Wireless industry officials plan to laud draft bills on siting and dig once policies that lawmakers circulated last week (see 1703170065), during a Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Congress must do even more, they will say, citing inaccurate broadband mapping data and deployment challenges. Witnesses will point to the need for addressing broadband as part of a bigger infrastructure package. The two draft bills involve the many siting provisions the subcommittee put together in 2015, collected in one text, and the dig once policies of the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act offered by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. These ideas typically enjoyed bipartisan support.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “circulated to my colleagues an order that would assist carriers serving Tribal lands in deploying, upgrading, and maintaining modern high-speed networks" in early February (see 1702170066), he told a group of lawmakers led by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., in a March 7 letter the commission released last week: “The order recognizes that carriers serving Tribal lands incur costs that other rural carriers do not face, resulting·in significantly higher operating expenses to serve very sparsely populated service areas. The proposal I have put before my colleagues would allow carriers serving Tribal lands a greater ability to recover operating expenses, thus improving the financial viability of operating a broadband network serving Tribal lands.” Pai also told the Universal Service Administrative Company “to give additional time to Tribal families living in the remote reaches of the Navajo Nation to comply with a certification deadline for the Lifeline program,” Pai told lawmakers. Pai also wrote to Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye on the matter, he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “circulated to my colleagues an order that would assist carriers serving Tribal lands in deploying, upgrading, and maintaining modern high-speed networks" in early February (see 1702170066), he told a group of lawmakers led by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., in a March 7 letter the commission released last week: “The order recognizes that carriers serving Tribal lands incur costs that other rural carriers do not face, resulting·in significantly higher operating expenses to serve very sparsely populated service areas. The proposal I have put before my colleagues would allow carriers serving Tribal lands a greater ability to recover operating expenses, thus improving the financial viability of operating a broadband network serving Tribal lands.” Pai also told the Universal Service Administrative Company “to give additional time to Tribal families living in the remote reaches of the Navajo Nation to comply with a certification deadline for the Lifeline program,” Pai told lawmakers. Pai also wrote to Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye on the matter, he said.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Chairman Ajit Pai put him in charge of a review and restructure of the 3.5 GHz shared band plan, with the aim of getting a workable band plan in place before making available nearby spectrum such as 3.6 GHz and 4.2 GHz. O'Rielly said the 3.5 GHz band rules need an overhaul (see 1703070018). The 3.6 GHz and 4.2 GHz spectrum "is a high priority" once the 3.5 GHz band rules are changed, O'Rielly told an International Wireless Industry Consortium meeting Thursday. Asked about the risks of a "land grab" in the 3.5 GHz spectrum by major carriers, O'Rielly said the bigger problem is the dysfunctional licensing regime. "You don't want a land grab, but you also don't want nobody entering," he said.

House Commerce Committee Democrats introduced five broadband-focused bills Thursday, with one already sparking praise from the Competitive Carriers Association. “These bills from Democratic members of our committee will provide a better chance for those who need [broadband] most,” said Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., in a statement. He laid out his vision for the year’s agenda in January. Committee Democrats unveiled a mix of cybersecurity-focused measures earlier this month (see 1703020035).

House Commerce Committee Democrats introduced five broadband-focused bills Thursday, with one already sparking praise from the Competitive Carriers Association. “These bills from Democratic members of our committee will provide a better chance for those who need [broadband] most,” said Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., in a statement. He laid out his vision for the year’s agenda in January. Committee Democrats unveiled a mix of cybersecurity-focused measures earlier this month (see 1703020035).

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Chairman Ajit Pai put him in charge of a review and restructure of the 3.5 GHz shared band plan, with the aim of getting a workable band plan in place before making available nearby spectrum such as 3.6 GHz and 4.2 GHz. O'Rielly said the 3.5 GHz band rules need an overhaul (see 1703070018). The 3.6 GHz and 4.2 GHz spectrum "is a high priority" once the 3.5 GHz band rules are changed, O'Rielly told an International Wireless Industry Consortium meeting Thursday. Asked about the risks of a "land grab" in the 3.5 GHz spectrum by major carriers, O'Rielly said the bigger problem is the dysfunctional licensing regime. "You don't want a land grab, but you also don't want nobody entering," he said.

Stephanie Weiner, ex-FCC aide on issues including wireline and broadband, rejoins Harris Wiltshire, hired as partner, communications and energy practices ... Retiring from Morgan Lewis Telecommunications, Media and Technology practice: Eric Branfman ... Telecommunications Industry Association promotes Ashley Simmons to director-government and public affairs, leading public affairs and policy for the IoT, and all policy-related communications ... Hoge Fenton Intellectual Property and Privacy & Data Security groups add Lee Lueddemann, ex-Law Office of Leopold Lueddemann, and Marianna Khoury, ex-Twitter.

The California Public Utilities Commission opened phase two of its rural call completion proceeding, the CPUC said in a Monday scoping memo. It will include review of the data requested of carriers in the CPUC’s December order for phase one (see 1612150062), all of which should be in by June 1, it said. The commission will determine whether to require carriers of last resort or others to report outages to various California state, local and tribal offices, and by June 30 establish a working group to recommend reporting thresholds, requirements and protocols, it said. Also in phase two, the commission will review the phone company data and determine if any other information is required, determine if new requirements on the carriers are required, and develop guidelines to ensure transfer or mergers don’t impair service. Comments are due March 31, replies April 12, the CPUC said. The commission plans to issue a proposed decision in Q4 2017, it said. The new phase begins as ISPs contest CPUC procedure in the first phase (see 1702230014).

The FCC explained bid weights and other decisions on a planned reverse auction of $1.98 billion in Connect America Fund Phase II subsidies over 10 years for fixed broadband services, in an order released Thursday in docket 10-90, a week after approval (see 1702230019). Less bid weight helps in a reverse auction awarding funds to low bids and the order's weights favor higher speeds, higher usage allowances and lower latency: 65 for a "minimum" tier (10/1 Mbps), 45 for "baseline" (25/3 Mbps), 15 for "above baseline" (100/20 Mbps) and zero for "gigabit" (1 Gbps/500 Mbps), with 25 for high-latency and zero for low-latency service. The two lower-speed tiers have monthly usage allowance requirements of at least 150 GB and the two higher-speed tiers have 2 TB minimum allowances. Some parties urged a narrower spread between weights, but the order said: "Bids placed in the higher tiers will not necessarily win because of the generally greater costs of deploying a higher capacity network at higher speeds. Bids placed for lower speeds and usage allowances will still have the opportunity to compete for support, but will have to be particularly cost-effective to compete with higher tier bids." The agency declined to adopt preferences for certain states (where large telcos declined funding offers) or tribal lands, but it prioritized funding for such states in a Remote Areas Fund (RAF) auction to occur one year after the CAF II auction (not yet scheduled). Noting the FCC previously made $170 million available to New York to supplement its own broadband subsidy auction, the order said no other state demonstrated it has a similar program. ITTA emailed that the bid weights "came down to a balancing between two policy goals: maximizing breadth of deployment v. funding 'future-proof' networks," and it expressed disappointment the FCC majority emphasized the latter: "This outcome puts tremendous pressure on the underfunded RAF to ensure that broadband can reach those consumers who will remain unserved under the scheme adopted by the majority.” NTCA Senior Vice President Mike Romano was pleased to see "how seriously the FCC took accountability and apparently intends to examine further how best to confirm that providers can live up to their bids.”