FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Friday urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to wrap up action on three accessibility items started under predecessor Tom Wheeler. Clyburn spoke at a meeting of the FCC Disability Advisory Committee (DAC). First on Clyburn’s list was video programming. "We cannot stand idly by as so many members of our communities are being left behind,” she said. "The time to act is now.” In March 2016, the FCC adopted an NPRM that proposed increasing video-described programming from 50 hours to 87.5 hours per calendar quarter, she said. “This would have expanded the availability of video described programming by 75 percent, allowing those who are blind or visually impaired, to immerse themselves in programming in a way that audio dialogue simply does not provide,” Clyburn said. “It is time to act and put this proposal into effect.” Clyburn also urged the FCC to make closed captioning more readily available. Last fall, the FCC opened a proceeding that would have ensured consumers can readily find and control the display features associated with closed captioning, Clyburn said. “What good however, is closed captioning if those that stand to benefit the most cannot easily find and use all of its features?” she asked. “I think it is time we put this item back on circulation and take action expeditiously.” The FCC also should act on a proceeding that would revise the volume control standards for wireless and wireline phones to better serve people with hearing loss, Clyburn said. The same proceeding also would address application of hearing aid compatibility standards to handsets used with advanced communications services, including VoIP, she said. Patrick Webre, acting chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said the DAC has a big job ahead, starting with the development of criteria for measuring relay service quality and best practices for video description. DAC also will provide advice on emergency communications using real-time text, he said. “Your technology transition subcommittee is helping us address the challenges of compatibility and integration of real-time text with assistive technologies and relay services,” Webre said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was picked to hear challenges to the FCC's recent business data service order, a commission spokesman told us Friday. The FCC filed a notice with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation of Multicircuit Petitions for Review that challenges had been filed in three different courts: the 8th Circuit, 5th Circuit and D.C. Circuit (see 1706150074). The panel randomly selected the 8th Circuit to review the consolidated BDS litigation, said an order Friday. A D.C. Circuit order (in Pacer) transferred its BDS cases to the 8th Circuit. Commissioners voted 2-1 along party lines April 20 to approve the BDS order, which substantially expands price deregulation of incumbent telcos. Challenges to the order were filed by the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, Sprint and Windstream jointly, CenturyLink and Citizens Telecommunications of Minnesota.

Permissive detariffing of business data services begins Aug. 1, but the 3-year countdown to mandatory detariffing won't begin until the Office of Management and Budget approves related rules, said AT&T, citing FCC staffers. AT&T and Wireline Bureau officials discussed implementation issues for the agency's recent BDS order (see 1704200020), including the Aug. 1 effective date's impact on price-cap BDS services; "guidebook and wire center-to-county mapping best practices; the review process for adjustments to BDS offerings in non-competitive counties going forward; and the timing of the effectiveness of the Order’s detariffing relief," said a company filing Thursday in docket 16-143. Bureau staff indicated the permissive detariffing rules don't require OMB review, meaning price-cap ILECs can begin voluntarily detariffing on Aug. 1, said AT&T. It noted bureau staff also indicated mandatory detariffing rules are subject to OMB review, and thus will become effective when the OMB approval process is complete.

The California Public Utilities Commission “may be overly antagonistic” in proposed comments to the FCC on the commission’s wireline and wireless infrastructure NPRMs and notices of inquiry, CPUC President Michael Picker protested at the state agency’s Thursday meeting. The draft comments opposed FCC pre-emption and raised concerns about copper retirement and other issues (see 1706120022). Complaining that the draft is “very antagonistic” in tone about the copper issue and raising concerns that some statements could undercut pending CPUC proceedings, Picker abstained from voting. But the other four commissioners voted in favor of the draft comments, with instructions to edit the comments to address Picker's and Commissioner Liane Randolph's concerns in the hours before Thursday’s comments deadline at the FCC. Randolph said she generally supports the comments but wanted to pare the copper verbiage. Picker complained about reading the draft comments for the first time the previous night. CPUC Assistant General Counsel Helen Mickiewicz apologized, saying it was an unusual circumstance that occurred due to the FCC’s speedy pace on the infrastructure rulemakings. Meanwhile, comments are starting to roll in at the FCC in docket 17-79. The FCC should adopt a broadly applicable “deemed granted” remedy when local governments fail to act on infrastructure siting applications within the FCC’s “shot clock” time limit, the Free State Foundation said. FSF also urged the FCC to tighten the time frames: “Arbitrary restrictions on new siting and modification applications and lengthy permit processing delays by local governments pose barriers to wireless broadband deployment and infrastructure investment.”

Three challenges to FCC business data services rules were filed in three different circuits, the commission told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a letter (in Pacer) Thursday. An attached "notice of multicircuit petitions for review has been filed with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation of Multicircuit Petitions for Review," said the letter, which listed the cases: Ad Hoc Telecom Users Comm. v. FCC, No. 17-1153 in the D.C. Circuit, CenturyLink v. FCC, No. 17-60439 in the 5th Circuit and Citizens Telecomms Co. of Minn. v. FCC, 17-2296 in the 8th Circuit. A brief D.C. Circuit order (in Pacer) Thursday consolidated an earlier Sprint and Windstream challenge to the BDS rules with the Ad Hoc challenge. The FCC asked the D.C. Circuit Tuesday to remand an AT&T challenge to a 2016 BDS tariff investigation order for further agency consideration (see 1706140012).

U.S. policy is moving toward more deregulation and reliance on antitrust enforcement to address market abuses, said American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Jeffrey Eisenach, a member of then-President-elect Donald Trump's FCC transition team. In a speech at an FCBA event Wednesday, Eisenach gave a big thumbs-up to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and he singled out William Kennard, chairman from 1997 to 2001, for laying a deregulatory foundation. “What is the path forward? I think Chairman Pai is on it," Eisenach said. "He’s not only insisting on and promoting debate around the facts, the issues, and analysis, but also ... cheerfully using communications skills.” Eisenach is "especially enthusiastic" about Pai's proposal to create an Office of Economics and Data. He credited Kennard for devising a strategic plan in the late 1990s that envisioned an agency transition from industry regulator to market facilitator as the internet and other innovations eroded distinctions between market segments. He said that plan was the "touchstone" of the Trump FCC transition team. “After many delays and detours, we seem to be back on a path that … will lead to the replacement of ex-ante regulation in the communications sector with a framework ultimately grounded in antitrust," he said. Eisenach said President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., collaborated on airline and trucking deregulation in the late 1970s, and President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., collaborated on the 1996 Telecom Act: “It’s far too much to hope that President Trump and Senator [Al] Franken [D-Minn.] will appear together at some point endorsing the same piece of legislation, but we have to hope." Government still will be needed, Eisenach said, such as in managing spectrum and providing subsidies and incentives to build out broadband; the question is how best to do it. He said there's a role for government to fund some broadband infrastructure efforts in remote rural areas. "Far and away, not the biggest waste of government money by any stretch would be to just do some direct spending in conjunction with incentives," he said, while warning against overdoing it. Eisenach congratulated and joked about ex-Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, whom Trump said he would nominate to another term at the FCC (see 1706140046 and 1706140065). "Better late than never, but better now than sooner. So, I can’t resist. I’m happy she’s coming back to the commission and I’m so happy she’s been gone. Sorry,” he said, drawing some laughs.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the National Congress of American Indians Wednesday he's fully committed to working with the tribal governments on siting and other issues. Pai said he has had a number of meetings with tribal officials since becoming chairman in January. Tribal approvals are seen as a potential stumbling block, especially for wireless infrastructure approvals (see 1706020053). “I honor and embrace that trust relationship and my responsibilities as the Chairman of the FCC,” Pai said in written remarks. “Those responsibilities include a commitment for the Bureaus and Offices across our agency to work collaboratively with our Office of Native Affairs and Policy (ONAP). This will allow ONAP to seek input through all available means -- including consultation with Tribal leaders on a government-to-government basis.” Pai noted he just completed a weeklong trip with meetings from Milwaukee to Casper, Wyoming. The focus was on the digital divide and helping communities catch up, he said: “Rural Americans, including many in Indian Country, disproportionately find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.” Pai said one of the most "meaningful" meetings was with tribal representatives in South Dakota. Much is at stake, he said. "We don’t bemoan the digital divide in Indian Country because some people can’t play online games like Candy Crush," Pai said. "We focus on these issues because Internet connectivity has become vital to full participation in modern life."

NTCA and USTelecom asked the FCC to give rural telcos broadband USF contribution relief while the agency seeks to revise the subsidy system's assessments of industry for funding. The commission should provide "targeted, temporary forbearance from the application of USF contribution requirements ... with respect to broadband Internet access transmission services provided by RLECs pending the completion of comprehensive USF contributions reform," they said in a petition Wednesday in docket 06-122. The groups sought the USF contribution relief for such RLEC broadband services until the commission decides whether any and all broadband services "should be required to contribute to support of federal USF programs or completes some other form of contributions reform." They said regulatory forbearance would have a "de minimis effect" on USF contributions. RLECs are being subjected to "discriminatory and anti-competitive treatment" under a 2005 wireline broadband order that allowed them to offer broadband on a common-carrier basis -- to recover costs for such service via access rates and USF -- but only if they agreed to make USF contributions, NTCA and USTelecom said. Other providers haven't been required to make USF contributions, even under the 2015 net neutrality order that reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service because the agency provided USF contribution forbearance, they said. A federal-state joint board is looking at USF contribution issues in an effort to make recommendations to the FCC for possible changes. The FCC, CTIA, NTCA and Public Knowledge didn't comment.

The FCC approved the first grants of licenses purchased in the TV incentive auction and will let “phase zero” low-power TV stations and translators displaced far ahead of the special LPTV displacement window move to temporary channels or temporarily channel share. Among those 2,317 licenses in the wireless band OK'ed were licenses bought by T-Mobile, Dish Network through ParkerB, Comcast through CC Wireless Investment, and AT&T -- 52 pages of licenses in all -- said a public notice by the Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau. Fifty bidders paid $19.3 billion in the auction for a total of 2,776 licenses. The licenses approved cover some of the largest U.S. markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. “We have received information from T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile), one of the recipients of the licenses granted today in the 600 MHz Band, indicating that it may commence operations or conduct FFA [first field application] testing using some of its 600 MHz Band licenses later this year,” the PN said. The displacement window for LPTV and translators likely won’t open until Q1, which could leave some LPTV and translators in the cold, said filings from the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition, T-Mobile and NAB (see 1706050066). To address a gap, the IATF and Media Bureau will allow low-power broadcasters that are notified by the new owners of 600 MHz spectrum that they have 120 days to cease operations to request a waiver of the current freeze on displacement applications and apply for special temporary authority (STA) to operate on a temporary channel or seek a temporary channel sharing arrangement, another PN said. The temporary channels requested must be in the bands allocated for TV and can’t interfere with existing broadcasters, the PN said. “In considering the STA request, we will assess whether the proposed displacement facility complies with our technical and interference rules.” For temporary channel sharing, “two or more eligible LPTV/translator stations may each request a waiver of the Displacement Freeze and submit a displacement application that proposes to share a channel with the other eligible LPTV/translator,” the PN said. “Relief, if granted, will be temporary.” The Media Bureau meanwhile gave special permission for KCRA (DT) Riverside, California, a winning bidder in the incentive auction, to consummate a transaction before disbursement of incentive auction payments, said another PN. Under incentive auction rules, stations that were winning bidders would have to wait until the auction payments went out, the PN said. KCRA sought to “consummate a pro forma intra-corporate reorganization” before the payments are disbursed, the PN said. The timing is sensitive and “tied to the maturity of certain notes and a new bond offering,” the PN said. Since the deal is pro forma and won’t change the holder of the license, the bank accounts or the FCC registration number involved, the Media Bureau granted the request, the PN said. “Our decision is limited to the specific facts and special circumstances before us.”

The FCC asked a court to remand a business data service investigation case in which AT&T is challenging a 2016 order that found certain incumbent telco BDS tariff provisions were unlawful (see 1604280057). In its statement of issues to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, AT&T had said the order is contrary to the court's 2006 BellSouth v. FCC ruling that vacated a previous commission tariff order. "The Order on review did not address BellSouth," said an FCC motion for voluntary remand Tuesday in AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1166. "Because that case, like the Order on review, addresses the lawfulness of BDS tariff terms, the Commission believes that it would be appropriate to consider the extent to which the reasoning in the Order is compatible with the BellSouth decision." The FCC said DOJ and intervenor CenturyLink consent to its motion; intervenors Sprint and Incompas are studying it; intervenor Ad Hoc Telecommunications Committee doesn't consent; and the agency discussed the motion with a counsel to intervenor Level 3 but the company didn't respond. Sprint, Incompas, Ad Hoc and Level 3 didn't comment Wednesday.