The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition is on schedule to finish by year's end, though NTIA still is evaluating whether ICANN's bylaws changes are satisfactory, with its report on the transition likely coming in early June, NTIA head Larry Strickling said Saturday at the FCBA annual seminar. ICANN is making changes to its bylaws now, even before that report is issued, he said, and, assuming NTIA has no serious concerns, the U.S./ICANN contract could end in September. If that happens, he said, "for the most part no one will notice anything different," though it would be symbolically important. The Commerce Department this fall will put out a set of IoT-promoting policy recommendations and observations as the next step after the request for comment in which it's engaged (see 1604060030), said Angie Simpson, NTIA deputy assistant secretary. Simpson said numerous agencies outside Commerce will be looking at that report, and it might lead to a number of workshops or a multistakeholder process. "We're really trying to get our arms around what this means to folks," she said. While the NTIA's $4 billion broadband grant program is largely complete and no further funding is seen anytime soon, the agency could have a larger role in the future in working with localities on broadband matters, Strickling said. Through its Broadband USA program of technical assistance, publications and community connectivity efforts, NTIA has been trying to develop "digital skills" within communities lacking access to infrastructure or those skill sets, NTIA Chief of Staff Glenn Reynolds said. Meanwhile, its Broadband Opportunity Council is "a way ... to be scrappy and tenacious" and partner up with agencies that have resources NTIA doesn't and use those to leverage broadband connectivity, Simpson said. Individual Opportunity Council efforts, such as working with the Interior Department on improving tribal access to broadband, are "on the margins ... [but] combined they can have tremendous impact," Reynolds said. He also said the model cities public notice being worked on with the FCC is "very close" to completion.

Rural telco groups said the FCC should be careful in changing rate-of-return rules for carrier cost recovery and related practices. Regulatory changes should apply prospectively only and should be targeted to provide increased clarity about allowable expenditures where helpful, said various RLEC groups in comments Thursday in docket 10-90, responding to a recent Further NPRM included in an item that overhauled rate-of-return USF mechanisms (see 1603300065 and 1603310039). Some voiced concern the FCC could make sweeping changes to throw out rules -- which they said had worked reasonably well -- based on "anecdotal" accounts of isolated problems.

The FCC Wireless Bureau proposed amendments to its nationwide programmatic agreement (NPA) on collocated facilities to speed deployment of distributed antenna systems and small cells. The changes “account for the limited potential of small wireless antennas and associated equipment … to affect historic properties,” the Thursday notice said. Comments are due June 13. The agreement covers review of DAS and small cells under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Smaller systems have been a big FCC focus, including a daylong workshop last week (see 1605030056).

The FCC Wireless Bureau proposed amendments to its nationwide programmatic agreement (NPA) on collocated facilities to speed deployment of distributed antenna systems and small cells. The changes “account for the limited potential of small wireless antennas and associated equipment … to affect historic properties,” the Thursday notice said. Comments are due June 13. The agreement covers review of DAS and small cells under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Smaller systems have been a big FCC focus, including a daylong workshop last week (see 1605030056).

The FCC hopes to release a plan addressing noncompliant “twilight” towers soon, but it likely won’t come out in the next few months, an FCC official said Wednesday. “The ball is squarely in our court,” said Associate Bureau chief Chad Breckinridge at a live-streamed Wireless Bureau workshop on environmental and historic preservation issues for wireless infrastructure. Also at the workshop, a site acquisition specialist said there's less opposition from consumers to building towers than in the past, but it remains challenging to find sites that satisfy all jurisdictions’ zoning codes.

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., warned witnesses “it’s somewhat troubling that quite a bit of money has been spent on this national goal [of broadband connectivity], and Indian tribal governments and communities still struggle to access Internet services.” He spoke during a late Wednesday hearing addressing a GAO report on telecom access on tribal lands (see 1604270065).

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., warned witnesses “it’s somewhat troubling that quite a bit of money has been spent on this national goal [of broadband connectivity], and Indian tribal governments and communities still struggle to access Internet services.” He spoke during a late Wednesday hearing addressing a GAO report on telecom access on tribal lands (see 1604270065).

Barriers remain to high-speed Internet access among 21 tribes interviewed, including high poverty rates and high costs to connecting remote tribal villages, GAO said in congressional testimony Wednesday that grew out of a January report. The GAO said FCC USF subsidy programs and the grant programs of the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service "are interrelated," but the agencies "do not coordinate to develop joint outreach and training, which could result in inefficient use of federal resources and missed opportunities for resource leveraging." The FCC hasn't developed performance goals and measures for improving tribal broadband availability, said GAO, which suggested the commission "could establish baseline measures to track its progress by using, for example, the National Broadband Map," which has data on tribal Internet availability. "The FCC also lacks both reliable data on high-speed Internet access and performance goals and measures for high-speed Internet access by tribal institutions -- such as schools and libraries," the GAO said, saying the commission "has neither defined 'tribal' on its E-rate application nor set any performance goals for the program's impact on tribal institutions." Without such goals and measures, the FCC can't assess the impact of its efforts, it said. The FCC agreed with the recommendations, the GAO said.

Barriers remain to high-speed Internet access among 21 tribes interviewed, including high poverty rates and high costs to connecting remote tribal villages, GAO said in congressional testimony Wednesday that grew out of a January report. The GAO said FCC USF subsidy programs and the grant programs of the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service "are interrelated," but the agencies "do not coordinate to develop joint outreach and training, which could result in inefficient use of federal resources and missed opportunities for resource leveraging." The FCC hasn't developed performance goals and measures for improving tribal broadband availability, said GAO, which suggested the commission "could establish baseline measures to track its progress by using, for example, the National Broadband Map," which has data on tribal Internet availability. "The FCC also lacks both reliable data on high-speed Internet access and performance goals and measures for high-speed Internet access by tribal institutions -- such as schools and libraries," the GAO said, saying the commission "has neither defined 'tribal' on its E-rate application nor set any performance goals for the program's impact on tribal institutions." Without such goals and measures, the FCC can't assess the impact of its efforts, it said. The FCC agreed with the recommendations, the GAO said.

The FCC issued the 224-page text of its Lifeline modernization order and commissioner statements Wednesday. The item was adopted 3-2 March 31 after an attempted bipartisan budget deal collapsed (see 1603310056). The order extends Lifeline low-income USF support to broadband service and updates program administration. It creates minimum service standards for broadband and mobile voice services while allowing "an exception in areas where fixed broadband providers do not meet the minimum standards." The FCC mandated a "five-and-one-half-year transition, during which we will gradually increase mobile voice and data requirements and gradually decrease voice support levels." It shifts responsibility for verifying consumer Lifeline eligibility from carriers to a national entity, creates a streamlined national Lifeline broadband provider designation process and requires participating providers to make Wi-Fi functionality available when providing devices for Lifeline use. The FCC established a $2.25 billion annual Lifeline budget that can be adjusted if spending reaches 90 percent of that level. Democratic commissioners issued their statements March 31 but the full statements of the dissenting Republicans weren't available until Wednesday's order. "I cannot support this Order," said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a 16-page statement. "It is not fiscally responsible. It does not clean up the waste, fraud, and abuse. And it consigns Lifeline consumers to second-class broadband services for the foreseeable future. On top of this, the Order does not comply with federal law." Pai said that the agency did "practically nothing" to fix Lifeline's "fiscal nightmare." He said the order didn't set a "meaningful," enforceable budget, doesn't target funding to households lacking broadband, doesn't curb excessive spending on urban tribal lands and doesn't address loopholes that invite carrier abuse, but does "cut state commissions out of the Lifeline designation process." He said Chairman Tom Wheeler worked to unwind a budget compromise between Pai and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Mignon Clyburn. O'Rielly said the most disappointing aspect was that the budget deal was "attacked for all the wrong reasons." The compromise budget "would not have harmed the program or recipients" but instead would have allowed support to reach "all eligible households that lack sufficient broadband while staying within reasonable fiscal limits," he said, noting he would have backed a $2 billion cap. Instead, the order adopted a "phony" budget mechanism, he said.