The FCC Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) approved a recommendation Thursday saying all information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders should stay informed about the needs of people with cognitive disabilities as communications technologies evolve. “Where appropriate, ICT stakeholders” should follow and participate in research, “learning about emerging standards and guidance from knowledgeable organizations,” the resolution said. ICT companies also should attend cognitive disability conferences and follow the discussions in online communities of people with disabilities and their caregivers, the resolution said. The FCC held a summit last October on communications difficulties faced by people with cognitive disabilities (see 1510280037). The DAC also got a report on potential problems with Apple’s new operating system, IOS 10.0.1, which offers text telephone (TTY) capabilities used by some with hearing disabilities. Toni Dunne, external affairs manager at Intrado, said 911 calls made using the service come through as “silent calls” at call centers. “IOS TTY does not send TTY tones to activate the TTY equipment at the 911 center,” she said. Christian Vogler, DAC member from Gallaudet University, confirmed the report. “Apple does know there are issues with the iOS; however, I don't know what their plan is at this time and I don’t know what your expectations are, but there are issues,” Vogler said. Apple didn’t comment. "With iOS 10 and a cellular connection on your iPhone, you can make TTY calls without any extra hardware," said an Apple support webpage. "You can also find transcripts of your previous TTY calls.”

Parties continued to offer a jumble of views on the FCC inquiry into whether advanced telecom capability (ATC) is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely way, as reply comments were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 16-245. CTIA said U.S. mobile broadband deployment was "the envy of the world, and by any reasonable metric" must be found to satisfy the mandate in Section 706 of the Telecom Act. The Wireless Infrastructure Association agreed, saying new mobile benchmarks aren't needed and the FCC should decline to require that both fixed and mobile service be available to reach a positive determination. But U.S. Cellular cited evidence in the record for a negative mobile broadband finding and requiring both mobile and fixed broadband availability in assessing ATC deployment. It also said "faulty data is compromising" FCC ability to make accurate mobile broadband evaluations, particularly in rural areas, and backed a new proceeding to fix the problem. T-Mobile said "constraints on critical input resources" continued to impede broadband availability, particularly spectrum for mobile broadband. The Wireless ISP Association said there is strong support for the FCC's proposal to keep its 25/3 Mbps fixed ATC standard. WISPA opposed a fiber group's proposal to use deployment of all-fiber networks, instead of data speed, as the standard, as well as Netflix's "self-serving proposal to introduce regulation of data caps and other usage-based pricing plans." Adtran voiced similar concerns about those proposals and a Deere proposal targeting broadband in agricultural areas. NTCA also backed the 25/3 Mbps fixed (and satellite broadband) standard, but is concerned about the "lingering inconsistency" with lower speed requirements for rural USF support. But the Utilities Technology Council said the fixed standard should be raised to at least 50/20 Mbps and take into account factors such as latency and jitter. The Power & Contractors Association also suggested the fixed standard be raised. ViaSat said the FCC should fully consider satellite broadband in making its ATC determination and opposed consideration of jitter. The Free State Foundation said any fair assessment of the facts would find broadband is being reasonably deployed to all Americans. Will Rinehart, technology director at the American Action Forum, said the FCC should focus on removing investment barriers and lower the speed threshold to an "economically supported competitive level of broadband service."

USTelecom cited "shortcomings" in the FCC's business data service collection of data and said "regressions using that data" don't support an inference of market power. "Imposing price regulation based on the flawed data runs the risk of discouraging investment, innovation and further entry, the costs of which could easily outweigh any modest price reductions that could be gained," the ILEC group said in a filing Wednesday in docket 16-143 on a discussion with Office of Strategic Planning Chief Paul de Sa and another OSP staffer. USTelecom also discussed the basis for its proposed test to deem a market competitive where two or more facilities-based competitors are present (see 1609120048). Communications Workers of America President Christopher Shelton noted CenturyLink recently announced plans to lay off up to 3,500 employees, reportedly in response to declining legacy revenue. "Surely, we don't want to see more of these headlines," said Shelton's letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "I know this is not a legacy you want for your tenure, but I fear we may see more of this if the Commission radically slashes" BDS rates. But Sprint urged the FCC not to delay implementation of new BDS rules as some parties have argued. A new order "should address mechanisms for expedited BDS challenge proceedings and the effect of changed BDS rules on existing and new BDS agreements," said a Sprint filing on discussions with de Sa, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero and a Wheeler aide.

The FCBA is restating a policy of keeping events on the record, except for when speakers request otherwise, President Robert Branson told us. He was responding to our Friday letter (see 1609160068) repeating our 2014 request that the association not make events off the record (see 1411280041). All FCBA committee co-chairs are getting a copy of the previous association policy, agreed to by the group's Executive Committee, on keeping events on the record when possible, Branson said Tuesday. Last week, FCC officials and others spoke off the record about political broadcasting rules at a Mass Media Committee brown bag lunch.

FCC involvement in writing “the substantive terms of any license” under the set-top box proposal would exceed its authority, NAB CEO Gordon Smith said in a call Friday with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The licensing plan would “fatally undermine the Commission’s stated goal of protecting content and respecting copyright and contracts,” NAB said. Public Knowledge disagreed, in a letter citing legal precedent for the FCC's proposed licensing body. The agency has the authority to “counter factors it believes may 'impede' competition, and as an expert agency, its decision-making is entitled to deference,” Public Knowledge said. “The case that some oversight is necessary to ensure that [multichannel video programming distributors]/device agreements do not undermine competition does not seem particularly difficult to make,” Public Knowledge said. “There is no support for claims that the FCC’s authority somehow does not apply to the apps-based proposal -- which is, after all, based on proposals put forward by the MVPD and programming industry themselves.” The FCC set-top plan also was endorsed in a letter from numerous rural advocacy organizations, including the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and Access Humboldt. “We urge you and your fellow Commissioners to stay strong and to side instead with consumers -- especially rural consumers -- who pay Big Cable and Big Content hundreds of dollars extra every year because of this monopoly they want to protect,” the rural groups said. The FCC should make clear in its final set-top order that “all components of the pay-TV ecosystem, including the pay-TV apps and the devices on which they are viewed, must be directly and unquestionably subject to the Commission’s accessibility rules,” said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and others in a meeting with aides to Chairmen Tom Wheeler Monday, said an ex parte filing. The apps and third-party devices will all be subject to the 21st Century Video Accessibility Act, the filing said. “Ensuring that all apps and devices are directly subject to the Commission’s accessibility rules, regardless of whether apps are preinstalled or downloaded later, is essential to ensuring certainty and consistency in application and enforcement of the rules.” The FCC didn't provide enough notice for a final set-top rule to apply to direct broadcast satellite, Dish Network and EchoStar said in a joint filing on meetings last week with aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai and Media Bureau staff. DBS providers would require a “gateway” device to comply with the proposed set-top rules, but the NPRM “did not seek comment on the issues related to such a device, much less propose actual rules to govern its design and operation,” the companies said. Rosenworcel is seen as a holdout on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's set-top box order (see 1609150045).

Seven state attorneys general defended an FCC inmate calling service order limiting ICS rates and fees, which is being challenged in court by industry parties and other state interests. AGs from Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Washington state and Washington, D.C., said almost all state prison inmates are eventually released, but in prison they face "prohibitively high charges" for phone calls that far exceed rates outside the correctional system. The AGs support the 2015 order "because providing telephone service to prison inmates at a reasonable cost is feasible, and it fosters public safety, successful rehabilitation, reduction in recidivism, and improved outcomes for offenders' children and families," said their amicus brief (in Pacer) Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461). ICS providers, various other states and sheriffs filed their initial arguments in June (see 1606070030). The FCC and DOJ responded last week, noting the commission updated its rate caps to account for correctional facility costs (see 1609140033).

FCC staff set a pleading cycle on requests for off-campus E-rate USF support to help students get internet access at home without creating cost-allocation complications for schools. Initial comments are due Nov. 3, replies Dec. 5, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Monday in docket 13-184. One petition filed June 7 by Microsoft, Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. and others seeks to use TV white space technology in Charlotte and Halifax counties, Virginia. The other petition filed May 16 by the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic on behalf of the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado seeks to allow nearby housing authorities to connect to the school system's self-provisioned fiber network. "The petitions request that the Commission allow E-rate subsidized broadband networks to be accessed by students at home for educational purposes, without an obligation on the E-rate applicant to cost allocate the portion of the traffic attributable to off-campus use;" said the PN. Separately, Funds for Learning met with bureau staffers to discuss analysis of funding year 2016 E-rate funding data and responses to a nationwide survey of E-rate applicants. More than 118,000 school and library sites benefited from the E-rate program affecting over 50 million K-12 students and millions of library patrons, said a filing. It said the number of gigabit or faster connections more than doubled in the past year; half of applicants who considered a self-provisioned network believe it lowered their per-megabit pricing; 22 percent expect their broadband internet connection speeds to at least double in the next three years, while just 10 percent expect their speeds to be unchanged; there's broad support for restoring E-rate discounts for phone service; and the vast majority found Universal Service Administrative Co.'s new online E-rate portal "made the application process significantly more difficult and time-consuming."

AT&T called Incompas/Verizon business data service regulatory proposals nothing like the compromise the two parties suggest it is. Verizon sold so many wireline systems, it "is almost certainly a net purchaser of BDS whose interests are more aligned" with Incompas than with other ILECs, said an AT&T filing posted Monday in docket 16-143, calling their joint recommendations "cynical." As Incompas and Verizon reveal details of their proposals, it's becoming clear their proposals are "structured as a massively one-sided giveaway to Verizon at the expense of consumers, competition and virtually all other BDS competitors," AT&T wrote. It said Verizon had some of the highest BDS rates in the industry where it's the incumbent, "significantly higher than AT&T's, for example." But Incompas is willing to protect Verizon's high in-region rates to win the telco's support for "radical and debilitating rate reductions on all other ILECs and Ethernet providers outside of Verizon's territory," AT&T said. "That may be a win-win for Verizon and INCOMPAS, but it would be hard to design a proposal more inimical to the public interest." AT&T said "Verizon would be rewarded for having DS1 rates that far exceed those of AT&T, because those high DS1 rates translate directly into higher benchmark Ethernet rates for Verizon." Incompas and Verizon didn't comment to us. In a Monday filing, Verizon said cable provides BDS offerings the same way others do, via common carriage. Verizon also asked the FCC to allow existing BDS contracts to run their course rather than void them through "fresh look" requirements, in the filing on a call with Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero. In a blog post, USTelecom said Friday the FCC should stop barring incumbents from discounting BDS prices in about one-third of the country. "Prices could be lower in those areas if the FCC simply granted more flexibility to incumbent providers to lower their prices in all areas of the country," the ILEC group said. A Macquarie Securities note to investors Monday said the impact of new FCC BDS regulation "could be greater" for Frontier Communications and CenturyLink.

The FCC invited input on a Comcast bid for a recordkeeping and reporting waiver under a 2013 rural call completion order, with comments due Sept. 26, replies Oct. 5. Comcast requested a partial waiver of its "obligation to report, record, and retain the call completion information" for certain rural and non-rural enterprise customers for the period through June, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 13-39 listed in Friday's Daily Digest. Comcast has been migrating its business VoIP service to a new IP multimedia system switching platform, but some enterprise customers are still served by legacy soft switches, and company engineers inadvertently didn't capture call detail record data for certain customers due to the network complexity, said the company's Sept. 9 petition. Comcast said its Form 480 reports provide an accurate measure of its rural and nonrual call competition performance because the only likely impact of the omitted data was that the reports reflected lower call volumes. Including omitted pre-July data it recovered from one affected system didn't materially change Comcast's overall call performance metrics, and all omitted data from July have now been recovered and further confirm the performance, it said.

The videogame industry is taking its opposition to Globalstar's broadband terrestrial low-power service plans to the FCC's eighth floor. An ex parte filing Friday in docket 13-213 recapped a meeting involving Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo of America and Entertainment Software Association representatives and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and a separate meeting with FCC staff including Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel aide Johanna Thomas, and Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Edward Smith. The video game interests discussed Microsoft tests showing TLPS interference to its Xbox wireless controllers (see 1609140038) and repeated concern about TLPS interference to other consumer uses in the 2.4 GHz band such as Bluetooth hearing aids. They said pushes to allow opportunistic use of Wi-Fi channel 14 wouldn't address the main issue of TLPS impact on 2.4 GHz users. Globalstar didn't comment. In a separate ex parte filing Friday, it said Vice President-Business Operations, Finance and Strategy Tim Taylor discussed its TLPS plans with O'Rielly aide Erin McGrath and again urged the agency to move on authorizing TLPS.