A Computer & Communications Industry Association suggestion that there are ways the plan from the original FCC set-top NPRM and the pay-TV backed apps proposal could coexist is “a thinly veiled repackaging” of the NPRM, AT&T said in a filing Thursday. The group (see 1608180062) “perpetuates CCIA’s original and outrageous demand that the FCC facilitate its members’ ability to poach, reshape, and monetize valuable video programming,” said the telco-TV provider. The CCIA filing “does nothing more than slap a fresh coat of paint on the NPRM proposal,” AT&T said. “It deliberately ignores the lawful copyright rights of programmers and MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors] as authoritatively recognized by the Copyright Office." CCIA didn't comment. Also Thursday, Univision reported in the docket on lobbying FCC officials on set-tops (see 1608250055).

The FCC dismissed as “repetitious” a petition for reconsideration (PFR) by consumer advocates to revisit the commission’s August 2015 backup power order in docket 14-174. The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) and other consumer groups asked the FCC in November to revisit the tech transition backup power order by putting more of the onus and cost on fixed-service providers and less on consumers (see 1511170042). “We dismiss the NASUCA PFR because it repeats issues that commenters, including NASUCA et al., raised earlier in the proceeding, and that we fully considered and rejected in the Report and Order,” the FCC said in a Wednesday order. Even so, the FCC also rejected the merits of the petition “as an independent ground for action.” Mandating backup power for all customers -- including those who don’t want or need it -- is expensive and inefficient, outweighing potential benefits of economies of scale, it said. And the FCC disagreed that standardization and uniformity are necessary to provide adequate backup power.

The FCC should follow the FTC’s lead on data security and breach reporting requirements as the communications agency moves forward on ISP privacy rules, AT&T representatives said in a meeting with FCC staff. Any rules adopted should incorporate a “reasonableness standard, as suggested by the FTC staff … rather than a strict liability standard,” the carrier said in a filing in docket 16-106. It met with Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson and Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero among other officials. “The Commission also should avoid prescriptive risk management or security requirements that would lock in static requirements that would fail to promote effective security as both security threats and vulnerabilities continue to evolve rapidly,” AT&T said. “Instead, any such rules should incorporate high level data security requirements focused on process and covering risk management assessments, employee and vendor training, and designation of a senior management official with responsibility for the program.”

The FCC sought comment by Sept. 7 on tentative findings in a biennial report to Congress on the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) of 2010. Comments will assist assessments of "(1) the level of compliance with the CVAA’s mandates requiring telecommunications and advanced communications services (ACS) and equipment to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; (2) the effect of related recordkeeping and enforcement obligations; and (3) the extent to which accessibility barriers still exist with respect to new communications technologies," said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The PN said the final report will be submitted to Congress Oct. 8. The bureau tentatively found little to no progress since the 2014 report on increasing the number of non-smartphone telecom devices that are accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired, and said solutions are needed to make interconnected VoIP equipment accessible to that community. But it said there appear to be more smartphones accessible to people with disabilities, and CGB expects telecom accessibility for those who are deaf and hard of hearing to be enhanced by the deployment of real-time text, HD voice, and increasing numbers of hearing-aid compatible wireless handsets. Previous comments also point to increasing access to ACS features and functions on smartphones and other devices among people with disabilities, said the PN, which suggested mobile phone internet browser accessibility had improved for blind and visually impaired individuals.

Comments are due at the FCC Sept. 30, replies Oct. 31, on the next phase of spectrum frontiers. The FCC approved an order allocating high-frequency spectrum for 5G in July, which included a Further NPRM (see 1607140052). “The Commission proposes to adopt service rules allowing flexible fixed and mobile uses in additional bands,” said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. “These bands potentially offer 17.7 GHz of spectrum that could be available for fixed or mobile use. By examining the suitability for mobile use of such a large amount of spectrum, the Commission takes steps to ensure that additional spectrum is available to allow the next generation of wireless technologies to flourish in the mmW bands.”

Federal judges denied Neustar's unopposed request to file new information on its challenge to a March 2015 FCC order conditionally selecting Telcordia to become the local number portability administrator. The denial came in an order (in Pacer) Wednesday by a merits panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is scheduled to hear oral argument Sept. 13 in the LNPA case (Neustar v. FCC, No. 15-1080). The panel consists of Judges David Tatel, Harry Edwards and David Sentelle. "We have received the Court’s order and are looking forward to oral argument," said a spokeswoman for Neustar, the current administrator. In motions to file a supplemental brief and similar letter, Neustar sought to provide an update of developments at the commission since parties filed briefs last fall, including on a controversy over Telcordia's use of foreign nationals in software coding for the next LNPA system. The FCC said that work was "inconsistent" with a condition that such personnel be U.S. citizens, and it required Telcordia to start over from scratch (see 1604290056). Neustar last week also challenged the FCC's July order approving Telcordia's LNPA contract terms (see 1607250029).

With opportunistic public use of Wi-Fi channel 14 the core issue for FCC authorization of Globalstar's planned broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), talks increasingly are focusing on details. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly is now the nexus of talks between the company and FCC, with the remaining talks with the company over more-robust channel 14 conditions, one wireless industry source told us. Those talks are at least in part about the size of exclusion zones around TLPS deployments. O'Rielly has been the focus of Globalstar lobbying for weeks. His office and Globalstar didn't comment Wednesday. An ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 13-213 recapped a conversation between Vice President-Finance, Business Operations and Strategy Tim Taylor and O'Rielly adviser Erin McGrath about a possible framework for opportunistic public use of channel 14. In a meeting with Edward Smith, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, Michael Calabrese of New America’s Open Technology Institute said allowing of public access shouldn't be subject to a five-year waiting period once the FCC determines channel 14 operations won't interfere with unlicensed spectrum, in an ex parte filing Tuesday. It said the agency also should make sure of public access to an FCC-certified spectrum access system for getting onto channel 14, with conditions on a TLPS authorization requiring Globalstar make network operating system data available to SAS operators for enforcing minimum protection zones. "Making Globalstar the monopoly gatekeeper to public access ... is a clear conflict of interest," OTI said. The group said it opposed letting Globalstar block public access in any geographic area larger than needed to avoid interference. Excluding turf as large as census tracts when Globalstar is deploying Wi-Fi access points that cover far less territory "is nothing but a thinly veiled effort to make public access a meaningless condition," OTI said. Census tract exclusions also would be "an enormous waste of spectrum capacity" because it's magnitudes larger than the protection zone TLPS would need, it said. Public Knowledge previously said Globalstar TLPS exclusion zones should be no larger than census tract size.

The FCC media ownership order “should be released in the coming days,” the agency told the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a letter filed Wednesday. The FCC and the public interest petitioners from the Prometheus III case were ordered to engage in mediation to create a timetable to arrive at a definition of an eligible entity, and the letter meets a Wednesday deadline to inform the court about the proceeding's progress. The order, which the letter said was voted by the FCC Aug. 10 but has yet to be released, re-adopts the revenue-based standard for eligible entities, resurrects joint sales agreement rules vacated by the 3rd Circuit, and resolves the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial reviews. All that is as expected (see 1608110058). “The Commission believes the adoption of the order satisfies the Court’s mandate that the agency take 'final agency action on the eligible entity definition,'” Wednesday's letter said. Since the public interest group petitioners haven't yet been able to see the order, they aren't in a position to say whether it meets the 3rd Circuit's requirements, the letter said.

When the FCC issues a spectrum frontiers public notice on methodologies to be used to calculate population limits and details on earth station interference zones, the agency needs to consider reference population data, identification of appropriate propagation models, ensuring availability of information on upper microwave fixed use deployments for coordination purposes and methods of calculating aggregate population coverage in an UMFU license area, satellite officials told International Bureau staff including Chief Mindel De La Torre, said an ex parte filing Monday in docket 14-177. The satellite group also discussed FCC plans for tackling interference to protected satellite operations that might come from UMFU operations. Representatives of Satellite Industry Association, Inmarsat, O3b, EchoStar, Boeing, Iridium, SES, ViaSat, OneWeb, Intelsat, Lockheed Martin and DirecTV attended the meeting.

A court gave the FCC, DOJ and allies until Oct. 3 to respond to appeals of a three-judge panel ruling that upheld the commission's net neutrality and broadband reclassification order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order (in Pacer) Tuesday granting respondents' unopposed motion for the extension from the previous Sept.12 deadline (see 1608170046). Alamo Broadband, AT&T, CTIA, NCTA, the American Cable Association, USTelecom, CenturyLink and Tech Freedom and other intervenors filed petitions for rehearing the case (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063) (see 1607290052).