The Computer & Communications Industry Association sees many problems in allowing Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable, CEO Ed Black told Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., in a letter Monday. “Acute competitive problems already exist in the last-mile broadband access market and not only will this merger lead to even less competition, but it would make competitive entry less likely in the future,” Black said (http://1.usa.gov/1oNT9Ez). “We are concerned that the merger will increase the quantity and enhance the effectiveness of the anticompetitive tools at the merged company’s disposal.” The combined company could degrade quality of service and raise operating costs of over-the-top content providers and charge “inflated” interconnection prices as well as withhold a bigger catalog of programming from pay-TV providers and over-the-top competitors, CCIA said. The response is “yet another indication that the proposed acquisition would stifle innovation and harm competition in the telecom industry,” Franken said in a statement. Franken also released a May 27 response from Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen on the issue of net neutrality (http://1.usa.gov/1l1jpHD). Cohen defended Comcast’s net neutrality commitments and said he believes the FCC will issue new net neutrality rules under Communications Act Section 706 by 2018, when Comcast’s obligation to follow the 2010 rules as part of its NBCUniversal acquisition will expire. Those rules are likely to survive judicial scrutiny, Cohen said. But it would be “neither fair nor appropriate” to require in this transaction “an indefinite commitment by Comcast alone” to abide by “any form of open Internet rules,” Cohen said, saying this should be an industrywide commitment. Comcast has defended the Time Warner Cable deal as one good for consumers and not likely to cause any competitive harm. Comcast had no comment on CCIA’s critique.

Broadband download speeds of 10 Mbps, as a draft inquiry signals the FCC wants to be the new benchmark instead of 4 Mbps (WID June 4 p4), were described by experts in interviews as sufficient for most residential Internet uses. A notice of inquiry circulating at the FCC asks about raising the benchmark to 10 Mbps, which some called the new 1 Mbps, although others questioned if the threshold needs to increase.

Broadband download speeds of 10 Mbps, as a draft inquiry signals the FCC wants to be the new benchmark instead of 4 Mbps (CD June 4 p1), were described by experts in interviews as sufficient for most residential Internet uses. A notice of inquiry circulating at the FCC asks about raising the benchmark to 10 Mbps, which some called the new 1 Mbps, although others questioned if the threshold needs to increase.

The U.S. International Trade Commission again seeks comment on public interest factors raised by a Section 337 Tariff Act patent complaint by Freescale Semiconductor on May 12, after Freescale amended its complaint two weeks later to also allege violations by Sony. Freescale alleged MediaTek is making integrated circuits that infringe its patents, which are then included in TVs, Blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets and other electronics imported and sold by companies including Acer, Amazon, Costco, Lenovo, Newegg, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, TPV Display Technology, Vizio and Walmart. Comments are due June 17, said an ITC notice to be published in Monday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1ut5fXa). MediaTek had no immediate comment.

An April 23 FCC-approved item making much-anticipated changes to the Connect America Fund (CAF) remains stuck inside the commission and has yet to be released. FCC officials tell us that commissioners approved the order six weeks ago, but they're still fighting over edits. The order was approved over a partial dissent by Commissioner Ajit Pai and partial concurrence by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. The order does away with the much-criticized quantile regression analysis formula and makes other tweaks to the 2011 CAF order, which was aimed at part on refocusing USF on broadband deployment (CD April 24 p2).

An April 23 FCC-approved item making much-anticipated changes to the Connect America Fund (CAF) remains stuck inside the commission and has yet to be released. FCC officials tell us that commissioners approved the order six weeks ago, but they're still fighting over edits. The order was approved over a partial dissent by Commissioner Ajit Pai and partial concurrence by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. The order does away with the much-criticized quantile regression analysis formula and makes other tweaks to the 2011 CAF order, which was aimed at part on refocusing USF on broadband deployment.

The FCC would bolster its statutory authority to regulate net neutrality, and help undergird the ability to parcel out USF money for broadband, by deciding for another year that Web service isn’t being sufficiently deployed, said agency and industry officials. They said in interviews last week that a negative finding over reasonable and timely deployment of broadband service in the annual Communications Act Section 706 report wouldn’t likely be required for net neutrality and USF broadband authority. That’s under last month’s 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding FCC authority over broadband USF (CD May 27 p1) and January’s D.C. Circuit remand of net neutrality rules.

The FCC would bolster its statutory authority to regulate net neutrality, and help undergird the ability to parcel out USF money for broadband, by deciding for another year that Web service isn’t being sufficiently deployed, said agency and industry officials. They said in interviews last week that a negative finding over reasonable and timely deployment of broadband service in the annual Communications Act Section 706 report wouldn’t likely be required for net neutrality and USF broadband authority. That’s under last month’s 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding FCC authority over broadband USF (WID May 27 p6) and January’s D.C. Circuit remand of net neutrality rules.

The FTC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigated eight instances of fraud, waste, abuse and employee misconduct over the past five years, according to documents disclosed to Washington Internet Daily under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Six investigations covered relatively small-scale individual misconduct -- using or selling commission equipment for personal benefit, misusing company funds, unpaid loans between employees. This is the first part in an occasional series on federal agencies’ IG investigations.

The FTC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigated eight instances of fraud, waste, abuse and employee misconduct over the past five years, according to documents disclosed to Communications Daily under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Six investigations covered relatively small-scale individual misconduct -- using or selling commission equipment for personal benefit, misusing company funds, unpaid loans between employees. This is the first part in an occasional series on federal agencies’ IG investigations.