Concerns about the partial government closure's impact on FCC device approvals (see 1901040008) mounted Friday, a day before the impasse reached a record length (see 1901100020). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also expanded on her concerns about the hiatus' impact on device authorizations (see 1901080023), seeking an end to the shuttering. A wireless charger maker also complained of the delay (see 1901110023).

Several telecom service providers will give federal employees a break during the government shutdown (see 1901080004), they said. AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Windstream indicated in their responses to our survey and in announcements they won't disconnect such customers during the partial shuttering. It's "Frontier’s usual business practice to develop payment plans with qualified customers to keep their service uninterrupted," said a representative. Sprint care reps "will coordinate with qualified customers and our financial team to find a payment option that works and keep your service uninterrupted during the government shutdown," said CEO Michel Combes Tuesday. "T-Mobile is providing account support to customers directly affected by the U.S. government shutdown to ensure their wireless service remains available during the closure," the carrier said Saturday in a statement. That applies to government-account customers, said the carrier that's buying Sprint. "Verizon is standing by to help with flexible payment options to keep your service running," Nancy Clark, senior vice president-customer service, said Monday. Its offer is for wireline and wireless customers, said a spokesperson Wednesday. "Just because the government shutdown [sic], doesn’t mean that your phone, TV, and internet should stop working too," said AT&T Wednesday. "As long as the shutdown is in effect, our customer service team will waive late fees, provide extensions, and coordinate with you on revised payment schedules." CenturyLink "has always worked with customers having difficulty paying their bills so there is no need to offer special payment solutions for those impacted by the government shutdown," a rep said. Windstream's "normal process is to work with customers facing financial hardship to avoid any interruption of service for nonpayment," said a spokesperson. He noted its provisions in this situation are similar to Sprint's. Cox Communications "will work with individual customers on a case by case basis as always," emailed a spokesperson Wednesday. He and some other companies wouldn't say if they're committing to keeping service going for all federal employees and/or agencies during the government's shuttering or be more specific about their plans. Comcast has "mechanisms" to "work with all customers" on such issues, a rep said. Altice and Charter Communications didn't comment.

"The broad wireless industry" should "commit to labeling something 5G only if new device hardware is connecting to the network using new radio technology to deliver new capabilities," Verizon asked of "competitors, vendors and partners." AT&T noted it's starting such an indicator, which drew criticism from rivals. Verizon "won’t take an old phone and just change the software to turn the 4 in the status bar into a 5," blogged Chief Technology Officer Kyle Malady Monday. "People need a clear, consistent and simple understanding of 5G so they are able to compare services, plans and products, without having to maneuver through marketing double-speak or technical specifications." To let AT&T "customers know when they’re connecting to a 5G Evolution tower, we’re rolling out a '5G E' indicator initially on a handful of 5G Evolution capable devices," emailed a spokesperson Tuesday. Devices with that indicator include the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active and LG V30 and V40. The carrier's 5G Evolution is in over 400 markets, he noted. Sprint Chief Technology Officer John Saw said "AT&T is blatantly misleading consumers -- 5GE is not real 5G." Sprint has its "sights on providing our customers with contiguous coverage using the first 5G smartphone in the U.S.," he added. The company is being sold to T-Mobile, whose CEO John Legere asked on Twitter if AT&T really thinks "customers would fall for their mountain of '5G E' BS?!" Legere said "@verizon isn’t innocent in all this 5G puffery. They’re up on a soap box right now saying they’d 'never do what @att is doing,' but from where I stand they’re doing the same thing." T-Mobile didn't comment further to us on Verizon. All Sprint would say on the subject is that it will market "real 5G that is standards based in the first half of 2019." 5G Americas President Chris Pearson declined comment on Verizon, as did CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association.

The head of a Georgetown Law communications and tech program and another lawyer there expect to change roles when the project gets a new chief, they told us last week. The changes are being sparked by the retirement of Angela Campbell, who for about 30 years headed at the law school the Institute for Public Representation's Communications & Technology Law Clinic. The school has been looking for a successor for some time, and Campbell hasn't decided if she will continue working at Georgetown after her directorship ends June 30. The clinic's Andrew Schwartzman, Benton Foundation senior counselor there, may also leave, he said. "My expectation is that I will do something else as of July 1." He hopes "to have continuing relationship with the Benton Foundation." The Benton Foundation "is honored to work with Andy beyond June 30," emailed Executive Director Adrianne Furniss about Schwartzman. "Among other things, Andy will continue to serve as counsel for Benton who is one of the petitioners" in the Mozilla v. FCC net neutrality case (see 1901030012), she added. Campbell expects to keep working on kids media as a Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood board member; the vice chair now, she likely will be elected chair in June. Her IPR program likely will remain involved in kidvid and political broadcast issues at the FCC and with kids' privacy and FTC Children's Online Privacy Protection Act rules. "It’s a good time while it's going well to have a transition" at IPR, she said. "There are a lot of qualified candidates out there, so I’m pretty confident it will work out well."

Despite heightened local opposition (see 1812170043), the FCC likely won't retreat from its plan to make it harder for local franchise authorities to get cable operators to provide extra services and carry public, educational and government programming, predicted those on both sides of the LFA issue. Those obligations have been in addition to fees LFAs collect from cable, with the amount as much as 5 percent of cable-TV providers' video revenue. Stakeholders expect the commission will make it tougher for local governments to get extras from cable providers without having to deduct those perquisites from the federal 5 percent cap. No immediate action is expected and it's thought staff aren't close to any final decisions.

The war of words between municipalities and MVPDs escalated over whether local franchise authorities can continue public, educational and government programming obligations in addition to a 5 percent U.S. cap on LFA charges. The fight led to what stakeholders said appears to be the first study estimating LFA potential costs, filed with the FCC days after its new economics office opened (see 1812110036). The NCTA-backed economic analysis by Compass Lexecon said such additional fees can run into the billions of dollars annually. The group and others claim broadband deployment could be stifled because such fees can eat up industry spending.

More municipal broadband-network allies said FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly's concerns (see 1812130073) about such ISPs infringing on free speech are off base, while those often opposed to regulation told us they shared such fears. O’Rielly "cannot identify a single instance of a municipal broadband network infringing on anyone’s freedom of speech," said Executive Director Deb Socia of the Next Century Cities group of communities including Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "Local government officials have a Constitutional obligation to uphold free speech." Others we surveyed also couldn't think of an instance of a public ISP infringing on citizens' First Amendment rights. Baller Stokes President Jim Baller, whose law firm represents local interests, told us he disagrees "with most of Commissioner O’Rielly’s arguments." Others agreed with the commissioner. As they are government-run entities, First Amendment curbs on limiting speech "would likely apply to municipally owned broadband networks," emailed American Legislative Exchange Council Communications and Technology Task Force Director Jonathon Hauenschild. "They would likely face lawsuits and find their terms of service heavily questioned by federal courts." Other than sometimes public ISPs in unserved areas, generally, "such services should not be offered by government in competition with private sector providers," ALEC recommends. O'Rielly is rightly "concerned that muni broadband networks could get into the business of censorship by imposing speech codes that prohibit speech deemed 'impermissible' by local governments," emailed Richard Kaplar of The Media Institute. "The First Amendment protects against such censorship at all levels of government." The institute, which Friday said Kaplar advanced to president-CEO (see personals section), is where the commissioner gave his earlier speech opposing muni broadband that drew opposition, prompting his response in Thursday's blog. NCTA and USTelecom declined to comment Friday.

Much of official Washington is closed Wednesday in honor of late President George H.W. Bush, 94, whose state funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. that day at the National Cathedral. The Copyright Office, FTC and NTIA will be closed, spokespeople told us, as will the FCC. Filings at the FTC and FCC won't be due Wednesday and now must be submitted Thursday. Dec. 5 won't "count in computing filing periods of less than seven days," said an FCC public notice. Items on commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting agenda can be lobbied on through Thursday, 24 more hours than under the usual sunshine period. The CO online registration system will remain available, its spokesperson said. Neither chamber of Congress will hold hearings for at least some of this week, and some votes may not occur. Among hearings that were scheduled before Bush's death and now postponed: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Wednesday at the House Judiciary Committee, and one of its subcommittees Tuesday with the heads of the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division. Thursday's House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the Ray Baum Act law is rescheduled for Dec. 11. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is closed Wednesday, the clerk's office said. President Donald Trump ordered federal "executive departments and agencies" closed that day. Their heads "may determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must report for duty," Saturday's executive order said, "for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need." Wednesday's FCC Technological Advisory Council gathering was postponed. The Technology Policy Institute won't hold Wednesday's lunch event on privacy. The International Institute of Space Law emailed that its annual Galloway space law event goes on as planned Wednesday other than NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine canceling his keynote.

Deploying autonomous and connected cars will lead to higher penetration of electric vehicles, an Edison Electric Institute event was told Friday. Representatives from automakers, including General Motors and Nissan, said goals include cutting traffic congestion and accidents, along with vehicle emissions. Launching autonomous vehicles will bring electric vehicles into higher-profile public view and "really pushes the EV forward," said Dan Turton, GM vice president-North American policy. Mentioning a semi-autonomous driving feature amid Nissan's goal of "intelligent mobility," Michael Arbuckle, senior manager-EV sales and marketing strategy, said the manufacturer is "also going to enhance" autonomy and connectivity in its vehicles. After saying to audience laughter that "frankly, I am happy to be talking about anything besides trade policy," Bryan Jacobs, BMW vice president-government and external affairs, said in Q&A that "open and free trade is a formula for success." Components that go into vehicles "have to be unencumbered as they move from one place to another," he added. "We are all in on this. We are unapologetically free traders. ... The trading regime that’s currently in place is really beneficial to companies like ours." An Energy Department official later sought to describe the outlook "to increase affordable mobility choices." There are "a wide range of futures due to autonomy and interconnectivity," Alex Fitzsimmons, the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office chief of staff, said of diverse forecasts related to energy usage: "We’re all striving toward the same goal of affordable mobility for all."

A widely viewed clip of Sinclair anchors nationwide repeating company talking points was shown at a panel on the decline of local news with journalism experts. President Andy Burness of Burness, which represents nonprofits and organized Thursday's panel, showed the Deadspin news website clip from earlier this year. "Sinclair is a rebuttal in their view to the dominance of the left wing on major networks," said Boulder, Colorado, blogger Dave Krieger, fired earlier this year from the Daily Camera for running an editorial that slammed the newspaper's hedge-fund owner, Alden Global Capital. "That’s their motivation." Krieger and Nicco Mele, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, agreed the likes of Sinclair aren't a new trend, as politically slanted or driven news in the U.S. dates back a few hundred years. "Ideologically driven news doesn’t bother me too much," Mele said. "There’s a long tradition of it in America." What's important is that consumers know what that slant is and that the content is truthful, attendees were told. Panelists warned that's not always the case on social media. "You frequently don’t know that you’re making an ideological choice in your news consumption" such as on Facebook, Mele said. For traditional media, panelists made a pitch for more diversity, as wider representation of women and other groups in tech and telecom is drawing attention including from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1811280035). Such efforts need to begin even before job applications are filed and reviewed, Krieger said. Mele recounted that when he was a Los Angeles Times executive several years ago, "the newsroom was overwhelmingly white. I do think that hurt the business in a substantial way." Tronc, which returned to the Tribune Publishing name, separately earlier this year sold the paper to a local billionaire who has pledged to hire staff and make other changes. "Over the past several years, the Los Angeles Times has made increasing diversity within our newsroom a top priority, to better serve the community," a spokesperson emailed. "Each year we make progress." She said 36 percent of the paper's journalists aren't white, compared with 23 percent in U.S. newsrooms overall in a recently released survey that said it had low participation. Since 1984, the paper has had a program to "develop" young journalists and to increase diversity, she noted.