The average mobile data price dropped by 17.7 percent between Q3 2012 and Q3 2013, ABI Research said Monday. The report, based on a survey of the 20 cheapest markets, found that the price drop “was mainly driven by fierce competition and increased network capacity 4G roll-outs,” said Marina Lu, an ABI Research associate, in a news release. About 38 percent of the lowest-priced data plans globally in Q3 were 4G tariffs, compared with 21 percent at the same time last year, ABI Research said. At the same time, data revenue has grown substantially due to increased smartphone adoption -- total data revenue should reach $527 billion by 2018, a forecast 13.4 percent increase from the $400 billion in revenue expected through the end of this year, ABI Research said (http://bit.ly/GHZS2L).

The federal government shutdown has slowed the release of surveillance practice documents. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in a Sept. 13 order had asked the government to identify relevant FISC documents for declassification, pursuant to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. The government determined “eight of these documents contain analysis by the Court evaluating the meaning, scope, and/or constitutionality of Section 215” of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the government’s bulk collection of phone records, the government told the FISC Friday (http://1.usa.gov/GDXRV9). Six of those documents are at issue in the FOIA litigation, it added, pointing to opinions rendered in February 2004, August and December 2008, March and November 2009 and November 2010. There’s also a Feb. 19 document from this year on Section 215, but the government can’t determine when it can declassify it due to the shutdown, it said, saying it expects to declassify that document within 21 days of the shutdown’s end. It asked for a stay on the proceeding overall until funding is restored to the Department of Justice. The U.S. government also requested a stay of proceedings on the disclosure of documentation on its surveillance practices, said a Friday filing (http://1.usa.gov/1fVkrZg) before the FISC. The government brief cited the shutdown and a lapse in funding to the Department of Justice. The government was supposed to provide an Oct. 25 status report on the review of surveillance documents but asks that deadline be postponed until funding is restored. The government asked for the deadline to be extended by the length of the shutdown or longer, potentially.

Verizon asked the New York Public Service Commission to suspend all deadlines and proceedings in its inquiry on using Voice Link as the sole service on western Fire Island, in a letter Monday (http://bit.ly/1bD3wch). No commenters opposed Verizon’s Sept. 11 filing asking the PSC to suspend its investigation on the use of Voice Link, and “thus it should go into effect,” said the telco. In their comments on the proceeding, the Communications Workers of America District 1, the Public Utilities Law Project and AARP “took a shot at advancing broader agendas that have nothing to do with the tariff changes,” said Verizon. AARP’s competing product, Consumer Cellular, makes its opposition to optional Voice Link offerings ring “hollow,” said Verizon. The telco describes Consumer Cellular’s “Wireless Home Phone” as a cellular alternative to traditional home phone service. “This competing wireless home phone solution is described as ‘reliable’ and ‘[a] better option for home telephone service,’ featuring ‘award-winning, customer-friendly service’ that allows consumers to ’shed your monthly landline bill and still keep your home phone,'” said Verizon. The telco also released Friday seven redacted interrogatory responses to questions asked by PSC staff during its investigation of Voice Link (http://bit.ly/199UMVm).

Time Warner Cable signed a definitive agreement with Duke Energy and Alinda Capital Partners to buy DukeNet Communications for $600 million cash, including the repayment of debt, said the companies in a release Monday (http://yhoo.it/1bRlVPe). DukeNet is a regional fiber optic company with customers in seven southeast states, said the companies. DukeNet’s network of more than 8,700 miles provides data and high-capacity bandwidth services to wireless carrier, data center, government and enterprise customers, said the companies. Duke Energy and Alinda each own 50 percent of the company, and their transaction with TWC is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.

Zayo Group is acquiring FiberLink, a Midwest-based dark fiber operator, said Zayo in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1fVg14H). FiberLink’s primary route from downtown Chicago through Des Moines and Omaha to downtown Denver will bring more than 1,200 route miles to Zayo’s network, said the company. Zayo now offers 26,000 route miles of dark fiber with this acquisition, it said.

Nielsen is starting the Twitter TV Ratings to measure the total activity and reach of TV-related conversation on Twitter, said Nielsen and its SocialGuide in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/15RpHZD). The ratings will measure the number of the people tweeting about TV programs and the “audience” of people who view those tweets, said the companies. The Twitter viewing audience is about 50 times larger than the authors who are generating tweets, initial analysis of the Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings found. In the second quarter of 2013, 19 million people composed 264 million tweets about live TV, a 24 percent year-over-year increase in authors and a 38 percent increase in tweet volume, said SocialGuide. The ratings will be available for TV programming across more than 215 English-language U.S. broadcast and cable networks, said the companies. Twitter has worked to promote its partnerships with TV, including in the filing for an IPO the company released late last week (http://bit.ly/18KADWZ).

Inmarsat plans to buy a fourth Inmarsat-5 satellite under an existing contract with Boeing. The satellite will act partly as a spare “in the unlikely event of a launch failure of any of the first three Inmarsat-5 satellites,” Inmarsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/17Op3dU). That will allow global service launch for Global Xpress “more rapidly than if a replacement satellite were only commissioned following a launch failure,” it said. If the satellite isn’t required as a launch spare, the company is developing an incremental business case “to support the launch of the fourth satellite to increase capacity and strategically enhance network coverage,” it said. Inmarsat’s planned Ka-band network, Global Xpress, is expected to be launched next year (CD May 22 p13).

House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., questioned Time Warner Cable’s “pandering to the worst instincts of the reckless Republican extremists that seem to be running the House of Representatives,” he said in a letter sent Friday to CEO Glenn Britt (http://1.usa.gov/GIQDij). Waxman cited a Sept. 27 email allegedly from a Time Warner Cable lobbyist sent to Republican House and Senate staff. The email (http://1.usa.gov/19vBebS) included a link to an article from The Weekly Standard on NBC’s promotion of the Affordable Care Act, prompting the lobbyist to comment, “Next time you think about helping the broadcasters -- particularly the networks -- read this.” Waxman blocked out the email’s recipients and sender’s name but did retain the twcable.com sender domain. “Could you please explain why this email was sent and what purpose it serves?” Waxman asked. “A broadcaster has a public service obligation and should be informing viewers about the new options for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.” The company had no immediate comment when we asked.

The Alliance for Affordable Internet, unveiled Monday in Abuja, Nigeria, wants to drive down artificially high Internet prices in developing countries by lobbying for policy and regulatory reform, it said. A4AI, with global sponsors Google, philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network (created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife), the U.K. Department for International Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development, said it intends to try to cut online access costs to below 5 percent of monthly income worldwide, a target set by the U.N. Broadband Commission. The alliance includes representatives from industry, governments, academia and civil society, and was initiated by the World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Tim Berners-Lee. A4AI (a4ai.org) wants to persuade governments to base Internet access rules on a series of policy and regulatory best practices, which the coalition posted in September (http://xrl.us/bpxvzr): (1) Liberalized markets with healthy competition, independent regulators and evidence-based policies and regulations that include meaningful public participation, and (2) Policies and practices that encourage lower-cost structure for industry, such as streamlined processes for infrastructure rollout and sharing, effective spectrum management and innovative spectrum usage via unlicensed and opportunistic reuse. The best-practice document also seeks an end to luxury taxation and excessive customs and tariffs on telecom goods and services required for Internet access, such as handsets and set-top boxes. A4AI also wants effective universal service fund administration in countries where such funds exist, and reasonable efforts to systematize the collection of key data indicators to measure effectiveness of Internet access. The coalition said it’s strongly focused on action. A4AI will begin engaging with three or four countries by year’s end, expanding to at least 12 by the end of 2015, it said at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation forum in Nigeria. The alliance said it will release an annual “affordability report,” the first of which will be out in December. Other members include Cisco, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Yahoo, Consumers International, the Ford Foundation, Internet Society and Software & Information Industry Association. New technologies play a crucial role in bringing Internet access to more people, and Google has invested in many big ideas over the years, such as balloon-powered Internet access, wrote Google Access Principal Jennifer Haroon Monday on the company’s public policy blog (http://bit.ly/GDTsBw). But no single solution can connect the 5 billion people living without online access, she said. “Policy change can help new innovation take hold and flourish; outdated policies can stifle progress.” A4AI Honorary Chairman Bitange Ndemo has called for the need to get rid of “analog policies that are holding back the digital revolution,” Haroon said. “We couldn’t agree more."

The government shouldn’t provide funding for broadband deployment to areas that may be or are served by an existing broadband provider, wrote Carolyn McIntyre, California Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA) president, in an email to us Friday. CCTA advocated on behalf of cable providers in debate over California Advanced Services Fund legislation that provides additional funding for broadband buildout in unserved areas (CD Oct 7 p5). “State subsidies should not be available to local government to compete with existing broadband providers that have built facilities with private investment,” said McIntyre. “SB 740 appropriately recognizes the role of commercial broadband providers that are willing to make private investments by limiting local governments to a role as the provider of last resort."