Industry requests for rigid timelines for so-called Team Telecom review of transactions don't properly account for ”the complexity of the national security and law enforcement considerations that the Executive Branch must weigh in its review,” NTIA replied in FCC docket 16-155 by Friday's deadline. NTIA also takes issue with a proposal that applications on which Team Telecom hasn't ruled would be approved if the review lasted beyond a certain time period. “The assumption that silence denotes acceptance creates the potential for a license to be granted without full consideration of potential Executive Branch concerns," NTIA said. Nearly all industry commenters that filed reply comments restated their view (see 1608190048) that NTIA should have a rigid timeline to review a transaction, including CTIA, Incompas, Sprint and USTelecom. “The commission should reject proposals resulting in an unlimited Team Telecom review timeframe,” said joint comments by BT Americas, Deutsche Telekom, Orange Business Services and Telefonica Internacional USA. “This proceeding should reform the current process that provides the Executive Branch with unlimited review and no accountability to the Commission or applicants, not extend it,” CTIA said.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that the FTC had no jurisdiction over AT&T in a data throttling case “has important, if murky, implications for the future jurisdictional lines” between the FTC and FCC, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in a Friday blog post. The 9th Circuit Aug. 29 dismissed an FTC lawsuit alleging that AT&T failed to adequately disclose its data throttling policy to customers with unlimited data plans (see 1608290032 and 1608300055). “While some reactions were overblown, just how far the fallout spreads is not clear,” Brake wrote. “Regardless, the case warrants attention from policymakers on Capitol Hill, at the FCC, and elsewhere.” The court said the FTC common-carrier exemption is status-based, “triggered simply by virtue of the fact that a company is a common carrier,” rather than activity-based, “triggered only when a firm is engaging in common carrier activities,” Brake said. If the 9th Circuit decision stands, it could have implications for FCC-proposed rules on ISP privacy, he said. “When it comes to privacy, the FCC could and should leave broadband privacy to the FTC, but that seems unlikely if not impossible under this case,” Brake said. “The role of the FTC could diminish if the Ninth Circuit’s thinking is followed.”

Opportunistic public access to Wi-Fi channel 14 as an FCC condition for approving Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service is getting more pushback from TLPS critics. TLPS would disrupt Bluetooth, and its "new, more expansive proposal would be even worse," said the Hearing Industries Association and Entertainment Software Association in a joint filing Thursday in docket 13-213. Opportunistic use of channel 14 ignores the fundamental concern raised by 2.4 GHz users, they said. "Permitting other parties to transmit throughout Channel 14 is likely only to compound the problems." The associations said an order that includes third-party use would violate the Administrative Procedure Act since opportunistic use appears nowhere in the NPRM and isn't a logical outgrowth of the proposed FCC actions. In an ex parte filing, Wireless Communications Association International recapped a phone call with an adviser to FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in which it repeated previous objections to channel 14 sharing, including the agency's not providing the required notice and chance to comment on opportunistic use (see 1606130053). Globalstar, meanwhile, continues to talk with O'Rielly about such opportunistic use, it said of a pair of talks involving company representatives including Tim Taylor, vice president-finance, business operations and strategy; ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth; and others with O'Rielly staff. Opportunistic sharing was championed by public interest groups like Public Knowledge and Open Technology Institute (see 1606140020).

The FCC gets why consumers are frustrated with unwanted marketing, spoofed and robotic calls, and help is on the way, said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Alison Kutler in a Friday blog post. “We’re consumers too, and we get our fair share of sham calls congratulating us on a ‘free vacation’ or warning us that our auto warranty is about to expire,” Kutler wrote. “We’ve ensured that robocallers must get your permission before making most types of calls to your cell phone,” she said. “We’re working with phone companies and many others to improve call blocking tools so that you can better control the calls you get -- and don’t get. We also want to get the word out on the worst scams. Criminals don’t play by our rules, so we’ll be ramping up our efforts to ensure consumers are aware of the latest telemarketing scams and fraud attempts for which you should be on the lookout. More on these efforts is coming soon.”

A critique of Verizon/Incompas business data service proposals was mistakenly sent to an FCC Daily Digest email distribution list Friday. "This e-mail was simply sent in error to the Daily Digest address," the agency said in a subsequent email. "The content of the e-mail was not part of the Daily Digest. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused." The BDS deal proposed by Verizon and Incompas "leaves billions of extra expenses charged to competitors and stifles potential growth," said the emailed Seeking Alpha piece by "contrarian" Bruce Kushnick, executive director of the New Networks Institute, which has joined the Consumer Federation of America in making pro-regulation arguments in the agency's BDS proceeding in docket 16-143.

The USF contribution factor for Q4 will decrease from 17.9 percent to 17.4 percent of carrier interstate and international telecom end-user revenue, said industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg in an email update Thursday. Despite a Universal Service Administrative Co. projection that the industry revenue base will fall to its lowest quarterly level ever at $14.2 billion, the contribution factor will drop because USAC had projected Q4 USF demand would drop (see 1608030047). Total 2016 USF demand will be $8.76 billion, "$67.4 million higher than 2015, but $772.7 million less than peak annual USF demand during 2012," he wrote. "However, because of the continued decline in the USF revenue base, the average assessment factor for all of 2016 will be 17.8%, the highest average assessment factor in the history of the USF." The previous highest average was 17.1% in 2012, and it was 16.9 percent in 2015, he said.

Neustar asked a court to consolidate its challenges to a March FCC 2015 order conditionally selecting Telcordia as the next local number portability and a July order approving the terms of Telcordia's LNPA contract (see 1503300036 and 1607250029). Consolidating the cases will "moot any potential jurisdictional objection" to challenging the 2015 conditional order without delaying the litigation, Neustar said Thursday in a motion (in Pacer) that it said was unopposed by government respondents and private intervenors. The cases are Neustar v. FCC, No. 15-1080 and No. 16-1293. Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit are to hear oral argument Sept. 13 (see 1606080054 and 1608240059).

Fran Shammo, Verizon chief financial officer since 2010, will step down Nov. 1, to be succeeded by Matthew Ellis, the carrier said Thursday. Ellis is senior vice president-operations and finance. The company has great “bench strength,” said CEO Lowell McAdam in a news release. “Within months of joining Verizon as treasurer in 2013, Matt led the team that raised a record $49 billion in one day to help finance Verizon’s acquisition of Vodafone’s interest in Verizon Wireless.” Shammo will remain at Verizon through the end of the year to help with the transition, Verizon said.

The Alaska Telephone Association and others lauded FCC adoption of a modified ATA plan to provide broadband USF support to fixed and mobile providers in Alaska high-cost areas served by rate-of-return carriers and their wireless affiliates (see 1608310067). ATA said the plan "ends recent funding declines and secures 10 years of predictable federal support" for providers to expand broadband in underserved areas. "This is a big win for Alaska," said Christine O'Connor, ATA executive director, in a release citing 16 plan "partners," including General Communication Inc. “Alaska carriers like GCI will be able to leverage the federal support to incent private investment and bring Alaskans the kind of service that people in the Lower 48 take for granted,” said GCI General Counsel Tina Pidgeon in the release. Wireless providers must deploy 4G LTE or better mobile service to 85 percent or more of rural Alaskans, up from 9 percent, and participating wireline providers are committed to bringing fixed broadband speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps to 90 percent of the locations in remote Alaska, up from 60 percent, the release said. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who pressed for action on the plan, issued a statement commending the FCC for recognizing challenges facing Alaska carriers. “NTCA has long urged the FCC to take stock of the special challenges of serving Alaska," said CEO Shirley Bloomfield in a statement. "Today’s order attempts to do that, while being careful to make sure the steps taken will not have an adverse impact on smaller carriers committed to serve the rest of rural America." A Further NPRM attached to the order sought comment on the specifics of implementing a process to head off any duplicative support to providers serving the same areas. Dissenting Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai said the order allowed duplicative support and didn't solve middle-mile problems. But Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said duplicative support will be eliminated after five years if it develops. Alaska Communications, which had criticized the original plan as providing GCI a big windfall, didn't comment.

Broadband providers challenged up to 36,897 of 317,243 census blocks on a preliminary FCC list of areas targeted for a planned Connect America Fund reverse auction of $215 million in annual broadband USF subsidies, according to our review. The agency asked interested parties to update the FCC on areas that wouldn't be eligible for auction support because of the presence of a qualifying broadband service -- with 10/1 Mbps, minimum usage of 150 GB or greater at a rate meeting a commission benchmark, and latency not exceeding 100 ms (see 1608110018). Twenty-two parties submitted filings that were posted by Thursday in docket 10-90. Frontier Communications led the way, saying it provided qualifying broadband service to 15,789 census blocks on the preliminary list, based on our tabulation of its submission. JAB Wireless (Rise Broadband) said it served 11,278 census blocks and Windstream said it serves 3,170 census blocks on the list. AT&T serves 2,929 census blocks and Charter Communications serves 1,341 census blocks on the list. The numbers could increase because some parties said they will update their totals, and N.E. Colorado Cellular (Viaero Wireless) filed its list confidentiality. But it's also possible there's some overlap among the census blocks identified by different parties as served, which could reduce the total number of reportedly served census blocks. After the FCC completes the review process, it will issue a final list of eligible census blocks. Some auction rules are still under consideration.