The FCC logged more comments from tribes opposing changes to wireless infrastructure rules teed up for next week’s commissioners’ meeting, as expected, (see 1803130057). A government official said Wednesday tribes appear to be waiting until late to make their case. The draft order would clarify deployment of small cells isn't a “federal undertaking” within the meaning of the National Historic Preservation Act or a “major federal action” under the National Environmental Policy Act. It would reduce red tape for tribal reviews of projects off tribal lands and clarify that applicants “have no legal obligation to pay upfront fees” when seeking tribal comment on proposed deployments. The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers had meetings with aides to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. The FCC didn’t engage in true government-to-government consultation with tribal nations, the group said, posted Wednesday in docket 17-79. “Government-to-government consultation requires joint development between the FCC and tribes of an agenda well in advance of the meeting and sufficient detail for tribal representatives to make an informed decision as to their participation and ability to make an informed decision." The group said the FCC can’t change the definition of a “federal undertaking” under the NHPA and industry inflated the cost of compliance. “The Commission has a trust responsibility to tribal nations, not to the wireless industry,” said the Pueblo of Pojoaque in New Mexico. “The draft Report and Order does not reflect this trust responsibility and diminishes the Pueblo of Pojoaque’s ability to protect cultural and historic properties.” The FCC mustn’t exclude small cells from environmental and historic review, said Patricia Garcia-Plotkin, tribal historic preservation officer with California’s Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. “Tribal Nations are responsible stewards of their cultural heritage and have expertise unique to Tribes and their members,” she said. “The NHPA and NEPA were created to consider proposed projects impacts to the environment and a process to potentially avoid or mitigate the impacts. In my 12 years with Agua Calienate many small projects have been planned on culturally significant areas.”

TVL International, the innovator of rechargeable SmartCharge light bulbs that can be controlled through a regular wall switch even when power goes out, is seeking new “vertical” commercial markets in which to deploy that technology, including the hospitality industry, CEO Shailendra Suman told us. TVL last year licensed the technology for consumer distribution exclusively to lighting supplier Feit Electric. TVL holds U.S. patents and has pending applications on the technology and implementations using SmartCharge, including the core patent (8,907,523) landed in December 2014. As the technology reaches wider consumer distribution through the licensing deal with Feit, Suman vowed he will do all in his power to protect TVL’s IP against product infringers, starting with trying to raise retailer awareness to thwart cheap product knockoffs. On the IP hurdles confronting TVL, that online and physical retail are markets in which there are many knockoffs is “a very challenging thing,” said Suman. “You have a patent, maybe a portfolio of patents, but how do you protect yourself once your product goes into the market?” Enforcing one’s patents “is a very expensive process,” he said. TVL is going after Sengled for patent infringement and for breaching its agreement with TVL when it was the company’s OEM supplier, he said. Talks with the company are “pretty far along,” he said. Sengled representatives couldn’t be reached.

Lifeline USF providers endorsed a request that program providers be reimbursed during a subscriber non-usage grace period. The National Lifeline Association recently petitioned the FCC to rule that Lifeline eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) be "permitted to seek reimbursement for all Lifeline eligible subscribers served as of the first day of the month ... including those subscribers that are in an applicable 15-day cure period following 30 days of non-usage." Universal Service Administrative Co. had reversed guidance that let Lifeline ETCs be reimbursed during the cure (grace) period, providers said in comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 11-42. "FCC rules require ETCs to provide Lifeline customers with service during the cure period (Section 54.405(e)(3)), and mandate provision of Lifeline support to eligible Lifeline subscribers served on the first day of the month (Section 54.407(a))," Sprint said. "The reasonable and logical import of these rules is that Lifeline support is due for Lifeline customers who are in the cure period as of the first of the month." It said providers incur "significant" costs for accounts during the cure period, and said if USAC's reversal is upheld, it should be applied only prospectively. Q Link Wireless and Smith Bagley filed supportive comments (here and here). Smith Bagley discussed with FCC staffers an upcoming transition to a national verifier of Lifeline eligibility and "ways to mitigate potential impacts on Tribal areas," said another filing. Tribal representatives affiliated with the National Congress of American Indians also voiced support for Lifeline on tribal lands, in discussions with Chairman Ajit Pai, other commissioners and staffers in conjunction with NCAI's meeting Feb. 15 (see 1803130057). Chickasaw Nation Lt. Gov. Jefferson Keel "expressed concern about changes to the geographic scope of the enhanced Tribal subsidy," filed Barbara Esbin, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau deputy chief. "Teresa Hopkins, Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, expressed concern about the loss of one-on-one relationships between providers and Lifeline recipients in the move to the National Eligibility Verifier, which have proven particularly important to those serving and living on Tribal lands, where many rely on mobile wireless and Smartphones as their only source of communications services." It said tribal leaders urged the FCC to act on a February 2017 draft order to exempt carriers primarily serving tribal lands from operating-expense limitations (see 1802020058), and supported a tribal broadband factor proposed by a recently circulated draft NPRM and order (see 1801160040).

Lifeline USF providers endorsed a request that program providers be reimbursed during a subscriber non-usage grace period. The National Lifeline Association recently petitioned the FCC to rule that Lifeline eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) be "permitted to seek reimbursement for all Lifeline eligible subscribers served as of the first day of the month ... including those subscribers that are in an applicable 15-day cure period following 30 days of non-usage." Universal Service Administrative Co. had reversed guidance that let Lifeline ETCs be reimbursed during the cure (grace) period, providers said in comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 11-42. "FCC rules require ETCs to provide Lifeline customers with service during the cure period (Section 54.405(e)(3)), and mandate provision of Lifeline support to eligible Lifeline subscribers served on the first day of the month (Section 54.407(a))," Sprint said. "The reasonable and logical import of these rules is that Lifeline support is due for Lifeline customers who are in the cure period as of the first of the month." It said providers incur "significant" costs for accounts during the cure period, and said if USAC's reversal is upheld, it should be applied only prospectively. Q Link Wireless and Smith Bagley filed supportive comments (here and here). Smith Bagley discussed with FCC staffers an upcoming transition to a national verifier of Lifeline eligibility and "ways to mitigate potential impacts on Tribal areas," said another filing. Tribal representatives affiliated with the National Congress of American Indians also voiced support for Lifeline on tribal lands, in discussions with Chairman Ajit Pai, other commissioners and staffers in conjunction with NCAI's meeting Feb. 15 (see 1803130057). Chickasaw Nation Lt. Gov. Jefferson Keel "expressed concern about changes to the geographic scope of the enhanced Tribal subsidy," filed Barbara Esbin, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau deputy chief. "Teresa Hopkins, Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, expressed concern about the loss of one-on-one relationships between providers and Lifeline recipients in the move to the National Eligibility Verifier, which have proven particularly important to those serving and living on Tribal lands, where many rely on mobile wireless and Smartphones as their only source of communications services." It said tribal leaders urged the FCC to act on a February 2017 draft order to exempt carriers primarily serving tribal lands from operating-expense limitations (see 1802020058), and supported a tribal broadband factor proposed by a recently circulated draft NPRM and order (see 1801160040).

TVL International, the innovator of rechargeable SmartCharge light bulbs that can be controlled through a regular wall switch even when power goes out, is seeking new “vertical” commercial markets in which to deploy that technology, including the hospitality industry, CEO Shailendra Suman told us. TVL last year licensed the technology for consumer distribution exclusively to lighting supplier Feit Electric, which sells TVL-engineered battery-backup bulbs nationally in the U.S. and in Canada under its own IntelliBulb line to retail accounts large and small, including Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Bed Bath & Beyond, said Suman.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., jointly urged the FCC Friday to “act expeditiously” to revise operating expense limitation rules for carriers serving tribal lands. Tribal carriers encounter “considerable operating expenses” because of geographical and other barriers, including increases in “the cost of installing infrastructure, limited financial resources” that deter providers from investing in improved service, and a “shortage of technically trained Native Nation members to plan and implement improvements,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Pai. Revising the operating expense limitation rules “will allow carriers serving Tribal lands to be adequately compensated for necessary expenses, enabling these carriers to continue deployment in unserved areas.” Pai "agrees that the operating expense limitation rules should be revised to adequately compensate carriers serving Tribal lands, and that's why he has cast his vote in favor of an order that would do just that," emailed an FCC spokesman.

Local and state governments haven't raised objections on a pending order streamlining parts of the wireless infrastructure rules, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in an interview. The order is to get a vote at commissioners’ March 22 meeting (see 1803010047) and it may be OK'd 3-2 (see 1803070044). “This order only deals with federal process,” Carr said. “There’s nothing in the changes that we’re doing right now that’s going to greenlight any particular deployment. Every deployment would still have to go through the appropriate state or local review process.” Also Monday, the National League of Cities heard in Washington that fighting is unlikely to end soon in state and federal efforts to pre-empt local authority over broadband infrastructure deployment (see 1803120051).

Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, led Thursday filing of the Inmate Calling Technical Corrections Act, which would update rules for inmate calling services rate settings and clarify FCC authority to adjust the rules in the future. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, along with Capitol Hill Democrats and others, meanwhile, voiced concerns during a Thursday Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition event about FCC policy direction on ICS, net neutrality and changes to the USF Lifeline program.

Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, led Thursday filing of the Inmate Calling Technical Corrections Act, which would update rules for inmate calling services rate settings and clarify FCC authority to adjust the rules in the future. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, along with Capitol Hill Democrats and others, meanwhile, voiced concerns during a Thursday Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition event about FCC policy direction on ICS, net neutrality and changes to the USF Lifeline program.

Apple landed a U.S. patent Tuesday that describes techniques for generating maps of indoor venues, including those of individual floors, to supplement GPS functionality commonly found on smartphones. Though a smartphone can use GPS to determine location, including latitude and longitude, and display that on a “virtual map” on the screen, “maps of indoor space may not be easily available,” said the patent (9,913,100), which names seven Apple inventors and is based on an application filed in September 2014. “Even when the maps are available, the maps may not be up to date due to frequent changes to the indoor space,” such as when a store moves into or out of a mall, said the patent. “Even when the maps are up to date, indoor navigation may be difficult or unavailable due to lack of accurate GPS signals in the indoor space as well as lack of integration between maps of outdoor space and maps of indoor space.” The solution the patent describes is to enlist the help of a “venue data service,” asking owners of individual properties to “upload” information to that service, including the “geometries” of floors. The service also would periodically “survey” property owners to “validate the venue data” and certify that the information is up to date, it said. The service also could generate “fingerprint data” about the venue that “can include expected measurements of the environment variable at various locations of the building,” it said. A smartphone can then use the fingerprint data to determine where within the venue the mobile device and its owner are located “using sensor readings of the environment variable,” it said. Apple representatives didn’t comment Wednesday.