North American Portability Management filed to "correct" LNP Alliance "misstatements" about the proposed master services agreement (MSA) that NAPM signed with Telcordia to be the next local number portability administrator. Among the alleged misstatements was that the new MSA restricts the use of the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) to telecom carriers offering telecom services, said an NAPM filing Friday in FCC docket 09-109. Parties, such as interconnected VoIP providers, can use NPAC services if they have obtained phone numbers directly or are eligible to obtain North American Numbering Plan resources for a region, it said. "The LNP Alliance has not identified any issues that could justify [FCC] delay in approving the New MSA ... . Moreover, the issues that the LNP Alliance is now raising constitute untimely petitions for reconsideration that must be denied." NAPM said it was commenting on the LNP Alliance's May 17 filing, which posted in the docket May 18 (see 1605180046). LNP Alliance attorney James Falvey told us Monday that NAPM and Telcordia had created "their own definition of telecommunications services -- that’s a statutory term; so it’s a little strange for them to be redefining that term." More broadly, he said various NAPM/Telcordia definitions "are vague, at times incoherent and unmoored from statutory definitions.”

Comments are due June 20 on FCC-proposed FY 2016 regulatory fees, with replies in docket 16-166 due July 5, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. It said the proposed rule (see 1605190063) would increase direct broadcast satellite regulatory fees to 27 cents per subscriber per year, from the 12 cent DBS fee instituted in FY 2015, and divide AM/FM broadcasters that serve 3,000,001-6 million markets from those that have higher population coverage. It also seeks comment on allocating some wireline direct full-time equivalents who work on universal service or numbering issues to other fee categories as indirect FTEs, and on the idea of different fee categories for different types of satellite earth stations.

Correction: The FTC, not the FCC, doesn't have the ability to issue regulations to protect privacy, except for children (see 1606020062).

The White House is attributing sluggish jobs numbers from May in part to the recent Verizon worker strike (see 1605310032). “The economy added 38,000 jobs in May, considerably below both expectations and the pace of growth in recent months, with volatility in monthly data and a temporary strike in the telecommunications industry contributing to the disappointingly low number,” said Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman in a blog post Friday. “The decline of 37,200 jobs in the telecommunications industry in May in part reflects the effects of this strike. In the past, strikes in this industry coinciding with the survey reference period had a noticeable negative effect on monthly estimates of changes in industry employment ... . However, these downturns reversed once the strikes were resolved, leading to a jump in employment that almost perfectly offset the apparent job loss.” Furman said a “portion of the slowdown in job growth in May” is “likely to reverse in June” due to the strike’s end.

NARUC challenged the FCC Lifeline decision to bypass state regulators in setting up a national process for designating providers eligible for new broadband low-income USF support (see 1603310056). "Congress specifies that the FCC simply has no role in the [eligible telecom carrier] designation process unless the State cannot act as a result of State Law," said the state regulatory association in a petition for review Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (NARUC v. FCC, No. 16-1170). It said if upheld on review, the FCC's "flawed view of the power of an Agency vs. the power of Congress to specify the scope of ... agency powers will break new ground transferring yet another substantial swath of authority from Congress to agencies." The NARUC challenge isn't a surprise (see 1604010042).

The industry USF contribution factor for Q3 will stay at 17.9 percent of carrier interstate and international telecom end-user revenue, industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg said in an email update Wednesday. He said the Universal Service Administrative Co. projected industry long-distance telecom revenue for Q3 at $14.56 billion, about $181 million less than in the current quarter. The revenue drop is part of a downward trend that is putting upward pressure on the contribution factor over time, he said, but USF demand for Q3 also is projected to edge down to $2.18 billion, providing an offset.

The FCC will hold a public demo of the new expanded online public inspection file, which will replace the current broadcast public inspection file process, a public notice said. The demo will include the interface that broadcasters and pay-TV companies will use to file documents online, and the new interface that will allow the data in the system to be more searchable. The demo will be at 1 p.m. Monday, June 13, in the Commission Meeting Room.

Changes to the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) should move the FCC into the 21st century, two officials said in a blog post Wednesday. “For most of ECFS's lifetime, a typical proceeding received a small number of comments (ranging from 10 to 500), most filed by communications practitioners,” wrote Alison Cutler, chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, and Chief Information Officer David Bray. But last year’s net neutrality proceeding had nearly 4 million comments from consumers and others, they said. “Today, the public expects to be able to easily submit comments in digital form and to have convenient access to all the other input received by the Commission, and the Commission needs a robust system capable of meeting the public’s expectations.” The FCC will do tutorials on the new ECFS starting Tuesday, they said. “We strongly encourage everyone who uses ECFS to participate in one of these demos to become familiar the new system and its features,” they said. “We will formally announce the final switch-over date two weeks before the transition.” They confirmed the FCC will no longer convert files to a PDF format (see 1605130046): "Filings will be made available to the public in their native formats." Another change is that groups that want to encourage mass filings will now have a process for filing them directly at the agency. Protect Internet Freedom recently accused the FCC of failing to post comments by its members opposing controversial proposed ISP privacy rules (see 1605110058). Agency officials blamed technical issues and the software the group had been using to file comments.

A draft FCC order to promote broadband in remote Alaska served by rate-of-return carriers likely will circulate Friday at the commission, an informed source told us Thursday. It's unclear if the item will be on the tentative agenda for the June 24 meeting due out Friday, the source said. But if the item circulates Friday, Chairman Tom Wheeler could still place it on the meeting's "Sunshine" agenda, which is to be released June 17. Christine O'Connor, executive director of the Alaska Telephone Association, told us she also didn't know if the item would be considered at the meeting, but said she believes the FCC will vote on an "Alaska Plan" by the end of the month. She noted Wheeler and other commissioners told Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, at a hearing in March they would address Alaska rate-of-return remote broadband issues by the end of Q2. "I don't think the second quarter target date will be delayed," she said. The FCC also could consider an undersea cable outage reporting order at its June or July meetings, said another informed source. An FCC spokesman didn't comment.

Commissioner Ajit Pai voted against the Globalstar draft order on circulation. Calling it "giv[ing] a particular company special rights to unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band," Pai in a statement Thursday said "this type of preferential access would be a marked departure from our successful and innovative approach to unlicensed spectrum." Globalstar didn't comment. Informed sources told us earlier this week the broadband terrestrial low-power service draft order had only Chairman Tom Wheeler's vote (see 1606010043).