Google Fiber's choice of Kansas City, Kansas, for its first fiber project taught Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, that his job is to take actions that help "keep barriers low and costs less" for industry innovators, he said. That recipe is what convinced Google to pick Kansas City for its fiber deployment, said Moran, a Commerce Committee member, speaking at the Incompas conference Wednesday. Google Vice President-Access Services Milo Medin said Google was looking for "a place that's easy, not just from a construction standpoint" but that would "work with us and get things done." He said Google looked at Kansas City's permitting rules, pole-attachment policies and other "boring things" that really matter, and decided it was the best choice among 1,100 communities that competed for the company's initial fiber foray, which was followed soon thereafter by Kansas City, Missouri, and by moves in Austin and some other cities. He said one of the keys was a "demand model" that invited consumers to commit to the fiber service, and thereby aggregate demand. Medin, who worked on the Kansas City project, said he's now working more on wireless issues. He said much of the industry's focus is on using low-band frequencies for broad coverage and building penetration but higher-band frequencies for making smaller cells that allow spectrum to be re-used. He lauded the FCC's 3.5 GHz band effort to find ways to share government spectrum with private users. He said most of that spectrum traditionally was used for naval radar, and specifically aircraft carrier air-traffic control. "Have you ever seen an aircraft carrier in Kansas?" he kidded Moran. Medin said sharing arrangements were an innovative way to avoid the traditional, protracted battles where industry seeks to take over government spectrum. He said the sharing arrangements can actually be a "win-win" because they allow government communications users to better "leverage" commercial innovations that had escaped them.

The American Cable Association and Wireless Internet Service Provider Association proposed alternative criteria the FCC could use to identify banks that could issue acceptable letters of credit (LoC) for "smaller experience service providers" (SESPs) seeking to participate in a planned reverse auction of Connect America Fund Phase II broadband/voice subsidies for rural areas traditionally served by price-cap carriers. "The bank should be [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] or [Federal Credit System Insurance Corp.]-insured and should meet the 'Well-Capitalized' Prompt Corrective Action threshold under Base III Capital Adequacy Standards," ACA and WISPA said in a filing Tuesday in docket 10-90. The groups said the alternative criteria would expand the base of potential banks issuing acceptable LoC from 63 under the FCC proposals to 6,195 "and provide more reliable and verifiable indicators of bank viability." The groups said they are concerned the FCC financial requirements for bidding "will deter, if not preclude" SESPs from participating in the auction.

As next Thursday's FCC meeting approaches where a set-top box NPRM may be considered on making it easier for consumers to get encrypted TV content carried through the boxes without getting one from their multichannel video programming distributor, MVPDs with concerns about any rules and NPRM backers are lobbying the agency. That is according to ex parte filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 15-64. If the FCC moves forward with its proposals for the set-top market, it should seek comment on possible exceptions for smaller cable operators, said the American Cable Association in meetings with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly. “At a minimum,” the FCC should “tentatively conclude that all-analog systems should be exempt from any new requirements,” ACA said. The agency's proposals would “directly interfere with and jeopardize” its ability to provide programming for Latino viewers, programmer Hola TV wrote Wheeler. “The proposal would allow some large Internet companies to unilaterally take our content without our approval, or compensation, disassociate it from existing negotiated channel placements, and enable those entities to sell intrusive advertising absent a mechanism to share any revenue with programmers." Dish and EchoStar don’t oppose “exploration of the [Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee]’s recommendations regarding adoption of competitive navigation devices,” they said jointly. The FCC shouldn’t adopt “overly simplistic solutions that could damage competition and hinder innovation,” Dish and Echostar said in a meeting with staff from Clyburn’s office. Pai should vote for the NPRM, said the Consumer Video Choice Coalition in a meeting with him, according to an ex parte filing. “The Coalition has proven that competition holds the technology solution for ending the era of forced set-top box leasing from large incumbent" multichannel video programing distributors, said the filing. By moving forward with the NPRM, the FCC “will be fulfilling its mandate” in Section 629 of the Communications Act to “ensure that consumers have access to competitive devices that are interoperable with MVPD networks,” the CVCC said. Coalition members include Google, Incompas, Public Knowledge and TiVo, its website said. Another group, begun the day FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he would circulate the NPRM (see 1601270064), includes ACA, Dish, MPAA and NCTA, its website said.

Cable and broadcast interests lobbied the FCC on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, from which they and others have been seeking exemptions so their routine communications won't run afoul of TCPA, said filings posted Tuesday in docket 02-278. The law shouldn't apply to informational, noncommercial, nonadvertising and nontelemarketing autodialed and prerecorded messages sent by educational institutions because those calls are made for “emergency purposes," said Hubbard Broadcasting of its meeting with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and others at the FCC in support of Blackboard's request along those lines. The FCC should ensure that any relief granted isn't limited only to certain schools, but also extends to all schools that utilize the services of any entity that performs the same critical messaging function as Blackboard, the broadcaster said. For example, the relief should extend to service providers like broadcasters that work directly with schools to send critical school-related public safety announcements, such as school closings, it said. NAB and NCTA, meanwhile, said their lawyers met with Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau staffers urging the commission to act on waiver petitions to address concerns members have about the TCPA. NCTA and NAB members face uncertainty about TCPA compliance issues and litigation arising under the current interpretation of the law "when a company had written prior express consent that, due to the confusion recognized in the 2015 Order, may not have met all of the requirements for a 'writing' as specified in the rules as amended by the 2012 TCPA Order," they said. NCTA is among those that have sought a waiver (see 1511040051) from the TCPA, which covers what are sometimes called junk calls to consumers who don't want the marketing messages.

The first FCC Technical Advisory Council meeting of 2016 will be March 9, with TAC scheduled to discuss its proposed work program for the year, the agency said in a notice in the Federal Register Tuesday. The meeting will be 12:30-4 p.m. at agency headquarters and also transmitted live with open captioning over the Internet at www.fcc.gov/live/, the FCC said. TAC in 2015 recommended the FCC expand its Measuring Broadband America program to also consider quality of service and quality of experience measurements in addition to measuring connection speeds (see 1512090067).

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set April 19 for oral argument in Howard Stirk Holdings v. FCC, which incorporates the several challenges against the agency's handling of the 2010 quadrennnial review of broadcast ownership rules and its changes to joint sales agreement attribution rules. Each side will have 20 minutes of oral argument time, said a letter Tuesday from the 3rd Circuit clerk's office.

Anyone with ideas how to best test whether moving more data traffic to LTE-unlicensed will interfere with Wi-Fi should speak up now, wrote wireless lawyer Mitchell Lazarus on Fletcher Heald's blog. Qualcomm's special temporary authority to test coexistence between LTE-U and Wi-Fi in Oklahoma and North Carolina (see 1601290064), rather than settle the issue, will likely "lead to fresh controversy over whether the test conditions were realistic and what the results mean," he said. The move by carriers to push more data into LTE-U "puts the FCC in a bind" because it doesn't have legal authority to stop that, he said. "But from a practical standpoint, Wi-Fi has become so important to the economy, and such a major convenience in people's lives, that to let LTE-U degrade it would be unthinkable." Lazarus provided links for contacting Qualcomm and the Wi-Fi Alliance, which is helping develop the Qualcomm test plan, and for filing comments in docket 15-105.

Sprint and CLECs said telco special access pricing practices lock up competition and should be effectively undone by the FCC, which is investigating the matter. The criticism came in oppositions and other comments posted Monday in docket 15-247 in response to the cases made by AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Verizon in defending their practices, which often contain discounts in exchange for volume or term commitments (see 1601110066). "Because incumbent LEC loyalty schemes are designed to restrict competition, and the incumbents have failed to offer any reasonable alternative explanation for their anticompetitive behavior, the Commission should immediately conclude that the practices at issue in this investigation are unjust and unreasonable," Sprint said. "Based on this finding, the Commission should declare that incumbent LECs cannot enforce their punitive penalties against purchasers who terminate loyalty plans or whose TDM purchases fall below their commitment levels. At minimum, the Commission should give purchasers a 'fresh look' until the Commission can implement comprehensive special access reform.”

Reports certifying customer proprietary network information compliance are due March 1 from telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP providers subject to CPNI rules, the FCC Enforcement Bureau reminded parties in an advisory Friday in docket 06-36. "The protection of CPNI is of paramount importance, as CPNI includes some of the most sensitive personal information that carriers have about their customers as a result of their business relationship (e.g., phone numbers of calls made and received; the frequency, duration, and timing of such calls; and any services purchased by the consumer, such as call waiting and voicemail)," the bureau said. "In prior years, many companies have either failed to file certifications entirely or filed certifications that violate our rules in material respects. Failure to file a timely and complete certification calls into question whether a company has complied with the rules requiring it to protect the privacy and security of its customers’ sensitive information."

Petitions for reconsideration are due Feb. 29 on an Oct. 22 order clarifying when operations are deemed to commence for companies that buy spectrum in the TV incentive auction, the FCC Wireless Bureau said Friday in a public notice. CTIA and NAB approved of the FCC's approach last year, calling it balanced (see 1510230045). The agency decided a provider “commences operations” when it conducts site commissioning tests.