Litigation over California’s net neutrality law will resume in early August. Judge John Mendez approved (in Pacer) a proposed schedule submitted by the parties Thursday in U.S. District Court for Eastern California. The state agreed in October 2018 not to enforce SB-822 while the Mozilla appeal of the FCC’s order rescinding the 2015 national rules was pending (see 1810260045). The lawsuits by DOJ and ISPs may move forward now that Mozilla and others let pass a July 6 deadline to appeal to the Supreme Court (see 2007070012). The government and the ISP group would file amended complaints and renewed motions for preliminary injunction by Aug. 5, under the stipulation (in Pacer) jointly agreed to by plaintiffs DOJ and CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom and ACA Connects. The parties know "a number of non-parties" plan to join as amici.

The clock started ticking Thursday for incumbent C-band fixed satellite service earth station operators to decide whether to take the lump sum for spectrum clearing transition costs. Some expect relatively few to take that option after the agency made only some cost estimate changes sought by many MVPDs (see 2007060051). The Wireless Bureau public notice set Aug. 31 for the lump sum election and laid out the cost category schedule and dollar amounts. The FCC seems unlikely to budge on the deadline or inclined to hand out waivers, said broadcast lawyer Anne Crump of Fletcher Heald.

The FCC Wireline Bureau clarified pole attachment rules Wednesday in light of a 2018 infrastructure order, in response to a September CTIA petition (see 1909090051). “The imposition of a ‘blanket ban’ by a utility on attachments to any portion of a utility pole is inconsistent with the federal requirement that a ‘denial of access ... be specific’ to a particular request,” the bureau ruled. “While utilities and attachers have the flexibility to negotiate terms in their pole attachment agreements that differ from the requirements in the Commission’s rules, a utility cannot use its significant negotiating leverage to require an attacher to give up rights to which the attacher is entitled under the rules without the attacher obtaining a corresponding benefit.” The FCC addressed other parts of the petition in June, clarifying 3-2 rules for collocation of wireless infrastructure on existing cell towers (see 2006090060). “The clarity that this ruling provides will help ensure that the legal rights of providers seeking pole access to build out and upgrade their networks cannot be denied by pole owners” and will be “particularly beneficial for smaller providers,” said ACA Connects President Matt Polka. The Utilities Technology Council was disappointed by the ruling. “While the FCC has done tremendous work funding broadband projects across the country, it continues to focus on the myth that pole attachments are some kind of barrier to broadband deployment,” the group said: “Numerous studies have proven that pole-attachment costs and regulations have little to no impact on broadband or wireless deployment.”

With the FCC 27-month-and-counting freeze on new C-band fixed satellite service earth station registrations (see 1804200003), operators with stations not on the list -- particularly operators who never had a chance to register earth stations they bought after the freeze -- are concerned they'll have to shoulder the expense of the relocation. The commission hasn't said how it will handle the dozens of filings it received this month after it solicited corrections (see 2007070037). That public notice said the International Bureau won't take applications seeking to qualify for incumbent status but instead is looking for "minor corrections" such as site address or GPS coordinate fixes. The FCC didn't comment Monday.

A Thursday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on the FCC and NTIA roles in spectrum policymaking is likely to at least partially focus on the dispute between the two agencies over Ligado’s L-band plan, lawmakers and officials said in interviews. The hearing is also likely to be a venue for lawmakers to address other related policy matters, including FCC disputes with other federal agencies on the 24 GHz auction and other frequencies, and bids to allocate proceeds from the coming auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, lobbyists said. The panel begins at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell (see 2007160054).

Excluding integrated receiver/decoders costs from lump-sum payments to C-band earth station receiver operators could cause legal challenges that delay the C-band transition, ACA Connects President Matt Polka told FCC acting General Counsel Ashley Boizelle, according to a docket 18-122 posting Monday. It said the agency's order requires IRD costs be included in the lump sum since it requires calculating the payment on estimated costs of relocating all earth stations in a class and IRDs are among tech upgrades needed to maintain satellite reception.

NAB, the Internet Association and IBM reported Q2 decreases in lobbying spending Monday, while NCTA, Charter and Microsoft had increases. Other major telecom and tech companies hadn’t reported their quarterly spending by our deadline. IA said it spent $340,000, down more than 50% from the same period in 2019. IBM said it spent $1.04 million, down 35%. NAB spent $2.31 million, down almost 22%. NCTA expended $3.65 million, up almost 9%. Microsoft laid out $2.91 million, a 6% increase. Charter spent $2.59 million, up 6%. Cox shelled out $930,000, up 2%. Disney spent $890,000, an almost 6% increase. BSA|The Software Alliance spent $420,000, a 16% decrease. The Wireless Infrastructure Association devoted $180,000, down 10%. ACA Connects' $160,000 was little changed. The Computer & Communications Industry Association spent $40,000, down 20%. Viacom CBS spent $1.15 million. In the year-ago quarter, Viacom and CBS as separate entities spent a combined $1.52 million.

The National Cable Television Cooperative and ACA Connects will put on a virtual Independent Show Sept. 29-Oct. 1 for discussion of policy and technical issues for broadband and video service for independent providers, they said Wednesday. CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein will keynote, they said. The event is invite-only.

The broadband mapping data collection order and Further NPRM proposed by Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to get some changes before a commissioner vote Thursday, FCC and industry officials told us. Foremost among them is a change to the maximum buffers for fiber deployments. Groups and companies told the FCC the 6,660-foot maximum buffer may not be appropriate for all technologies, especially in rural areas, and that for fiber deployments the distances are frequently much larger.

Seeing it could get a bigger incentive payment for C-band accelerated clearing than SES, Intelsat ditched its obligations as a C-Band Alliance member, leaving fellow CBAer SES with $1.8 billion in potential damages, SES said in a claim Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond. That's according to a summary of the document that wasn't public.