U.S. Cyber Command will be raised to the status of a unified combatant command, said President Donald Trump Friday in a statement and in a memo to the Defense Secretary James Mattis. The move is aimed at strengthening and streamlining cyberspace operations and providing more opportunities to improve defense, Trump said. He directed Mattis to provide a recommendation and possible plan about the "future command relationship" between Cyber Command and the NSA, potentially separating them. During the campaign, Trump promised to improve the command (see 1610030025).

The FCC should require broadcasters to simulcast content using the current standard during the ATSC 3.0 transition, said Verizon in a meeting with Chief Michelle Carey and other Media Bureau staff Wednesday, an ex parte filing said Friday in docket 16-142. “Just as broadcast TV stations should have the flexibility to choose whether and when to implement ATSC 3.0, other affected parties should similarly have the option of deciding whether and when to invest in new equipment to view and deploy ATSC 3.0, particularly consumers.” Rules governing simulcasting and quality of the 1.0 signal would be more efficient than other ways of easing the burden on MVPDs, and can have time limits for when 3.0 is more widespread, the telco-TV provider said. “The Commission can review and sunset any such restrictions as appropriate based on its evaluation of ATSC 3.0 penetration in the video market.” Broadcasters proposed simulcasting in initial filings on the transition, and have said repeatedly it should be allowed, not required (see 1707060060).

At least nine members of the Department of Commerce's 15-member Digital Economy Board of Advisors, including co-Chairs Zoë Baird, Markle Foundation president, and Mitchell Baker, Mozilla chairwoman, resigned amid fallout over President Donald Trump’s response to a white supremacist rally earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia (see 1708140044). Trump's statements drew criticism from many executives, leading the White House last week to halt formation of the Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure and dissolve two other CEO-dominated councils (see 1708160068 and 1708170048). IEEE President Karen Bartleson, Comcast Chief Diversity Officer David Cohen, University of California-Berkeley School of Law professor Sonia Katyal, McKinsey Global Institute Director James Manyika, Consumer Reports CEO Marta Tellado, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Rapid7CEO Corey Thomas also are confirmed to have resigned from the board. All nine members were appointed to two-year terms last year. Commerce, which didn't comment on the departures, intended the board to give recommendations to the secretary and NTIA administrator on the digital economy and internet policy issues (see 1511240034 and 1603300033). “It is the responsibility of leaders to take action and lift up each and every American,” Baker said in a letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Our leaders must unequivocally denounce bigotry, racism, sexism, hate, and violence.” Lyft President John Zimmer was appointed to but never officially participated in the council, a spokesperson confirmed. Cohen was one of the other board members who addressed their resignations in letters to Ross, but Comcast didn't comment on why he decided to resign. A Microsoft spokesperson said Smith "is no longer a member of the group" effective Friday, but didn't give a reason. Lyft “will not participate in any advisory panel associated with the Trump administration,” the spokesperson said. Other companies whose executives are on the board, including AT&T, didn't comment.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler weighed in on the issue of removing statues of Confederate leaders and said in a blog post for the Brookings Institution that President Donald Trump (see 1708160044) is “wrong.” Wheeler has written two books about the Civil War, and disputed the president’s claim that removing statues of Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson would lead to similar treatment for Founding Fathers such as George Washington. “These men were building as opposed to tearing down,” Wheeler said.

Business data service litigants proposed a consensus briefing schedule and format to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reviewing four petitions challenging the FCC April BDS order (see 1704200020). Opening briefs of two sets of petitioners that basically believe the order was overly regulatory or overly deregulatory would be due Sept. 26, with the brief of respondents FCC and DOJ due Nov. 10, briefs of different intervenors supporting different parts of the order due Nov. 17, and reply briefs of petitioners due Dec. 11 (final briefs incorporating an appendix would be Jan. 2), said a motion (in Pacer) filed Thursday by CenturyLink on behalf of "all other Petitioners, Respondents, and Intervenors" in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296, and consolidated cases. The motion, which proposed word limits for briefs, said it tried to streamline the arguments and briefs. It said telco petitioners CenturyLink and Citizens expect to argue the order reduces price-cap ILEC rates more quickly than justified in areas that remain regulated. It said petitioners Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, BT Americas, Granite Telecommunications, Incompas, Sprint and Windstream joined by Access Point, Alpheus Communications, New Horizon Communications and Xchange Telecom expect to argue the order deregulated price-cap ILEC rates in areas without adequate competition and without adequate notice, justification and factual support. Telco intervenors AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom, and cable intervenors NCTA and Comcast expect to defend different aspects of deregulation, while intervenors Ad Hoc and others expect to defend rate reductions, the motion said.

AARP said benefits of the 2015 FCC net neutrality order far outweigh "de minimis," costs. The group said a May NPRM proposing to roll back broadband regulation under Communications Act Title II pointed to the costs of alleged harms to broadband ISP investments as a primary factor. The "broadband ISPs and their supporters do not deliver any convincing evidence that broadband investment has been harmed in any way by the 2015 Title II Order," AARP replied Wednesday to initial comments (see 1707180009), the original deadline before it was extended to Aug. 30. Noting a June NCTA post, AARP cited surging U.S. data speeds, "innovation and aggressive" broadband deployment, which required investment; yet NCTA tells the FCC "a completely different story" about Title II's "chilling effects." Leaving aside that ISPs focus exclusively on broadband and ignore edge fallout, AARP finds "ISP 'harmed investment stories' are based on weak theoretical expositions and deeply flawed empirical studies." But rule benefits are clearly "substantial and growing," said the group, lauding comments in docket 17-108 from internet engineers, pioneers and technologists, including Vint Cerf. Among others filing recent replies supporting less regulation were Citizens Against Government Waste, a coalition of 83 groups and individuals, and German University of Passau professor Jan Kraemer; while the Software & Information Industry Association, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Washington State Access to Justice Board, Metropolitan Libraries of Ohio and three academics generally supported the 2015 order.

The White House “will not move forward” with the rollout of its Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure amid controversies that resulted in dissolution of the other two councils, an official told us. The White House was still seeking representatives for the 15-member council, which President Donald Trump created in a July executive order (see 1707200064), the official and a telecom lobbyist separately said. The White House had aimed for the group to study the efficacy of existing federal funding and support for infrastructure projects, including broadband deployment. It would have also worked on recommendation on prioritizing U.S. infrastructure needs and other development matters. The council’s halt comes amid planning for a White House-backed infrastructure legislative package, which has been anticipated to include a broadband title. The move follows the Wednesday dissolution of two White House councils dominated by CEOs. The Manufacturing Advisory Council and Strategic and Policy Forum disbanded amid fallout over President Donald Trump’s response to a weekend white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one dead (see 1708140044 and 1708160068). But the White House does plan for its American Technology Council to continue meeting on modernization of the federal government’s IT systems, the official said. The ATC, formed earlier this year (see 1705110058), is dominated by federal government members but engages tech sector stakeholders as advisers. Private sector members dominated the dissolved CEO groups. Oracle said it will continue to be involved in ATC meetings, and some other companies indicated they're open to remaining as participants.

CTA President Gary Shapiro took President Donald Trump to task for comments Trump made Tuesday blaming “both sides” for last weekend’s violence during a white supremacists’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (see 1708150020). “Generally I do not comment or write about social issues (other than those involving the LGBT community),” Shapiro emailed us Wednesday. “But I think it is fair to say that American businesses and especially the tech industry believes that our economy is best served by a president who unites us,” said Shapiro. By most “objective measures,” Trump is “fulfilling his famous campaign promise to ‘Make America Great Again,’" Shapiro wrote last week (see 1708110003).

The FCC should do a comprehensive review of its regulations, axing those that no longer serve consumers, and Congress should rewrite the Communications Act "to eliminate most of the FCC's current duties," the Competitive Enterprise Institute said. The small-government public policy group's Shrinking Government Bureaucracy report Wednesday recommended Congress consider "folding a much smaller FCC" into a different arm of the U.S. government, such as the Commerce Department. "With a handful of exceptions, the FCC continues to regulate as if it were 1996 -- or, in some cases, 1934," CEI said, pointing to media ownership rules. CEI said that instead of relaxing legacy cable-TV rules in the face of cord cutting, the agency did the opposite with its set-top box and over-the-top-as-MVPD rules proposals. It said due to FCC rules, "many of the most valuable airwaves cannot be licensed by wireless providers." The report recommended changes to or abolishing Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Labor Relations Board, the SEC and some others. The FCC didn't comment.

The White House’s Manufacturing Advisory Council (MAC) and its Strategic and Policy Forum (SPF) disbanded Wednesday amid continued fallout over President Donald Trump’s response to a weekend white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one counterprotester dead (see 1708140044). Trump said during a Tuesday news conference in the Trump Tower lobby on his executive order to streamline the environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects (see 1708150067) that both the white supremacists and “alt-left” counterprotesters were to blame for the Charlottesville violence. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigned from the MAC Tuesday after an earlier Trump response to the incident (see 1708150020). “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople” on MAC and SPF, “I am ending both,” Trump tweeted. Dell CEO Michael Dell was still on the council at the time of dissolution. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and other SPF members decided prior to Trump's tweet to disband that group, with Rometty saying in a memo “this group can no longer serve the purpose for which it was formed.”