Expediting the appeal of a district judge's approval of AT&T's buy of Time Warner is needed to prevent "irreparable injury," DOJ said in a docket 18-5214 unopposed motion (in Pacer) filed Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Every day that passes where AT&T and TW can weave together the two businesses "make[s] it more difficult for this Court and the district court on remand to unwind the merger and preserve competition," DOJ said. It said the public has an interest in quick resolution that will further clarify law governing vertical deal reviews, especially given an expected wave of such combinations in the media and telecom industries. The agency said U.S. District Judge Richard Leon's approval of the deal (see 1806120060) was in error when he effectively discarded "well-accepted and non-controversial economic principles of bargaining." It said the lower court was reversible when it ignored "economic reasoning" that New AT&T is less vulnerable to economic harm in the event of a blackout of its content on a rival MVPD system and thus New AT&T can and will hold out for higher fees than it would have before the transaction. Justice said the lower court made a reversible error in ignoring that New AT&T would maximize its corporate-wide profit instead of having Turner and DirecTV operate independently at the expense of overall New AT&T profit. The department said AT&T wasn't opposed to a schedule that would have the government's opening brief due Aug. 6, AT&T's due Sept. 20, the government's reply brief due Oct. 11 and final briefs due Oct. 18. DOJ requested oral argument "as soon as practicable" after briefing.

The Better Business Bureaus' National Advertising Division decided Comcast should discontinue advertising claims the company has the most reliable network and that AT&T deceives customers about network speed and reliability, said the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council Tuesday. AT&T challenged Comcast radio and TV spots. Comcast said it will appeal to the National Advertising Review Board, the release said. NAD “has long recognized an advertiser’s right to make literally truthful and accurate advertising claims -- sometimes at the expense of its competitors. Denigrating claims, however, must be truthful, accurate and narrowly drawn,” it said. Though some of Comcast’s claims about the availability of AT&T’s faster service speeds could be substantiated, Comcast “could not support the claim that AT&T ‘was telling people everywhere that they could get AT&T Fiber when it’s really only available to, like, 10 percent of their customers,’” it said. NAD decided information from the FCC 2016 measuring broadband America fixed broadband report Comcast cited is dated.

Cable and telco groups voiced support for FCC efforts to identify unserved areas through the collection and mapping of data drawn from existing Form 477 filings. "In assessing proposed changes to the Form 477, we encouraged the Commission to focus on alternatives that would avoid unnecessary administrative and financial burdens for broadband providers and for the Commission itself," said a filing Monday in docket 11-10 on a meeting representatives of NCTA, USTelecom, ITTA and the American Cable Association had with Wireline Bureau staffers.

A draft FCC Iowa Network Access Division item addresses an investigation into a tariff filed by Aureon Network Services (Iowa Network Services) in docket 18-60, said a commission spokesperson Monday. The draft circulated Wednesday, said the agency's circulation list. Aureon outside counsel James Troup of Fletcher Heald told us Monday he believes the Wireline Bureau item is a draft decision on an Aureon tariff that has a July 28 deadline for resolution. Aureon filed proposed interstate access charge tariff revisions to comply with a November order that partially granted an AT&T complaint that Aureon improperly charged for "centralized equal access" on traffic heading to CLECs engaged in "access stimulation." AT&T and Sprint challenged the revised tariffs, and the Wireline Bureau designated some issues for investigation (see 1804200054). AT&T and Sprint didn't comment Monday. "AT&T's assertion that Aureon's rate for [CEA] service is excessive because the rate exceeds the rate benchmark for [CLECs] is without merit because Aureon is not even a CLEC in the first instance," said an Aureon surreply in the docket Monday. It's inappropriate to use CenturyLink's tandem switching rate as a benchmark for Aureon, said a South Dakota Network filing on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staffers. Troup believes an Enforcement Bureau item that circulated with commissioners in May is a draft FCC decision on an Aureon petition for reconsideration of the November order that the company argued should apply only prospectively (see 1805210041). The FCC suspended that proceeding to allow the parties to engage in settlement talks (see 1806060042), a stay it recently extended to July 27 (see 1807030019).

The FCC Further NPRM on emergency alert system testing and false alerts approved by commissioners 3-1 Thursday (see 1807120059) and in Monday's Daily Digest has comments due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 30 days later. It has several pages that list questions in three sections, including on false alert reporting and delivery of wireless emergency alerts to handsets. That section examines how performance of WEAs to wireless devices is measured and reported: “We are concerned that inconsistent WEA delivery not only fails to deliver potentially life-saving information to the public, but also can erode consumer confidence in alerting systems. Accordingly, we seek comment regarding WEA delivery issues that stakeholders have encountered or are aware of, either in connection with a live alert or with a regional end-to-end test.”

Two FCC information collections will take effect Tuesday after being approved by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, under rules to be published the same day in the Federal Register. The first stems from a 2016 Connect America Fund Alaska Plan order in docket 10-90 to provide $1.5 billion in broadband-oriented USF support cumulatively over 10 years to fixed and mobile providers in high-cost areas of the state served by rate-of-return telcos and their wireless affiliates (see 1608310067). The information collection had to be revised to reflect subsequent reporting orders. The second concerns information collection under a Feb. 22 payphone compensation order to roll back audit, reporting and other rules the agency called outdated (see Notebook at end of 1802220045). An order adopted June 7 (see Notebook at end of 1806070021) in docket 17-169 to take further actions against telephone slamming and cramming practices takes effect Aug. 16 under another rule for Tuesday's FR. Also in Tuesday’s FR, ATSC 3.0 information collection requirement clearance was announced (see 1807160014).

The EPA is encouraging smart home companies to “get in on the ground floor” and consider energy use “from the beginning,” said Abigail Daken, an environmental engineer at the agency. With smart home products gaining popularity, doing such will help manufacturers provide the functions consumers want with the least energy use, she said on an EPA Wednesday webinar. Connectivity within a system is an opportunity for cost savings and better user experience, said Daken. She cited a set-top box that must warm up after a “deep sleep.” In a connected home, it can turn on when the alarm system is disengaged, she said. User experience and energy-saving modes “work better together if occupancy information is shared” in a smart home, she said. The EPA is focusing on occupancy now as the most promising area for savings, and could later add co-optimization of devices, she said. The agency is gathering information from industry on how it would understand the performance of smart home systems. Typically, that process leads to a specification and products could be certified. But Energy Star Lighting Program Manager Taylor Jantz-Sell said the smart home isn't like other Energy Star standard practices for individual product specs because it’s a combination of products, some already Energy Star-certified. It’s a combination of hardware and occupancy data that could be “baked in” to hardware, or located remotely, and automated services working together, she said. “It’s a whole new arena for us,” she said.

Tribal groups and Lifeline providers asked a court to stay FCC tribal Lifeline restrictions, pending judicial review of their challenges to an order in late 2017 (see 1711160021). The FCC decisions to prohibit resellers from receiving enhanced tribal Lifeline support and to narrow the geographic scope of tribal lands will "disconnect eligible low-income Tribal members from phone and broadband service," and were made without meaningful consultation with affected tribes, said the motion (in Pacer) Friday of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority, National Lifeline Association, Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless and Easy Telephone Services, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in NLA v. FCC, No. 18-1026. The Wireline Bureau July 8 denied the parties' request for an administrative stay (see 1807060011). The D.C. Circuit Friday granted (in Pacer) an unopposed revised briefing schedule on underlying petitions challenging the order, with the DOJ/FCC brief due July 23, and petitioners' reply brief due Aug. 20. At the FCC, the NLA backed a Q Link Wireless emergency petition asking the FCC to direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to implement an application programming interface for its Lifeline national verifier of consumer eligibility for the low-income USF subsidy program. Comments are due in August on the petition (see 1807120004 and 1807050046).

The FCC upheld a January Wireless Bureau order on Dish Network designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless and their AWS-3 auction bidding credits. The bureau gave the DEs 90 days to renegotiate business arrangements with Dish and show how they qualify for their AWS-3 auction bidding credits (see 1801240053). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in August upheld FCC denial of those bidding credits, but gave the DEs a chance to negotiate a solution to Dish's de facto control (see 1708290012). “The process established in the Order on Remand to be responsive to the Court’s mandate and we affirm the Order on Remand,” the FCC said in Friday's Daily Digest. “The mandate does not require the Commission to hold 'responsive, back-and-forth discussions' with the Applicants. Nothing in Section 402(h) of the Act or the Court’s mandate limits the FCC’s discretion under Section 4(j) of the Act so as to require the FCC to ‘negotiate iteratively’ with Northstar and SNR Wireless in the fashion they now contemplate.” The companies didn't comment.

Commissioners renewed licenses of Fox Television Stations' WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and WNYW New York over a concurrence from Jessica Rosenworcel, despite opposition from some groups to those stations. The licenses now expire June 1, 2023, FCC records show. An order published in Friday's Daily Digest denied applications by Free Press, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Voice for New Jersey and United Church of Christ for review of a Media Bureau 2014 order renewing WWOR's license (see 1408110046) and petitions by the last two of those groups to deny renewals for both stations (see 1411040061) over concerns of a Fox inaccurate report to the agency and WWOR not serving the needs of its audience, specific obligations the station uniquely faces. Thursday, the agency released letters dated June 28 Chairman Ajit Pai wrote New Jersey's two Democratic senators saying he circulated a draft to resolve WWOR's then-pending renewal application. "The Bureau acted reasonably in finding that inaccurate statements made by Fox in the context of ex parte communications did not warrant further review or nonrenewal of Fox’s license," said the new order. "Because of our action in the 2014 Quadrennial Recon repealing the NBCO [Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership] rule, Fox’s joint ownership of these properties is now permissible under our current [cross-ownership] rules and the challenge to the Bureau’s grant of a temporary waiver is therefore moot." The bureau had given Fox temporary waiver to own both stations and the New York Post. Friday, the company declined to comment, and some of the challengers didn't comment. The order didn't contain a statement from Rosenworcel, whose office didn't comment further; an agency official noted the commissioner hadn't issued such a response. The offices of Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, the senators who had written Pai, also didn't comment Friday. Booker and Menendez wrote Pai in January asking him to consider WWOR’s “persistent refusal” to “abide by its legal obligations to provide the people of Northern New Jersey with local news and information.”