Trying to ensure that broadband, equity, access and deployment program money doesn't end up paying for overbuilding of existing broadband networks is a big cable priority, industry and company officials told us. ACA Connects' advocacy, which has focused on NTIA, will increasingly turn toward states in coming weeks as they lay out their challenge processes to, and seek OK from, NTIA, said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Mike Jacobs.

Mike Pandzik, 77, who in 1984 founded the National Cable Television Cooperative, now known as the National Content & Technology Cooperative, died Nov. 7 of cancer. Pandzik retired from the organization in 2006. Under his leadership NCTC was a “key source of funding used to establish ACA Connects” 30 years ago, ACA said in a statement. Survivors include his wife, Cary, children, stepchildren and grandchildren. A Celebration of Life will be at 10 a.m. Sunday at the B&B Shawnee Theatres, 16301 Midland Drive, Shawnee, Kansas. Donations in his memory may be made to the Julie Tree Fund.

New York legislators could double down on a court-blocked state law that sought to require $15 monthly plans for low-income households. Assemblymember Brian Cunningham (D) plans to reintroduce his 2022 bill AB-10690 this January to require $5 monthly internet for low-income consumers, the Democrat said in an interview this week. Three ISP associations that sued New York over its previous affordability bill condemned the fresh attempt to lower broadband prices.

Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy names former FCBA President Natalie Roisman, ex-Wilkinson Barker, executive director … Ross Lieberman, ex-ACA Connects, joins Hotwire Communications as senior vice president-government affairs … Cybersecurity company Absolute Software names Jim Lejeal, ex-VictorOps, chief financial officer, effective Dec. 5, replacing interim CFO Ron Fior, and Samir Sherif, ex-Imperva, chief information security officer, effective immediately ... Paramount unit BET names as senior vice presidents Simone Oliver, ex-Refinery29, for digital content, and Jason Odom, ex-MotorTrend, for digital operations … Web3 intelligence company AnChain.AI adds Andreessen Horowitz's Scott Walker, former SEC digital asset examiner and counsel, as a strategic adviser ... Semiconductor equipment and services supplier Cohu adds former Coherent CEO Andy Mattes to its board, effective Tuesday.

The FCC should reexamine its proportional allocation of indirect full-time equivalents in the assessment of regulatory fees, said NAB comments responding to the agency’s notice of inquiry in docket 22-301. “Rather than assuming the work performed by all the noncore bureaus and offices of the Commission is so cross-cutting that it cannot be meaningfully disaggregated,” the FCC should examine whether those functions correspond to the way indirect costs are allocated, NAB said. The FCC's current division between indirect and direct FTEs is “too general to be a reasonably accurate proxy for the assignment of Commission work,” the Satellite Industry Association said. “Splitting all FTEs into direct and indirect FTEs based on whether they are assigned to a ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ bureau is an oversimplification.” The agency could assign indirect FTEs for noncore offices to the bureaus they largely support, or create a hybrid, “intersectional FTE,” the SIA said. NAB also called for the FCC to reexamine the Media Bureau FTEs working on broadband matters. “Regulatees in the other core bureaus also benefit from the Commission’s broadband work,” said NAB. “It would be inconsistent with the Commission’s methodology to not require such regulatees to share in the cost.” ACA Connects said the FCC should be cautious about altering the regulatory fee system. The system isn’t perfect, but it works, said the MVPD group. “As part of such an evaluation, the Commission should be guided by a bureaucratic Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.”

Industry groups asked the FCC to ensure the affordable connectivity program's annual data collection is "streamlined and efficient for the benefit of consumers and providers," per an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 21-450 (see 2207260070). NTCA, USTelecom, CTIA, NCTA and ACA Connects met with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staffers. The groups said a subscriber-level collection "would run afoul" of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and be "difficult, if not impossible" to define the requirement. It would also "have a chilling effect among subscribers who do not wish to turn over their personal data," the groups said, suggesting the FCC collect aggregated data at the state level on price and subscription rates of ACP service offerings.

ACA Connects is backing NCTA's request that the FCC delete the fair market value language from its in-kind contribution rules to align with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the agency's cable local franchise authority order (see 2205100051). In a docket 05-311 filing Tuesday, ACA said arguments that the agency instead begin a rulemaking to revisit that language haven't shown why that approach is necessary, nor have they challenged NCTA's position that the agency can make the change ministerially.

An FCC draft order on improving the accessibility of Emergency Alert System messages is expected to be unanimously improved at Thursday’s meeting, but it isn’t clear if proposed deadlines for updating MVPD set-top equipment will change before the item is adopted, said industry and FCC officials. NCTA and ACA Connects seek changes to the draft language. The agency is also expected to unanimously approve an uncontroversial draft NPRM on removing references to analog TV in the agency’s rules now that there are no more remaining analog TV services.

Industry groups continued to disagree whether the FCC should impose stricter requirements on certain voice service providers to curb illegal robocalls (see 2207150053). Some said the commission should extend Stir/Shaken obligations to all providers, while others sought continued flexibility and a technologically neutral approach on which industries any new rules would apply to.

National industry groups plan monthly webinars for states about the NTIA’s broadband equity, access and development (BEAD) program starting next week, the Fiber Broadband Association said Wednesday. The hosting associations are ACA Connects, the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, FBA, Incompas, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, NCTA, NTCA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association. The first 30-minute webinar is on supply chain and will be Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. “Our primary goal is to make it as easy and efficient as possible to navigate through the BEAD program’s requirements and potential deployment challenges,” the associations said.