Moving to 5G, most carriers will see that the most “cost-effective way” to deliver such bandwidth and low latency “is to deploy more antennas, a lot more antennas, and each of those is a high-performance antenna that needs to be backhauled with fiber,” Corning Chief Strategy Officer Jeffrey Evenson told a Credit Suisse investors conference Tuesday. “Fiber has been a pretty small part of cellular builds,” but 5G “changes the game,” he said. The company estimates each antenna will require eight fibers, so “we're building new plants to supply this,” he said. It developed a supply agreement with Verizon to “de-risk” that investment, he said: The next decade will determine whether 5G is a “fiber-to-the-home-size business or something even bigger."

FCC staff voiced concerns about "overutilization" of IP captioned telephone services, "marketing, and a lack of understanding" among IP CTS users "about how the service works," said the International Hearing Society, representing hearing healthcare professionals, in docket 03-123. "They highlighted alternate methods for achieving effective telephone communication, and inquired about patient satisfaction with the phones, and provider determinations about which captioned telephones they chose to offer to patients," IHS said Monday on a Nov. 14 meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and Office of Managing Director staffers. "The preferred method for determining eligibility for a captioned telephone should be based on the licensed hearing care professional’s clinical judgment following a comprehensive hearing evaluation," argued IHS. "FCC and IHS agreed to work together to provide education to hearing aid dispensing professionals about IP CTS services." Providers and deaf groups objected to FCC-proposed IP CTS changes (see 1809180048).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau reached a $50,000 settlement agreement with Gable Signs & Graphics over violations of FCC rules on LED signs, said a consent decree Tuesday. Gable “violated the Equipment Marketing Rules by marketing LED signs without the required equipment authorization, labeling, and user manual disclosures, and by failing to produce certain required test records,” the settlement said. “Gable admits that it violated the Commission’s rules." A compliance plan includes regular compliance reports and a training program for employees. The agency has settled 21 cases involving noncompliant LED signs since March, said a release. “The settlements yielded approximately $850,000 in penalties paid to the U.S. Treasury and commitments to ensure compliance with the law." Gable didn’t comment.

Lifeline providers backed a Q Link Wireless petition to submit documentation of low-income consumer eligibility to a national verifier via bulk transfer rather than through its online portals, which Q Link says it can't use absent an application programming interface (see 1811090038). Waiver should be granted to all eligible telecom carriers as an interim solution until there's an API, commented the National Lifeline Association in docket 17-287, posted Monday. NaLA said the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. should "promptly move to implement a service provider API in the National Verifier to facilitate an efficient and effective enrollment process that serves consumers while safeguarding the Lifeline program through an independent determination of eligibility." TracFone last week also urged the FCC to grant Q Link's petition and extend relief to all ETCs.

A New York town sued by Crown Castle disagreed that an FCC September declaratory ruling “has any impact" on the case. At the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Crown Castle claimed Hempstead violated Communications Act Section 332 when it delayed and effectively denied a request to install wireless facilities in the right of way (see 1806130052). Crown Castle said last week (in Pacer) the FCC’s declaratory ruling supported its case. Hempstead disagreed (in Pacer) Monday: The company's distributed antenna system sites aren't small wireless facilities as defined by the FCC. The FCC ruling applies only to small wireless facilities that provide wireless broadband and telecom, but the DAS facilities will provide 4G LTE broadband information services, it said. “The Declaratory Ruling is irrelevant.”

FCC staff OK'd Florida Public Service Commission request for waiver of some Lifeline rules (see 1810300039) for four months through Feb. 10, for 12 counties hit by Hurricane Michael, including Bay, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Leon, Liberty, and Wakulla. There's "good cause" to give eligible telecom carriers serving such subscribers there more time on non-usage and recertification rules, ordered the Wireline Bureau, listed in Monday's Daily Digest. "Strict compliance with these rules would be impracticable and would risk de-enrollment of Lifeline subscribers in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael." On Friday, the FCC sought comment on 36 questions about the storm, including the extra time it took to fix communications networks in the Florida Panhandle (see 1811160050). The order is in docket 11-42.

Proposals are due Feb. 4 for a Secure Telephone Identity Policy Administrator, ATIS told the FCC Thursday in docket 17-59. It noted an STI Governance Authority request for proposal to select the overseer of an industry Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (Shaken) framework to authenticate calls and combat illegal robocalls.

TV white space database provider Nominet says it fixed the issues with its database raised by NAB Oct. 19. “We promptly reviewed our Licensing Management System (LMS) data import process and rectified the identified discrepancies,” Nominet replied, posted in docket 04-186 Wednesday. NAB had said the system provided incorrect information (see 1810190026). “We would further encourage any stakeholders to engage with Nominet directly to ensure protection of their services and end users,” the company said. “The discrepancies were due to the difficulty of importing data from" LMS, it said.

FCC staff eliminated a rule requiring opt-out notices for faxes sent with a recipient’s prior consent. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order Wednesday in docket 02-278 responded to a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision that the rule “is unlawful to the extent that it requires opt out notices on solicited faxes." The 2017 Bais Yaakov majority opinion was by now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh (see 1703310018). The bureau also dismissed as moot 10 pending petitions for retroactive waiver of the rule and two petitions to reconsider orders enforcing the rule under 2005 Junk Fax Prevention Act amendments to the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Meanwhile, consumer advocates said, "Americans overwhelmingly hate receiving unwanted robocalls," but the advocates agree with the D.C. Circuit's ACA International March ruling (see 1803160053) that the definition of legally restricted "automatic telephone dialing systems" shouldn't encompass ordinary smartphone use. Having consulted further with technology experts, "we now understand that smartphones as manufactured and delivered to consumers do not have the present capacity to dial multiple numbers simultaneously or send mass texts," filed the National Consumer Law Center and other groups. "They do not come from the manufacturer already configured to be an ATDS." The American Cable Association lobbied an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger and other staffers on ACA's proposal to affirm voice service providers' ability to offer robocall blocking tools to customers "on an informed opt-out basis."

The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets Dec. 13, says a Federal Register notice for Wednesday. The group gathers 1-5 p.m. in the FCC Commission Meeting Room.