With the first meeting of the FCC’s new Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee set for Friday (see 1704060038), Deere & Company underscored the importance of broadband to agriculture. “Deere has undertaken to bring special attention to the growing need for high-speed broadband of rural users and, in particular, the agricultural sector which remains the lifeblood of a majority of the nation’s rural economies and communities,” the company said in a filing at the FCC in docket 17-83. “Deere is hopeful that the BDAC will address the particular needs and challenges of the nation’s rural areas in devising recommendations to lower barriers to high speed broadband deployment.” Deere specifically recommended that BDAC Streamlining Federal Siting working group be renamed the “Rural Areas, including Streamlining Federal Siting” working group. “With this change, this working group would have the challenges of high speed broadband deployment in rural areas clearly within its focus,” the filing said.

Following the Trump administration's directives to eliminate regulations, the FTC said several initiatives are underway to simplify processes and enhance transparency. "We are focusing our resources where they will do the most good for the public and eliminating wasteful, legacy regulations and processes that have outlived their usefulness," said acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen in a Monday news release. New groups within the Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection are trying to "streamline demands for information in investigations" from companies and individuals as a way to cut "unnecessary costs," said the FTC. It said both bureaus are also closing older investigations, if appropriate. The Consumer Protection Bureau also is trying to distill "key lessons" from closed data security investigations to help provide guidance and transparency (see 1702020020), the agency said. And that bureau is collaborating with the Bureau of Economics to integrate its expertise earlier in investigations to improve decision making on the impact to consumers from enforcement actions, the release said. The agency said Ohlhausen created a new capability to help her office collect and review ideas on streamlining processes and improving operational efficiencies.

Increasing levels of RF noise will create a “world of pain” for radio communications services, the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers said in a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-191. “If the noise situation is not addressed the highly-anticipated IoT may fall well short of expectation,” AFCCE said. Lack of adequate rule enforcement is leading to “both increased unlicensed operations and increasingly non-compliant operations, both of which frustrate rule-abiding operators and challenge the ability to share spectrum,” the group said. It said the FCC should expedite the creation of online interference complaint portals and “re-establish programs of random inspections and post-marketing sampling and measurements to assess and monitor the state of compliance.”

The FCC proposed a $404,166 fine against a New York man, Jay Peralta, for apparently operating without authorization from the agency a radio on frequencies licensed to the New York City Police Department, and “maliciously interfering with NYPD officers’ communications, and transmitting false distress calls.” Commissioners approved the proposed fine. Peralta admitted to making “10-13” and “10-85” calls on the NYPD radio system, both denoting that an officer needs assistance, said an NAL. “Through his actions, as he described them to the NYPD, Mr. Peralta has demonstrated not only a deliberate disregard of the Commission’s authority and rules, but of the safety of NYPD officers and the public that they are called to serve and protect,” the FCC said. “Commission action in this context is therefore essential to safeguard authorized operations on spectrum licensed for public safety uses, and, accordingly, a substantial penalty appears warranted.” With the order, "the FCC makes it abundantly clear that it will not tolerate unauthorized and illegal use of the radio spectrum,” Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. "This may not be a typical pirate radio case in which an unauthorized operator inflicts damage on a radio broadcaster that is operating with a valid FCC license, but it does involve unauthorized interference to critical public safety communications systems.” Peralta couldn't be reached for comment.

Dividing the 47 GHz and 50 GHz bands into four sub-bands will let fixed satellite services (FSS) safely share that spectrum with upper microwave flexible use (UMFUS) systems' 5G operations, satellite operators said in a docket 14-177 FCC filing Thursday. For the 47.2-48.2 GHz band, now designated for terrestrial wireless use, UMFUS would keep primary position in the band but FSS would be allowed to share via individually licensed earth stations deployed on a protected basis, the operators proposed. The 48.2-50.2 GHz band would remain designated primarily for FSS uplinks. For 50.4-51.4 GHz, allocated on a co-primary basis to FSS, mobile and fixed services, though not used now by any of those services, UMFUS would be designated as primary in densely populated areas, while elsewhere, UMFUS and FSS should be designated as co-primaries. They said the 51.4-52.4 band should receive similar treatment. Behind the proposal are EchoStar and its Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, Inmarsat and OneWeb. OneWeb is joining with Intelsat.

Correction: Dish Network won 486 licenses for $6.2 billion through ParkerB.com Wireless. Comcast won 73 blocks and $1.7 billion in licenses through CC Wireless (see 1704130040).

The Rural Utilities Service follows or partially follows leading practices while managing rural broadband grant and loan programs, GAO said in a Thursday report. The office gave RUS high marks for application review procedures, external training and communication, an informative website, the agency’s field representatives and coordination with other federal agencies. RUS has high-level goal and performance metrics for measuring benefits of broadband loans and grants, but they’re not specific to each program, the report said. RUS does risk assessment at the application and project level, but not at the program- or high-level, it said. RUS doesn’t have mapping information, but it’s something the agency is trying to improve, GAO said. RUS monitors projects, but stops when they’re completed, “and is therefore missing information that could be used to improve the selection of grant recipients or the results of grant awards,” GAO said. RUS is organized in a way supporting internal communication, but doesn’t have a centralized system to track loan and grant data. That’s in the works, but the end date is unknown, the report said. RUS usually has external written documentation for recipients, but internal documentation is often outdated, the office said. “GAO recommends that RUS develop program performance goals and measures, conduct program risk assessments, evaluate completed grant projects, establish a timeline for implementing a centralized internal data system, and update written policies and procedures for RUS staff,” the office said. The Agriculture Department agreed with the recommendations, GAO said.

USTelecom sought what could amount to additional deregulation beyond what's in a draft business data services order, while Starry sought the opposite on BDS. The period for lobbying on the item set for an April 20 commissioner vote (see 1704120049) ended Thursday. CEO Jonathan Spalter and others from the association met Monday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and aide Jay Schwarz, with a filing posted Thursday in docket 05-25 saying "reduction in the FCC’s detailed price setting role proposed in the Order is important, but relatively constrained." The agency seems to be keeping authority to ensure prices for traditional BDS remain just and reasonable, they noted, saying broader relief has benefits and asking the regulator to follow the non-dominance tack from CenturyLink and Frontier Communications. The commission's competitive market test may be too conservative, the executives told Pai and Schwarz. Wi-Fi and wireless broadband access startup Starry, meanwhile, seeks all IP-based BDS providers offering just, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, under Title I Communications Act oversight and Section 706. "Many BDS providers participate in other markets, including retail broadband, mobile wireless, online advertising, video content production and delivery, data storage," wrote the firm started by its CEO Chet Kanojia, who founded the Aereo streaming service that lost to broadcasters a Supreme Court case and shut down. "Because these markets rely on BDS as a critical input into the delivery of the product or service, it is rational for such an integrated BDS provider to exploit its position as the owner of the critical input."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai started what's expected to be a second round of changes in the leadership at the agency (see 1704120063), naming Patrick Webre chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Webre replaces Alison Kutler, a holdover from the Tom Wheeler chairmanship. Webre was most recently at Jenner & Block, but spent nine years in several leadership roles at the FCC, including as an associate chief at CGB, the agency said in a release. “Whether reviewing consumer complaints or developing policies to stop robocalls, CGB works hard to serve the public interest. Patrick’s skill and experience will enable us to continue this important mission,” Pai said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal for a new Office of Economics and Data is a “home run,” said former FCC Chief Economist Tom Hazlett in a Technology Policy Institute blog post. Hazlett said when he held that post in 1991-92, then-Chairman Al Sikes asked him whether every major rulemaking included a formal cost-benefit analysis. “I was underwhelmed,” Hazlett wrote. “I had been influenced by empirical research indicating that policy makers did not change their decisions when confronted with new economic analysis.” In the years since, Hazlett said he changed his perspective. He said his views evolved in 2011 when he wrote a paper on the topic for Resources for the Future. “The FCC, despite engaging in competition policy initiatives that frequently track the concerns of U.S. antitrust agencies, is distinct in flying naked, having no Economic Analysis Group (as does the Department of Justice Antitrust Division) or Bureau of Economics (Federal Trade Commission),” he wrote. Hazlett an economics professor at Clemson University.