Chief of Staff Ruth Milkman defended the FCC’s decision to set aside some incentive auction spectrum for companies that don’t have significant low-band spectrum holdings in a particular market, in a speech Tuesday to Evercore Tech Change Conference. “With more than 70 percent of low-band spectrum in the hands of just two providers, this reserve assures that multiple providers without significant amounts of low-band spectrum have a meaningful opportunity to compete to acquire these valuable airwaves,” Milkman said, according a text posted by the FCC. “Where competition cannot be expected to exist, we will not hesitate to act to protect consumers and advance the public interest.” Milkman said the TV incentive auction is now the biggest single item on the FCC agenda, noting the World Radiocommunication Conference is underway in Geneva (see 1511040040). She stressed the potential significance of the FCC recent NPRM on spectrum frontiers (see 1510220057), as the WRC looks at new bands for wireless broadband. “We’re talking about 3,800 megahertz of spectrum that we are going to look at,” she said. “That’s six times all of the commercial spectrum that the Commission has authorized for broadband. And we’re potentially doubling the amount of high-band unlicensed spectrum.” Milkman also emphasized the importance of the USF program. The new Connect America Fund “is moving forward with plans to invest $9 billion over 6 years to preserve and expand broadband deployment to 7.3 million rural Americans,” she said. “These investments are targeted and fiscally responsible. These contributions leverage investment from private ISPs. We will only fund one service provider per area, and we won’t provide funding in areas where there is an unsubsidized competitor.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly are making the trip to Geneva this week as the World Radiocommunication Conference starts, commission officials said. As of Tuesday, 148 members of the delegation had arrived and been badged for the international spectrum conference, out of a total 194 who registered, said a spokesman for the U.S. delegation.

The 1Q USF contribution rate for carriers could for the first time top 18 percent of interstate and international telecom revenue, said industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg in an update Tuesday. The USF contribution rate could jump from its current 16.7 percent to 18.1 percent if the industry revenue base is the same as for the current quarter, Gregg said. He said interstate/international telecom revenue is expected to be $15 billion for 4Q and $60.5 billion for all of 2015, which he said would be the lowest quarterly and annual amounts in the program's history. “If the trend of declining quarterly revenues continues, the USF assessment factor for the first quarter will be higher than 18.1%,” he said. Gregg said the Universal Service Administrative Company will project 1Q revenue at the end of November, which will allow him "to accurately calculate" the new contribution rate. He said projected 1Q demand for USF support is $2.28 billion, up $155.2 million from 4Q, led by a Lifeline support increase of $74.4 million and a high-cost support increase of $49.5 million. Much of the hike was due to “out of period adjustments,” he said.

Correction: The local number portability administrator contract iconectiv is negotiating is what LNP Alliance consultant Jerry James was referring to when he said there are questions about whether IP-to-IP porting would be covered (see 1510300060).

The FCC extended the deadlines for comments and replies in the special access rulemaking to Jan. 6 and Feb. 5, respectively, said a Wireline Bureau order posted Monday in docket 05-25.

CEA and LonMark said two standards -- ANSI/CEA-709.5, Control Networking Protocol Specification Part 5: Implementation-Application-Layer-Guidelines, and ANSI/CEA 709.6, Control Networking Protocol Specification Part 6: Application Elements -- were approved as American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards for home and building automation. The standards focus on IoT device interoperability and provide a “complete model” for implementing device-to-device and device-to application communication, the organizations said Monday. “As the IoT marketplace expands, having device-level interoperability that is protocol- and platform-independent is an important piece of the puzzle,” said Dave Wilson, CEA vice president-technology & standards. The two new ANSI/CEA standards will help drive “a new level of interoperability into the home and building automation sector with applicability to many other sectors including smart outdoor lighting, smart cities and the smart grid,” Wilson said.

The FCC Media Bureau released the final version of its reimbursement form for broadcasters after the incentive auction and adopted a final catalog of expenses, the bureau said in a public notice Friday. The form and catalog are the means by which broadcasters will make use of the $1.75 billion TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund. The bureau added some categories of expense to the form and catalog in response to comments on the draft versions, but said in the PN that the catalog isn't intended to be “exhaustive.” The form has a “catch-all” category that should allow “sufficient flexibility,” the PN said. All broadcaster and pay-TV companies affected by the repacking will receive an initial allocation of money based on estimated costs, which will be held by the U.S. Treasury and available for draw-down as entities need it. Broadcasters will have to submit information on the reimbursement form each time they make a withdrawal, not only at the beginning and end of the reimbursement period, the PN said. “Actual cost documentation showing the entity incurred an expense associated with channel reassignment must accompany every reimbursement request.” Though it had originally been planned for the reimbursement process to be administered through the Treasury Department’s Automated Standard Application for Payments system, it will be done though the FCC's internal vendor payment system instead, the PN said. The in-house system is more efficient, cheaper to implement and “will provide the Commission with more oversight over the establishment of accounts, further enhancing our ability to prevent waste, fraud and abuse,” the PN said. The bureau will make publicly available in its License Management System the amount of reimbursement requested by each broadcaster and the amount disbursed for equipment or services, but not the invoice or identifying information of the vendor, the PN said. The form's final version has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for Paperwork Reduction Act approval, the PN said.

Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta unveiled the list of groups invited to participate in the Transportation Department and FAA’s recently announced Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force Thursday. In a news release, the FAA said the “Task Force membership represents a range of stakeholder viewpoints, interests and knowledge of the objectives and scope.” Members include representatives from: Amazon Prime Air; Amazon Retail; Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International; Best Buy; CEA; GoogleX; GoPro; PrecisionHawk; Small UAV Coalition; departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior and State; the Office of Management and Budget; and NASA. “The group will meet formally from Nov. 3-5 before developing recommendations on a streamlined registration process and minimum requirement on which unmanned aircraft should be registered,” the FAA said. Absent from the task force are privacy and civil liberties groups. “Interested parties who are not members of the Task Force may submit comments to the public docket,” FAA said. CEA Vice President-Technology Policy Doug Johnson said in a news release Thursday that CEA is honored to join the task force, saying a 63 percent increase in drone sales is expected this year alone. “UAS technology -- if allowed by government to thrive -- will be key to U.S. global technology leadership,” he said.

Global Tel*Link officials have been personally threatened "in apparent response" to FCC statements on its recent action inmate calling service (ICS) charges, GTL CEO Brian Oliver said in a letter posted in docket 12-375 Wednesday. He said law enforcement is investigating the threats, which are similar to those made against Securus executives (see 1510270065) after the agency capped ICS rates and limited fees (see 1510220059). “It appears these threats are being driven by press reports” of the FCC action “and the press releases issued by the FCC describing that action,” including state-specific releases, Oliver said. The agency’s Virginia release “contained inaccurate information, which was later corrected by the Virginia Department of Corrections,” he said, adding that GTL has worked to reduce ICS charges, introduce new calling and messaging technology, and provide streamlined payment options for users. “GTL’s proposals have been tailored to meet the needs of all stakeholders -- inmates and their families, correctional institutions, ICS providers, and the safety of the general public,” he said. “In an effort to ensure the safety of its executives and its employees, GTL urges the FCC to take all necessary steps to address any incendiary and erroneous press statements issued or planned." An FCC spokesman had no comment.

NTIA introduced a portal to make computer and Internet usage data readily available -- "an easy-to-use source for locating statistics and charting trends," an NTIA release said. NTIA Data Central is intended to speed dissemination and facilitate analysis of U.S. computer and Internet usage data periodically gathered by the Census Bureau on behalf of the Department of Commerce agency, said John Morris, associate administrator of NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development, on a Thursday press call. He said current data from the last survey show, for instance, that the number of Americans using a mobile phone to go online rose from 27.3 percent in July 2011 to 45.1 percent in July 2013. “We all intuitively know that just walking down the street,” but it’s useful to quantify, he said. NTIA has been publishing reports on the data, which come from Census Bureau surveys of 50,000 people and have been collected since 1994, Morris said, but the new portal will allow the agency to make the data available faster and in ways that are more user-friendly. He said he believes NTIA will receive the raw data from a July 2015 survey by year-end and it will try “mightily” to get the data on the website as soon as possible thereafter. NTIA expects to accelerate the data releases by about a year compared with the previous process, he said. Rafi Goldberg, an NTIA policy analyst, said the website provides data and analysis in different forms to accommodate the needs of different people: casual users, people who want to survey and break down data quickly, and serious researchers who want to plow through voluminous underlying data. The site features a Digital Nation Blog that will include periodic analysis, a Data Explorer page for quick looks at usage trends in chart form, and a Research Center with detailed data sets for deeper dives. Data Explorer allows users to chart granular trends by slicing and dicing data in many different ways through pulldown tabs, without having to manipulate the raw data themselves, Goldberg said. Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America research director, was impressed with the Data Explorer function at first glance. “This is really cool,” he told us. “The test will be, can you think of five interesting questions that you can answer in a couple minutes,” he said.