Controversy over whether FCC advisory committees are stacked in favor of industry flared anew Friday. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks hope for a Consumer Advisory Committee that's representative of consumers and diversity. They're concerned that's not the case with the CAC roster disclosed earlier last week (see personals section, April 11 and 1904100070), they told reporters after the commissioners' meeting. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly wants similar, saying that could include groups concerned about taxpayer spending, too.

At NAB's annual convention, executives from the group and from Beasley Media Group, Tegna and Zimmer Radio met with FCC officials who also attended the NAB Show, including Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1904100069), said filings posted Thursday in docket 18-349. The lobbying meetings occurred at the event in Las Vegas, a spokesperson confirmed. Easing radio ownership rules as NAB has proposed were discussed in most conversations. "Radio stations, especially those in small and medium markets and AM stations in markets of all sizes, need relief from the Commission’s outdated ownership rules," NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan reported telling Pai. "It is imperative that the Commission modernize the radio and television ownership rules." The association sought action "soon to modernize" kidvid rules. Later at the show, Pai said that will happen. The group also lobbied on the C band, just as a satellite executive did while she was on the plane to the event with Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 1904110034). Separately, Beasley CEO Caroline Beasley told Carr of her backing NAB's radio ownership plan: "Radio broadcasters are competing against dozens of digital giants, including YouTube, Spotify and Pandora." Beasley said radio station owners need "greater economies of scale," in the meeting that Kaplan also attended. The association's TV ownership cap proposal and kidvid deregulation were talked up by Tegna in its meetings with Pai and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks that included CEO Dave Lougee and an NAB representative. Lougee sought OK of Tegna's getting divested stations in Nexstar's buy of Tribune Media (see 1903200058), he told Pai, recounted Tegna General Counsel Akin Harrison. Zimmer Radio President John Zimmer wrote that he told Carr "all radio broadcasters, and especially those in smaller markets, must be allowed to achieve greater economies of scale in order to compete against the growing number of digital competitors."

Akin Gump got some support in seeking FCC clarity on fax “sender” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so it's harder to sue companies whose products are unknowingly hawked in junk faxes (see 1903070051). Comments were posted through Tuesday in dockets including 02-278. Educational Testing Service noted "federal courts have divided over how to apply the TCPA and the Commission’s regulations" here. "Why would Congress or this Commission impose liability on someone who had nothing to do with sending an allegedly unlawful fax?" asked the educational test developer. "What sense could there be in stringing companies up for massive statutory damages when, as everyone acknowledges, they did not send the fax (or cause it to be sent) in any ordinary sense of those terms?" AmeriFactors Financial supported much of the law firm's petition, with the company raising more fax scenarios where the FCC ought to not find one liable for violating the TCPA. RingCentral agrees with the petition that the agency should say “sender” doesn't include entities that merely dispatch others’ faxes but only those that compose the fax or choose recipients. That would ensure "TCPA continues to protect injured consumers by holding accountable the bad actors who initiate unsolicited" ads, commented the provider of virtual fax and other communications services. Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley, New York, which litigated a TCPA case against the FCC, asked, along with Roger Kaye MD PC and a few others that Akin's request be denied. They supported a definition/test backed by Cin-Q Automobiles. The Edelman Combs law firm that represents consumers who got unsolicited junk faxes opposed the petition: "Akin Gump has failed to identify any ambiguity in the 2006 Junk Fax Order that necessitates clarification."

As frustrated stakeholders watch an FCC drafting process that they want to be more transparent for an NPRM circulating on USF budgets, concerns about the document's details (see 1903270042) are mounting (see 1903280050). All stakeholders we interviewed this week and last wish the rulemaking had been set for consideration at a monthly commissioners' meeting, so it would be public three weeks beforehand. Or, they wanted it released another way in advance.

A draft NPRM on the USF budget asks some questions that concern stakeholders inside and outside the FCC. Others welcomed a look at the program's spending, since it has been some time since this area was examined through such a proceeding. The NPRM circulated Tuesday to commissioners asks many questions, isn't overly long and doesn't draw tentative or other conclusions, agency officials told us Wednesday. Some saw signals of where an eventual order might go in the NPRM's questions. They fear the potential for eventual spending curbs via what could be the first-of-a-kind-cap.

Cable executives and America’s Communications Association representatives worry about rising retransmission consent fees (see 1903230001 or 1903250065) and about Nexstar's buying Tribune, they told aides to all FCC members and front-office Media Bureau staff. "Member companies pass through most, if not all, of these fee increases to consumers, such that subscribers’ bills have increased precipitously. Devoting additional resources and bandwidth to broadcasting also hinders efforts to expand and improve broadband in rural areas," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. Consider "the recent behavior of Nexstar, which has earned itself a reputation as an exceptionally bad actor in an already dysfunctional retransmission consent marketplace," ACA said. It's difficult to negotiate retrans deals with the broadcaster, executives said. "Nexstar has promised to raise retransmission consent rates -- and, indeed, cites this as a benefit of the proposed transaction." As the agency weighs letting one TV station owner reach a larger percentage of U.S. viewers, cable executives noted that increasing the cap "will invariably lead to higher [retrans] prices," they said. Another ACA-member confab included Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and commissioners' aides, and Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry attended another gathering. Executives attending at least some meetings came from Armstrong Utilities, Cable One, HTC, Liberty Puerto Rico, Shentel and TDS. Nexstar didn't comment. The FCC meetings occurred Thursday during ACA's conference in Washington (see 1903200009), noted Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman. Most of the group's members attending went to Capitol Hill, he emailed. "Two small groups were taken to FCC as reflected in ex parte" filings, he added. NAB responded to the lobbying, saying ACA "rehashes tired anti-broadcaster rhetoric that we’ve heard before." TV stations and networks "provide the most popular content on cable systems," emailed NAB's spokesperson. "The FCC should reject ACA calls to inject itself into the free market retransmission consent negotiation process, and should allow local TV stations modest relief from 'I Love Lucy' era ownership rules.”

Comedian John Oliver's critique of the FCC for not doing enough to cut illegal robocalls became the latest partisan commissioner dispute over Telephone Consumer Protection Act enforcement and regulation. After commissioners' Friday meeting, there was a war of words over whether the FCC is doing enough, quickly enough, whether wireless and other telecom service providers can do more, and whether the agency has more authority than it has used under Chairman Ajit Pai. Democrats want more agency and industry action, while Republicans said TCPA enforcement is front and center under Pai, and there may not be authority for the crackdown Oliver sought March 10 on Last Week Tonight.

California's net neutrality law is "a consequence" of FCC deregulation, said ex-commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on C-SPAN: "If the federal government has stepped aside, and the agency responsible for America’s networks says, 'No, we don’t have this responsibility any more for internet networks,' and we are a federal system, then why should we be surprised if the states step up?" Under President Donald Trump, "those networks regulated by the FCC have gotten everything they want. And they turn around and they say, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s a void there, we need some kind of rules.’ So they turn around and they go to Congress and say, ‘We’ve got to pre-empt what California has done,'" Wheeler added. ISPs are discovering the truth of what Adam Smith wrote that markets can't work without rules, Wheeler told The Communicators, put online Friday and televised this week. "They had uniform set of rules on open internet … on privacy that got overturned in the Trump administration." Monday, the Internet Association and USTelecom didn't comment and the commission and NCTA declined to comment. Wheeler criticized the FCC on cybersecurity under Chairman Ajit Pai. "If the most important network is probably going to be the wireless network, now in shorthand described as 5G," Wheeler asked, "what are we doing now to get in front of the threats that we know are coming?" The agency under Wheeler sought to require standards for spectrum the agency is making available for fifth-generation wireless be able to prevent such attacks, and sought technical feedback from experts, he recalled. "When the Trump FCC came in, they shut down both of these activities." He said the examination of what 5G gear can be bought is "important," such as whether equipment can come from Chinese companies. "The first step in rebalancing between the people and the powerful begins with oversight of the dominant network" via net neutrality, Wheeler blogged Friday for the Brookings Institution. "The second step comes with the establishment of rules for those who ride on the internet." The Trump FTC, which declined comment Monday, "has made noises, but has yet to step up to this challenge," wrote Wheeler, a Brookings visiting fellow. "Today’s internet barons behave just as the industrial barons in [then-President Teddy] Roosevelt’s day."

The FCC's new administrative law judge OK'd Sinclair's request the ALJ nix the hearing designation order proceeding involving the company's now-ended plan to buy Tribune's TV stations. ALJ Jane Hinckley Halprin noted that the HDO alleged Sinclair may have misled the commission on whether it was the real party in interest that would get some divested Tribune’s licenses.

Deluged with some 1.5 million 911 calls annually, Washington, D.C., is again encouraging nonemergency police calls via 311, an FCBA tour of the city’s emergency call center was told Thursday. The center's approximately 200 911 operators and staff were “spending so much time on 911” for nonemergency situations, it reverted to urging people to call 311 to reach police non-urgently, said a spokesperson for the D.C. Office of Unified Communications. The nonemergency 311 city services number at OUC, with about 100 employees, gets about 2 million calls a year and also runs at all times. “We’ve done stuff on social media,” and are working with a company to possibly promote 311 to reach police when it's not an emergency, she responded to our question. A direct mail campaign is possible, she added. Between 20 and 30 percent of 911 calls aren’t emergencies, she noted. D.C.'s work with RapidSOS to better locate wireless callers (see 1808080016) appears to be achieving intended results, another official told us. “That’s been a huge game changer” and is “awesome,” the spokesperson said. She also noted that in the city, Uber passengers can use the app to notify the office of an emergency. She said such a feature could conceivably also come from Lyft. That company wouldn't comment on whether its app will allow similar. Lyft works "hard to design policies and features that protect our community" and looks "for ways to improve," a spokesperson emailed. "In the rare event that drivers need to call 911, they can do so from within the app, which will display the driver’s current location and vehicle information, including license plate number, making it easy for them to tell 911 dispatchers the details." OUC has completed three of five phases of moving to next-generation 911, and is about 80 percent along the multiyear initiative, Director Karima Holmes told the group. She said the initiative costs about $10 million. “We’ve done a lot of infrastructure work," she said. OUC has been able to get texts in emergencies for a few years, but "we don't get a lot," the spokesperson said.