The FCC issued a “clarification” Wednesday in response to a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council letter challenging a statement by agency Chairman Tom Wheeler before the House Communications Subcommittee Tuesday. MMTC Senior Adviser David Honig said an MMTC proposal for further reaching minority procurement policies wasn’t vulnerable to constitutional challenges, responding to a statement from Wheeler that such a rule change could invoke questions of strict scrutiny (see 1607120083). “At the hearing, Chairman Wheeler noted that in considering any action taken that might be subject to the Supreme Court’s Adarand decision, the Commission must be careful in determining whether that action would be reviewed under the strict-scrutiny standard, and if so whether it could satisfy that standard,” the clarification said. “The Chairman did not intend, by stating current law, to suggest that the MMTC procurement proposal would be subject to the strict-scrutiny standard.” Wheeler should “affirm that the broad outreach of the MVPD Procurement Rule is not subject to ‘strict scrutiny,’” MMTC President Kim Keenan said in a statement after the FCC clarification. “We stand in support of the July 12, 2016, letter from Congresswoman [Yvette] Clarke [D-N.Y.] and Congressmen [Bobby] Rush [D-Ill.] and [G.K.] Butterfield [D-N.C.] requesting that the a MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] Procurement Rule, adopted and implemented under the 1992 Cable Act, be extended to all communications industries, with a referral to GAO for Title I information services.”

The FCC should apply the lessons from the spectrum frontiers proceeding to the ATSC 3.0 rulemaking, said NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan in a blog post Wednesday. “The Commission’s approach has been to “promote a flexible regulatory environment for the next generation of wireless services,” Kaplan said. “5G’s nascent status has not prevented the Commission from moving forward in the Spectrum Frontiers proceeding, and it shouldn’t stop the Commission from moving forward with authorizing Next Gen TV. As it did for 5G, the FCC should reject calls for delay to study ATSC 3.0," Kaplan said. “Delays in approving voluntary use of a new television transmission standard could affect U.S. leadership in broadcast television and deprive consumers of new features and services.” Since broadcasters and CTA have asked for an Oct. 1 NPRM, a nine-month timeline similar to the spectrum frontiers proceeding would lead to final ATSC 3.0 rules being issued in July 2017, Kaplan said. “Just one year from now, the Commission should be in the admirable position of having laid the foundation for the future of both the wireless and television industries.” Commissioners are voting Thursday on the spectrum frontiers order.

Community anchor institutions require next-generation Internet connectivity, said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) Wednesday, releasing an "Action Plan" to bring "gigabit-speed-and-beyond networks" to all schools, libraries, health clinics and other anchor institutions by 2020. The group released a "Vision" paper in April kicking off its effort (see 1604270022). The FCC understands the community role anchor institutions play and "is doing everything in its power" to achieve the Gbps connectivity goal by 2020, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler, in the written version of a speech she gave at an SHLB conference. She noted FCC USF subsidy actions to increase annual E-rate telecom discounts to schools and libraries to $3.9 billion, to extend Lifeline low-income support to broadband service, and to provide billions of dollars to support broadband to more than 11 million Americans in high-cost rural areas. She said requests for the USF rural healthcare program have "exploded," with demand this year expected to top $350 million, up from just over $250 million in recent years. "Anchor institutions are not just a key part of the solution to the broadband availability challenge, you are also key to the adoption challenge," Sohn said. She said many Kansas City area residents wouldn't accept free gigabit connectivity from Google Fiber because of a lack of trust: "This is where community anchor institutions come in. Successful broadband adoption programs come from the bottom up, not the top down. You are trusted members of the community who know how best to serve residents." Sohn asked the audience to help the FCC develop a digital inclusion plan to better understand non-price barriers to broadband adoption. The SHLB Action Plan includes 10 policy papers making recommendations on various issues such as broadband needs, Wi-Fi and wireless networking, broadband subsidies and broadband adoption. "The papers share three common themes: Sharing, such as aggregation and public-private partnerships that eliminate silos and reduce costs; promoting competition to incentivize growth and bring more affordable options; and, funding strategies that help communities meet up-front build-out and deployment costs, and ongoing monthly fees," a release said. The competition paper recommends requiring Connect America Fund recipients to bid on requests for proposed E-rate funding, limiting special access prices and upholding "open access and interconnection" policies.

NCTA slammed a Public Knowledge official's call for Bell cooperation on regulating business data services, including cable. NCTA cited a blog post by PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld that said AT&T should negotiate with Verizon -- which has collaborated with Incompas -- and that suggested cable could dominate the BDS market if the FCC constrains only ILECs. "This theory is wrong in so many different ways, that it requires some unpacking," said NCTA Vice President Steve Morris in a blog post Wednesday called "Let Some Fresh Air Inside the FCC's Smoke-Filled Tent." He wrote, "It's jaw-droppingly hard to conceive that an advocate who has consistently complained about the 'ILEC monopoly' ... would suggest that the biggest ILEC should join the second biggest ILEC in negotiating a regulatory regime that raises obstacles to emerging competitors. If you are concerned about market power and in favor of competition, why would you ever support regulation that constrains emerging competitors -- particularly competitors investing in fiber networks that are tremendously expensive to build and that everyone agrees are vital to the future of the nation? Does Feld support FCC action to constrain the new small business services just announced by Google Fiber or is it just cable that should be limited?" Despite extensive FCC data collection, "none of that data even hints at" emerging competitors exercising market power, Morris wrote. He said it's absurd to believe that limiting ILEC rates without limiting cable rates "will somehow enable cable to dominate the market," when cable has only a 10 percent market share. Feld's "suggestion that AT&T ‘come into the tent and negotiate’ illustrates just how broken this process has become -- encouraging a ‘wheel and deal’ mentality more apt for the selling of used cars," Morris said. Feld disagreed. "NCTA wants to negotiate a new STB [set-top box] standard for their ‘get rid of the box’ alternative. How is that not also a ‘smoke filled room?’ To paraphrase Captain Renault from Casablanca: NCTA is shocked, SHOCKED to find there are ex parte meetings going on here," he emailed. "Does NCTA really need a lecture on how the ex parte process in a permit but disclose proceeding works? Verizon and Incompas will continue to talk to each other and submit their proposals through the very public process -- just like NCTA will, presumably, someday, possibly, submit some further details on what 'get rid of the box' actually means and how it would work. Then other folks -- like NCTA in the case of BDS, or PK in the case of STBs -- get to meet with the staff and respond. Look, if NCTA wants to propose getting rid of 'permit but disclose proceedings' and do this just on comments and replies with no meetings for anyone, cool. But NCTA should stop playing the offended hypocrite.”

The FCC set the comment dates on a Further NPRM updating network outage reporting rules. The FCC approved the NPRM in May with Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly expressing concerns (see 1605250061). Comments are due Aug. 26, replies Sept. 12, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register.

Comcast produced the second-to-worst level of customer satisfaction this year across many industries, while Amazon tied for second best, in the 2016 Temkin Web Experience Ratings report. Temkin Group, a customer experience research firm, reports annually on how satisfied consumers are with large organizations across many industries. Comcast TV service scored 29 percent, which is 9 points below the TV service industry average, and Comcast internet scored 30 percent, 8 points below the ISP average, Temkin said. Charter and Cox also landed in the bottom 10, scoring 35 percent apiece. Cablevision, Dish Network and Bright House Networks tied for best among TV providers at 46 percent. AOL took the highest ISP rating at 51 percent, followed by AT&T (45 percent), Cablevision (44 percent) and Verizon (43 percent). On the top end of the ratings, Amazon scored 75 percent, handily outperforming the retail industry average by 19 points. Its Kindle business beat the computer industry average by the same amount, scoring 73 percent overall.

FCC rules requiring undersea cable licensee outage reporting were released Tuesday in the text of the order the commission adopted 3-2 June 24 (see 1606240040). The requirements take effect six months after Office of Management and Budget approval of the rules, "to provide ample time for implementation," the order said.

County officials will investigate a two-hour 911 outage in Montgomery County, Maryland, the county said in a news release Monday. From 11:10 p.m. Sunday to 1:09 a.m. the next morning, callers received a busy signal. During the outage, fire and rescue units responded to two medical emergency calls involving fatalities -- a 91-year-old woman from Olney and a 40-year-old man from Twinbrook, the county said. The outage also affected dispatch console radios, but staff quickly switched to backup radios, it said. The county said it notified the public through public safety social media and the county emergency alert system. The outage occurred at the Alternate Emergency Communications Center in Rockville, which was activated three-and-a-half weeks ago while the county made hardware changes at the main center in Gaithersburg. County Executive Ike Leggett said he wants "a thorough evaluation of the systems that support 911 to make sure that the systems have the stability to withstand whatever power surges or blips that could cascade into even a partial system outage. County residents must be able to count on a prompt response to emergencies.” The county said it already ruled out an external power loss or failure of backup generators: “It is believed that it initially occurred due to an internal equipment failure of a cooling (air conditioning) system in the IT room of the AECC which then shut down the 911 system to prevent overheating.”

A proposed rule that would extend requirements for diversity in procurement to all FCC regulatees doesn't present a constitutional question, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser David Honig said in a letter to the agency responding to Chairman Tom Wheeler's testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Wheeler told legislators the MMTC proposal to apply pay-TV procurement rules to all FCC regulated entities could raise a constitutional question of strict scrutiny. “Until your testimony today, no one has ever suggested that the Rule presents any constitutional question,” Honig wrote. “Supporters and opponents of affirmative action agree that if a regulation merely required stations to implement racially neutral recruiting and hiring programs, the equal protection guarantee would not be implicated,” said Honig. “This is settled law.” MMTC wants to have the procurement extension included in the FCC upcoming media ownership order, which already has been voted by the Democratic FCC commissioners, as was announced Tuesday (see 1607120078).

Public Knowledge hopes the FCC will address consumer-protection concerns about a tech transition item slated for a vote Thursday (see 1607080043). In meetings with consumer advocates, FCC staff "seemed receptive" to the concerns -- about consumer notification, education, affordability and broadband access -- but it's unclear what the commission will do in the final order, said Dallas Harris, a PK technology counsel, on a news-media call Tuesday. Senior Vice President Harold Feld said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler might be reluctant to make changes if they would thwart a 5-0 vote, though he didn't know if that would be the case. PK supports the telecom industry's efforts to upgrade infrastructure, but Harris said the FCC should ensure it's an upgrade for all consumers and not a downgrade for some. PK proposed a "checklist" to ensure replacement services are at least as good as legacy services, she said, and the FCC appears likely to adopt several of the group's recommendations. A 2015 NPRM suggested eight general criteria for judging telecom service discontinuance standards: (1) network capacity and reliability; (2) service quality; (3) device and service interoperability; (4) service for individuals with disabilities; (5) Public service answering point and 911 service; (6) cybersecurity; (7) service functionality; and (8) coverage. Harris said she isn't aware of any major FCC departures from that list, but ILECs last fall objected to several of the items (see 1510270058). More recently, AT&T proposed a certification path to streamlined review (see 1606010046), and Verizon said cybersecurity certification shouldn't be required for such treatment (see 1606300058). Harris said the FCC's possible 15-day comment period for fast-track reviews is insufficient. While PK welcomed an apparent commission desire to require carriers to conduct consumer outreach and education, the group is concerned it not occur only in English, she said. Harris also said ensuring affordability and broadband access should be FCC priorities. Also on Public Knowledge's call, a commission order on 5G was discussed (see 1607120074).