Comcast’s “modest gain” in footprint from buying Time Warner Cable won’t increase its incentive “to engage in exclusionary conduct” toward video industry rivals, said Comcast in response to questions from FCC staff. The response was posted online Monday. Those who believe the merger will have anticompetitive consequences believe Comcast would reap “slightly higher proportion of gains from exclusionary conduct if it serves 29% of U.S. MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] subscribers rather than 22%,” said Comcast. “This theoretical claim finds no support in the documents or historical behavior of Comcast,” said the cable company. Since Comcast has long been the nation’s largest cable company, evidence of such behavior should have already emerged if it were a real concern, Comcast said. The cable company also pointed to merger conditions that keep it from preventing online video distributors from accessing its content. “There is “strong empirical evidence that the immediate harm to Comcast’s programming business from any foreclosure strategy would exceed any purported benefit to its MVPD business,” Comcast said.
Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable poses “substantial threats to competition,” CenturyLink said in a Nov. 24 presentation to a large number of FCC staff. The staff included Philip Verveer, aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Shane Greenstein of the FCC's transaction review team, plus staff from the Media and Wireline bureaus, the Office of Strategic Planning, the General Counsel's Office and the Public Safety Bureau, said an ex parte filing in docket 14-57. The meeting also concerned the effects of the deal on CenturyLink's pay TV business, and information on CenturyLink's churn rates and financial information was redacted from the filing.
The Rural Utilities Service sought comment Friday on preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the development of a more efficient and effective environmental review process for the RUS Telecommunications Program. The new environmental review process should be “commensurate with the potential environmental impacts of both wired and wireless projects financed by the agency," RUS said in the Federal Register. The revised review process would apply to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program, Farm Bill Broadband Loan Program, Community Connect Grant Program and the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program, RUS said. Comments are due Jan. 27, RUS said.
The FCC received Office of Management and Budget approval of its September order approving changes to the technical rules of signal boosters, the commission said Friday in The Federal Register. The September order granted relief sought by Wi-Ex on testing procedures to certify wideband boosters, which the company said were complicated by the need for special test equipment to determine whether the device complies with the downlink noise limit in the FCC rules. The FCC also had approved some technical changes sought by V-Comm, Verizon and Wilson Electronics (see 1409250033). The technical rule changes take effect Dec. 29, the FCC said Friday. The commission also sought comment Friday on its September Further NPRM on whether to retain the “personal use” restriction for provider-specific consumer signal boosters. Comments on the FNPRM are due Dec. 29 and replies, Jan. 20, the FCC said.
AT&T said it isn’t limiting its fiber-to-the-premises deployment to 2 million homes. It plans to complete an initiative to expand its GigaPower fiber network in 25 major metropolitan areas nationwide, it wrote the FCC. The letter responded to the commission’s request for more information on AT&T’s fiber deployment plans (see 1411140058). The premise of the FCC’s Nov. 14 letter is incorrect, AT&T said. The telco can’t evaluate additional investment “beyond its existing commitments until the regulatory treatment of broadband service is clarified,” it said. The carrier provided responses including the total number of customer locations to which it plans to deploy fiber to the premises based on pre-transaction economics. AT&T said there are no documents relating to a request for data on limiting fiber deployment to 2 million homes.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge were among more than 35 pro-net neutrality organizations from 19 countries to join to create a new joint website, an EFF news release said Wednesday. The site will contain details of net neutrality laws, policies and practices globally to be used by advocates, the release said. The group, called the Global Net Neutrality Coalition, also agreed on a common definition for net neutrality -- that it “requires that the Internet be maintained as an open platform, on which network providers treat all content, applications and services equally, without discrimination,” the release said. "We love the openness and accessibility of the [Internet], but we worry about it coming under threat from those who want to surround it with gates and toll booths,” said Jeremy Malcolm, EFF senior global policy analyst, in another release about the coalition from Access, one of the groups involved. “Net neutrality is important for all of the world's internet users, and it is just as essential for countries with robust internet infrastructure as it is for those still building infrastructure,” said Carolina Rossini, Public Knowledge vice president-international policy, in the Access release.
Three waivers of requirements on eligible telecom carriers to re-certify eligibility of Lifeline subscribers annually were granted by Ryan Palmer, chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau's Telecom Access Policy Division, said an order Tuesday, posted in docket 11-42. The ETCs’ certification processes were sufficient to ensure all Lifeline subscribers are eligible, the order said. The waivers were granted for a petition filed by Budget PrePay, another by SE Acquisitions, and a third by Cricket Communications and Leap Wireless International. A waiver also was granted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which sought an extension for the date of the uniform eligibility criteria for ETCs in the state. The PUC requested additional time to implement the requirement. Dismissed was NTCH’s petition seeking reconsideration of the bureau’s deadline for broadband pilot applications because the deadline has passed and the pilot program will be ending shortly, the order said.
AT&T asked the FCC to hold in abeyance its rulemaking petition to amend wireless communications service (WCS) rules for an air-to-ground business. AT&T decided this month to forego plans to enter the in-flight connectivity business (see 1411100041). It’s re-evaluating plans for use of its WCS C and D block licenses, it said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in RM-11731. Unless AT&T notifies the FCC before Feb. 12 that it wishes to further pursue the petition, the FCC “should consider this a request for dismissal of its petition and the related waiver requests as of that date,” it said.
Cisco supports increasing E-rate funding and believes it's “critical” to ensure funding for connections inside schools, CEO John Chambers told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a phone call Monday, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-184. Chambers also told Wheeler it’s important to find a “compromise” in the net neutrality debate “that will be good for all parts of industry as well as for consumers,” said the company. A regulatory structure “designed for monopoly telephone services is not appropriate for the vibrant Internet of today" and the FCC "should formulate balanced rules to protect the open Internet,” Cisco said. In a separate meeting Tuesday, Jeffrey Campbell, Cisco vice president-government affairs, told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel there’s still a “risk for insufficiently funding internal connections to the classroom because funds are only made available for internal connections after all requests for connections to the buildings are funded,” said an ex parte filing. Raising the E-rate cap would alleviate the problem in the short term, but “it is not clear that it will be solved for the future,” Cisco said. One possibility is to cap new funds for fiber construction, to ensure funding for internal connections, Cisco said. The commission is scheduled to take up Wheeler’s proposed $1.5 billion E-rate spending cap increase at its Dec. 11 meeting.
Representatives of Pandora Radio and the company that owns the South Dakota radio station that Pandora has been seeking to buy (see 1410030046) met with Maria Kirby, aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Monday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-109 Wednesday. Pandora and KXMZ (FM) Box Elder owner Connoisseur Media urged "expedition" in deciding on Pandora's request for a waiver of the commission's foreign broadcast ownership rules. The commission should move quickly to decide the matter since it has been pending a year and a half, Connoisseur and Pandora said.