Including resolution of some Mobility Fund Phase II petitions and setting a deadline for comments on USF budgeting, numerous FCC notices are to appear in Wednesday's Federal Register. In a final rule to be effective May 25, the agency said it's resolving remaining petitions for reconsideration on Mobility Fund Phase II by revising the language of its collocation rule and reducing the value of the letter of credit a Phase II support recipient has to hold after Universal Service Administration Co. and the agency verify the recipient "achieved significant progress" on buildout and service provision requirements. Effective Wednesday is a three-year information collection requirement for its NET 911 Improvement Act order of 2009, it said. The FCC said the Office of Management and Budget approved the information collection mandates that were part of its reporting requirements for U.S. providers of international services report and order from its 2016 biennial review of telecom regulations. It said comments are due May 25, replies July 24 on a proposed rule on establishing a budget allowing for "robust broadband deployment" in rate of return areas while "minimizing the burden" on ratepayers of USF contribution while bringing "greater certainty and stability to rate-of-return high-cost funding." It sought comments on other reforms to increase broadband deployment.

With truck rolls still bedeviling some industries serving broadband customers, systems integrators told a ProSource conference last week in San Antonio they're trying to keep customers and their electronics always connected. ProSource CEO David Workman said it costs at least $200 when a technician visits a user. For the recurring monthly revenue many tech integrators seek, wireless can monitor household networks for problems, the event was told. Greg Simmons, co-founder of new service company Parasol, an offshoot of integration company Eagle Sentry, said customers also value the quicker response: "Instead of you having a problem Friday night and us getting there Tuesday morning to take care of it -- and they’ve missed Game of Thrones and they’re furious -- we now are handling it that much faster.” OneVision Resources CEO Joseph Kolchinsky said in five years, “every one of the clients you want to do business with” will be paying monthly for monitoring. That will extend to personal electronics, including smartphones, Kolchinsky envisioned.

Free Press urged supporters to tell the FCC to back off Lifeline USF proposals as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands prepare for another hurricane season. "The plan to gut Lifeline would cut off hundreds of thousands of people living in hurricane-stricken areas like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands," said a release. "To disconnect people still struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria would be unconscionable. Tell the FCC to ditch its plan and leave Lifeline alone," it said, linking to an online form and portal for submissions to the agency.

NTIA asked for expressions of interest in serving on FirstNet's board. One of the 12 nonpermanent seats is vacant and four terms expire in August “creating a total of five available appointments,” said the Federal Register. Members are required to have "experience or expertise in at least one of the following substantive areas: Public safety, network, technical, and/or financial" and can serve up to two consecutive three-year terms. Expressions of interest should be postmarked or electronically transmitted by May 21, the notice said. NTIA is also looking for members of its Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, said a second notice. also in Thursday's FR. Members serve two-year terms and applications are due May 18.

The U.S. accounted for 52.5 percent of malicious domain name system (DNS) queries to command and control servers globally between September and February, Akamai reported Tuesday. China accounted for 12 percent of malicious queries in the same span, a sign that command and control hosting is becoming less U.S.-centric, Akamai said. The report analyzed data from more than 14 million DNS queries from communications service provider networks.

Telecom revenue dropped further in 2016, with toll service revenue reported at $36.3 billion (down from $39.7 billion in 2015) and mobile service revenue $65.6 billion (down from $75.3 billion), said the 2017 FCC Universal Service Monitoring Report Friday in docket 96-45. Total telecom revenue declined from $214.5 billion to $198.3 billion. Providers are assessed USF contributions based on their interstate and international telecom end-user revenue. The industry's total reported revenue only dropped slightly, from $515.6 billion to $509.7 billion, as non-telecom revenue reported on FCC Form 499-A increased from $301.1 billion to $311.4 billion. The report also contains some 2017 data through September.

The FCC issued two Mitre reports on IP captioned telephone service (CTS) testing. The Mitre documents detail "the results of the first two phases of testing performed to assess the quality and usability" of IP CTS and automated speech-to-text (STT) technologies, said a Managing Director and Consumer and Governmental Affairs public notice in docket 03-123 and Thursday's Daily Digest. A 2017 final report on a Phase I survey and usability study said more research and testing are needed, but some things are clear: "users are dissatisfied with delay (41% of respondents) and accuracy (32% of respondents) of transcription services"; "some device features can be adjusted to better accommodate the hard of hearing community"; and "speakerphone or bi-aural headset capability is helpful. Some members of the hard of hearing community can comprehend speech better if they can use both ears." Phase 2 "usability assessment and device testing results demonstrate that there is at least one automatic [STT] engine that is equivalent or better than three of the four current IP CTS devices at producing an accurate, expedient, and usable service," said a 2016 "Version 0.5" report.

The small number of local officials on the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee “has unsurprisingly resulted in BDAC recommendations that would undercut the important potential of local governments to help improve and accelerate broadband access and availability throughout the nation,” said Coalition for Local Internet Choice CEO Joanne Hovis and President James Baller in a Thursday letter to FCC commissioners. The BDAC’s model state code especially hurts broadband deployment, the CLIC officials said. Appointing another local official after two resigned (see 1804090013), they said, “does not come close to addressing the stark imbalance in the composition of the BDAC.”

Congress is "very likely" to pass CFIUS "reform" in 2018, said strategist and consultant Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti in his Q2 Washington update, referring to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The broad executive branch group reviews the national security implications of foreign takeovers of U.S.-located companies of all types; the narrower Team Telecom -- DOJ, DOD and the Department of Homeland Security -- focuses on foreign takeovers of U.S. telecom and internet firms and assets (see 1711080040). Mehlman said "data breach notification" legislation is "possible," but "infrastructure" and "data privacy/online bill of rights" bills are "longer-term." He didn't handicap net neutrality legislation but said 36 states are "attempting to thwart" an FCC regulatory rollback through "state laws, executive orders or lawsuits." More generally, he cited institutional failures, motivated citizens, "revolutionary" technology, and "accelerating" societal changes as creating an "Age of Disruption" that "may usher in an Era of Reform." A Democratic "wave election" is "increasingly possible" in November, he said, though Republicans are less vulnerable in the Senate, where they're defending only nine incumbent seats to the Democrats' 26, than in the House, where the GOP is defending 50 "competitive" seats to Democrats' five.

About 14,000 AT&T union workers may strike if they can’t agree to new contracts covering the carrier’s Midwest and Legacy T contracts, Communications Workers of America said in a Tuesday news release. CWA members voted Monday to authorize a strike, the union said. Workers seek job security and fair wages and benefits, it said. AT&T continues to bargain and is confident about reaching a fair agreement with the union that gives “excellent wages and benefits,” an AT&T spokesman emailed. “A strike vote is a common and not unexpected step in negotiations of this sort.”