The FCC voted 3-2 Thursday to launch a rulemaking (see 1602160072) seeking comment on numerous changes to set-top box rules intended to make it easier for third parties to build and sell retail set tops that can access pay-TV content. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly as expected (see 1601280066) opposed the proposal, which they said was “slanted” and an unnecessary regulatory intrusion. “I’m confident that most consumers would rather eliminate the set-top box altogether,” Pai said.

The Obama administration’s FY 2017 proposal would include funding to continue FCC headquarters relocation and to overhaul the agency’s IT systems, with money for what it calls a geospatial information system solution. Tuesday's proposal also includes provisions on auctioning the 1675-1680 MHz band and calls for an FTC transaction fee change for especially expensive deals.

The U.S. is still attempting to develop more-modern early warning systems for natural disasters -- such as earthquakes -- that use new technologies to reach mobile devices and connected devices within the IoT, experts said Tuesday during a White House summit on earthquake resilience. Panelists were optimistic about the pace of innovation on early warning, and said it's important to rethink the warning process to reach more individuals through mobile technologies, as opposed to traditional radio and TV early alerts.

Despite unanimous votes to extend online public file rules to pay-TV carriers and radio stations and for an NPRM on improving the nationwide emergency alert system, there were still some party-line divides over the items, based on commissioner statements afterwards. The items were adopted largely as expected (see 1601080047 and 1601210055). The public would have been "outraged" by the original version of the EAS NPRM system because it contemplated extending EAS regulations to the Internet, said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. Commissioner Ajit Pai said the FCC didn't quite go far enough to ease the burden of online public file on smaller entities, though he conceded the commission did "cut them slack." There "was a lot of back and forth" in the lead up to the items, said Chairman Tom Wheeler.

The FCC is expected to proceed with its monthly meeting Thursday, assuming the government reopens in time after its closure due to Winter Storm Jonas, a knowledgeable source told us Tuesday. The Office of Personnel Management as of late Tuesday hadn't announced the status of government offices for Wednesday. The FCC is to vote on a broadband deployment report pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, an order to require cable and satellite TV operators and broadcast and satellite radio companies to post public inspection files on the agency's online database, and a rulemaking notice on strengthening the emergency alert system. The broadband report is expected to say advanced telecom capabilities aren't being deployed in a timely and reasonable fashion under Section 706 (see 1601070059). The agency's two Republican commissioners appear likely to dissent from the report, the knowledgeable source said. Meanwhile, the FCC appears unlikely to address rural rate-of-return USF reforms at its Feb. 18 meeting (the tentative agenda for that is due out Thursday) but seems more likely to act on that issue at its March 31 meeting, an industry source told us. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn also recently said the agency planned to address Lifeline USF reform this quarter (see 1601210031). Spokespeople for the commission and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai had no immediate comment.

Wireline and wireless companies and the FCC were prepared and putting in place strategies to deal with any outages or problems caused by what the Weather Channel calls Winter Storm Jonas, they told us Friday. The federal government, including the FCC and the D.C. Public Service Commission, which deals with local telecommunications issues, sent most employees home early Friday due to the coming storm.

A draft rulemaking notice on proposed improvements to the emergency alert system will seek comment on improving security for alerting systems, creating a standardized, uniform format for state EAS plans, and EAS test codes, said an FCC official.

Wireless companies and CTIA are counseling the FCC not to change wireless emergency alerts (WEA) rules in a way that could mean more network congestion. The FCC proposed at its November meeting to allow longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts (see 1511190053).

The FCC is circulating an order to help the agency achieve “fuller understanding” of what entities are doing and can do “to facilitate the distribution of multilingual alert content to their communities, and to further advance their abilities to reach populations where English is not well understood,” Chairman Tom Wheeler told several House Democrats in a letter dated Dec. 22 and released this week. Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., led a Nov. 2 letter pressing for an emergency alert system to make alerts available in languages beyond English and urging the FCC to “take the next step before the next disaster strikes,” citing “extreme weather events due to climate change on the rise” and intense and damaging storms in recent years. Thirteen Democrats signed the letter, including Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The FCC has taken several steps in recent months toward that goal, Wheeler told them, including the order (see 1601080047 and 1601070061) on circulation. The order “addresses the Petition for Immediate Interim Relief filed by the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc., and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council,” Wheeler said.

Since June, 46 additional state and local organizations obtained permission to send wireless emergency alerts, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Program Management Office in an FCC filing in docket 15-91. That makes 622 organizations with such permission as of Wednesday. Forty-eight organizations have actually sent the alerts, an increase of two since Nov. 18 and 14 since June, FEMA said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has sent 21,357 WEA alerts since 2012, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has sent 589, it said. The Jan. 28 FCC meeting will see a vote on an emergency alert system item on state and local EAS participation (see 1601070061).