Telephone pole taxes are not cheap or consistent, two New Hampshire telcos argue. FairPoint Communications plans to file pole assessment challenges with “more than 100” municipalities Friday, a spokesman told us. Granite State Communications, meanwhile, is challenging three New Hampshire communities in litigation mailed out Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer Bill Stafford said, saying another small telco is also filing suit. FairPoint said in a statement this week its pole and right-of-way taxes for 2011 and 2012 total more than $11.2 million (http://xrl.us/bnnrjg), and Granite’s taxes went up $150,000 last year due the state’s pole tax, according to Stafford. He said his company’s land and building taxes amounted to just around $80,000 by comparison.

Swedish cable operator Com Hem will deploy a cloud-based TiVo platform as part of its IPTV network during the “next few quarters” as a possible precursor to TiVo introducing it in the U.S., said Naveen Chopra, senior vice president-corporate development and strategy, on an earnings call. The proposed cloud service, which has “some” U.S. customers, will support “a number of devices” when it launches and “will expand from there,” Chopra said. Chopra didn’t disclose the timing for introducing a U.S. service.

The FCC will entertain applications to build early public safety networks in the entire 20 MHz of spectrum available to public safety under the February spectrum law, the commission said in an order released late Wednesday. The FCC said it took the step based on advice from NTIA.

Pandora was among the most actively traded stocks early Thursday, up as much as 20 percent following better-than expected results for fiscal 2013 Q2, ended July 31. In an earnings webcast Wednesday, the company said an 86 percent spike in mobile revenue year over year helped fuel revenue growth of 51 percent to $101.3 million. Net loss for fiscal Q2 widened to $5.4 million from a loss of $1.8 million in fiscal Q2 2012, Pandora said. The company raised full-year revenue guidance to $425 million-$432 million from $420 million-$427 million.

An order addressing the Oct. 5 sunset of the FCC’s ban on exclusive programming deals among cable operators and the programming networks they own is expected to circulate soon, industry and agency official said. If the item is to be voted at the FCC’s Sept. 28 open meeting, it would need to circulate by Friday, Sept. 7, industry attorneys said. But others cautioned the order, which is likely to be controversial, could get an 11th-hour treatment from the commission. Industry lawyers said information on the item has been scant but they expect it to relax the ban on exclusive programming contracts rather than let it expire or extend it entirely. A spokeswoman for the Media Bureau declined to comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court shouldn’t hear an appeal of a decision upholding the FCC’s 2009 wireless zoning shot clock order, the commission argued in a brief to the court Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnnnk8). The FCC submitted its brief in opposition to motions for writ of certiorari filed after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by Arlington, Texas, that the order was “arbitrary and capricious” and a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (CD Jan 24 p4). Lacking statutory guidance, the FCC Wireless Bureau had adopted deadlines of 90 days for processing collocation applications, and 150 days for other applications, with the ability to extend the timeframe “by mutual consent” of the carrier and local government.

Apple must wait until Dec. 6 to argue in court for its request for a permanent ban on the U.S. sale of eight Samsung smartphones, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said in an order Tuesday. Apple was initially set to argue for the permanent ban at a previously-scheduled Sept. 20 hearing, at which Koh was expected to issue a final decision on the outcome of Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung over design and utility patent violations.

The storm known as Isaac evolved into a category-1 hurricane early Wednesday and continued its assault. States of emergency were declared in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. But by 3 p.m. EDT the storm weakened back into a tropical storm, but still with “life-threatening hazards,” the National Hurricane Center said. Isaac has left many power outages in its wake and plenty of communications frenzy, but little clear picture of how telecom has been affected.

The Office of Management and Budget updated the spectrum parts of Circular A-11, to put more focus on spectrum decisions and the cost of spectrum. The circular provides the rules by which all agencies are expected to abide when they are making procurement decisions. The circular in part nudges federal agencies toward more sharing, consistent with the recent spectrum report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (http://xrl.us/bnnni2), government officials said this week.

The Republican party presented its plans for a new era of telecom policy in its recently ratified 2012 platform (http://xrl.us/bnnmv3). The GOP emphasized the need to repeal the FCC’s net neutrality order, protect global Internet freedom, expand rural broadband access, increase the private sector’s access to spectrum, oppose any attempt to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision on political advertising, and reverse the Justice Department’s decision on Internet gambling, in its long list of 2012 priorities.