Senate Commerce Committee members filed 25 amendments, not released publicly, to Mobile Now (S-2555) ahead of its Thursday markup. Some of the amendments would raise the broadcaster repacking relocation fund by $1 billion, force a national unlicensed spectrum strategy, and include stronger dig once provisions. But Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday that he doesn’t expect too many up-or-down votes during the markup and he anticipates a possible manager’s package to address some of the members’ concerns. Thune filed a substitute amendment text, as expected (see 1602290069), proposing some technical changes to Mobile Now.

With the FCC poised to take on privacy rules for ISPs, the Georgia Tech Institute for Information Security and Privacy released a paper Monday arguing ISPs have only limited access to consumer data and the data they have isn't unique. The paper was by Georgia Tech Professor Peter Swire, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama and advisor to President Bill Clinton on privacy issues. The study was paid for, in part, by Broadband for America, an ISP industry-funded coalition.

With the FCC poised to take on privacy rules for ISPs, the Georgia Tech Institute for Information Security and Privacy released a paper Monday arguing ISPs have only limited access to consumer data and the data they have isn't unique. The paper was by Georgia Tech Professor Peter Swire, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama and advisor to President Bill Clinton on privacy issues. The study was paid for, in part, by Broadband for America, an ISP industry-funded coalition.

A year after the FCC approved its net neutrality order in a contentious 3-2 vote, tensions remain high. Commissioner Ajit Pai, who voted against the order, said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation Friday that the order has led to a reduction in spending by ISPs on their networks, a result he said he had predicted. Small ISPs in particular have cut investments, he said.

A year after the FCC approved its net neutrality order in a contentious 3-2 vote, tensions remain high. Commissioner Ajit Pai, who voted against the order, said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation Friday that the order has led to a reduction in spending by ISPs on their networks, a result he said he had predicted. Small ISPs in particular have cut investments, he said.

The FCC should include an Alaska Plan in a looming rate-of-return USF overhaul, General Communications Inc. (GCI) and other Alaska telecom interests are telling commission officials. The plan is aimed at supporting broadband deployment in rural Alaska, and time is of the essence, given the state's construction season, they say. Native American groups are separately pushing for including a Tribal Broadband Factor, citing a projected reduction of almost $33 million in support for carriers serving tribal lands under a draft FCC order. Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) also has asked the FCC to adopt its price-cap USF proposal for Alaska.

The FCC should include an Alaska Plan in a looming rate-of-return USF overhaul, General Communications Inc. (GCI) and other Alaska telecom interests are telling commission officials. The plan is aimed at supporting broadband deployment in rural Alaska, and time is of the essence, given the state's construction season, they say. Native American groups are separately pushing for including a Tribal Broadband Factor, citing a projected reduction of almost $33 million in support for carriers serving tribal lands under a draft FCC order. Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) also has asked the FCC to adopt its price-cap USF proposal for Alaska.

CenturyLink and Frontier Communications asked the FCC to allocate $176 million in interim USF support to price-cap incumbent telcos providing voice service in costly remote areas where they are no longer being subsidized. “This support would flow for a maximum of two years, and likely less,” the two ILECs said in a filing, posted Wednesday in docket 10-90, summarizing recent meetings with aides to all five commissioners and a senior Wireline Bureau official. The telcos said the support is needed to ensure voice service continuity “in extremely high-cost and other unfunded locations” of territories served by price-cap carriers in states where they accepted new Connect America Fund Phase II support. Those areas constitute about 6 percent of the census blocks carriers serve in those states, the telcos said. In those areas, they said, the incumbents aren't receiving either the CAF II broadband-oriented support or legacy USF phone support but still must continue to offer voice service under FCC rules. Carriers have complained of an unfunded mandate (see 1601220046). CenturyLink and Frontier noted that the FCC plans to deal with the costs to serve areas either through an interim CAF II subsidy reverse auction or a remote areas fund (RAF), neither of which has been set up. “In the interim, however, restoring the inevitable voice service disruptions in unfunded areas presents a significant universal service challenge. Price cap ILECs that accepted offers of model-based CAF Phase II support are obligated to use such support to deploy broadband to covered locations; they cannot shift these monies to support voice service in the unfunded areas,” said the two telcos, which noted the ILECs must invest “significant amounts” to provide broadband in areas where they accepted CAF II money. They said the proposed interim funding should be based on previous legacy "frozen support" for the unfunded areas, as determined by the cost model. It would last only until the end of the CAF II auction process and could be drawn from the $100 million per year budgeted for the RAF and a “tiny fraction of the existing CAF reserve amount” held by the Universal Service Administrative Co., they said.

CenturyLink and Frontier Communications asked the FCC to allocate $176 million in interim USF support to price-cap incumbent telcos providing voice service in costly remote areas where they are no longer being subsidized. “This support would flow for a maximum of two years, and likely less,” the two ILECs said in a filing, posted Wednesday in docket 10-90, summarizing recent meetings with aides to all five commissioners and a senior Wireline Bureau official. The telcos said the support is needed to ensure voice service continuity “in extremely high-cost and other unfunded locations” of territories served by price-cap carriers in states where they accepted new Connect America Fund Phase II support. Those areas constitute about 6 percent of the census blocks carriers serve in those states, the telcos said. In those areas, they said, the incumbents aren't receiving either the CAF II broadband-oriented support or legacy USF phone support but still must continue to offer voice service under FCC rules. Carriers have complained of an unfunded mandate (see 1601220046). CenturyLink and Frontier noted that the FCC plans to deal with the costs to serve areas either through an interim CAF II subsidy reverse auction or a remote areas fund (RAF), neither of which has been set up. “In the interim, however, restoring the inevitable voice service disruptions in unfunded areas presents a significant universal service challenge. Price cap ILECs that accepted offers of model-based CAF Phase II support are obligated to use such support to deploy broadband to covered locations; they cannot shift these monies to support voice service in the unfunded areas,” said the two telcos, which noted the ILECs must invest “significant amounts” to provide broadband in areas where they accepted CAF II money. They said the proposed interim funding should be based on previous legacy "frozen support" for the unfunded areas, as determined by the cost model. It would last only until the end of the CAF II auction process and could be drawn from the $100 million per year budgeted for the RAF and a “tiny fraction of the existing CAF reserve amount” held by the Universal Service Administrative Co., they said.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., is letting the FCC's set-top box NPRM issue play out without intervening, he told reporters Wednesday. “Let’s see what they’re doing,” Walden said of the proposal. “We’re going to give them some space.” The set-top box NPRM spurred objections from some Democrats as well as Republicans on Capitol Hill (see 1602170051). Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was among those raising concerns ahead of the FCC's recent NPRM vote. “The set-top box thing, we’ll see how the whole NPRM comes out,” Walden said. “Obviously we never said go out and create AllVid all over again. There are copyright issues that matter a lot to content providers. There are a lot of very powerful forces watching all sides of that equation that will cause pressure for everybody on the committee.” But he didn’t foresee that any of the friction would cause trouble on the Commerce Committee. “Some it will make it more contentious, some it will be fine,” he said. “It’s just the ebbs and flows of policy debates.” Walden also pushed back on the idea that the FCC’s big-ticket coming items -- overhaul of the Lifeline program and the onset of broadband privacy rules on top of the set-top box proceeding -- would create tension among Commerce Committee lawmakers along the lines of the partisan divide over net neutrality. “We’re in pretty good communication with the FCC on universal service fund reform,” Walden remarked. “We’re watching what they’re doing in Lifeline and all that. To their credit, in the past they have tightened down on some of the abuse. I’ve publicly given [Chairman Tom] Wheeler credit for that. He has. He’s reined it in quite a bit. But they still need to have a common database, they need to have a budget. You can’t let this thing just be open-ended.” The FCC is expected to appear before Walden for a subcommittee hearing next month.