AT&T's Randall Stephenson, Comcast's Brian Roberts and Disney's Bob Iger could potentially be the media company CEO who leads the industry through coming turbulent changes, S&P Global reported Monday to investors. It said the chief previously most likely to fill that role was Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes, but AT&T's buy of TW ended that. S&P said while all three are from "old school" companies, new media company executives seem more interested "in disrupting the established order than leading it." It said AT&T, Comcast and Disney are pursuing acquisition strategies to significantly expand their brands, geographic reach and content. The ratings firm said Comcast has yet to fully spell out its proposed future as a media giant. It said Disney could be most disruptive depending on how fast it delinks ESPN from the traditional pay-TV ecosystem, while despite little experience with content, AT&T has an "ambitious global media agenda." The firm said scale is key to media survival, and with those companies having made sizable moves, the rest of the industry should follow.

The FCC directed the North American Numbering Council "to advise the Commission on consolidating the contracts of two numbering administrators -- the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) and the Pooling Administrator (PA) -- to bring about more cost-efficient and effective operations by a combined entity (NANPA/PA)," said a unanimous order Monday in docket 99-200.

The FCC Friday released performance measurement rules for the Connect America Fund. They cover high-cost universal service support recipients, including price cap and rate-of-return carriers, rural broadband experiment support recipients, Alaska Plan carriers and CAF Phase II auction winners. The order offers “high-cost support recipients that serve fixed locations three options to afford flexibility in choosing solutions to conduct required performance testing,” the FCC said in docket 10-90. Those options are using: Measuring Broadband America program infrastructure; existing network management systems and tools, or off-the-shelf testing; or provider-developed self-testing configurations. Last year, the FCC sought comment on performance measures (see 1711060055). “By providing these three options, we ensure that there is a cost-effective method for conducting testing for providers of different sizes and technological sophistication,” the FCC said. “We do not require that providers invest in and implement new internal systems; instead, providers may perform speed and latency tests with readily-available, off-the-shelf solutions or existing MBA infrastructure.” The order was released by the Wireline and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC also said Friday it will conduct a single CAF II mock auction, for all applicants listed as qualified to bid in the qualified bidders public notice, on July 18-19. “Participants will be able to use and become familiar with all features of the CAF II Bidding System that they will use during the actual bidding,” the FCC said. “The mock auction is designed so that, within several rounds of bidding, bidders will experience key auction events.”

The FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet at the FCC July 26 and 27 in what's expected to be a key meeting as the group nears the end of the first stage of its work. The FCC announced the dates of the meeting Friday. Topic one will be recommendations from the Harmonization Working Group, which is working to harmonize the Model Code for Municipalities and Model Code for States approved by BDAC in April. The BDAC is also to hear a report from its Ad Hoc Committee for Rates and Fees and discuss what happens next and what role the BDAC will play now that the first stage of its work is mostly complete. Commissioner Brendan Carr has said he's preparing an item for commissioner consideration that will address how to speed local and state decisions on wireless siting as industry moves forward on 5G.

The FCC Wireline Bureau turned down a request by Lifeline providers and tribal groups for a stay of 2017 tribal Lifeline changes, pending judicial review of their legal challenges to an order released Dec. 1 (see 1711160021 and 1712010042). “Petitioners have not shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims,” the bureau said Thursday. “The 2017 Lifeline Order contains a comprehensive explanation of the basis for the Commission’s decision to limit enhanced Tribal support to rural Tribal areas, and to target such support to facilities-based providers.” Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless, Easy Wireless, the National Lifeline Association, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and the Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority requested the stay last month (see 1806250032). The bureau rejected claims that it hadn’t done required consultation with the tribes before approving the order. The agency also said it didn’t violate the Administrative Procedure Act by not specifically seeking the changes approved in the December order. “We do not see how the lack of an additional round of notice and comment could have harmed Petitioners, who had a full opportunity to register their opposition to the Commission’s proposals to limit enhanced support to facilities-based providers, and to rural Tribal areas, after the 2015 Lifeline [Future NPRM] was released,” it said.

An online map of Brooklyn unlicensed radio stations created by a pirate radio enthusiast profiled in the New Yorker will be used to “facilitate more enforcement actions,” FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a pair of tweets condemning the article. “BTW, appreciate the Brooklyn map of illegal pirate radio ‘stations,’” O’Rielly tweeted. “Fairly certain @FCC already has info but will share with Enforcement Bureau.” The article “tries to paint pretty picture of pirate radio while barely discussing the illegal practice harms so many,” O’Rielly said. David Goren, the subject of the article and the creator of the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map, appeared to thank O’Rielly for mentioning his project in another tweet. The New Yorker didn't comment

Consumers are “one step closer to feeling the full effects of a trade war,” said National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay Thursday, before U.S. tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods are to take effect Friday. The tariffs “will do nothing to protect U.S. jobs, but they will undermine the benefits of tax reform and drive up prices for a wide range of products as diverse as tool sets, batteries, remote controls, flash drives and thermostats,” said Shay, who “strongly urged” the administration to scrap plans for tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese goods. Additional tariffs would “destroy thousands of American jobs and raise prices on virtually everything sold in our stores,” Shay said. “Reining in China’s abusive trade policies is a goal shared by many countries, but a strategy based on unilateral tariffs is the wrong approach and it has to stop,” said Shay. The Washington Post Tuesday quoted CTA CEO Gary Shapiro, referencing comments Shapiro made in a June 5 Fortune commentary: “Tariffs are Trump’s worst choice,” said Shapiro. “They don’t make us ‘great.’ Instead, they lead to retaliation," he said. "And as the rest of the world moves forward with tariff-busting trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other bilateral agreements, we will become further isolated as foreign markets shrink for our goods." Addressing journalists at CES Asia last month (see 1806130001), Shapiro said "nobody wins" in a trade war, and threats and discussions about tariffs cause "global economic uncertainty." He said: “Everybody loses when two major trading partners start disagreeing.”

The FCC sought nominations on an "Interoperable Video Calling" working group to help the North American Numbering Council. The IVC working group "will explore how to facilitate the provision of interoperable telephone number-based video calling, allowing service providers to voluntarily offer, to any customer, the capability to make or receive a video call between 10-digit North American Numbering Plan numbers," said a public notice Tuesday in docket 92-237, which asked for nominations "as soon as possible," but by July 31.

All Comcast Xfinity Mobile users will see standard-definition video by default on the mobile network, while unlimited-plan users will get slower speeds when tethering, under policy changes. Video will be streamed at 480p by default, “consistent with standard unlimited plans across standards,” though customers may stream HD video over Wi-Fi, a spokesperson emailed Tuesday. Comcast plans to charge extra for 720p resolution later this year; until then, customers may request it for free temporarily, he said. Comcast further explained the video policy change on a support page updated Monday. When using a phone as a hot spot, unlimited-plan users will get 3G speeds, while users paying $12 per gigabyte get 4G speeds, he said. The changes are to keep price down, the spokesperson said. The mobile virtual network operator unlimited plan costs $45 monthly for 20 GB of 4G data.

Consumer groups and others backed a request that the FCC stay tribal restrictions in the Lifeline low-income subsidy program, pending judicial review of their legal challenges to an order released Dec. 1. "This is a reasonable and modest request to temporarily delay the implementation of the drastic changes to the Tribal Lifeline program until the conclusion of the review sought by Joint Petitioners in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit," said the Benton Foundation, Common Cause, Free Press, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Consumer Law Center, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Native Public Media, Next Century Cities, Public Knowledge and six others, filing Tuesday in docket 17-287 supporting the petition of Lifeline providers and tribal group (see 1806250032). "Residents of Tribal lands are at risk of consumer confusion, at best, and loss of phone and broadband service, at worst, if the Commission’s ... [tribal Lifeline order] were to take effect while the court appeal is pending. We are further concerned that the Commission failed in its obligation to engage in government-to-government Tribal consultations with regard to this proposal that will have such a dramatic impact on Indian country, per the Commission’s own long-established procedure."