The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on the Technological Advisory Council’s quest to identify obsolete technical rules. “Some technical rules may no longer be applicable to modern communications equipment,” said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. “Rules that describe the operation of certain technologies may no longer be necessary as those technologies are obsolete. Data reporting requirements for technical operations, which help the FCC to determine how effectively the communications environment is being utilized and also how communications entities are complying with the current laws, may no longer be necessary.” Comments are due Oct. 30 in docket 17-215.

Correction: The industry group headed by Jonathan Adelstein is the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 1708300020).

The number of cellsites down due to Tropical Storm Harvey continues to decline, though other communications services are faring worse. According to the FCC's latest communications status report Thursday, 3.8 percent of the cellsites in the 55 directly affected Texas and Louisiana counties and parishes were down, compared with 4.2 percent on Wednesday (see 1708300054) and 4.7 percent on Tuesday (see 1708290029), and no county has more than 40 percent of cellsites out of service. It said at least 270,139 cable and wireline subscribers were without service, up from Wednesday's 267,426. It also said nine radio stations were down, up from five Wednesday, while the number of TV stations down was two, one fewer than on Wednesday. The agency said the number of public safety answering points down was seven, compared with 11 the previous day, and that none of the downed PSAPs is without a re-route. In a public notice Thursday, the agency said it would extend its disaster data collection to nine additional Texas counties at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Meanwhile CompTIA encouraged tech companies to make donations, which it said it would help double. AT&T said it would use 25 drones to inspect cell towers and determine network damage in areas of Southeast Texas not accessible to cars or trucks due to flooding. AT&T also said it would deploy two satellite cell on wheels in Beaumont, Texas, and stage 12 more in the area to support customers and first responders following Harvey's second landfall.

If the FCC implements Blue Alerts into the wireless emergency alert system, it should do so in a way that minimizes technical changes and system modifications, said T-Mobile and CTIA in reply comments in docket 15-94. The FCC should integrate the BLU code into the existing “imminent threat” alert class to avoid having to create a new standard, CTIA said. Giving the alerts a new message classification would be “a lengthy process,” T-Mobile said. The FCC shouldn’t look at ATSC 3.0 as a solution for mobile alerts, T-Mobile said: “There are significant technical challenges to integrating ATSC 3.0 technology into mobile devices, and the benefits represented are either overstated, are already provided through WEA, or are not readily achievable.”

Nick Degani, aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, said Pai is dead set on digital inclusion and bridging the digital divide. Pai has seen the problem firsthand, Degani told the University of Mississippi Tech Summit Wednesday, according to written remarks. “I don’t mean jet-setting to major technology hubs like Silicon Valley or Boston,” he said. “I’m talking about road trips to visit the people and places we seldom associate with the digital revolution, such as Dillon, Nebraska, and Minneola, Minnesota.” Pai believes overregulation is part of the problem, Degani said. The move to 5G is a big deal for the wireless industry, he said. “Clearing the regulatory underbrush could remove a lot of delays and higher costs as 5G rolls out.” Fifth-generation will be a game changer, he promised: “5G promises exponential growth in the Internet of Things, major advances in augmented and virtual reality, cooperative collision avoidance for cars, remote robotic surgery. And those are just the things we can already foresee.” To "promote digital inclusion, the biggest mechanism in the FCC’s proverbial toolkit would be our universal service programs," he said, saying USF invested $180 million last year in Mississippi. Experts agree it will take more government and industry coordination to further narrow the digital gap between rich and poor (see 1708220036).

New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter denied a New York Times​ story alleging the organization was cutting ties with its Open Markets initiative and 10 full-time employees after its director, Barry Lynn, praised a European Commission $2.7 billion fine in June against Google, a major funder (see 1706270001). "This claim is absolutely false," said Slaughter in a statement. She said Lynn was just fired since he repeatedly refused to follow "standards of openness and institutional collegiality." The story said Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt complained to Slaughter after Lynn's June post, which was taken down and then reposted hours later. The story said Slaughter told Lynn a couple of days later their organizations would part. Slaughter now said New America has "always encouraged many different viewpoints and our funders are aware of and support this philosophy." She said the group has been working to spin out Open Markets as an independent program, while keeping ties with New America. The organization didn't comment whether the initiative will still be spun out now. Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson said think tanks have "grown fat on Google's money" and are "rapidly becoming little more than paid shills for Google and Big Tech." A Google spokeswoman said the company backs hundreds of organizations promoting a free and open internet, more access to information and more opportunity. "We don't agree with every group 100% of the time, and while we sometimes respectfully disagree, we respect each group’s independence, personnel decisions, and policy perspectives,” she said. Google's funding to New America didn't change since the June post, Schmidt didn't threaten to cut off funding and the company had no role in casting off Open Markets, she added.

The FCC shouldn’t approve Sinclair buying Tribune without first relaxing newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules, said newspaper publisher Steinman Communications in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 17-179. Sinclair said in opposition comments (see 1708230061) it wants the FCC to rule on the deal after the outcome of expected action to relax ownership rules, Steinman said. The FCC shouldn’t allow Tribune's buyout without also removing barriers to newspapers making deals, Steinman said. “Steinman’s publications would face a strengthened, consolidated media competitor for audience and advertisers, while Steinman would be barred from similar market efficiencies.” The FCC should deny Sinclair/Tribune and Congress should hold hearings "to more thoroughly understand the media landscape and how critical independent local broadcast stations are in a democracy,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black in a news release on CCIA's replies filed in docket 17-179. "Sinclair has failed to show any tangible way" that the deal benefits the public interest, CCIA said. "Anyone who values decentralized government control, states rights and independent voices should oppose this merger that would harm citizens and weaken our democracy," Black said.

Nominum, which develops and offers domain name server-based services, told the FCC there's room for compromise on net neutrality rules. Replies comments are due Wednesday in docket 17-108. Nominum reminded the FCC that the internet functions because of DNS. Nominum found some signs of general agreement in the contentious proceeding. The record “demonstrates support for the Commission to adopt a framework that promotes transparency, prohibits blocking and throttling, and allows carriers flexibility to manage their networks,” the company said. Wednesday "could very well mark the official beginning of the end for the Open Internet," said Gigi Sohn, aide to former Chairman Tom Wheeler when the 2015 rules were approved. "With the closing of the public comment period for the FCC’s proceeding to repeal the 2015 Net Neutrality rules, the record is now full of tens of millions of comments, many of them demonstrably fake. Incredibly, it doesn't even matter if the facts are real or alternative because Chairman [Ajit] Pai intends to ignore them all so that he can eliminate the rules and protections for Internet users and innovators as quickly as possible." Credo Mobile, a wireless carrier that dedicates some of its profits to progressive causes, told the FCC it shouldn’t redo the rules. “Without the bright­line rules that are only available under Title II, the world’s most vibrant public sphere would be subject to the whims and predatory business decisions of a few large corporations that control how the vast majority of Americans get online." The National Federation of Filipino American Associations said Title II reclassification harmed investment. “There is little disagreement over the need for net neutrality,” the group commented. “Nobody -- including the ISPs -- argues in favor of blocking, throttling, slow lanes, or any other methods that would undermine net neutrality. However, NaFFAA is concerned when it comes to the use of Title II as a means to protect these principles.” The FCC logged 4,333 comments Tuesday in 17-108 by our deadline and more than 21.8 million comments overall.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's decision on an appeal by Dish Network designated entities Northstar and SNR on being denied bidding credits in the AWS-3 auction because of their Dish ties (see 1509180048) is expected this week, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet emailed investors Monday. If Dish wins, the court may force the agency to return the spectrum Dish had to forfeit, Citi said.

Correction: It was Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy's Larry Downes, not Public Knowledge's John Bergmayer, who said he "would be cautious about using market cap as a measure of market strength or leverage" (see 1708250054).