The FCC “approved for filing” long-form applications by mostly smaller carriers for licenses on which they were the high bidders in the TV incentive auction. The approval moves bidders a big step closer to taking possession of the licenses. The licenses were bought by Carolina West Wireless, Cellular South, Chariton Valley Co-Op, CT Cube, East Kentucky Network, Inland Cellular, NE Colorado Cellular, Nsight Spectrum, Pine Cellular, SAL Spectrum, Spotlight Media and the Alaska Wireless Network, among others. The FCC approved 119 applications in all. Fifty bidders paid $19.3 billion for a total of 2,776 licenses. “The long-form applications … have been found, upon initial review, to be acceptable for filing,” said the Wednesday public notice by the Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau. “The Commission may return or dismiss any application if it is found, upon further examination, to be defective or not in conformance with the Commission’s rules.” Petitions to deny are due July 3, oppositions July 11, replies July 18. Last week, the FCC cleared the first group of licenses purchased in the auction (see 1706140048).

The National Advertising Division is referring Verizon Fios ads to the FCC and FTC after it said Verizon didn't respond to a Comcast complaint. In a news release Tuesday, the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system said Comcast challenged a variety of Internet speed claims in the Fios ads. Verizon didn't comment Wednesday.

NAB released a video arguing that the post-incentive auction repacking is too much of “massive, dangerous, expensive job” to accomplish in the time allotted. “Note to self: This is gonna be hard,” said the video’s hard-hat bedecked narrator after describing the height of broadcast towers as dwarfing cell towers and the Empire State Building. With current reimbursement funds and the few crews available, it isn't possible to make tower adjustments safely in the repacking timeline and it will disrupt viewers, the video said. “The math doesn’t add up,” the video’s narrator said. “Let’s work together to keep this free lifeline service accessible to all,” said the video said, available on YouTube. “Due to the high number of TV stations being relocated, the work and time necessary to complete the moves will far exceed the budget allocated by the Broadcaster Relocation Fund authorized by Congress,” an NAB spokesman emailed. “Congress should pass legislation to ensure their constituents do not lose access to local television and radio stations during this mandated station relocation due to a lack of funds or unreasonable time constraints for station relocation.”

The FCC's letting cable operators email customers annual notifications potentially could extend to the agency allowing for distribution to a customer's online account instead of email, or notices for retransmission consent elections moving to email, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said in a statement released Wednesday alongside the electronic annual notice declaratory ruling. O'Rielly said the ruling "comports nicely with our overall push to recognize the current realities of business communications and realize efficiencies by permitting, or in some cases requiring, paper transmissions to go electronic." The ruling said emailing annual notices "will greatly ease the burden of complying" with Section 76.1602(b) of rules requiring cable operators notify subscribers at least annually, and on request, of services offered and pricing as well as installation and maintenance policies, with that relief especially felt by small cable operators. A coalition of local governments that wanted conditions on the NCTA/American Cable Association petition (see 1606130028), emailed us, “While local government supported the move to paperless notices, we felt that the cable industry’s petition, as filed, was short on consumer protections. While we continue to review the order, we believe on balance that the Commission and the industry took our concerns very seriously. That fact is reflected in that Order modified the petition to address many, if not all, of our concerns.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai named Rosemary Harold chief of the Enforcement Bureau. Harold returns to the agency after a stint at Wilkinson Barker. She inherits what industry officials say could be a tough job, sorting through the role enforcement will play under the Republican chairman. Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly were critical of what they saw as an overly aggressive bureau under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler and then-Chief Travis LeBlanc (see 1701240064). The bureau’s priorities will include “protecting consumers against illegal robocalls and confronting unlawful interference with broadcast licensees,” Pai said in a Wednesday news release. Harold formerly was an aide to then-Commissioner Robert McDowell and deputy chief of the Media Bureau before leaving the FCC in 2011. Acting Chief Michael Carowitz will now be deputy chief, the FCC said. Pai now has largely rounded out the senior management team at the FCC.

The FCC said its Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee will meet July 20 at the commission, following up on its first meeting in April (see 1704210050). "BDAC Working Groups will report on their progress in developing recommendations for the BDAC’s consideration," said a public notice Tuesday in docket 17-83. "The BDAC also will continue its discussions on how to accelerate the deployment of broadband by reducing and/or removing regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment."

Ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said tech leaders at a presidential meeting this Thursday with "America's technology leadership" should help President Donald Trump see "the importance of keeping the internet fast, fair, and open." "We are on the cusp of another internet reinvention called Web 3.0, and its opening act, the internet of things," Wheeler said in a Brookings Institution blog post Tuesday. "Whether the promise of Web 3.0 is fully realized, however, will depend on the policy decisions we make today -- specifically, the kinds of policy decisions that will hopefully be discussed with the president. The promise of Web 3.0 is finished without open networks to connect it. Precisely, the kind of openness the Trump FCC is trying to remove by undoing the existing Open Internet Rules." Wheeler said Web 3.0 is different from 1.0, which made the internet available through browsers and search engines, and 2.0 which "democratized" the internet with user-generated content. "Today, the web is a platform for requesting and displaying existing information. In contrast, Web 3.0 is the orchestration of raw intelligence to produce something new. Embedded and connected microchips in everything from cars to coffeepots flood the network with a tsunami of intelligence that Web 3.0 channels to create new products and services," he wrote. McKinsey estimates 3.0's "transformation in business practices and models" could have an $11 trillion impact on the global economy, but the "benefits require being free of interference from those who run the networks that take us to the internet," he wrote. His comments echoed a speech he gave at a Silicon Flatirons event in February (see 1702130035).

The FCC denied a Freedom of Information Act request by Communications Daily for information about any death threats toward or safety concerns involving Chairman Ajit Pai. In a letter Tuesday, the Office of the Managing Director (OMD) said information about such threats would be exempt because it could be part of an ongoing investigation, "could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual," or both. We filed the FOIA request on threats Pai received and on security planning for commissioners' May meeting at which a reporter was manhandled (see 1705190031). About the security planning, OMD said that agency security "was operating under heightened awareness for potential disruptions and threats to the ... meeting," but there were no records of security procedures or correspondence specifically about that meeting. It also said the May 18 gathering was subject to general security directives, and those are exempt and their disclosure "would impair their effectiveness."

The fight between the Phoenix Center and Free Press intensified Tuesday, with a center paper refuting claims in a May Free Press study. Free Press said aggregate capital investments at publicly traded ISPs were 5 percent higher during the two-year period after FCC commissioners' 2015 net neutrality vote than in the previous two years (see 1705150061). “Recent releases of data from USTelecom and CTIA both reveal very large reductions in capital spending by telecommunications firms in 2016,” said the report by George Ford, Phoenix chief economist. “Even a recent report by Free Press -- a zealous proponent of aggressive Internet regulation -- backs up FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s claim that investment declined subsequent to reclassification.” Financial data “tells a consistent story about investment in 2016 -- capital spending is down, and way down,” Ford said. The center blames the 2015 order, which reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood questioned in an email whether the Phoenix Center report makes sense. “Just look at their AT&T section,” Wood said. “They claim that we did not account for DirecTV, but in fact we did. Perhaps George didn't have the stamina or the brainpower to read our full report.” Free Press reported AT&T spending declined temporarily after the 2015 vote because the company completed a massive upgrade in 2014, Wood said. “We haven't accused the ISPs of misleading the FCC, because NONE OF THEM tell the FCC or their investors that Title II had any impact on their investment.” Free State Foundation submitted a filing Tuesday in docket 17-108 including recent papers by FSF Senior Fellow Theodore Bolema: “Too Much Unnecessary Regulation Is Impeding Telecom Investment” and "Allow Paid Prioritization on the Internet for More, Not Less, Capital Investment."

The White House Office of American Innovation hopes the American Technology Council’s inaugural meeting Monday will help “unleash the creativity of the private sector to provide citizen services in a way that has never happened before,” said Director Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, before the meeting’s official start: “We will foster a new set of startups” and “be a global leader in the field making government more transparent and responsive to citizens' needs.” The ATC meeting, which was to have gone past our deadline, was to focus on its primary goal of working on federal IT modernization, but smaller working groups also would look at a range of other sector-specific issues like big data, cybersecurity, H1-B visas and tech recruitment, a White House spokesman said. “We certainly know the problems,” said White House Director-Strategic Initiatives Chris Liddell in public remarks. “We have some of the ideas about what the solutions are. But we really want to engage your minds and get the best of the private sector applied to these problems.” The White House confirmed that the ATC meeting would include: MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, OpenGov CEO Zachary Bookman, Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Akamai CEO Tom Leighton, SAP CEO Bill McDermott, Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Google parent Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet and Trump tech sector ally Peter Thiel.