment," an up to 100-fold increase in small cells and millions of miles of new fiber, said prepared remarks from Carr, leading a wireless infrastructure proceeding. "This transition could result in $275 billion in network investment." With federal, tribal, state and local laws "not tailored" for this, he cited FCC moves including a twilight tower public notice on the agenda for commissioners' Dec. 14 meeting (see 1711220026). Ericsson sees a billion 5G subscriptions globally for enhanced mobile broadband by 2023 (see 1711280034).

U.S. internet traffic is projected to continue "explosive growth," rising "two-and-a-half times over the next five years," according to a USTelecom analysis Monday of annual IP traffic data in a Cisco index, blogged Patrick Brogan, the association's vice president-industry analysis. "A massive shift toward online consumer video is the primary driver of traffic growth. Other factors explaining the projected growth include increased mobile data traffic, continued broadband adoption, faster broadband connection speeds, new IoT "technologies, and other applications such as virtual reality, cloud services and data analytics," he wrote.

It isn’t clear whether large platform companies pose a distinct enough threat to merit antitrust action, but more regulation could be an option, said panelists during an American Enterprise Institute discussion Monday. “Some intervention is needed,” said University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales. The concentration of advertising platforms is probably harmful for the economy, but a government-driven solution “isn’t the right approach,” he said. To evaluate whether there's market dominance, “you need to know whether a person can easily switch between services, and is there a cost to switching,” and in today’s tech market, consumers mostly have options, Zingales said. “What’s happening in Silicon Valley is fantastic,” agreed AEI Director-Economic Policy Studies Michael Strain. “The only thing that matters in antitrust analysis is consumer welfare, whether consumers are benefiting.” Companies like Yahoo and RIM (now BlackBerry) that once were powerhouses no longer pose the same concerns, and have been overtaken by today's platform giants, he said. “It’s foolish to think that it’s impossible the iPhone won’t be replaced by another device in 10 years. And I don’t believe Google has perfected the way to organize the internet,” Strain said. “The barrier to entry is pretty small,” said Ryan Hagemann, Niskanen Center director-technology policy, making the case that a new entrant could challenge established players given the speed of tech innovation. "History is full of giants that eventually die," said Zingales.

Eliminating the reseller service option from the Lifeline program would be cemented in the net neutrality order (see 1711270042) with its confirmation that only facilities-based providers can participate, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Monday at a Connect South Carolina Community Technology Action Plan event, according to comments posted on the FCC website. She said regardless of where one stands on net neutrality, that FCC action is one of the most "pointed attack[s] on the economically disadvantaged" in recent agency history. With Lifeline "in trouble," its backers have to partner with providers and local and state authorities to let the agency know of that requirement's effects, she said. Clyburn said the agency still hopes in 2018 to hold a Connect America Fund Phase II auction, with a Mobility Fund Phase II auction "close behind." She said the agency is working to streamline deployment through the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee but that effort "seems to be not entirely consensus based," with limited state and local representation.

T-Mobile supports a request by broadcasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for permission to repack stations early (see 1711150038), the carrier said in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 12-268. Allowing an early transition of the TV stations affected by recent storms in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “has real, practical benefits for broadcasters and, in turn, will benefit the overall transition plan and enable rapid deployment of new wireless service,” T-Mobile said. T-Mobile has emphasized its plans to take possession of spectrum purchased in the broadcast incentive auction as soon as possible, and previously has entered into agreements with public TV stations and low-power outlets to facilitate their repacking efforts (see 1707170043). “An early repack would prompt broadcasters to take advantage of this interim operations period to rebuild once, rather than require a rebuild of current facilities only to be built again in less than two years’ time,” T-Mobile said.

The FCC and FTC would get their FY 2018 funding requests in the Senate Appropriations Committee bill released Monday. The committee allocated $322 million for the FCC, and $306.3 million for the FTC. The measure "puts the Senate in a position to find consensus on policies and funding to improve their overall operation,” said committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The House in September passed its funding bill HR-3354 also granting the agencies' funding requests (see 1709140063).

The FCC's Dec. 14 agenda will include "a concrete solution" for twilight towers, with the aim of streamlining wireless infrastructure deployment, Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted Tuesday. He said the item, if adopted, will allow next-generation wireless deployments on towers. Twilight towers are towers built between 2001 and 2006 and that didn't necessarily go through review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act because the agency hadn't yet provided guidance on compliance. In a statement, Carr said the item would pave the way to excluding collocations on twilight towers from routine historic preservation review, treating them the same as older towers already similarly excluded.

Sprint and Indiana settled their dispute over costs of the 800 MHz rebanding that the state claims weren't fully reimbursed by the carrier (see 1710310041), said a joint request posted Friday in FCC docket 02-55. Sprint and Indiana expect to ask the FCC to dismiss the matter by year-end, but in the meantime want to postpone commencement of prehearing procedures for “not more than a month” to document the settlement and seek dismissal with prejudice.

Microsoft is coordinating TV white space deployments in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help restore connectivity that has been down since hurricanes Maria and Irma. In the mountainous Utuado area of Puerto Rico, that spectrum has been used to re-establish connectivity to a food distribution site, a health clinic and the University of Puerto Rico, Technology and Corporate Responsibility General Manager Shelley McKinley blogged Monday. Those sites also are to act as internet hot spots for the community, it said. White spaces also reconnected city hall in Humacao, Puerto Rico, and a variety of sites in the Virgin Islands in St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas, it said, adding the spectrum is soon to be deployed in Barranquitas and San Lorenzo in Puerto Rico. Microsoft said the work is being done in conjunction with internet connectivity nongovernmental organization NetHope, government agencies, local ISPs and local TV broadcasters.

Four items approved at Thursday's FCC meeting were released by Monday afternoon -- orders on ATSC 3.0, media ownership, robocalling and wireless infrastructure. The agency released items on ATSC 3.0 and media ownership Monday. The ATSC 3.0 item authorizes a new broadcast standard and requires broadcasters to simulcast in the current standard during the transition process. The reconsideration order on media ownership gets rid of rules that barred broadcasters from owning duopolies in certain markets or from owning both a TV station and a newspaper in the same market. The recon order also eliminates a rule making TV joint sales agreements attributable for calculating broadcast ownership, and establishes an incubator program to encourage new industry entrants. Comments are due Jan. 23, with replies Feb. 22 on possible ways to ensure calls erroneously blocked as illegal robocalls can be unblocked and on ways of measuring the FCC's effectiveness in its robocalling efforts, said the robocall order and Further NPRM in Monday's Daily Digest. The commissioners 5-0 approved rules spelling out how voice service providers can block calls likely to be illegitimate due the lack of any legal reason to spoof certain kinds of numbers (see 1711160054). In the order, the agency also directs its Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to prepare, along with the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, a report on robocalling, including on the progress being made in combating illegal robocalls and the hurdles that remain. The FCC Friday released an order in docket 17-79 aimed at promoting 5G and other wireless infrastructure deployment by making it easier to replace utility poles under the National Historic Preservation Act (see 1711160032). The order eliminates a historic preservation review requirement "when utility poles are replaced with substantially identical poles that can support antennas or other wireless communications equipment," it said. The order excludes "from historic preservation review only those replacement poles that are situated no more than ten feet away from the original hole; are no more than 10 percent or five feet taller than the original pole, whichever is greater; and are consistent with the quality and appearance of the original pole." The FCC as of Monday afternoon hadn't issued texts of meeting items on wireline infrastructure deployment, Lifeline USF low-income subsidies (see 1711160021), its most recent spectrum frontiers order, which opened up additional high-band spectrum for mobile use (see 1711160026), or its NPRM on eliminating cable Form 325 reporting requirements.