AT&T said Wednesday it added more than 2 million wireless and high-speed Internet subscribers in Q3, and reported $32.2 billion revenue, up 2.2 percent over the year-earlier quarter. Net income was up 4.9 percent over last year to $3.8 billion. AT&T now has more than 10 million U-verse subscribers and U-verse revenue was up 28.1 percent year-over-year. AT&T reported 655,000 high-speed Internet and 265,000 U-verse TV net subscriber adds. Wireless data revenue was up 17.6 percent over last year and wireless subscribers increased by nearly 1 million. Smartphones now make up 89 percent of the company’s postpaid phone sales. Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said on a call with investors AT&T is building a “strong runway” for its LTE expansion and continues to add spectrum, with most of the 700 MHz B-block spectrum the carrier recently acquired already in service. In Q3 AT&T increased U-verse speeds up to 45 Mbps, Stephens said. “We're moving forward plans for speeds of 75 Mbps and faster,” he said. A 100 percent fiber broadband network AT&T is installing in Austin, Texas, will deliver speeds up to 1 Gbps, he said.

The FTC is extending two public comment periods for proposals made under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule because of the government shutdown, the commission said in a Wednesday release (http://1.usa.gov/1648ava). One comment period was to close in the middle of the shutdown, the other one day after the government reopened. The first proposal is a new means to verify parental consent, submitted by technology services company Imperium (http://1.usa.gov/13BD252). The COPPA rule requires online sites and services directed at children to obtain a child’s parent’s permission before collecting the child’s personal information. The comment period has been extended from Oct. 9 to Nov. 4. The second proposal is from the kidSAFE Seal Program, which certifies the safety procedures of children friendly websites. The FTC is seeking public comments about whether the company’s procedures match or exceed the protections for children that COPPA lays out, in which case kidSAFE can be designated a “safe harbor” program (http://1.usa.gov/195UQny). The deadline was extended from Oct. 18 to Nov. 4.

The FCC, giving itself more time to act, issued a waiver until Jan. 28 so that e-readers’ advanced communication services offered in interstate commerce don’t need to be accessible if achievable for those ACS functions. Requiring such functionality would have meant material that appeared on e-reader screens, which could include social and other online media functions, would need to be translated into speech so those with visual impairments could access them. The end-date of the temporary Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau waiver is 180 days after a public notice was issued responding to the request by a coalition of Amazon, Kobo and Sony, said a CGB order (http://bit.ly/HfpNQ6). Such ACS accessibility was required by Oct. 8 under previous commission rules, CGB noted. The agency didn’t act on the Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers’ request because the government was shut down at that deadline, waiver supporters and foes had said (CD Oct 15 p5). That date “was only three and a half weeks after the reply comment period” for the petition ended, said the CGB order released Monday and signed by acting Chief Kris Monteith. More time is needed “to review the record” and determine if the class of e-readers have features that access ACS but are primarily designed for other purposes, she wrote. The bureau said it needs to review market research and usage trends of similar equipment and services, how ACS functions in e-readers are designed to operate “outside of other functions or aids” to them, the duration of e-reader product cycles to determine how long a waiver would last if one is issued, and other things. The companies seeking the waiver and some of the request’s opponents had no comment.

Applicants can still file for vacant channels released by Sprint in the 809-815/854-860 MHz portion of the 800 MHz band beginning Oct. 29, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday. That date was announced Sept. 30 and was not delayed by the 16-day federal government shutdown because it is “the opening of a filing window” and not a filing deadline, the bureau noted (http://bit.ly/1h9jGtI).

One lawmaker protested National Security Agency surveillance in a new video. “We got a wake-up call just recently,” said House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., in a public service announcement the Electronic Frontier Foundation released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/16viTMr). “We've been misled. ... A free society should not have secret laws.” He joined several other figures, including Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, director Oliver Stone and actors John Cusack and Maggie Gyllenhaal, in criticizing the practices. The video was released as part of the activities of the Stop Watching Us coalition, which is planning a protest Saturday in Washington on the anniversary of the Patriot Act’s signing. Conyers is sponsoring a widely anticipated surveillance overhaul bill being advanced by House Judiciary Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

The FCC sought comment Wednesday on a proposal by AT&T to buy spectrum in parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota from Long Lines Communications. If the transaction is approved, AT&T would get 15 PCS licenses and seven AWS-1 licenses, as well an international Section 214 authorization held by Long Lines plus 18,000 subscribers “along with network equipment and other assets in and around northwestern Iowa.” “Preliminary review of the applications indicates that ... AT&T would acquire 10 to 50 megahertz of spectrum in 110 counties in 24 Cellular Market Areas,” said a notice released by the commission (http://bit.ly/1aGlowg). “Post-transaction, AT&T would hold a maximum of 145 megahertz of spectrum in these market areas.” Under the pleading cycle, petitions to deny are due Nov. 6, oppositions Nov. 19 and replies Nov. 26. The deal is technically between wholly owned subsidiaries of AT&T and Long Lines.

The FirstNet board, which cancelled its meeting last week because of the government shutdown, will meet by teleconference Friday, NTIA said Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/17J79WW). An agenda is to be circulated before the meeting, which starts at 11 a.m. EDT, NTIA said.

Users can now watch free Hulu clips on a mobile browser by going to hulu.com, said the company in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/17fL73u). Hulu users will see a “Trending Now” page when they open the website on their browser, and they can also choose from pages for trailers, comedy, news, celebrity and Latino, with more categories to come, said the company. Users will be able to share Hulu videos through Facebook, Twitter and email, and sign up for Hulu Plus from their browser, said the company. Hulu clips are available free of charge and do not require a login, said Hulu.

Amazon Web Services is offering expanded connectivity options for AWS Direct Connect through Equinix International Business Exchange data centers in six markets worldwide, said Equinix in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1fVx1He). In addition, Equinix is now offering connectivity to AWS through Equinix Ethernet Exchange to give customers multiple connection options below 1 Gbps to enable them to lower interconnection costs and provide a more “consistent” network performance, said Equinix. Level 3 Communications announced its support for AWS as an AWS Partner Network (APN) Technology Partner in a separate news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1gESOEc). Level 3 will offer private network connections to every AWS Direct Connection location as an APN Technology Partner, said Level 3. The combined network provides an “easier migration path” for enterprises to establish and scale connectivity, and the partnership reinforces Level 3 Cloud Connection Solutions’ portfolio to provide “extensive fiber-based routes with latency guarantees between enterprises and AWS” to improve application performance, said Level 3.

Twenty-two community anchor institutions in South Dakota received grants from NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative earlier this month, totaling nearly $200,000 for technology projects, said the South Dakota Broadband Initiative in a news release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/Hfb7jW). Project funding will provide technology improvements in firewalls, network switches, wireless equipment for mobile connectivity and increased performance, and new computers to provide access to broadband, said SDBI. The SDBI Technology Planning team will help community anchor institutions and their technology partners to integrate the new equipment into their infrastructure, said SDBI.