FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler appointed Tom Power, CTIA general counsel and a former Obama White House and NTIA official, to chair the commission’s advisory committee for the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019. Wheeler appointed Christopher Murphy, associate general counsel-regulatory affairs at ViaSat, as vice chairman. The committee helps develop an industry position on spectrum issues going into the WRC. Work already is getting started. The advisory committee scheduled its opening meeting Aug. 2 at the FCC (see 1607110020).

Sprint said the FCC should suspend its phasedown of E-rate voice support at the current 40 percent reduced level, as called for by Funds for Learning (see 1607050066) and backed by AdTec (see 1607200033). "Applicants still need voice service to meet the educational needs of students and library patrons. Unfortunately, it appears that the reduction in E-rate support for voice services has forced many schools and libraries to reduce their use of this critical, basic service, or to divert their resources from other endeavors to pay for basic voice services," Sprint said in reply comments posted Thursday in docket 13-184 on the agency's proposed E-rate eligible service list (ESL) for funding year 2017 starting next July 1. Sprint said the Wireline Bureau is evaluating the phasedown's impact and is to report to the FCC by Oct. 1, 2017, but it urged the agency not to wait until FY 2018 to suspend it. Opposing an Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology proposal, CenturyLink filed a reply that disagreed "that leased dark fiber or indefeasible rights of use ('IRU') should be re-classified as 'special construction' if the applicant or the provider chooses to substitute them in the midst of a project." CenturyLink continues to believe the FCC was wrong to fund dark fiber or self-construction when the statute authorizes "discounts" on "carrier" telecom services, and it urged particular caution on self-provisioning: "There can be no back door exceptions to program rules that require competitive procurement and responsible estimation of project costs. Giving parties the advance option -- mid-project -- of substituting leased dark fiber or IRUs for special construction could undermine the program by enabling parties to bypass or give short shrift to Commission rules requiring cost-effectiveness showing fair and competitive procurement for these self-provisioned services." In its reply, the Wisconsin Department of Public Education supported a petition of Microsoft and others seeking E-rate support of off-campus home Internet access for students using TV white spaces spectrum. The department acknowledged the petition wasn't filed specifically on the draft ESL, but it said the needs were so great that TV white spaces technology should be E-rate eligible. "Lack of home Internet access represents a serious inequity issue, especially for students in rural areas where as many as 50% of student households do not have reliable access to the Internet," it said.

Reply comments in the FCC business data service rulemaking are now due Aug. 9. The Wireline Bureau issued an order Thursday extending a July 26 deadline by 14 days. NCTA, USTelecom and ITTA had filed a motion seeking a 21-day BDS reply extension (see 1607190047). "Petitioners cite a number of factors in support of their request, including the voluminous record and a desire for more time to review and consider" a BDS framework proposed by Incompas and Verizon, the bureau order said. "A brief extension will allow parties to provide us with more thorough reply comments that will facilitate the compilation of a complete record in this proceeding, without causing undue delay to the Commission’s consideration of these issues." An NCTA spokesman emailed us: "We appreciate the Bureau's decision to grant this brief extension which will enable parties to participate more fully in this important proceeding." A USTelecom spokeswoman emailed: "We’re pleased the commission recognized the need to allow more time in this complex proceeding. This will give all parties a chance to better analyze the large volume of data, some only recently added to the record." ITTA, Incompas and Verizon had no comment on the extension. Most of the parties also didn't comment on whether there had been discussions to explore the possibility of a broader industry consensus plan -- something NCTA, USTelecom and ITTA had expressed interest in pursuing -- though one representative said he wasn't aware of any such talks.

U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies sent nearly 136,000 subpoenas, orders, warrants and emergency requests for data about Verizon's customers during the first half of 2016, the telco reported Wednesday in a transparency report. That was about 9 percent fewer than Verizon received in the first half of 2015 from U.S. authorities. The carrier received more than 67,000 subpoenas, about 33,000 general and wiretap orders and pen registers, nearly 12,000 warrants and more than 23,000 emergency requests. Outside the U.S., the company said it received more than 1,200 demands in the first six months of this year -- slightly down from the same period last year -- from Belgium, France, Germany and other countries for customer names, addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses or transactional information like a log of numbers called. Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman in a blog post said "importantly" none of the U.S. demands sought customer data stored in overseas data centers. He cited the significance of Microsoft's court win last week against the U.S. government, which sought information about a customer in the company's Ireland data center (see 1607140071). Verizon filed an amicus brief in that case "to ensure that our customers outside the United States have confidence that the U.S. government cannot compel Verizon to turn over their data stored in our overseas data centers," wrote Silliman. He touted congressional legislation called the International Communications Protection Act (see 1605250050) that would help limit the government's reach. ICPA would allow the government to get data on a U.S. citizen or resident with a warrant regardless of where it's stored, requiring the U.S. to use the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) process to get information about non-U.S. persons stored overseas, said Silliman. The process is considered laborious and ICPA would streamline it, he said. DOJ last week unveiled a legislative proposal for a model bilateral agreement that would essentially bypass the MLAT process in certain circumstances (see 1607180026).

The FCC denied Allband Communications Cooperative a further waiver of a rule establishing a presumptive $250 monthly line cap on total high-cost USF support for eligible telecom carriers. The commission gave Allband previous waivers to the rule, which was adopted in a 2011 order overhauling USF mechanisms. "Allband has consistently misapplied our cost allocation rules rendering its cost accounting unreliable," said an FCC order Wednesday adopted unanimously in docket 10-90. "We are therefore unable to determine, at this time, what, if any, support in excess of the $250 cap is justified and in the public interest. Accordingly, we deny Allband’s Further Waiver Request and require that Allband revise its cost accounting practices to be consistent with our rules. Once that has occurred, Allband may submit a new request for a waiver of the $250 cap if its revised cost study incorporating correctly determined costs would result in a need for support in excess of $250 per line. In addition, we deny Allband’s Application for Review of the Wireline Competition Bureau’s July 25, 2012 waiver grant. Allband requested that the Commission extend its July 2012 waiver of the $250 cap until 2026, rather than 2015, and waive the Commission’s benchmarking rule. Allband also made several legal challenges to both rules. We deny Allband’s legal challenges, consistent with the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit." Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly issued separate statements attached to Wednesday's order. An Allband representative didn't comment.

The FCC International and Wireless bureaus extended the reply comments filing deadline in RM-11681 on Ligado's terrestrial LTE plans from July 21 to Aug. 11. In a public notice Wednesday, the agency said it agreed with Ligado's request for an extension (see 1607150021) to "facilitate the development of a complete record."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler isn't expected to name a replacement for Howard Symons as Incentive Auction Task Force vice chairman, as Symons takes over as FCC general counsel (see 1607190061), said agency and industry officials Wednesday. With much of the work of the task force complete, there's no need to replace Symons, officials said. Task force Chairman Gary Epstein already has another deputy, Jean Kiddoo, recently named deputy chairwoman-transition. Wheeler said in a Tuesday news release: “Now that the Incentive Auction rules are in place and the auction is underway, we have the flexibility to ask Howard to transfer his considerable talents to become General Counsel.”

The FCC sought comment on a proposal to create a new inventory of records system to be used by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The 1974 Privacy Act requires agencies to provide notice of the existence and character of records maintained by an agency, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. “These records enable CGB personnel to contact interested parties concerning its public events, e.g., workshops, conferences, and Webinars, etc., as well as recent developments at the FCC, and to share contact information of governmental, law enforcement, industry, advocacy groups, employment centers, faith-based organizations, libraries, policy organizations, media outlets, schools, seniors centers, veterans groups, national governmental associations or tribal intergovernmental organizations.” Comments are due Aug. 18, and the new record keeping will start Aug. 29 “unless comments are received that require a contrary determination,” the FCC said.

The FCC set comment deadlines on a proposed rulemaking approved at its June meeting (see 1606240043) aimed at speeding up the Team Telecom review of international companies' buys of U.S. licensees. The NPRM suggests time limits for teams of representatives from other agencies to review transactions (see 1606150019). “We propose specific changes in our rules, designed to address the Executive Branch's request in a manner that furthers our mandate to serve the public interest,” the FCC said in a Tuesday notice in the Federal Register . “We believe that implementation of these rule changes would speed the action on applications while continuing to take into consideration relevant national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, and trade policy concerns.” Comment are due Aug. 18, replies Sept. 2.

North American Portability Management dismissed Neustar's continued concerns about the FCC-planned local number portability administrator transition to Telcordia (see 1607070057) as inaccurate and an attempt by the incumbent LNPA to delay the change. In a letter posted Monday in docket 09-109, NAPM said Telcordia hasn't violated any national security commitments or made misrepresentations, and NAPM with FCC oversight will ensure Telcordia delivers a Number Portability Administration Center that is "built in America from the ground up using only U.S. citizens." NAPM cited $1 million in postponed cost savings for every day the transition is delayed and said the FCC already has considered and denied Neustar's claims that the agency's actions undermined the LNPA competitive bidding process. NAPM, the North American Numbering Council and the FCC "all agreed that both Neustar and Telcordia are qualified to serve as the LNPA, but Telcordia's bid was, over the term of the New [master services agreement], thousands of millions of dollars lower than Neustar's bid," NAPM said, citing current MSA contract costs of about $496 million per year compared with a proposed Telcordia MSA costing about $175 million in the first year. "None of the issues that Neustar has raised warrants further consideration by the Commission," NAPM said, urging the FCC "to promptly approve the New MSA so that the important security enhancements of the New MSA can be implemented as soon as possible and the American public will not unnecessarily continue to incur approximately $1M for each day of delay." Neustar didn't comment Monday. The FCC is reviewing draft orders to approve the proposed Telcordia MSA and to address a Neustar appeal of a bureau decision keeping much of the contract confidential (see 1604120038).