FCC bureaus and offices no longer will be able to make substantive changes to items after they have been voted on, said Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement Thursday on his latest process change. Pai has announced a tweak to an FCC process each day this week. Beginning at the Feb. 23 commissioners' meeting, “editorial privileges granted to Bureaus and Offices will extend only to technical and conforming edits to items,” Pai said. “Any substantive changes made to items following a meeting must be proposed by a Commissioner.” Pai connected the change to concerns raised by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly during the previous administration. “Filling in a citation in a document is one thing; changing the meaning of that document is another,” Pai said. O'Rielly routinely objected to granting editorial privileges on items under Chairman Tom Wheeler. "I gladly support the effort to officially establish an FCC post-adoption editorial process that is sufficiently narrow and should rarely be needed, finally fixing a process abuse of our past," O'Rielly said in a statement. “Substantive changes to items should only be made in cases in which they are required, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, as a response to new arguments made in a Commissioner’s dissenting statement,” Pai said. Editorial privileges were subject of a story on O'Rielly's and other critiques in 2015 (see 1509170046).

The FCC's now-closed inquiry into zero rating practices of wireless carriers shows the agency needs to act on another net neutrality matter, said a Pepperdine University antitrust and communications law professor on the blog of the American Enterprise Institute. The associate professor, Babette Boliek, said Wednesday the net neutrality order's general conduct rule, which was used to review the zero rating programs, "is dangerously vague and raises uncertainty in the marketplace." The zero rating inquiry "revealed what has been feared -- that the General Conduct Rule is overly vague, and regulatory review under its authority is currently without a clear legal standard," wrote Boliek, an AEI Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy visiting scholar. "If the General Conduct Rule is to stand, the FCC would do well to provide strong, clear guidance on exactly how it will be used." The agency last week undid a zero rating report and investigations (see 1702030070). The FCC declined to comment Wednesday.

Time Warner shareholders will vote Feb. 15 on the proposed $108.7 billion purchase by AT&T Feb. 15, TW CEO Jeff Bewkes said in an earnings call Wednesday, saying the regulatory process continues and the deal is expected to close later this year. He said HBO passed 2 million over-the-top subscribers in the U.S. and launched OTT offerings in Spain, Brazil and Argentina last year. Bewkes also said there will be a growing number of partnerships with OTT services that offer HBO. He said Turner is "an anchor tenant" on the various virtual multichannel video programming distributors that have been launched, and also will be on Hulu's upcoming service. Turner CEO John Martin said virtual MVPDs DirecTV Now, Sling and PlayStation Vue are gaining subscriber traction, having close to 2 million subscribers in aggregate. Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara said it sees big growth opportunities in China via a subscription VOD partnership with Tencent and the creation of local language content. He also said Warner is making "a lot of progress" on launching its own premium VOD offering, with a big driver being an alternative distribution route for middle-market films such as adult dramas that increasingly are challenged in standard theatrical releases. TW said it finished the year with revenue of $29.3 billion, up 4 percent, with growth in HBO, Turner and Warner Bros.

Intel chose the White House as the setting for announcing its $7 billion investment in a new Chandler, Arizona, semiconductor plant because it backs the Trump administration’s policies to “make U.S. manufacturing competitive worldwide through new regulatory standards and investment policies,” CEO Brian Krzanich told employees in a Wednesday email. When complete, the plant “will produce the most advanced computer chips in the world,” Krzanich said. It also will create about 3,000 full-time Intel jobs and more than 10,000 jobs in Arizona to run and support the factory, he said. “Government policies play a critical role in enabling and sustaining American-driven innovation,” he said. “When we disagree, we don’t walk away. We believe that we must be part of the conversation to voice our views on key issues such as immigration, H1B visas and other policies that are essential to innovation.” Intel was among dozens of prominent tech companies signing an amici brief Sunday backing Washington and Minnesota in their fight to keep President Donald Trump’s now-suspended immigration executive order from being reinstated (see 1702060016).

Boomerang Wireless, Konatel and STS Media contested last week's FCC revocation of their Lifeline broadband provider (LBP) designations (see 1702030070). "I raised concerns about the hasty issuance of the Revocation Order by the Bureau without any prior notice to the public or to affected parties and without appropriate consideration by the full Commission of the novel issues of law raised," said Boomerang (Touch Wireless) outside counsel John Heitmann in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. "The LBP designation was granted because Boomerang’s petition was thoroughly reviewed and deemed to be noncontroversial and eligible for streamlined processing. I further noted that Boomerang relied on the Commission’s approval of its LBP status and had, in close coordination with the Bureau, transitioned subscribers to services provided under its LBP designation. I asserted that the 60-day transition period included in the Revocation Order was too short to avoid harming a substantial number of consumers and Boomerang itself." He also contested the substance of the bureau rationale in the revocation order. Heitmann made similar filings (here and here) on behalf of Konatel and STS Media (FreedomPop), though neither received a 60-day transition period because neither had Lifeline-subsidized broadband customers yet. He also made similar comments previously to us.

Thomas Pahl, an attorney with Arnall Golden Gregory who previously worked at the FTC, was appointed acting director of the agency's Consumer Protection Bureau, said acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen in a Wednesday news release. Pahl replaces the current director, Jessica Rich, who will resign Feb. 17 (see 1702070002). Ohlhausen said Pahl's career reflects a commitment to consumer protection through enforcement and advocacy. The release said he worked on consumer protection issues including credit reporting and debt collection at his law firm. Pahl began working for the FTC in 1990 in various roles, including at the bureau's Advertising Practices and Financial Practices divisions. He also advised former commissioners Mary Azcuenaga and Orson Swindle, the release said. Pahl worked on antitrust and consumer privacy matters while at the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who served from 2003 to 2005. Pahl is an adjunct professor at the George Mason University’s Scalia Law School and a Federalist Society member.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn offered a "personal story" on the inmate calling service oral argument she attended Monday (see 1702060028). "I am sitting in the courtroom without my cellphones," she blogged the next day. "Like many who find themselves disconnected from their mobile device(s) for any length of time, I feel extremely uncomfortable and detached from the rest of the world. But whatever my discomfort, it pales in comparison to the day-to-day economic and personal torture felt by millions who remain on the wrong side of the economic justice divide and struggle to stay in touch with incarcerated loved ones. Innocent or guilty, too often poor and disenfranchised, millions of mostly black and brown families suffer mightily. They suffer because we who are sworn to serve them have turned our backs on the nation's most vulnerable communities." Clyburn said she was struggling with her feelings about her former state colleagues "who are steadfast in defending their positions against the FCC when it comes to inmate calling primarily on jurisdictional grounds. For years, I have not only asked, but begged them not to sit idly by as the people they were sworn to defend suffer mightily from a clearly dysfunctional inmate calling services marketplace. Most of them have elected to do nothing, but are quick to stand boldly and shout loudly about just how far they think we have overstepped our regulatory bounds. 'Do your job,' I scream silently this morning. 'If you'd bothered to act, we would not even be here today!' And at the risk of further straining some long-standing relationships, I will retire for the evening still asking: 'why won't you just act?!'" She added, "As I sit in a sea of blue, gray and black suits, I notice something remarkable and striking: The people poised to defend their positions this morning as well as those in the courtroom (with the exception of one judge, two employees and me) do not look remotely similar to the majority of the millions whose lives hang in the balance today. Calm down, I say to myself. Calm down, Mignon, and pray that just this one time, the angels of justice will smile brightly on us this morning." NARUC didn't comment.

Any Trump administration push for infrastructure investment shouldn't leave out "our 'invisible infrastructure' -- the unseen airwaves that enable wireless connections," wrote former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, now Carlyle Group managing director-buyout team, Global Telecommunications, Media and Technology group, in a Bloomberg column Friday. Pointing to McKinsey Global Institute estimates of IoT creating $4 trillion in economic benefits by 2025, Genachowski said that requires "we pay attention to invisible infrastructure." Along with spectrum being a limited resource, he said, "a significant amount of spectrum is still allocated for the uses of the past, not the needs of the future." Genachowski said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has "the experience and capability to develop new policies to unleash spectrum; the challenge will be to resist distraction and make it a high priority." Genachowski's spectrum recommendations: the FCC increase efforts to free up 500 MHz of spectrum for broadband by 2020; the agency, White House and Congress set "a bold target for 2030" that includes high-band spectrum for 5G; and free up additional unlicensed spectrum. Genachowski also pushed for more spectrum sharing: Current "allocations are decades old and inefficient -- with twice as much reserved for certain satellite uses as is needed, for example." He said there should be a push to remove barriers to broadband deployment through Congress and the White House giving the FCC greater ability to pre-empt "unreasonable" state and local restrictions and expanding dig-once policies. The piece has "terrific insights," Pai tweeted.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology released an updated version of the TVStudy repacking software Monday, it said in a public notice. V 2.1 includes an updated mode for evaluating interference between TV stations, “new map output types and options, support for additional or updated underlying data sources, and several new analysis modes,” the PN said. “While Version 2.1 includes changes necessary to facilitate application processing, it is consistent with the version of TVStudy being used during the course of the incentive auction.” The Media Bureau will use TVStudy “in processing construction permit applications during the 39-month post-auction period the Commission established for reassigned stations to transition to their post-auction channel assignments,” the PN said.

NCTA and USTelecom asked the FCC for a broad stay of the effective date of the enhanced disclosure rules in the 2015 net neutrality and broadband reclassification order. The motions of CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, Wireless Internet Service Provider Association, NTCA and American Cable Association "present compelling procedural and substantive grounds for granting immediate relief from the enhanced transparency requirements in order to avoid irreparable harm," said an NCTA and USTelecom joint filing Monday in docket 14-28. "Importantly, however, the arguments set forth in those motions support granting relief across the industry from the enhanced transparency requirements, rather than staying the requirements only for the members of the associations that filed the motions. Thus, if the Commission decides to grant a stay of the enhanced transparency requirements, it should do so for all providers of broadband Internet access service ('BIAS') -- fixed and mobile, large and small." Meanwhile, in another proceeding, public-interest groups said a separate industry request for an FCC stay of broadband privacy rules was unjustified. "Staying the broadband privacy rules would harm consumers and other parties, and would therefore not serve the public interest," said an opposition filing from Consumer Action and 17 other groups in docket 16-106. "The rules ensure consumers have meaningful choice, greater transparency, and strong security protections for personal information collected by ISPs. Granting a stay would leave consumers unprotected unless and until new rules are established, during which time ISPs could use the troves of sensitive information they collect without giving their customers a choice about whether or how it can be used or disclosed. Reliance on ISPs’ voluntary privacy policies is ill-advised because there is no enforcement mechanism, nor sufficient market incentive for ISPs to honor their promises." If the FCC is inclined to grant a broadband privacy stay, the Voice on the Net Coalition asked it to exclude the commission's "adoption of section 64.2010 of the Commission’s rules, and its elimination of section 64.2009 of the Commission’s rules which are directed to providers of regulated voice services."