Local officials urged the FCC to protect local laws promoting "competitive broadband access" in apartment buildings and other multiple tenant environments. "The Commission lacks the legal authority to insert itself into the relationship between local governments and property owners via Section 253 preemption authority" of the Communications Act, said a filing Friday in docket 17-142 of representatives of Boston; Portland, Oregon; and Maryland's Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties on a discussion with Wireline Bureau staffers. The local officials -- who included NATOA President-elect Mike Lynch of Boston and who filed August reply comments on the agency's inquiry (see 1708230040) -- said the FCC wouldn't have any ability to exercise Title II telecom authority if it adopts its proposal to reclassify broadband as a Title I information service. They said the FCC "must include additional local voices" on its Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, which recently added a third local representative (see 1709010046).

Incompas wants to work with the FCC and others to create a process for reviewing confidential and highly confidential information from large-scale transactions in connection with the net neutrality proceeding, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 17-108 on a Wednesday meeting between Incompas and aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, plus staff from the Office of General Counsel. Incompas also met Thursday with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Incompas also discussed its motion to modify the protective orders in some deals.

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants to refresh the record on the 2011 intercarrier compensation transformation further notice, said a public notice Friday. The bureau seeks comment on “the network edge for traffic that interconnects with the Public Switched Telephone Network,” tandem switching and transport, and “transit (the non-access traffic functional equivalent of tandem switching and transport).” The bureau wants to refresh the record to reflect developments since the Further NPRM such as “the transition of certain terminating traffic to bill-and-keep,” and “implementation of the adopted mandate to move all traffic to bill-and-keep.”

Thirty-one members were appointed to the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (see the personals section of this issue), said a public notice Friday. The committee's first meeting is Sept. 25. NetCommunications President Julia Johnson will be chair, and ShootingStar Broadcasting CEO Diane Sutter will be vice chair, the PN said. Other members include Comcast Vice President-Global Policy Rudy Brioche, former Commissioner Henry Rivera, National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston and Verizon Vice President-Public Policy Donna Epps. Former Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy is also on the ACDDE, listed as "Subject Matter Expert/Special Government Employee. "Three working groups will assist the ACDDE: Broadcast Diversity and Development, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector. “The composition of these three working groups will be announced in the future,” a release said. The agency designated docket 17-208 for public comments on the ACDDE, the PN said.

The FCC gave states and eligible telecom carriers not under state jurisdiction until Nov. 17 to certify they're properly using federal high-cost support under Section 54.314(d) of the agency's rules. A brief waiver from an Oct. 1 filing deadline is "justified by the special circumstances that states only recently were able to access through the [High Cost Universal Broadband] portal the Phase II geospatial information reported" to Universal Service Administrative Co. on July 3, said a Wireline Bureau order in Thursday's Daily Digest.

CBS CEO Les Moonves emphatically denied Thursday the network is in talks to acquire CNN. Rumors of such a deal are "real fake news," he said at an Economic Club luncheon, saying he hasn't talked with executives at CNN or parent Time Warner. A TW spinoff of CNN was speculated as part of AT&T's bid for the cable network (see 1701130018). TW didn't comment. Moonves said a programming talent war is growing with streaming services' original content and with tech companies getting increasingly into the TV space. He said CBS' competitive niche is in programming expertise and its broadcast assets' mass audience. With the growth of skinny programming bundles, CBS's strategy is to always be part of those skinnier bundles alongside its CBS All Access direct-to-consumer streaming service, he said. He also predicted a rebound in NFL ratings this season, chalking up last year's 8 percent ratings decline to more interest in presidential election coverage and anemic Thursday night game matchups. Meanwhile, DOJ may soon OK AT&T/TW, reported the Los Angeles Times earlier that day. DOJ didn't comment.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council urged the FCC to ban "digital redlining" by using its Telecom Act Section 706 mandate to ensure advanced telecom capability is being adequately deployed to all Americans. "The FCC should adopt an impact standard, rather than an intent standard, to determine whether a company is engaged in redlining," MMTC commented Thursday in docket 17-199 on a Section 706 inquiry into ATC deployment. Three Cleveland residents recently filed an FCC complaint alleging digital redlining by AT&T, which AT&T denied (see 1708240046). MMTC also said the commission should evaluate mobile services both jointly and separately from fixed services because the two services are both complements and substitutes in different instances. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association said the commission should set "targets for both fixed and mobile broadband that are sufficiently fast to accommodate high-bandwidth uses and a proliferation of internet-connected devices." Comments were due Thursday but the FCC extended the deadline to Sept. 21.

The FCC needs to cut unnecessary regulation, starting with parts of the 2015 net neutrality rules, to spur the growth of broadband, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday at the Institute for Policy Innovation in Irving, Texas. “Broadband networks are expensive to build. And they don’t have to be built. Capital doesn’t have to be spent. Risks don’t have to be taken. So the more difficult government makes the business case for deployment, the less likely it is that broadband providers, big and small, will invest the billions of dollars needed to connect consumers.” Pai said cutting wireless siting red tape is key to 5G, which will require network densification and building small cells across many markets. “We are talking about hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of small cells,” supported by backhaul, he said. “That’s a lot of approvals that will have to be given -- and a lot of possibilities for delay and higher costs.” Rules "designed for 100-foot towers might not make sense for small cells that are the size of a pizza box," he said.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition pressed the FCC to make documents available to the public about consumer open internet concerns. NHMC officials updated Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and aides on the agency's response to the group's Freedom of Information Act request for 47,000 consumer complaints since the 2015 net neutrality order was implemented, said the group's filing Tuesday in docket 17-108. They asked the agency "to publish the evidence and incorporate it into the record." Citing another FOIA request on consumer email interactions with an FCC open internet liaison, NHMC said the commission had begun to produce related documents but hasn't released an analysis of assistance provided or alternative remedies. "Because the Commission has proposed eliminating this role, we urged the Commission to analyze the information, publish it for public review, and incorporate the documents into the record," it said. The FCC didn't comment.

Obvious deficiencies with dedicated short range communications technology for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, married to the Department of Transportation's August downgrading of the DSRC mandate, shows why the FCC should maximize use of the 5.9 GHz band instead by unlicensed technologies, NCTA said in an FCC docket 13-49 filing posted Wednesday. The association said using the band for DSRC safety service is "an inefficient spectrum-warehousing effort," since it's unlikely most of the services and message types talked about by the Association of Global Automakers (AGA) will ever come to market, given lack of development of such services in recent years. It said assertions that six of the seven DSRC channels will be primarily for safety don't square with extensive commercial plans for DSRC. NCTA said the 5.9 GHz band isn't internationally harmonized for DSRC, and there are international indications of less interest in DSRC and more in connected vehicle technologies using LTE networks. It said automakers are divided on the efficacy of DSRC, and there are technologies like cellular-V2X capable of supporting vehicle safety in existing bands. AGA didn't comment. NCTA said DOT's downgraded its vehicle-to-vehicle communications proceeding status from "NPRM" to "undetermined." DOT didn't comment.