Federal judges blocked, for now, FCC restrictions on enhanced tribal Lifeline subsidies that bar resellers and residents of non-rural areas from the extra low-income USF support. The commission's 2017 order "will be stayed pending further [court action] insofar as the Order purports to limit eligibility for the Tribal Lifeline enhanced subsidy to 'facilities-based' service providers, and to limit eligibility for that program to 'rural areas,'" said the Friday ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in National Lifeline Association v. FCC, No. 18-1026, and a consolidated case. They said petitioners showed a "likelihood of success on the merits" of their challenges, and that they'll suffer "irreparable injury absent a stay." Some said the decision further complicated an FCC proposal to ban resellers from Lifeline support in general.

Related to FCC changes announced at commissioners' meeting Thursday and according to various officials: NCTA hires Amy Bender, departing wireline legal adviser to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, as vice president-legislative counsel, Government Relations department; Facebook hires Deputy Media Bureau Chief Mary Beth Murphy; Betsy McIntyre, deputy chief of Wireless Bureau Competition and Infrastructure Policy Division, named acting wireline adviser to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel during Travis Litman's paternity leave; Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Madeleine Findley departing and is relocating; office of Commissioner Brendan Carr adds from Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Dana Howell as staff assistant; Office of Engineering and Technology Physical Scientist Ed Mantiply retiring.

Incumbent telcos voiced concerns with FCC broadband performance testing rules for Connect America Fund recipients (see 1807060031). The creation of separate frameworks for testing speed and latency "is inefficient, burdensome, and unnecessary to ensure compliance with CAF obligations," said a USTelecom filing on a meeting of representatives of the group and members Verizon, Frontier Communications, CenturyLink, AT&T and Windstream with Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. They recommended the bureau combine the two testing approaches, noting the agency's Measuring Broadband America program does that. They also said the order is unclear on "whether 'on-net' testing" by carriers is permitted, the "compliance framework should be more incremental" and "overprovisioning should not justify negating the test results." In a discussion with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, NTCA said Monday it "raised questions about the number of test locations and the required extent of network testing," and also urged "rate floor" and other USF actions. Mescalero Apache Telecom urged regulatory approval of the recon petitions it and Sacred Wind Communications filed (see 1805310032) to "submit alternative sources of information -- including actual deployment data -- in order to avail themselves of the relief" provided in an order relaxing tribal USF operations expense restrictions for carriers with 10/1 Mbps broadband deployment levels below 90 percent (see 1804050028). Mescalero noted petitioners drew some support and no opposition. Also citing no opposition, Adak Eagle Enterprises asked for resolution of its petition seeking reconsideration of a decision to deny AEE a second offer of model-based support.

Incumbent telcos voiced concerns with FCC broadband performance testing rules for Connect America Fund recipients (see 1807060031). The creation of separate frameworks for testing speed and latency "is inefficient, burdensome, and unnecessary to ensure compliance with CAF obligations," said a USTelecom filing on a meeting of representatives of the group and members Verizon, Frontier Communications, CenturyLink, AT&T and Windstream with Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. They recommended the bureau combine the two testing approaches, noting the agency's Measuring Broadband America program does that. They also said the order is unclear on "whether 'on-net' testing" by carriers is permitted, the "compliance framework should be more incremental" and "overprovisioning should not justify negating the test results." In a discussion with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, NTCA said Monday it "raised questions about the number of test locations and the required extent of network testing," and also urged "rate floor" and other USF actions. Mescalero Apache Telecom urged regulatory approval of the recon petitions it and Sacred Wind Communications filed (see 1805310032) to "submit alternative sources of information -- including actual deployment data -- in order to avail themselves of the relief" provided in an order relaxing tribal USF operations expense restrictions for carriers with 10/1 Mbps broadband deployment levels below 90 percent (see 1804050028). Mescalero noted petitioners drew some support and no opposition. Also citing no opposition, Adak Eagle Enterprises asked for resolution of its petition seeking reconsideration of a decision to deny AEE a second offer of model-based support.

Tribal officials made the rounds at the FCC to seek changes on USF issues affecting tribal carriers. They "discussed enhancing the Universal Service high-cost and Lifeline programs for Tribal areas, Tribal sovereignty, operational expense relief reconsideration petitions and Warm Springs Telecom’s designation as the incumbent carrier for its community," said a GRTyree Consulting filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. Representatives of the National Tribal Telecommunications Association (NTTA), Mescalero Apache Telecom, Mescalero Apache Tribal Council, Fort Mojave Telecommunications, Gila River Telecommunications, Nez Perce Tribe, Saddleback Communications, Tohono O'odham Utility Authority, Warm Springs Tribal Council and Alexicon met with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr, aides to all four commissioners, and staffers of the Wireline, Wireless and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus and the Office of Native Affairs and Policy. The filing included a summary of tribal policy positions and data on tribal carrier USF details and the lag in broadband deployment on reservations. NTTA also backed Mescalero Apache Telecom and Sacred Wind Communications' petitions to reconsider FCC decisions on operating-expense limitation relief for certain carriers (see 1805310032).

The FCC defended its 2017 order limiting enhanced tribal Lifeline support against procedural and substantive legal challenges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. There was "ample notice and opportunity for comment" on proposed facilities-based and rural requirements, and fulfillment of a "voluntary commitment to consult with Tribal governments," said an FCC/DOJ response in National Lifeline Association, et al., v. FCC, No. 18-1026, consolidated (see 1801290020 and 1804190011). The "decision to limit the enhanced Tribal subsidy to facilities-based providers was reasonable, and consistent with its long-standing goals of promoting infrastructure development," and managing fund expenditures," it said. The restriction should also be viewed "against a background of significant waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, some of which has been driven by resellers," it said. The Wireline Bureau issued an erratum in docket 11-42 Friday on tribal consultation details in its decision denying legal challengers an administrative stay (see 1807060011). NTCA Monday again petitioned for temporary waiver to give RLECs some relief from a minimum data speed standard for wireline Lifeline broadband providers, in light of the agency's recent updated standard (see 1807180038). TracFone cited challenges it faced "with the soft launch" of a Lifeline national verifier in some states (see 1806180054). It also backed a Q Link emergency petition seeking implementation of a national verifier application programming interface "to avoid wasteful and time consuming duplicative manual entry of a Lifeline applicant’s personal information" and ensure other "seamless communications," said a filing in docket 17-287 on TracFone discussions with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The FCC defended its 2017 order limiting enhanced tribal Lifeline support against procedural and substantive legal challenges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. There was "ample notice and opportunity for comment" on proposed facilities-based and rural requirements, and fulfillment of a "voluntary commitment to consult with Tribal governments," said an FCC/DOJ response in National Lifeline Association, et al., v. FCC, No. 18-1026, consolidated (see 1801290020 and 1804190011). The "decision to limit the enhanced Tribal subsidy to facilities-based providers was reasonable, and consistent with its long-standing goals of promoting infrastructure development," and managing fund expenditures," it said. The restriction should also be viewed "against a background of significant waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, some of which has been driven by resellers," it said. The Wireline Bureau issued an erratum in docket 11-42 Friday on tribal consultation details in its decision denying legal challengers an administrative stay (see 1807060011). NTCA Monday again petitioned for temporary waiver to give RLECs some relief from a minimum data speed standard for wireline Lifeline broadband providers, in light of the agency's recent updated standard (see 1807180038). TracFone cited challenges it faced "with the soft launch" of a Lifeline national verifier in some states (see 1806180054). It also backed a Q Link emergency petition seeking implementation of a national verifier application programming interface "to avoid wasteful and time consuming duplicative manual entry of a Lifeline applicant’s personal information" and ensure other "seamless communications," said a filing in docket 17-287 on TracFone discussions with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Friday rejected the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s request for tribal sovereign immunity from inter partes review. That got praise from the Software & Information Industry Association. In Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Allergan tried to block the Patent and Trademark Office from re-examining a patent, which a court had invalidated, by selling it to a tribe claiming immunity. SIIA Vice President-Intellectual Property Christopher Mohr called Friday’s order (in Pacer) a win for innovation: “When Congress passed the America Invents Act, it recognized that inter partes proceedings are critical to ensuring patent quality. The Federal Circuit's decision not only ensures the soundness of that system, it also promotes fundamental fairness because when it comes to IPR, every patent owner has to play by the same set of rules.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Friday rejected the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s request for tribal sovereign immunity from inter partes review. That got praise from the Software & Information Industry Association. In Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Allergan tried to block the Patent and Trademark Office from re-examining a patent, which a court had invalidated, by selling it to a tribe claiming immunity. SIIA Vice President-Intellectual Property Christopher Mohr called Friday’s order (in Pacer) a win for innovation: “When Congress passed the America Invents Act, it recognized that inter partes proceedings are critical to ensuring patent quality. The Federal Circuit's decision not only ensures the soundness of that system, it also promotes fundamental fairness because when it comes to IPR, every patent owner has to play by the same set of rules.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Friday rejected the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s request for tribal sovereign immunity from inter partes review. That got praise from the Software & Information Industry Association. In Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Allergan tried to block the Patent and Trademark Office from re-examining a patent, which a court had invalidated, by selling it to a tribe claiming immunity. SIIA Vice President-Intellectual Property Christopher Mohr called Friday’s order (in Pacer) a win for innovation: “When Congress passed the America Invents Act, it recognized that inter partes proceedings are critical to ensuring patent quality. The Federal Circuit's decision not only ensures the soundness of that system, it also promotes fundamental fairness because when it comes to IPR, every patent owner has to play by the same set of rules.”