Kris Monteith will stay on as FCC Wireline Bureau chief, Chairman Ajit Pai announced Tuesday in an agency release. Monteith was acting bureau chief. Pai noted the bureau's role in FCC efforts to encourage "broadband investment across America and in helping spur deployment where it lags behind." Monteith has been with the FCC for 20 years, including as chief of the Enforcement Bureau, acting chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and deputy chief of the Wireline and Media bureaus. She's "a smart, dedicated public servant and a leader in effort to close #DigitalDivide," Pai tweeted to us.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands in favor of placing limits on eligible court venues for patent infringement lawsuits. Heartland Food Products Group asked the top court to review 28 U.S. Code Section 1400(b), which requires a plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit only in a U.S. District court where the defendant resides or has an “established place of business.” The tech sector took a substantial interest because of the case's potential to restrict movement of patent cases to Texas' Marshall and Tyler-based district court and others perceived as friendly to plaintiffs (see 1701170066 and 1703270053). The Supreme Court said patent lawsuits can be brought only in the district court in which the defendant is incorporated. The 8-0 ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, reverses the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s 1990 precedent in VE Holding Corp v. Johnson Gas Appliance that a patent infringement suit could be brought in any jurisdiction where a party conducted business. “While we are disappointed in the Supreme Court's ruling on this procedural matter, we respect the Court's opinion and do not believe it has any impact on the ultimate outcome of our case,” Kraft said in a statement. Heartland didn’t immediately comment. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., hailed the ruling as a decision “to restore reasonable limits on where patent lawsuits can be brought.” He said in February he would re-evaluate what language to include in future patent law revamp legislation based on the Supreme Court’s then-forthcoming Heartland decision (see 1702010069). Goodlatte said now he will continue exploring “other aspects of abusive patent litigation and how we keep our patent laws up to date to ensure a well-functioning patent system.” Congress still “needs to step in with comprehensive patent reform,” Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black said. “While today’s ruling removes one tool used to manipulate the system, there are still others enabling the abuse of the patent system. It’s an area ripe for bipartisan cooperation as Congress looks for low cost and no cost ways to grow jobs and the economy.”
Acquiring Wave Broadband will let RCN Telecom Services expand its broadband-related services to the West Coast, RCN parent TPG Capital said Monday, announcing the $2.37 billion deal. In a news release, TPG said it expects to close on the takeover in the second half of 2017, pending regulatory approval. It said Wave and RCN combined will be the sixth largest cable ISP, operating in seven of the nation's 10 largest cities. It said Wave will continue to operate as a branded entity out of its Washington state headquarters, with founder and CEO Steve Weed becoming an RCN director. TPG bought RCN and Grande Communications last year (see 1611160023), with those transactions creating a regional operator in the East Coast, Chicago and Texas.
About 40,000 AT&T union workers returned to their jobs Monday -- as planned -- and the Communications Workers of America returned to the bargaining table, after a three-day strike over the weekend (see 1705190046). CWA said several elected officials supported the strike, including Democrats Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Reps. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Pennsylvania's Bob Brady and Dwight Evans. Hawaii AT&T workers joined the strike and other unions showed support, including Teamsters and Writers Guild of America, West. “Our employees are returning to work, and we remain committed to reaching fair agreements in these contracts,” an AT&T spokesman said. CWA looks forward “to returning to the bargaining table with the expectation we see genuine proposals that protect good jobs and quality service from AT&T,” AT&T Mobility Customer Service Representative Sarrah Nasser said in a statement.
The Phoenix Center disputed a Free Press report that aggregate capital expenditures at publicly traded ISPs were 5 percent higher in the two years after the FCC's 2015 Title II broadband reclassification order than in the previous two years (see 1705150061). "Correcting only for inflation, Free Press’ data shows capital expenditures" were "down significantly in 2016," almost "$4 billion below expectations," said a Phoenix release Monday. That reduction "is similar to the $3.7 to $5.1 billion investment decline" cited by FCC Chairman Alit Pai in announcing his proposals to return broadband to a Title I classification, said Phoenix Chief Economist George Ford. “While Free Press wishes to peddle the fairy tale of positive investment effects, in fact their Report demonstrates that reclassification has been a nightmare,” he said. Free Press Research Director Derek Turner responded in a statement: "Phoenix Center starts with the strange assumption that the industry’s aggregate capex should have risen 10 percent, then says since it didn’t, it must be Title II’s fault. There's no proof whatsoever for that strange assertion. And as our report specifically notes, looking at aggregate capital expenditures is a foolish way to measure the impact of Title II in the first place. Even if there was a real decline in the aggregate value between 2014 and 2016, that doesn’t mean Title II had an impact. It could simply reflect the fact that a few larger ISPs had reached the completion of an upgrade cycle, and/or entered a phase of more cost-effective deployment, which is exactly what happened at AT&T. No matter what Phoenix wishes the data says, they can’t rebut the facts that most ISPs are investing more..."
Former FCC and Justice Department antitrust heads rejected a possible Sprint/T-Mobile, as a T-Mobile executive talked up potential synergies. Such a deal would hurt competition and raise prices for consumers, ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and former DOJ Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer wrote in a Friday commentary for CNBC. After the FCC and DOJ said no to AT&T's buying T-Mobile in 2011, T-Mobile revamped its pricing and products, spurring rivals to match them to consumers' benefit, the former officials said. Later, Baer and Wheeler told Sprint owner SoftBank that they wouldn’t support an acquisition of T-Mobile. SoftBank may believe it will find “more sympathetic ears in the new administration,” Baer and Wheeler said. “But the merger made no sense before, and it makes no sense today.” Free Press also opposed the possible wireless deal (see 1705120050). Democratic FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny tweeted that the remarks had "excellent points re value of competition to consumers in the wireless market." Monday at a J.P. Morgan investor conference, T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said possible $30 billion synergy estimates for a Sprint/T-Mobile may be conservative, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a research note. “These synergies would include traditional hard cost synergies from combining networks, with the ability for capex avoidance down the road as they leverage their combined spectrum,” the analyst wrote. Carter said integration costs could be at least $10 billion, Fritzsche said. A recording of Carter’s remarks wasn’t available.
The FCC will vote June 22 on a proposal to create a special “Blue Alert” emergency alert system code for notifications about threats to law enforcement, Chairman Ajit Pai announced Friday at a news conference at the Department of Justice. Operating similar to an Amber Alert, the new code “would be used by authorities in states across the country to notify the public through television and radio of threats to law enforcement and to help apprehend dangerous suspects,” said an FCC news release. “My proposal would give state and local authorities that option to use a dedicated alert code to send the warnings to the public, broadcast, cable, satellite, and wireline video networks,” Pai said. The draft NPRM was circulated to the eighth floor Thursday, Pai said. Twenty-seven states already have blue alert plans, but the FCC proposal would create a “nationwide framework” that states could adopt, the release said. The FCC’s Blue Alert proposal stems from federal legislation, the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015, the release said. The act, “directs cooperation with the FCC,” and is being implemented by DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, the release said. “The COPS Office has expressed the need for a dedicated EAS code for Blue Alerts,” the release said. The Blue Alerts may provide extra warning for police and enable them to defend themselves or catch dangerous criminals, said acting Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief Tom Homan at the news conference, saying Friday was “a good day for law enforcement, a better day for American communities.”
Industry parties urged the FCC to scrap international traffic and revenue reporting duties, with many also calling for eliminating international circuit capacity reporting duties. "These anachronistic reporting requirements are largely holdover requirements for enforcing settlement rates and regulatory fee requirements and policies that the Commission has eliminated," said a filing of an international carrier/infrastructure group (North American Submarine Cable Association, DoCoMo Pacific, Globe Telecom, GTI and Level 3). "They impose often significant resource burdens on international carriers and infrastructure owners with little or no corresponding benefits, as the reports duplicate existing data collections, are stale upon release, and reflect often inaccurate and inconsistent data." Twelve comments were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 17-55 on commission proposals to eliminate the annual international traffic and revenue reports and streamline annual international circuit capacity reports (see 1703230042). A March 23 NPRM, citing the agency's biennial review of telecom regulations, said retaining the circuit capacity reports "might be warranted because the benefits appear to exceed the costs of collecting the data." There was no opposition filed to the proposed easing of reporting duties, and seven commenters backed eliminating all the reports under review: AT&T, Inmarsat, Sprint, USTelecom, Verizon, the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition and the carrier/infrastructure group. Inmarsat said if the circuit capacity duties are kept, the FCC should clarify they don't apply to "satellite operators like Inmarsat that do not provide dedicated transport capacity between two fixed points." The VON Coalition said any streamlining should ensure "non-common carrier licensees need file Circuit Capacity Reports only with respect to those submarine cables for which they hold a license." CTIA, Iridium, T-Mobile, TNZI USA and the SD family of companies (Satcom Direct, Satcom Direct Communications and Comsat) backed eliminating the international traffic and revenue reports. The SD companies also supported streamlining the circuit capacity reports.
The FCC Friday released the full text of three items it adopted at its meeting Thursday. A combined order/NPRM blocks hikes in a rural telco USF-related rate floor while the commission considers possible policy changes (see 1705180061). Another order makes broad changes to the Part 95 personal radio service rules for Citizens Band radios; walkie-talkies; radio-controlled toy cars, boats and planes; hearing assistance devices; and more sophisticated apparatus including medical implants and personal locator beacons (see 1705180040). A separate NPRM aims to harmonize various mobile earth station rules and open up the conventional Ka-band to those earth stations in motion (see 1705180042).
A federal appeals court struck down a Federal Aviation Administration requirement that recreational drone users register their model aircraft, ruling that the agency lacks the statutory authority to impose that mandate. In its Friday opinion (in Pacer), a three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with hobbyist John Taylor. Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion that the 2012 FAA Modernization and Reform Act says the agency "'may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft,' yet the FAA’s 2015 Registration Rule is a 'rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft.' Statutory interpretation does not get much simpler. The Registration Rule is unlawful as applied to model aircraft." In a statement, the FAA said it's "carefully reviewing" the decision and considering options. "The FAA put registration and operational regulations in place to ensure that drones are operated in a way that is safe and does not pose security and privacy threats," said the agency. Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International CEO Brian Wynne said in a statement his group is "disappointed" with the decision. The registration system is needed "to promote accountability and responsibility by users of the national airspace, and helps create a culture of safety that deters careless and reckless behavior," he said. In December 2015, the FAA created a system that required owners of small drones to pay a $5 registration fee (see 1512140019).