The FCC and supporters defended a 2015 pole-attachment order putting new downward pressure on rates that is being challenged in court by electric power companies, which own poles. In a joint reply brief to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals posted Tuesday, the FCC/DOJ said the commission has "broad authority" to regulate pole-attachment rates under Section 224(b) of the Communications Act (Ameren Corp., et al., v. FCC, No. 16-1683). They said that mandate was affirmed when the D.C. Circuit in 2013 upheld a 2011 FCC order that aimed to drive telecom rates down to lower cable rate levels in American Electric Power, which said the commission used its discretion reasonably to eliminate market distortions. After finding the rules weren't working as intended, the FCC in November adjusted cost allocators to bring the telecom and cable rates into closer parity at the lower levels (see 1511240071). "The rules, as amended, share the same structure and the same purpose as the 2011 rules. Accordingly, they are no less lawful than the rules at issue in American Electric Power, and this Court should follow the D.C. Circuit’s reasoning in that case to avoid a circuit split," said the FCC/DOJ, requesting an oral argument. Intervenors USTelecom plus NCTA, Incompas and Level 3 filed briefs backing the FCC actions (here and here in Pacer). The order "encourages broadband deployment, narrows the unjustified discrepancy that existed between the 'just and reasonable' rates that may be charged" competitors, and continues to fully compensate pole owners, USTelecom said. Both intervenor briefs said oral argument isn't necessary. "This challenge merely repackages the prior challenge rejected by the D.C. Circuit," USTelecom said. In their May brief (in Pacer), the power companies also said oral argument isn't necessary, "because the issues and relevant authority are clear." The commission's "conflation of the two cost formulas violates congressional intent and the canon against surplusage," said Ameren, American Electric Power Service, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric and Dominion Virginia Power. "The FCC's definition of 'cost' is also arbitrary and capricious because it gives an infinite number of meanings to the same term in the same subsection of the same statute." If the 8th Circuit orders oral argument, they said, 15 minutes will be sufficient for each side, the same as the FCC/DOJ requested.

Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president and the longtime top AT&T official on federal issues, will retire Sept. 30, to be replaced by Senior Vice President Bob Quinn, the carrier confirmed Wednesday. Emphasizing the growing importance of mobility to the company, Joan Marsh, vice president in charge of wireless issues, will take Quinn’s old job and become a senior vice president. Cicconi, like Quinn, was at the old AT&T when SBC acquired it in 2005. SBC then renamed itself AT&T. Cicconi worked in the White House for President Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, where he was deputy to the chief of staff. Cicconi “is respected by everyone, regardless of political party or viewpoint, as a big thinker, a master strategist and someone able to bridge divides to get things done," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO, in a written statement. "I greatly appreciate his leadership, wise counsel and countless contributions.” Cicconi is a “force of nature” in Washington, said Grant Seiffert, former president of the Telecommunications Industry Association. “Anything that has been big in telecom and internet policy, Jim has been a part of it,” Seiffert told us. While a longtime Republican, Cicconi recently said he was supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton for president (see 1607110047). In 2011, Cicconi was a leader of AT&T’s failed buy of T-Mobile and lambasted the FCC for effectively killing the deal (see 1112020064). More recently, the telco bought DirecTV.

Federal code prohibiting racial discrimination in contracts requires showing only that race played a motivating factor in conduct, and that Entertainment Studios Networks was told Comcast wouldn't carry it because it "was not trying to create any more [BET founder] Bob Johnsons" is direct evidence of that, ESN and the National Association of African American Owned Media said Monday in a filing (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The 22-page filing was in opposition to Comcast's motion to dismiss the amended ESN/NAAAOM lawsuit against it alleging racially motivated carriage discrimination (see 1607120051). ESN/NAAAOM said Comcast claimed it lacked bandwidth to carry ESN channels but then launched "lesser-known, white-owned" networks such as Fit TV and Inspirational Network. ESN/NAAAOM also said Comcast's argument that it had legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for not opting for carriage is suited for summary judgment or trial. ESN/NAAAOM also challenged Comcast's cited court decisions that support its affirmative defense that the First Amendment protects its decisions on what channels to carry, saying one of those decisions -- 2013's Comcast v. FCC by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- didn't reach Comcast's First Amendment defense and reversed the administrative decision on the grounds the FCC didn't meet its evidentiary burden. In its opposition, ESN/NAAAOM also claimed evidence of racial bias in that Comcast's Universal Studios reduced the number of ESN invites to press events for movies predominantly cast with African-Americans such as Get on Up and Straight Outta Compton. Comcast didn't comment Tuesday.

Two Democratic lawmakers touted New Mexico broadband connectivity Tuesday after a Monday roundtable in Albuquerque with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “If we can have internet access at 30,000 feet in an airplane, we should be able to have internet access on tribal land and throughout rural New Mexico,” said House Communications Subcommittee member Ben Ray Lujan. Lack of broadband access “puts too many New Mexicans at a disadvantage,” Sen. Tom Udall said. “As a member of the Senate Appropriations and Commerce committees, I'm fighting to ensure that no matter where you live, all New Mexicans can access reliable high speed broadband for business, health care, education and everyday communication.” Udall, Lujan and Clyburn “joined approximately 50 representatives from New Mexico telecommunications companies and rural telephone cooperatives to discuss efforts and challenges to expanding broadband access in rural communities and tribal lands across New Mexico,” a news release from the lawmakers said. It said after the roundtable, Luján and Clyburn traveled to Torreon, New Mexico, to "highlight the importance of the Lifeline program and efforts to modernize it to support broadband," and then to Crownpoint to visit Navajo Technical University to discuss the need to expand broadband access in tribal communities. Clyburn said the visit is part of her Connecting Communities tour: “We must be ever-vigilant in our attempts to close the digital and opportunities divide. With 21st century communications technologies, we can, with more ease and precision, greatly improve health outcomes for those currently without ready access to healthcare facilities; provide more immersive and comprehensive learning experiences for children and adults alike; increase civic engagement; and open up new avenues for people to find the jobs and acquire the skills needed to work in an internet economy.”

Comcast should drop its Xfinity-related advertising claims that it "delivers the fastest internet in America" and the "fastest, most reliable in-home WiFi," said the National Advertising Division (NAD), the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system. NAD said in a news release Tuesday that Verizon challenged the Comcast broadband ad claims, plus others by the cable ISP about the telco's phone service. NAD said the Comcast ads don't limit their claims to a particular tier, though Xfinity offers various speeds in different tiers, and relying on Ookla's Speedtest application data for substantiating its claims isn't a good means of substantiating overall superior speed performance assertions. NAD also said Comcast should end or modify its direct-mail campaign about Verizon's phone service because it's potentially confusing to consumers. NAD said Comcast indicated it plans to appeal the findings to the National Advertising Review Board. Comcast didn't comment Tuesday.

There were 326.5 million mobile voice subscriptions in the U.S. as of June 2015, along with 68.1 million traditional retail switched access lines and 56.8 million interconnected wireline VoIP subscribers, said an FCC voice services report listed in Monday's Daily Digest. From June 2012 to June 2015, the annual compound growth rate was 3 percent for mobile voice subscriptions and 13 percent for interconnected wireline VoIP subscriptions, while retail switched access lines decreased 13 percent annually, said the report, which derived the figures from FCC Form 477 submissions of voice providers. Of 125 million wireline retail voice connections (both traditional and VoIP), 69 million (55 percent) were residential and 56 million (45 percent) were business, while ILECs had 66.9 million connections and non-ILECs had 58 million, it said.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump “will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations” upon taking office, he said Monday in Detroit. Regulatory overhaul was a major feature of his speech on the economy. “This will give our American companies the certainty they need to reinvest in our community, get cash off of the sidelines, start hiring for new jobs, and expanding businesses,” Trump said. “I will also immediately cancel all illegal and overreaching executive orders. Next, I will ask each and every federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on Americans which are not necessary, do not improve public safety, and which needlessly kill jobs. Those regulations will be eliminated.” Last month in accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention, Trump outlined hostility to what he believes is excessive regulation (see 1607220052). His campaign issued a news release promising Trump would “remove bureaucrats and replace them with experts who know how to create jobs” and “initiate targeted review for regulations that inhibit hiring.” Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., lauded the speech and said “to reinvigorate our economy, we must reduce redundant programs, roll back Washington’s regulatory regime.” Aides to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton issued a memo Monday saying a Trump presidency would hurt the economy. Another Clinton campaign news release touted some business stakeholders including investor Mark Cuban, Bloomberg CEO Michael Bloomberg, Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos questioning Trump’s business savvy.

“Timing of availability” of ATSC 3.0 receivers will depend primarily on how quickly the FCC moves to authorize use of 3.0's physical transmission layer, America’s Public TV Stations, CTA and NAB told the FCC in Aug. 2 meetings with members of the Media Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and International Bureau, NAB said in a joint ex parte filing Thursday in docket 16-142. The associations want the FCC to launch a rulemaking on the transition by Oct. 1, they told the commission in reply comments in late June (see 1606280068). Consumer equipment manufacturers are unlikely to begin building ATSC 3.0 receivers into their products until the FCC “allows the voluntary use of the standard and there is something for those receivers to receive,” the ex parte filing said. Attendees included Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, CTA Senior Vice President-Research and Standards Brian Markwalter, APTS CEO Patrick Butler and NAB officials including General Counsel Rick Kaplan. ATSC 3.0 receiver costs "will fall over time as the standard becomes more widely used and consumer demand spurs broader manufacture of Next Generation TV receivers,” said NAB. CTIA’s concerns are “unfounded” about the potential for ATSC 3.0 to interfere with wireless operations in the 600 MHz band, the groups told the commission. “CTIA supports the broadcast industry’s efforts to evolve, as long as it does not delay or disrupt the use of new 600 MHz licenses purchased at auction,” Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs, emailed us Monday through a spokeswoman. CTIA used the identical language in its June 27 reply comments to summarize its position on ATSC 3.0. Further testing of the interference potential between wireless LTE and ATSC 3.0 “is unlikely to provide useful results,” APTS, CTA and NAB told the FCC. “There is no technical reason to believe that ATSC 3.0 creates a higher risk of potential inter-service interference” than the existing ATSC 1.0 service, they said.

The FCC released information on upcoming meetings of the four informal working groups (IWGs) under the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee. First will be IWG-2: Terrestrial Services, which has a call scheduled for Friday starting at 2 p.m. EDT, said a Friday notice. The committee is preparing preliminary U.S. positions for the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting starting in late November (see 1608020053).

CTIA, Incompas, NCTA and USTelecom backed a March 2015 petition for reconsideration asking the FCC to vacate a policy statement on the forfeiture methodology for violations of rules governing payment to certain payment programs. "Because the Policy Statement is written in terms that bind the agency in applicable monetary forfeiture proceedings, the Administrative Procedure Act required notice and comment prior to issuance of the Policy Statement," said a filing Friday by a CTIA counsel on a meeting with Enforcement Bureau staffers. It noted there was no docket because the commission didn't put the petition out for comment. The groups had said in 2015 the policy statement created “draconian” treble damages for amounts owed to USF and other funds (see 1503310052).