The White House sent the nomination of David Redl for NTIA administrator to the Senate Thursday, along with others including Neomi Rao to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Transmitting the paperwork is the first step toward allowing Senate Commerce to hold a confirmation hearing for Redl. He has spent years working as a staffer for the House Commerce Committee, with a special focus on spectrum issues that would be at the forefront of his NTIA position (see 1705170056).

The FCC approved making broad changes to the Part 95 personal radio services rules for Citizens Band radios; walkie-talkies; radio-controlled toy cars, boats and planes; hearing assistance devices; and more sophisticated apparatus including medical implants and personal locator beacons, said a news release. Most of the devices use low-power levels and don’t require a license. The Thursday vote was 3-0. The FCC modernizes the rules to “remove outdated requirements, and reorganize them to make it easier to find information,” it said. “The FCC addressed more than two dozen proposals submitted by interested parties. Today’s action will result in a more consistent, clear, and concise set of rules that will better serve the needs of the public.” Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O’Rielly said they support simplifying the rules. O’Rielly asked what took so long. “I’m fairly certain ... when the notice for this item was released back in June 2010, no one ever imagined it would be presented at a commission meeting in May 2017,” he said. “Seven years later and no one has a great reason for the delay, though it’s clearly not the fault of the staff.” Over “the decades, CB radio slang has changed, but the FCC’s rules in this area have not,” Chairman Ajit Pai said. The FCC has a requirement that CB makers engrave the serial number into the transmitter chassis of each CB radio. “Whatever the merits of this rule when it was adopted 40 years ago, those merits have faded into memory, just like B.J. and the Bear,” Pai said. “And the costs of complying with it today greatly exceed any benefit from theft prevention and the like.” B.J. and the Bear was 1970s TV show featuring the adventures of a trucker and his monkey sidekick. On a day when the FCC approved the net neutrality NPRM 2-1 (see 1705180029), the rule changes got little respect. “I know you’re all dying to ask about the Part 95 item, so I will promise to make this brief,” Pai joked at the start of a news conference.

Mismatched IP addresses caused a widespread March 8 outage of 911 service that kept AT&T wireless customers from making emergency calls during five-hours (see 1703090017). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said at the commissioners' meeting Thursday that the problem never should have occurred. The FCC will release a public notice reminding carriers of best practices in the area. The Public Safety Bureau plans a workshop of consumer groups, service providers and public safety. The agency reported 12,539 Americans were affected. AT&T relies on subcontractors Comtech and West, which give it 911 call routing information, said James Wiley, Public Safety Bureau legal adviser, who presented the report. March 8, AT&T “inadvertently” broke its connection to Comtech when it initiated changes to its network, which led to a mismatch between the trusted set of IP addresses in AT&T’s network and the IP addresses Comtech used to send 911 call routing information to the carrier, Wiley said. AT&T rerouted the calls to a backup call center for manual processing, but that call center dropped most of the calls it received, Wiley said. “These findings are highly instructive,” Pai said. “This outage could have been prevented. It was the result of mistakes made by AT&T. The bureau’s report shows that there were shortfalls in operational redundancies, risk assessment, and stakeholder and consumer outreach. Had AT&T followed certain best practices as outlined by the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, or CSRIC, this outage would have had much less impact. Indeed, the cause of the outage could and should have been identified and addressed with periodic audits.” The carrier addressed the vulnerabilities, Pai said. “I urge every carrier to address similar vulnerabilities." The company did "an extensive evaluation of this outage and concluded it was caused by a system configuration change affecting connectivity between a 911 vendor and our network," a spokesman said. "We’ve taken steps to prevent this from happening again." Public Knowledge had called for audits, said Senior Vice President Harold Feld. "Who recommended stuff like that?” Feld tweeted. “@publicknowledge. Who voted against and called us chicken little? @AjitPaiFCC.”

The FY 2016 regulatory fees for small entities are going up to offset the FCC's facilities reduction costs, the agency said in its small entity compliance guide issued Wednesday. The fee structures include an update for direct broadcast satellite operators and adjustments to the regulatory fees on radio and TV broadcasters based on type and class of service and population served. The fees were adopted in September (see 1609060050).

Presentations to the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee and subcommittees and groups will be treated as exempt presentations for ex parte purposes, said a notice Wednesday. It said such treatment is appropriate since presentations to CAC won't directly result in promulgation of new rules, and the FCC won't rely on the proceedings or information submitted to CAC in pending proceedings. CAC is next scheduled to meet Friday (see 1704270051).

The FCC wasted no time in opening a pleading cycle on an NCTA/USTelecom request to clarify broadband speed disclosure requirements. Comments are due June 16, replies July 3 on the petition for declaratory ruling, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 17-131. The FCC should act to ensure broadband speed disclosure duties are harmonized and maintain industry flexibility in light of state efforts to mandate various requirements based on "unreliable performance metrics," said the petition filed Monday. It noted the agency was poised to open a broadband open internet proceeding (see 1705160063).

Qualcomm sued Apple iPhone manufacturers Compal Electronics, Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron, opening a new front in the Apple-Qualcomm patent licensing battle. Apple sued Qualcomm in January on claims the smartphone chipmaker gouged Apple for billions of dollars in patent royalties on technologies it didn't own (see 1701230067). Qualcomm countersued (see 1704110026). Qualcomm also faces an FTC complaint the manufacturer had a monopoly in baseband processors used in cellphones and other devices (see 1701170065, 1704040040 and 1704040037). Qualcomm’s lawsuit against the manufacturers, filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego, claims the firms are in breach of patent licensing agreements and other commitments to Qualcomm by refusing to pay royalties on products they made for Apple, which also include iPads, at the company’s behest. Apple faces a separate lawsuit for interfering in Qualcomm's licensing agreements (see 1704200016). The firms entered into the agreements before they began making iPads and iPhones and are still paying royalties on all non-Apple products, Qualcomm said. “We cannot allow these manufacturers and Apple to use our valuable intellectual property without paying the fair and reasonable royalties to which they have agreed," said Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg in a news release. "As Apple continues to collect billions of dollars from consumer sales of its Qualcomm-enabled products, it is using its market power as the wealthiest company in the world to try to coerce unfair and unreasonable license terms from Qualcomm in its global attack on the company.” Apple pointed to CEO Tim Cook’s statement during the company’s Q2 earnings call (see 1705030051) that Qualcomm is “trying to charge Apple a percentage of the total iPhone value” when its patents are just “one small part of what an iPhone is.”

Thirty entities called for infrastructure legislation to connect "anchor" institutions to high-speed broadband networks, particularly in rural areas, as expected (see 1705160019). "[W]e urge you to include adequate funding for broadband infrastructure, made available through an open, market-based application process, and to ensure that schools, libraries, health clinics, and rural communities can obtain world-class broadband access to the Internet," said a letter from the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and 29 other organizations and companies to President Donald Trump. Anchor institutions are "gateways" to communities, said SHLB Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen on a conference call Wednesday with others. He said direct funding is needed to connect them in high-cost rural areas, where tax credits don't work well. Ellen Satterwhite, an information-technology fellow at the American Libraries Association, said investment in anchor institutions "leverages other federal dollars." Libraries have relationships with various agencies and others working on small business and veterans issues, she said. The FCC Connect America Fund does good work, but the signatories support allocating funding to another agency, Windhausen said. NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service did laudable jobs distributing broadband funds under the 2009 economic stimulus package, he said. Fatbeam CEO Greg Green acknowledged there was some "overbuilding" during the stimulus programs, but said projects fostered competition and lowered institutional costs. He said Fatbeam builds fiber networks near airports, hospitals and other key locations to maximize benefits. "That anchor tenant is so critical" and Fatbeam always connects it to a long-haul network, he said. "We don't want an island."

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee plans its second meeting under Chairman Ajit Pai June 16, starting at 9 a.m., said a public notice. The DAC is to receive updates from each of its four subcommittees -- emergency communications, relay/equipment distribution, technology transitions and video programming, the FCC said. The meeting will be in the Commission Meeting Room.

ZVRS lobbied FCC Republican commissioners on the video relay service rate plan of "nondominant" providers, which it called "the most viable proposal to advance" agency goals for VRS and the Telecom Relay Service Fund. "It is also the only proposal that brings rates closer to costs for small, medium and large size providers," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-51 on a meeting CEO Sherri Turpin and others had with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide. "It is critical for the Commission to maintain the proposed rates for four years and apply them retroactive to January 1, 2017 in order to stabilize the non-dominant VRS providers who have been devastated by declining rates under the glide path." Former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth agreed "the joint rate proposal is the most sensible option at this juncture and explained why maintaining a tiered rate structure for VRS makes sense given the current state of the market," said the filing. ZVRS, the parent of CSDVRS and Purple Communications, made a similar filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. Asked by O’Rielly about "skills-based routing," Turpin said "skills-based routing should not increase costs to the Fund because it will provide for faster, more efficient, and better quality conversations," it said.