The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council issued separate statements raising concerns about FCC net neutrality rules. Rainbow PUSH “is concerned about potential unintended consequences,” the group said in a news release. “We are particularly uneasy about the potential imposition of new telecom-related taxes and fees, and the under-capitalization of broadband infrastructure in vulnerable communities that may result from this regulatory course.” MMTC President Kim Keenan also expressed concerns. “While MMTC needs to thoroughly review the extensive Order to evaluate its potential impact on our constituents, we have clearly gone backward in how we regulate a tool as dynamic as high-speed broadband,” she said.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly released a statement late Thursday saying Republicans are not to blame for any delay in release of the FCC’s net neutrality order, approved by commissioners on a 3-2 vote earlier in the day. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had mentioned in the press conference after Thursday's meeting the FCC's need to respond to dissents as one of the factors that could slow release of an order. “To be clear, I filed a version of my dissenting statement … with a longer one to follow in the next few days,” O'Rielly said. “To say that this is somehow holding up the Commission’s release of the document and extending the process is ludicrous. After refusing to share this document for three weeks, it takes a lot of nerve for Commission leadership to blame me for its lack of transparency.” FCC General Counsel Jon Sallet said Thursday that waiting for the dissents to be filed is mandated by language in a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which requires federal agencies to provide a response in the final order. The FCC will work “as quickly as possible,” Sallet said. “Our goal is to get the process moving forward.” The opinion Sallet cited is Electric Power Supply Association v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a May 2014 decision on which the administration is seeking Supreme Court review.

Consumer Watchdog called AT&T’s proposed buy of DirecTV anti-competitive and anti-consumer, in a letter it sent Wednesday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Attorney General Eric Holder. The deal would lead to “higher prices, less competition and an expansion of the notorious anti-consumer practices that DirecTV currently practices,” said the letter posted Thursday in FCC docket 14-90. Consumer Watchdog said AT&T has failed to show why the purchase is in the public's best interest, and if it's approved the company should be required to discontinue the improper practices and maintain its current rates for at least five years. Among the practices Consumer Watchdog called improper are a mandatory service term of 18 months to two years, charging early cancellation fees and deactivation fees to those customers who cancel early and charging the fees without notifying customers. The group asked the FCC to “ignore the lofty pronouncements of those who have a direct financial interest in the proposed merger and focus instead on the practical impact upon the companies’ customers and the average American family.”

Corrections: Phoenix Center's Larry Spiwak, not Wilkinson Barker's Russell Hanser, said that the FCC order granting petitions to pre-empt municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee contained logic that would let state utility regulators pre-empt laws created by their state legislatures and likely will face legal challenges that will send the FCC legal view on Telecom Act Section 706 authority “crashing down” (see 1502250069) ... NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay, not Hanser, said that the Supreme Court’s Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League was based more on how pre-emption clashed with the 10th Amendment than with language in Communications Act Section 253 (see 1501220063) ... Mark Aitken of Sinclair chairs the ATSC's Specialist Group on Mobile DTV (see 1502250051); Glenn Reitmeier of NBC Universal is ATSC chairman.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai expects relations at the agency to remain cordial following the big fight over net neutrality rules (see 1502260043), he said in a news conference after Thursday's FCC meeting. Pai said he tries to take the same approach every month. “I approach the item on the merits and I figure out is there some way for us to reach a consensus,” he said. “I certainly don’t see the well as being poisoned.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, the FCC’s other Republican, said he looks forward to a continuing friendship with Chairman Tom Wheeler. But he said he's concerned about the stance the commission majority took on net neutrality. “Here, they not only asked us to violate our principles, they ran over our principles,” he said. O’Rielly predicted much of the FCC’s future focus will be on implementing the new rules. “I don’t hold out hopes we’re going to have many kumbaya moments going forward, but let’s hope that’s not the case,” he said.

Correction: The transmission method used for the two streams that FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Vice Chairman Howard Symons clarified that he meant to say were shared in last year’s channel sharing pilot between Los Angeles' KLCS and KJLA were in HD (see 1502240035). Dynamic reserve pricing is a limited exception to the rule that the commission freezes stations at a certain price rather than put them into the wireless portion of the 600 MHz band, an FCC official said.

Commissioner Ajit Pai touted FCC progress on indoor location accuracy, at a National Emergency Number Association awards gala Tuesday. The FCC approved rules 5-0 at its January meeting (see 1501290066). Pai said the input from carriers, APCO and NENA was critical. “We’re now on a path to providing emergency responders with a ‘dispatchable location’ -- that’s the room, office, or suite number where the 911 caller is located,” Pai said, according to prepared remarks. “Public safety organizations have described this as the ‘gold standard’ for indoor location accuracy because it tells first responders exactly which door they need to knock on, or in some cases, kick in during an emergency. This is a great next step in improving our nation’s 911 system.” Pai said Americans should realize how lucky they are to be able to call a single number in an emergency. He recounted a recent trip to India. “In India, there isn’t a [unique] single number that people can call for help,” he said. “There’s one number to reach the police, another for the fire department, and yet another if you need an ambulance. There are even different numbers for senior citizens, women, and children to use.” Pai also said hotel chains have made substantial progress in another key area -- letting customers call 911 from their rooms without having to dial 9 first to get an outside line. By the end of the year, all Country Inn & Suites, Crowne Plaza, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Fairfield Inn, Four Points, Gaylord, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, InterContinental, La Quinta, Marriott, Motel 6, Park Plaza, Radisson, Residence Inn, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Sheraton, Staybridge, W and Westin properties will have that capacity, he said.

Getting the incentive auction structured correctly is more important than holding the auction as soon as possible, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at an NAB State Leadership Conference Tuesday. Resolving questions about dynamic reserve pricing, interference, opening bid prices and repacking is “critical to any potential participation by broadcasters,” he said, according to prepared remarks. Eliminating reserved spectrum and limiting impaired markets will improve the forward auction and “ensure that we maximize revenues to compensate interested broadcasters,” he said. The commission should update the contest rule to let broadcasters post contest rules on a website, which makes rules more available in an Internet age, he said. Broadcasters have sought such changes (see 1502200035). Broadcasters also should be able to use the Internet to recruit more minority and female applicants, to comply with the commission’s equal employment opportunity rules, he said. Companies are forced to “duplicate their recruiting efforts using old-school methods like newspaper ads” because of 2001 estimates of Internet availability, he said. The commission should update its EEO rule to allow online dissemination of job vacancy information “combined with aggressive notification to candidate referral organizations,” he said. O'Rielly made a similar point in a blog last week (see 1502200054). The commission should adhere to updating media ownership rules every four years -- they haven’t been reviewed since 2006, he said. The commission repeals or modifies rules “no longer in the public interest due to increased competition,” he said. The 2010 quadrennial review wasn’t completed when the 2014 review started, he said. The industry is “saddled” with restrictions, including the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, he said. O'Rielly encouraged commissioners to address consequential matters, not FCC staff. Documents should be posted in a transparent manner so the public is aware what issues are up for a vote, he said. He urged the commission to make all FCC items to be considered at open meetings public. Texts are circulated internally three weeks before meetings but “the public is left out of the loop,” he said. Some items are released by bureaus without notifying commissioners, he said. “Far from being a rare or isolated circumstance, commissioners must ‘vote on it before you can see what’s in it’ every single month.”

The FCC extended the deadlines for paper and electronic files that were due Feb. 17 to Feb. 18, due to the commission's closing Feb. 17 for inclement weather, it said in a public notice Thursday. Feb. 17 doesn't count for computing filing periods of fewer than seven days because the commission counted that day as a holiday, it said.

The FCC should update its Internet Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rule and what types of communication qualify as “widely disseminated,” said Commissioner Michael O’Rielly in a blog post Friday. The commission is relying on outdated models of Internet access and usage for the EEO rule, he said. “We can’t embrace the ubiquity and benefits of Internet connectivity in public libraries to serve local communities on one hand, and on the other hand reject it as insufficient to reach enough potential job applicants,” he said. The Internet is an important space for communications companies to attract a diverse workforce, he said. Local newspaper want ads aren’t widely available in many communities, he said. The commission’s current EEO rules require broadcast and cable companies to distribute information about open positions, and prove that they have done so, he said. Employee search efforts must be included in companies’ public files, which are subject to random audits by the commission, he said. Updating the EEO rule is another step the commission can take in its modernization process, he said.