Getting the incentive auction structured correctly is more important than holding the auction as soon as possible, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at an NAB State Leadership Conference Tuesday. Resolving questions about dynamic reserve pricing, interference, opening bid prices and repacking is “critical to any potential participation by broadcasters,” he said, according to prepared remarks. Eliminating reserved spectrum and limiting impaired markets will improve the forward auction and “ensure that we maximize revenues to compensate interested broadcasters,” he said. The commission should update the contest rule to let broadcasters post contest rules on a website, which makes rules more available in an Internet age, he said. Broadcasters have sought such changes (see 1502200035). Broadcasters also should be able to use the Internet to recruit more minority and female applicants, to comply with the commission’s equal employment opportunity rules, he said. Companies are forced to “duplicate their recruiting efforts using old-school methods like newspaper ads” because of 2001 estimates of Internet availability, he said. The commission should update its EEO rule to allow online dissemination of job vacancy information “combined with aggressive notification to candidate referral organizations,” he said. O'Rielly made a similar point in a blog last week (see 1502200054). The commission should adhere to updating media ownership rules every four years -- they haven’t been reviewed since 2006, he said. The commission repeals or modifies rules “no longer in the public interest due to increased competition,” he said. The 2010 quadrennial review wasn’t completed when the 2014 review started, he said. The industry is “saddled” with restrictions, including the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, he said. O'Rielly encouraged commissioners to address consequential matters, not FCC staff. Documents should be posted in a transparent manner so the public is aware what issues are up for a vote, he said. He urged the commission to make all FCC items to be considered at open meetings public. Texts are circulated internally three weeks before meetings but “the public is left out of the loop,” he said. Some items are released by bureaus without notifying commissioners, he said. “Far from being a rare or isolated circumstance, commissioners must ‘vote on it before you can see what’s in it’ every single month.”

The FCC extended the deadlines for paper and electronic files that were due Feb. 17 to Feb. 18, due to the commission's closing Feb. 17 for inclement weather, it said in a public notice Thursday. Feb. 17 doesn't count for computing filing periods of fewer than seven days because the commission counted that day as a holiday, it said.

The FCC should update its Internet Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rule and what types of communication qualify as “widely disseminated,” said Commissioner Michael O’Rielly in a blog post Friday. The commission is relying on outdated models of Internet access and usage for the EEO rule, he said. “We can’t embrace the ubiquity and benefits of Internet connectivity in public libraries to serve local communities on one hand, and on the other hand reject it as insufficient to reach enough potential job applicants,” he said. The Internet is an important space for communications companies to attract a diverse workforce, he said. Local newspaper want ads aren’t widely available in many communities, he said. The commission’s current EEO rules require broadcast and cable companies to distribute information about open positions, and prove that they have done so, he said. Employee search efforts must be included in companies’ public files, which are subject to random audits by the commission, he said. Updating the EEO rule is another step the commission can take in its modernization process, he said.

The FCC should revisit its rules on competitive bidding and designated entities (DEs) in advance of the 2016 incentive auction, AT&T Vice President-Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh said Friday in a blog post. The recent AWS-3 auction showed there's significant interest in all broadband spectrum and that future auctions should “be designed to ensure that licenses go to those willing to deploy networks -- not speculators or stockpilers,” Marsh said. AT&T was one of the companies that dominated bidding in the AWS-3 auction, spending $18 billion on its provisionally winning bids (see 1501300051). The AWS-3 auction has sparked renewed debate on the incentive auction rules, with T-Mobile President John Legere saying Wednesday that the auction was a “disaster for American wireless consumers” (see 1502180054). An FCC official said Chairman Tom Wheeler’s policies won’t permit carriers to “run the table” in the incentive auction (see 1502190050). Dish’s use of DEs in the AWS-3 auction “shows how the legitimate purposes of the DE program can be distorted and manipulated,” Marsh said. AT&T doesn’t oppose the DE rules, but the point of those rules “is to ensure that only entities that are independent small businesses receive the small business subsidies,” she said. “The complex corporate structure and related coordinated bidding conduct of the Dish DEs merit a fuller review. The FCC should also take a closer look at who the DE subsidies will really benefit in this auction.” The commission should revise the competitive bidding rules by requiring joint bidders to participate as a single entity or prohibit joint bidders from placing competing bids for the same license, Marsh said.

Correction: The following are the correct statements made at an FCBA event on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication (see 1501260071): Automakers' privacy principles are what the FTC will enforce on V2V, said Association of Global Automakers Assistant General Counsel Mark Dowd, and he said the American Civil Liberties Union gave input to the industry on those principles, and what he expects to happen by year's end on the industry's V2V security information sharing and analysis center is the submission of a proposal to form it. The type of autos for which Dowd said demand may suffer if there are privacy concerns are smart cars. Event data recorders are the type of vehicular devices that Future of Privacy Forum co-Chairman Jules Polonetsky said allow data to be collected. Only some General Motors vehicles, not all of them, are what Harry Lightsey, GM executive director-global connected customer, global public policy, said are expected to have V2V in the next two years. Dowd later clarified that the band where he meant to say that V2V will occur is 5.9 GHz. And FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Division of Privacy and Identity Protection senior attorney Cora Han later clarified that the focus of a panel at an FTC Internet of Things workshop was vehicle-to-consumer privacy concerns.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler "will propose enhancements" to the existing net neutrality transparency rule in the order circulated Feb. 5, he said in a Feb. 4 letter to bipartisan lawmakers from both chambers, released by the agency last week. “That rule, which empowers consumers to make informed choices about broadband services, already requires broadband providers to disclose the commercial terms of a consumer's broadband service, including any data caps or allowances. Because it provides a basis for enforcement where appropriate, the existing transparency rule provides us with an even more effective tool than a voluntary code of conduct would. I am confident that the transparency rule -- as it exists already today and as I hope it will be enhanced moving forward -- will help to ensure that consumers are protected from harmful practices.” Wheeler spent much of the letter discussing how the FCC is monitoring the usage of data caps among providers. The agency will look at whether usage caps “affect future determinations of whether ‘advanced telecommunications capability’ is available to all Americans” in its next Broadband Progress Report, Wheeler said. “Usage-based limits also are an important factor in determining services that are eligible for support under the FCC's Connect America Fund program.” The agency is monitoring complaints regarding usage-based systems for fixed providers now, he added: The “Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is streamlining the process of synthesizing and analyzing consumer complaint trends and will make more of that data readily accessible to the public. We will use this enhanced capability to monitor customer complaints closely, to identify any problems associated with the use of data caps and other usage-based pricing measures, and to take action where appropriate.”

The FCC intends to recharter the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) for a fifth two-year term (CSRIC V) when the council’s current term (CSRIC IV) ends March 18. CSRIC V may tackle 911 service, emergency alerts, mobile device security, national security communications resilience, and VoIP and broadband security, the FCC said Thursday. Nominations for CSRIC V are due March 31, the FCC said. CSRIC IV is to consider several final reports from its working groups at its March 18 meeting, including one from Working Group 4 on recommendations for communications sector cybersecurity best practices adapted in part from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework.

The FCC should grant the petition by Bright House Networks and others for a declaratory ruling that intraMTA wireless calls exchanged between LECs and wireless carriers aren't subject to reciprocal compensation in some cases, ITTA said in comments filed Monday. The comments, which hadn't been posted in docket 14-228, were made available to us by the association. The rule requiring reciprocity “has no application” to traffic exchanged between LECs and interexchange carriers over switched access trunks, ITTA said. The Dec. 10 petition was filed by Bright House, CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications, Cox Communications, FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications, LICT Corp., Time Warner Cable and Windstream. CTIA urged the commission in a comment filed Monday to re-affirm the compensation is reciprocal, because it's “consistent with the Commission’s goals for intercarrier compensation reform.” The argument that interexchange carrier traffic isn't subject to reciprocity “has no merit,“ CTIA said. All intraMTA CMRS traffic is “’local,’ even if carried by an intermediate carrier such as an IXC,” CTIA said.

Correction: The draft net neutrality order would ban paid prioritization outright as one of its bright line rules, said Gigi Sohn, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1502060056).

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, representing SmartSky Networks, asked the commission to reiterate that the 14.0-14.5 GHz band won’t be the exclusive one for air-ground communications and won’t limit these services in other licensed or unlicensed bands, said an ex parte letter filed Friday. Qualcomm supported the use of the 14.0-14.5 GHz band for air-ground service to offer customers "an in-flight mobile broadband experience that is equivalent to what is available on the ground today," it said in a comment Thursday. Earlier, a group representing flight attendants raised safety concerns about the proposal (see 1502060034). “We have been -- and will continue -- to work with all relevant safety and security federal agencies to ensure that the risks of in-flight communications are carefully considered and addressed before moving forward," emailed an FCC spokesman.