Time Warner Cable delivered broadband speeds as advertised and in recent years increased speed tiers by many times, the company now owned by Charter Communications said Monday at New York Supreme Court in case 450318/2017. Charter denied all of the New York state attorney general’s allegations claiming otherwise. From 2012 to 2016, TWC increased its lowest speed to 15 Mbps from 1 Mbps and its highest tier to 300 Mbps from 30 Mbps, Charter said. “Far from conducting a deliberate program to deceive its customers and failing to make necessary network investments … TWC was committed to providing high-quality service to all of its customers and undertook costly efforts to do so.” The court last month refused to dismiss the state’s lawsuit (see 1801120009). Earlier this week, the New York Public Service Commission chairman alleged Charter overstated broadband expansion efforts in the state and may have underpaid New York City for its franchise (see 1803190046).

Municipal broadband can expand broadband access and protect net neutrality, said San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell (D) and FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Tuesday. “We both have been strong advocates for municipal fiber because we know that many consumers feel inadequately served by their private provider, if they are even served at all.” Municipal projects should include net neutrality, privacy and security as key principles, they said. Farrell last month announced a San Francisco network along those lines (see 1802010013). Farrell and Clyburn said muni "broadband projects can eliminate the digital and opportunities divide" by "providing more choice and competition and delivering better internet.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed into law a bill to uphold net neutrality. "Washington will be the first state ... to preserve the open internet,” Inslee said during a signing ceremony. The FCC, which has said it will pre-empt state actions that are inconsistent with its deregulatory broadband framework, didn't comment Tuesday. The Washington Senate recently passed the House-approved HB-2282 to restore the net neutrality protections the FCC reversed (see 1802280027). "The law will prohibit companies that offer internet services from blocking legal content, applications, services or nonharmful devices. It will prohibit them from impairing -- or throttling -- internet traffic based on the content internet users consume, or the apps, services and devices they use," said a release Monday: "It will prohibit them from favoring certain traffic for the company’s own benefit" (paid prioritization).

Meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said the company sees the possibility of offering "wireline-like" broadband connectivity and speeds using fixed wireless technologies in the 3.5 GHz band, according to a docket 17-258 filing posted Friday. Rutledge also said mobile uses of the citizens broadband radio service band "could combine well" with Wi-Fi and let a new entrant like cable deploy 3.5 GHz spectrum quickly. To facilitate new entrants into the mobility space, Rutledge said, the FCC should make sure 3.5 GHz license sizes aren't so big that only national carriers can bid, and adopt a compromise between the use of census tracts and partial economic areas. Counties could fit that bill, he said. Rutledge also backed opening the 5.9 GHz spectrum for unlicensed use quickly since that would help meet growing demands for faster Wi-Fi while also helping spur development of next-generation technologies like Gigabit Wi-Fi.

Cable ISPs again accounted for all net new data subscribers in Q4, and telcos aren't likely to reverse losses soon given the cable trend of ramping up broadband speeds, Pivotal analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Wednesday. He said cable has plenty of medium and long-term sub growth opportunities taking share from the roughly 22 million DSL-based telco data customers. The pay-TV industry likely lost 530,000 video subs in the quarter, which would be the sixth straight quarter of accelerating percentage year over year decreases in pay-TV subs, he said. He said direct broadcast satellite had particularly heavy video customer losses of 270,000 subscribers due to cable bundling of data and TV.

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., filed the House version of the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act to require the Bureau of Economic Analysis to study the effects of broadband deployment and adoption on the U.S. economy. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., filed S-645 last year (see 1703150053). "Policymakers must have data that tells us just how broadband impacts our economy," Khanna said Monday. Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Ryan Costello, R-Pa., are also lead sponsors of the House bill. Connected Nation, CTIA, NTCA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association are among backers.

Sixty-seven percent of people believe internet access is a human right, Facebook reported Monday. It said a significant gender gap remains, as men on average are 33.5 percent more likely than women to have access. Global internet connectivity grew 8.3 percent in 2017, but lower-income countries had a 65.1 percent increase. The largest increases were Rwanda (490 percent), Nepal (138 percent) and Tanzania (87.8 percent). Cost of mobile broadband data plans in lower-income nations fell 17 percent, the steepest drops in Argentina (89 percent), El Salvador (77 percent), Tanzania (69 percent) and Ethiopia (61 percent). Facebook said internet remains too expensive when compared with income, because lower-income countries haven't met the U.N. 2025 goal of internet access at 2 percent of gross national income per capita.

The FCC approved special temporary authority for Project Loon to test its balloon-based communications system at its launch facility in Winnemucca, Nevada. Loon is led by Google parent Alphabet. Tests will be in LTE Band 20 spectrum. “Loon will itself be using ordinary, FCC approved handsets to communicate with the balloons, and then Wi-Fi to interconnect with the ground terminals,” Loon said in a filing. “The frequencies specified in this application will be used in conjunction with Part 15 unlicensed Wi-Fi to support these communications. Loon will provide service to the proposed test area only to the extent it can be done without interference to neighboring services. Loon holds all necessary government authorizations for the related aeronautical activities.” The authorization expires Aug. 23.

Some process and structural changes at the FCC should help ensure the agency operates differently even under future administrations, the agency's Republican commissioners said Friday at the American Conservative Union's (ACU) 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference. There, Chairman Ajit Pai was a surprise recipient of the National Rifle Association's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for his role in and the fallout from the net neutrality Title II rollback. Pai "saved the Internet" and weathered numerous death threats and having his property "invaded by the George Soros crowd," said ACU Executive Director Dan Schneider. Citing the newly created Office of Economics and Analytics (see 1801300026), Commissioner Brendan Carr said institutionalizing the idea of considering economic impacts of regulations should ensure that decision has long-term effect. Pai said his successor "will face a big fight" in the name of government openness if there are efforts to roll back his process change of making agenda items publicly available before meetings. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the best way to help ensure that the free market path the FCC is on continues is to elect conservatives to the House and Senate and make sure President Donald Trump is re-elected. He also said "we could use everyone's help" in the looming fight in the Senate over Title II. Pai said his administration's focus on a Title II rollback was against the advice of some who urged him to take smaller, more incremental deregulatory steps, but "I don't play small ball." Carr and O'Rielly both highlighted the agency's efforts to foster 5G; Carr said the FCC should be able to complete this year the streamlining of federal permitting and processing procedures needed for 5G deployment. Asked about the vitriol he received on the net neutrality proceeding, Pai said it has "not been an easy time" and quoted a passage from Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” He also said he would continue to speak out about the "poisonous political culture." The NRA award pre-empted a speech Pai was to deliver. The FCC didn't make available a copy of the speech but said Pai was "honored" by the recognition. According to the NRA, recipients have included talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Vice President Mike Pence, and the award is a Kentucky handmade long gun to be stored at an NRA museum.

Two test satellites for SpaceX's planned Starllink broadband satellite constellation were successfully launched on SpaceX Falcon 9, CEO Elon Musk tweeted (see here and here) Thursday. They are called Tintin A and B, he said.