Individuals and companies in the telecom and media industries sent big dollars to help President Donald Trump's inauguration effort, according to a form recently filed with the Federal Election Commission, dated Tuesday. Liberty Interactive Chairman John Malone, who has a stake in Charter Communications, gave $250,000 personally, and Liberty donated the same amount separately. AT&T gave $1 million in multiple instances, for a total gift of more than $2.08 million. Qualcomm gave $1 million. Intel and Microsoft donated $500,000 each, Google $285,000, Comcast and Charter $250,000 each, Verizon $100,000 and Amazon more than $57,000. Trump ally Peter Thiel, a tech industry official involved in the campaign and presidential transition, gave $225,000.

New America’s Open Technology Institute was pleased Nick Degani, aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, met with public interest groups about privacy, but questions remain, OTI Policy Counsel Eric Null told us Wednesday. Null was at the meeting (see 1704180033). “There is much uncertainty and confusion over how broadband privacy will be protected going forward, and we hope the chairman heard our arguments and will provide commission-level guidance to alleviate at least some of that uncertainty,” he said.

Verizon's "most logical" acquisition target is Charter Communications despite the telco's comments citing others as possible strategic partners, said Bank of America analysts. In a CNBC interview, Verizon (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam invited Comcast, Disney and CBS to "knock on the door" or "call" for talks, the analysts said in a note this week to investors. "While naming names for potential strategic deals is striking in general, the list itself is particularly surprising in our view because of its inclusion of major content players," the analysts wrote, noting McAdam omitted to name companies speculated to be talking with Verizon, including Charter, Dish and Zayo. "As a result, we believe these comments might be viewed as public negotiating with preferred major partners by opening the door to alternatives." They cited McAdam's previous flat denial that Verizon would buy CBS, and his comment Tuesday that "it doesn't make sense to go off strategy" even in a more accommodating regulatory environment. "There are cogent strategic arguments" for Verizon to acquire Charter, they wrote, including: (1) high-speed network footprint expansion that speeds market moves and reduces costs for deploying 5G mobile, (2) content "synergies," (3) diversification into a "faster growth business" and (4) disruption of any cable combination plans to pursue a facilities-based mobile play. "Key potential challenges include sheer cost of a deal, including EPS [earnings per share] dilution and a leverage bump, and the need to divest a large base of overlapping cable/VZ assets including NYC," they said.

The cable industry "remains open to enforceable and reasonable open Internet protections but stressed its continued opposition to the regulation of broadband Internet access service under Title II of the Communications Act," said an NCTA filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-28 on a meeting its president, Michael Powell, had with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide. "Mr. Powell noted that broadband ISPs have provided consumers with a free and open Internet for the past two decades and that, until 2015, broadband had been classified as a Title I 'information service' by Democratic and Republican Administrations alike. Mr. Powell explained that Title I’s light regulatory touch had been critical to broadband ISPs’ ability to innovate, attract capital and make the massive investments necessary to constantly expand the reach and capabilities of their networks."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai slammed Universal Service Administrative Co. E-rate oversight and urged improvements in the USF school and library discount program, which he said still has "serious flaws," despite previous remedy efforts. Pai said USAC's online E-rate Productivity Center (EPC) portal to process applications "is still not adequately functional," forcing critical steps to be carried out over a legacy IT system. "EPC implementation issues have created major headaches for applicants," many of whom "are still waiting for funding commitment decision letters for funding year 2016," he said in a letter to USAC CEO Chris Henderson listed in Wednesday's Daily Digest. "USAC has failed to fulfill specific commitments made to applicants even as it rolled out EPC system upgrades. USAC has frequently failed to devise solutions for applicants, instead requiring extensive FCC involvement, including from my office, to resolve problems." He also said $30 million has been spent on EPC despite an original estimate of $19 million, and the total cost could spike to "$60 million or greater." Telcos complained last year about EPC functionality (see 1607200074). Pai said USAC's "lack of full transparency" is compounding the various problems. "The current state of affairs is unacceptable. I seek your unqualified commitment that USAC will administer the E-Rate program in a manner that fully complies with Commission direction; works for applicants and participants; and promptly apprises the FCC of all relevant information concerning implementation," he wrote Henderson. Pai urged USAC to "swiftly resolve issues that continue to plague the system," with a focus on supporting and completing "basic EPC functionality" before addressing "ancillary" issues; to "be fully transparent and accountable to the Commission"; and "to identify alternative options to assist applicants" when IT failures occur, including through manual efforts by USAC or a contractor, if necessary. He asked USAC to devise a plan of action by May 18. USAC didn't comment.

"A vaguely worded statement buried" in the last paragraph of terms and conditions and not part of the uniform service contract isn't adequate disclosure of public Wi-Fi hot spots being broadcast from customers' homes, said a response (in PACER) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, in opposition to a motion to dismiss a suit against the cable ISP and parent Altice. Plaintiff Paul Jensen of Brooklyn said Cablevision/Altice claims the Wi-Fi policy is divulged in the general terms and conditions of service, but the link provided in the motion to dismiss redirects people to another page with another set of links to 22 different terms of service, with the fourth one down directing people to yet another web page giving details about Optimum Online Service operating as a wireless hot spot. Jensen said parent companies aren't automatically liable for subsidiaries' actions, but the parents can be found liable where the actions were done at the parent's direction, and Altice controls Cablevision decision-making. Jensen said Cablevision/Altice is wrong when it argues that each use of a customer's Optimum router is a distinct alleged offense and none of those individually reaches the $5,000 damages threshold, since courts have found that damages to a class as a whole can be aggregated to meet that $5,000 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act threshold. Altice didn't comment Tuesday.

The FCC told the Universal Service Administrative Co. to reserve 100 percent of the E-rate funds it needs to cover three categories of potential funding disbursements: "(1) pending applications; (2) funding that has been committed but not yet disbursed; and (3) appeals pending with USAC and the Commission." Noting USAC had been reserving some funds for older appeals on an ad hoc basis despite a 2014 FCC letter's guidance, the commission said it sought to clarify various instructions to "provide a clearer and more consistent E-rate fund reserve practice for USAC" to implement. "The direction to reserve 100 percent for the above-referenced categories alters the 2014 Letter guidance that generally instructed USAC to not reserve funds for pending applications that are older than three years and pending appeals," said FCC Managing Director Mark Stephens in a letter to USAC listed in Tuesday's Daily Digest. "We know that not all funding applications are granted, not all committed funds are disbursed and not all pending appeals are granted. However, we have determined that a 100 percent reserve rate is the most consistent and transparent way for USAC to track needed funds and provides certainty that there is available funding for disbursements." Stephens gave other guidance details, including on "carry forward procedures" for the accounting of unused funds. USAC didn't comment.

The next meeting of the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019 is critical and industry needs to find consensus, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the FCC’s WRC-19 Advisory Committee Tuesday. “I don’t have to tell you how critical the WRC is for American industry and ultimately American consumers,” Pai said, according to his written remarks. “You have all seen it firsthand, many of you over the course of several conferences. Spectrum decisions made at the WRC will have an impact that lasts long after the conference lights go dark.” The next WRC must “promote a stable, predictable regulatory environment,” Pai said. “This is the best way to facilitate long-term investments in a multi-trillion dollar communications industry and to usher in new services to consumers.” The next WRC will look at high-frequency spectrum for broadband, high-altitude platform stations, massive constellations of Non-Geosynchronous Orbit satellite systems and “communications to and from planes, trains and automobiles,” Pai said. The FCC advisory committee represents the interest of industry in U.S. preparation for the WRC. “Your efforts will ensure that the FCC represents effectively a broad spectrum of views during international negotiations and in the course of domestic decision-making,” Pai said. Former Chairman Tom Wheeler briefly visited the last WRC when it met in Geneva in 2015, where he pressed for a worldwide approach to broadband in the TV bands, before the start of the U.S. TV incentive auction (see 1511050041).

With an eye on 5G, Verizon said it signed a three-year minimum purchase agreement to buy $1.05 billion worth of Corning fiber cable. That translates to as much as 12.4 million miles of fiber per year, from 2018 through 2020, Verizon said in a Tuesday news release. “Verizon has been reinventing its network architecture around a next-generation fiber platform that will support all of the company’s businesses,” Verizon said. “This new architecture is designed to improve Verizon’s 4G LTE coverage, speed the deployment of 5G, and deliver high-speed broadband to homes and businesses of all sizes.” In an initial deployment, Verizon said it launched One Fiber in Boston last year with plans to invest $300 million over six years to deploy fiber throughout the city. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said on CNBC Tuesday that the deal is important as Verizon densifies its network through small cells. Verizon will launch 5G in 11 markets this summer, he said: “This is one of those where if you build it, they’ll come.” McAdam said an FCC proposal to speed wireless infrastructure deployment, teed up for a vote at the FCC Thursday (see 1703300060), is also critical. The proposed rules are “important to us,” he said. “It’s working with the communities to make sure that the conduits are available that facilitates the small-cell placement, that puts a shot clock on the amount of time before permits are approved in the municipalities; those sorts of things will help us move it forward.” Verizon has about 60,000 macro towers and 13,000 small cells now, McAdam said: “When we get rolling” in places like Boston “we’ll put 8,000, 10,000 small cells, literally the size of your hand.” The next networks will look very different from 4G and earlier networks, which were focused on capacity and throughput, he said. “Fifth generation is about those things, and we’re going to see 100 times faster throughput,” but also with much less latency, McAdam said. “The network will go out and come back and respond in less than the time it takes to blink your eye,” he said. “We’re going to see 10 times the battery life that we’ve seen in the past. That opens up a whole new set of applications.” But none of the changes is possible without fiber “deep in the network,” he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal for an Office of Economics and Data (see 1704050047) should lead to better regulation, especially if it means more cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of pending regulations, said Caroline Cecot, affiliate faculty member at George Mason University Law School, in a Technology Policy Institute blog post. Borrowing language from President Donald Trump, she said the push could "make economics at the FCC great again.” The proposed office would, “among other things, prepare CBAs to help the Commission determine whether the benefits of a given proposal are expected to outweigh its costs and consider how the costs and benefits of the proposal will be distributed among different segments of society,” Cecot wrote. “Once controversial, CBA -- or at least some form of CBA -- is now almost synonymous with sound policy.” Meanwhile, the Free State Foundation said in a new paper that regulation from the FCC led to less investment. “Telecommunications, a sector that should be leading the way in innovation, continues to be too heavily regulated,” said the paper by Senior Fellow Theodore Bolema. “While some eras are characterized by great regulatory accumulation and others by little or no accumulation, the direction, especially in the last several years of the [Tom] Wheeler Commission, has been continuously toward imposing more regulatory burdens.”