A closer look at AT&T’s investments in its network shows the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality order and reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service may have led to lower investments, said Hal Singer, George Washington University Institute senior fellow, in a Wednesday blog post. On the surface, AT&T capital expenditures went up from 2014 to 2016, from $21.2 billion to $21.5 billion, but that tells only part of the story, he said. It doesn’t take into account AT&T’s increased spending on DirecTV or in Mexico, Singer noted. With investments in DirecTV and Mexico taken out of the numbers, capex in 2016 declined by 16.2 percent from 2014, which was before reclassification -- $17.8 billion versus $21.2 billion, Singer said. “Put differently, the imposition of Title II is associated with (but did not necessarily cause) an annual reduction of over $3 billion in capital in the broadband sector in each of the last two years,” he said. “That’s a lot of capital to go missing.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai repeatedly argued that reclassification has meant less spending (see 1602260053). Matt Wood, Free Press policy director, challenged Singer’s arguments. “Even Hal cannot bring himself to claim that Title II ‘caused’ the reduction in AT&T's spending,” Wood emailed. “It's ‘associated’ with Title II? What on earth does that mean? There is no logic to the incredible leap he makes here by pretending that his is a straightforward argument. At best, he's trading in baseless innuendo and insinuations.” Singer said based on his calculations, capex spending by 12 top ISPs was down $3.6 billion in 2016, a 5.6 percent decline from 2014 levels. AT&T saw the biggest decline.

The Wi-Fi Alliance raised concerns about an Amtrak waiver request to let the passenger rail service operate at higher power levels in the 5 GHz band than allowed by FCC rules. In December, Amtrak asked the FCC to change the rules under which its Wi-Fi network operates so it can offer more robust service along its key Northeast Corridor (see 1612220013). Amtrak said limits in the UNII-1 band, output power of 250 mW with antenna gain up to 6 dBi, would mean it would have to spend more on stations than if it were allowed to operate at higher power levels. In effect, it asked to operate at levels allowed for fixed point-to-point operations, even though its trains move from place to place. “Wi-Fi Alliance applauds Amtrak for recognizing Wi-Fi as a key component of service to its customers,” the alliance said in a filing in docket 16-415. “However, Amtrak should demonstrate that the benefit its customers will receive will not impose a cost on other users of the 5 GHz band. Wi-Fi Alliance therefore requests that the Commission require Amtrak to provide further evidence of compatibility with other 5 GHz operations before the Commission grants the requested waiver.” An IEEE committee raised similar concerns. “Amtrak has provided no technical details regarding their network, no simulation results or measured data, and no characterization of the environment,” said IEEE 802, which oversees local area and metropolitan area networks. “With no information we cannot begin to understand its impact on neighboring Wi-Fi networks.” Globalstar said that after the request was filed it commissioned a study by Roberson and Associates and asked Amtrak officials questions. “Based on its analysis and these discussions, Globalstar does not object to the Commission’s grant of Amtrak’s waiver request given its very limited deployment and unique design, as long as such grant is narrowly tailored and includes all of the conditions proposed by Amtrak in its request,” Globalstar wrote.

A robocall blocking NPRM is among the items being considered for the March 23 meeting of FCC commissioners, agency officials told us. The tentative agenda is due out Thursday.

The FCC announced Tuesday that Chairman Ajit Pai and R.S. Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), signed an agreement at the Mobile World Congress pledging cooperation between the agencies. “The nonbinding agreement sets out a framework for the mutually beneficial exchange of ideas through activities such as best practices sharing, bilateral workshops, and digital videoconferences,” the FCC said in a statement. “To guide these efforts, the FCC and TRAI have determined topics of shared interest, including accelerating broadband deployment and aligning spectrum policy to meet increasing mobile broadband demand.”

Corrections: It's the consulting firm of economist Hal Singer, a firm principal, that has Comcast as a client (see 1702270035) ... The president of the Free State Foundation is Randolph May (see 1702240029).

The FCC said a slowdown involving the commercial vendor that hosts the agency's electronic comment filing system was to blame for problems Tuesday opening filings. The agency emailed us the slowdown involved the U.S. East Coast and affected the speed of files. It affected the Electronic Comment Filing System. Last week, the agency experienced other IT-related issues (see 1702220072).

The FCC listed all its current information-collection requirements approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act. "The Commission intends that this section comply with the requirement that agencies 'display' current OMB control numbers and expiration dates assigned by the Director, OMB, for each approved information collection requirement," said a rule and a 20-page list attached to an order of the FCC managing director released Tuesday. An FCC spokesman said the item simply updated the list.

CenturyLink has a "tough hand" but its planned Level 3 buy is a timely move, said MoffettNathanson analysts Tuesday in an investor note initiating coverage with a neutral rating. Like other wireline telcos, CenturyLink is struggling in the industry transition from copper-based to fiber-based and wireless services, with about half its revenue "still legacy in nature" and declining, requiring "defensive" network investments, they wrote. Free cash flow is "deteriorating and will soon be barely sufficient to cover the dividend," they wrote: "Level 3 does not suffer from the same structural challenges as CenturyLink, and cost savings between the two businesses will be significant. This shrewd and well-timed acquisition will allow CenturyLink to stabilize its financial profile in the coming years and eliminate the risk of having to cut its dividend. CenturyLink had no choice but to do this deal, and ... it snagged Level 3 without overpaying." The companies defended their transaction at the FCC against criticism it would hurt competition (see 1702090035 and 1701240037). They expect further investigation to confirm that deal-specific enterprise services "are and will remain vibrantly competitive," said their filing in docket 16-403 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. On the long-haul side, they said there's competition from numerous providers with significant networks. "There is no basis to treat wholesale dark fiber as a separate product market from lit services," they wrote, saying the FCC "found it reasonable in the Verizon-XO transaction to conclude that a combined company will seek to maximize the return on its fiber facilities by selling both lit services and dark fiber to the extent it is efficient to do so."

Intelsat and OneWeb joining likely would need only FCC International Bureau, not commissioner, approval, although that process still could take months, satellite lawyer and former LightSquared General Counsel Jeff Carlisle told us. He said the deal, announced Tuesday, shouldn't draw a lot of controversial comments. He said the deal doesn't seem to pose horizontal or vertical concentration issues because the two companies operate in different markets. Instead, the combination points to a breaking down of traditional telecom silos of terrestrial/low earth orbit (LEO)/geosynchronous orbit (GEO), much like AT&T/DirecTV did. "You're going to see a lot of these age-old distinctions becoming maybe a little less distinct," Carlisle said. Intelsat said it expects to deal to close in Q3, contingent on regulatory and bondholder approvals. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said in an analyst call Tuesday that the combined company, with Intelsat's GEO system and OneWeb's planned LEO system, opens the door to their together taking a larger satellite broadband market share and doing more work in backhaul carriage, as well as new applications like connected vehicles and over-the-top video distribution. Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm told us the deal opens the door to opportunities like the joined companies working low-latency markets such as 5G and also would let startup OneWeb piggyback off the international landing rights Intelsat already has.

CTA President Gary Shapiro and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai were among those reacting this weekend on Twitter to the shooting last week of two Garmin engineers, both 32 and originally from India, and a bystander in a bar near Garmin’s U.S. headquarters in Olathe, Kansas, in what authorities are calling a possible hate crime (see 1702240066). Srinivas Kuchibhotla died in the shooting and his Garmin colleague, Alok Madasani, was wounded, as was Ian Grillot, 24, the bystander who tried to intervene. “Our hearts go out to family and friends of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the other victims and the entire @Garmin family,” Shapiro tweeted Saturday. "RIP, Srinivas Kuchibotla [sic]," Pai tweeted late Friday. "@Garmin engineer murdered in cold blood in KC was 'simply an outstanding human being.'" The son of immigrants from India, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, about 125 miles southwest of Olathe, his FCC bio page says. Alleged gunman Adam Purinton, 51, faces one count of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of premeditated attempted first-degree murder in Johnson County District Court in Olathe. Purinton made his first court appearance Monday before Judge Charles Droege, who scheduled Purinton for a March 9 "no go" preliminary hearing, where he'll hear his fiirst evidence in the case, court records show.