The FTC is following President Donald Trump's priorities for job creation, limiting federal overreach and streamlining regulations, said acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen in remarks prepared for a Kelley Drye seminar Wednesday. That largely repeated past statements (see 1703160032, 1704170016 and 1704250029). The chairman is focused on civil investigative demands (CIDs) that can impose costs and document requests to companies. "I take these concerns seriously," she said, adding it's part of the FTC mission statement. "The mission statement continues: we are to 'accomplish this without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.' To make sure that we are living up to our own mission statement, I’ve instructed the Bureau of Consumer Protection to form an internal working group on our use of CIDs," she said. Ohlhausen said the commission's focus on substantial harm in both competition and consumer protection will ensure it doesn't overreach. She said she established an internal task force -- headed by the Economics Bureau working with the Consumer Protection Bureau -- to study the economics of privacy "to encourage and clarify economic reasoning on issues relating to the privacy and data security marketplace." The FTC is an independent agency and not subject to executive orders, Ohlhausen said, but she said she shares Trump's "desire to eliminate unnecessary and burdensome regulatory requirements that hurt our economy."

The FCC shouldn’t trust T-Mobile’s predictions about the post-incentive auction frequency repacking because the carrier repeatedly made inaccurate predictions and broke rules, said NAB Vice President-Spectrum Policy Patrick McFadden in a blog post Wednesday. T-Mobile “touts itself as the ‘Un-carrier,’” McFadden said. The FCC should “take a moment to ponder the pattern and wonder just how much it can take T-Mobile at its ‘Un-word,’” he said. The company insisted the FCC needed a spectrum set aside in the incentive auction to keep AT&T and Verizon from buying up too much spectrum, but Verizon didn’t bid at all and AT&T didn’t spend as much as anticipated, McFadden said. T-Mobile violated the forward auction quiet period and “throttled” heavy data users, McFadden said. The FCC should take enforcement action, he said. “We’ll see if the government has anything to say about T-Mobile’s willingness to flaunt its rules in this instance and whether the powers that be will finally catch on to T-Mobile’s pattern of ‘Un-following’ the rules and playing fast and loose with ‘Un-facts.’” T-Mobile’s past actions should lead the agency to discount its claims the repacking can be completed in 39 months, McFadden said. “The FCC can no longer rely on T-Mobile’s now consistently dubious claims.” "T-Mobile is perplexed at how NAB’s rhetoric helps its members," said Steve Sharkey, vice president-government affairs. "We’re working cooperatively with its members on a successful transition that benefits consumers.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology released an updated version of the TVStudy repacking software Tuesday, it said in a public notice. Version 2.2.1 contains “the software configuration settings for use in processing construction permit applications during the 39-month post-auction period,” the PN said. A further update is expected “in the coming weeks” that will allow low-power TV stations to “conduct interference analyses that correctly consider pre-auction channel assignments as well as post-auction assignments,” the PN said.

The FCC announced a May 30 effective date for a video relay service order and rules issued in January that set interoperability and portability technical standards for services, equipment and software (see 1701180036). The compliance deadline is Oct. 24 for meeting the standards of an Internet Engineering Task Force "xCard XML format" and April 27, 2018, for meeting the standards of an "Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment," said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs public notice Tuesday in docket 10-51. It noted the commission suspended the effectiveness of a compliance deadline for meeting the standards of a VRS provider interoperability profile, pending resolution of a separate proceeding that was recently launched. The PN also said comments are due June 12 and replies July 11 on a January Further NPRM on the scope and application of a technical standard for user equipment and software. A CGB letter posted Tuesday said confidential and highly confidential VRS provider business data is now available, subject to a protective order, to parties in the rulemaking on VRS compensation rates and other issues, after no objections were filed in response to an earlier PN (see 1704070026).

More than 106,000 foreigners located overseas were intelligence targets in 2016 under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), said the Director of National Intelligence in a transparency report released Tuesday. The number of targets last year swelled by more than 12,000, a 13 percent hike from 2015. The report said the FBI queried Section 702 surveillance information once in 2016 for evidence of a crime unrelated to foreign intelligence. DNI said 60 orders were issued last year for the use of pen register and trap and trace devices -- which capture dialing, routing, addressing or signaling information -- for foreign intelligence purposes under Title IV of FISA. The orders targeted 41 people: 23 non-U.S. persons and 18 U.S. persons. The 2016 figure is about 30 fewer than in 2015 and 71 fewer than in 2013.

While pricing is generally driving down MVPD subscriber numbers, Charter Communications has room to boost subscribership largely by taking market share from direct broadcast satellite, CEO Tom Rutledge said in an analyst call Tuesday. He said MVPD subscriber losses trend won't change anytime soon, but it also isn't accelerating. Charter said in a news release the number of residential video customers dropped by 100,000 in Q1, largely due to churn from legacy Time Warner Cable customers, ending the quarter with 16.7 million customers. During the quarter, it said it added 428,000 residential internet customers, putting its subscriber base at 21.8 million, and 37,000 residential voice customers, giving it 10.4 million. Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors that the subscriber numbers from churn off of lower-value products are apparently hiding customers shifting to higher-end packages. She said despite Charter assertions that streaming bundles shouldn't pose a competitive threat, "we'll believe it when we see it." MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote that the subscriber numbers confirm that cord-cutting is accelerating across MVPDs. Rutledge said Charter has now launched new pricing and service packages across all its legacy TWC and Bright House Networks territories -- with Charter having bought the two in 2016 -- except for Hawaii, with the pricing and packages launching there soon. He said minimum broadband speeds are 60 Mbps or 100 Mbps across Charter's footprint, depending on the market, and that Charter is about to restart its all-digital conversion across TWC and BHN markets that aren't all digital yet, with the work to last through early 2019. Rutledge said Charter is testing "5G-like services" on various spectrum bands in a variety of different markets. Asked about Charter not pursing 600 MHz incentive auction spectrum, unlike Comcast, Rutledge said Charter's mobile virtual network operator agreement with Verizon is sufficient for a planned wireless offering launch in 2018, and Charter doesn't see any need now for that spectrum, though "opportunities will be available to get it." Pointing to Charter integrating Netflix into its user interface, Rutledge said the company is in similar talks with YouTube.

Bargaining between AT&T and it wireless workers continued Monday after the employees’ contract ended, said the company and Communications Workers of America. “Two sides are at the table today continuing to negotiate,” an AT&T spokesman emailed Monday. Friday, about 21,000 AT&T wireless workers in 36 states sent their employer a 72-hour notice to end their contract extension (see 1704280048). The workers authorized a strike in February, but it’s up to union leaders to call one. Carissa Moore, an AT&T call center worker from Bothell, Washington, said a strike option is still on the table. “AT&T wireless workers like me support continued bargaining with the expectation that AT&T comes to the table with serious proposals, but we can’t wait forever,” she said. “If we decide it’s necessary to protect good jobs, we will strike.”

Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen repeated her position that she wants congressional action repealing the common-carrier exemption so the FTC can regulate broadband privacy but declined to comment on specific legislation that would restore even partial authority. Responding to a question whether she would support HR-1754 introduced in March by House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio (see 1704270006), Ohlhausen, who gave a keynote speech Monday at a Capitol Hill discussion, said she's generally aware of the bill, but hasn't reviewed it in detail. "What I would like to see is the FTC be given its ability back on a firmer ground," she said. Last week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also introduced legislation that would give the FTC authority to enforce privacy and data security rules for ISPs. In August, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, siding with AT&T Mobility, ruled that the common-carrier exemption is status-based and therefore bars any FTC oversight over common carriers even if they're engaged in non-common carrier activity (see 1608290032). The FTC is seeking an en banc review of the 9th Circuit ruling. In response to a question about the FTC's next step if the hearing request is denied, Ohlhausen said: "It's a very core issue. If the 9th Circuit decision is upheld, I certainly think we'd want to see if there's anything else we can do, whether to appeal to the Supreme Court on that. But it's kind of a to-be-determined decision." She added the ruling has "ramifications far outside privacy and data security and telecommunications." Ohlhausen's talk at the University of Pennsylvania Law School-sponsored event focused on FCC reclassification of broadband as a common carrier service, removing FTC authority over such providers, similar to previous speeches (see 1704270006 and 1704190057). Earlier Monday, an appeals court upheld FCC net neutrality rules (see 1705010038).

The feedback from the independent and diverse media NPRM was clear that such programming "must be preserved," which could help drive the FCC to adopt an order dealing with the issue, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a speech Thursday at the Media Solutions Summit, according to a transcript. She said the Media Bureau is reviewing the record. Some have said they see the agency under Chairman Ajit Pai as less likely to take on media regulatory issues like the indie programming item (see 1703170017). Clyburn also said she supports the Expanding Broadcasting Ownership Opportunities Act introduced recently by Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. (see 1704050014). She said the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment announced by Pai (see 1704240058) could be "an invaluable venue" for generating recommendations of policies aimed at boosting participation of women and minorities in communications.

The Robocall Strike Force updated the FCC on industry efforts to address unwanted robocalls, a focus of the agency under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler and current Chairman Ajit Pai. The new FCC focus is on illegal, spoofed robocalls (see 1703230035), subject of a March NPRM and notice of inquiry. “Significant progress has been made over the past six months,” the report said. “This is not the end of the industry effort to develop ways to stop unwanted and illegal calls. The industry is committed to continuing to develop mitigation tools and techniques until these illegal harassing calls are stopped.” Lots of focus has been on authentication through what the industry is calling signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens, or SHAKEN, the report said, saying the approach has broad support. “The SHAKEN framework provides a mechanism for managing the deployment of Secure Telephone Identity (STI) technologies with the purpose of providing cryptographic authentication and verification of telephone numbers associated with calls traversing" IP-voice networks, the report said. “This specification defines the framework for telephone service providers to create signatures in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and validate those signatures at the call termination.” The report said industry consensus is there's no “silver bullet” to end unwanted robocalls. “To mitigate the problem of illegal robocalls, the industry is implementing a diverse multitude of evolving mitigation tools and efforts so that it becomes too costly for illegal robocalling campaigns to overcome the industry’s dynamic mitigation techniques,” the strike force said. “Illegal robocalls not only ruin dinner but they defraud consumers,” Pai said in a statement. “The Strike Force has made significant headway in helping consumers combat illegal robocalls and malicious spoofing. I’m pleased that industry remains committed to carry this work forward. As demonstrated by our recent robocall blocking proposals, we at the FCC are here to help with this work and do whatever we can to combat such calls.” CTIA said the group "and the wireless industry have been working hard and making significant progress in combatting illegal robocalls, while developing tools to give consumers greater control over the calls they receive." The task force “is making progress but most consumers still don’t have access to effective call blocking protection,” said Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst for Consumers Union. “The phone companies should keep working to improve call blocking tools and make sure that all of their customers, including those who rely on traditional landlines, get the protection they deserve. Call-blocking should be a standard feature offered to all phone customers and not a safeguard that consumers have to pay extra to get.”