The FCC should overturn five local rate orders from four Minnesota local regulatory commissions (LRC) covering Comcast’s equipment rates and service fees, said the cable provider in a Wednesday filing. Four of the rate orders from the North Suburban Communications Commission, North Metro Telecommunications Commission, Ramsey/Washington Counties Suburban Cable Communications Commission and South Washington County Telecommunications Commission are from 2012, while one from North Suburban is from 2013. Comcast said the practices targeted by the LRC in the rate orders are all compliant with FCC rules, including charging a $5.99 “convenience” fee for customers who pay their bills by phone. This fee is outside the authority of the LRCs to regulate, Comcast said. “Unfortunately, the LRCs’ unyielding insistence on pursuing unreasonable and unlawful rate requirements thwarted all attempts to cooperatively resolve these rate orders.” The company said that its pricing practices for basic-only and non-basic-only converters are also within FCC rules, and offered a “compliance plan” in which it will more clearly disclose equipment charges on its bills and rate cards. Along with asking the FCC to grant the appeals, the cable operator asked the agency to order the LRCs to “resolve the cases consistent with the commission’s decision and stay the current rate orders until that resolution takes place.”

The Communications Workers of America presented a “distorted view” of Verizon’s Voice Link deployment in a Manhattan building, the telco told the New York State Public Service Commission in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/15kFkWw). Superstorm Sandy caused flood damage in the building in question, Verizon said, damaging the digital loop carrier system serving the building. Verizon repaired this by late May but “in the period before repairs in the building were completed and landline service was fully restored, Verizon offered Voice Link without charge as an interim alternative,” it said. The union had characterized the situation as Verizon pushing the residents onto Voice Link, which was not accurate, the telco said.

TDS Telecom expanded its fiber network to bring new service to Concord and Knoxville, Tenn., it said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/16TEtvc). The company said the new service includes a demand-based concept, in which neighborhoods can pre-register to become designated “Fibervilles” and receive discounts. The new service includes speeds of up to 100 Mbps, and the fiber will be available to some residents as early as September, said TDS.

Removing carrier subsidies on handsets appears to have a negative effect on adoption of mobile broadband, says a new paper released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. “While in recent years it is difficult to disentangle the results for communication markets, in some countries with the global economic downturn, it is notable that Italy, Finland and Belgium, which all had restrictions at some stage on handset ’subsidies’, were among the countries with lower access to the Internet through their mobile phone in 2010,” the report said (http://bit.ly/1aKbbDX). “These findings are seemingly corroborated by the OECD wireless broadband penetration data, where Belgium and Italy are placed in the bottom third of OECD countries ranked by wireless broadband penetration. Finland presents a very high wireless broadband penetration, but it is mainly made up of laptop and tablet-based subscriptions, with handset-based broadband penetration considerably lower."

Samsung expects to report sales of 56-58 trillion South Korean won ($48.8 billion-$50.6 billion at $1 = 1,147.2 won) and an operating profit of 9.3-9.7 trillion won ($8.1 billion-$8.5 billion) for Q2 ended June 30, it said Friday. It reported revenue of 47.6 trillion won and an operating profit of 6.7 trillion won in Q2 last year. The earnings forecast was weaker than analysts had projected. Samsung is expected to report Q2 results late this month.

India’s INSAT-3D weather satellite for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 mission completed its pre-launch checkout. The satellite will be launched July 25 and it will provide “enhanced meteorological observation and the monitoring of land/ocean surfaces with its six-channel imager and 19-channel sounder,” Arianespace said in a news release. The satellite also features a data relay transponder and a payload to assist in satellite-aided search and rescue operations, it said.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association asked the FCC to make changes to a May 16 Wireline Bureau order on framework for the challenge process that is to be used to finalize the list of areas that will be eligible for Connect America Fund Phase II model-based support. “The Bureau risks implementing the challenge process using a key definition that has been called into question by numerous parties, and that WISPA believes is critically flawed,” said the association (http://bit.ly/14XOfe0). “By pushing forward with the challenge process while such a question remains unresolved, the Bureau is putting the cart before the horse, and risks creating an eventual administrative predicament.” The agency should drop an “apparent requirement” that for an area to qualify for funding, a single company there cannot offer both voice and broadband, WISPA said. “Stated simply, the question should be whether a particular area has voice and broadband service meeting certain levels, not whether a single company (as opposed to two, or more, business entities) supply those services.” The FCC should raise its evidentiary standard for demonstrating that a census block is served or unserved to require “clear and convincing” evidence from the challenger, said the group. “Only the best quality of evidence should be permitted during the challenge process."

The FCC granted a Comcast petition to exempt the cable provider from municipal rate-setting for basic video and some other prices for four communities in California, said a Media Bureau order released Friday (http://fcc.us/126Lgl2). Comcast’s petition cited video competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The deregulation affects close to 450,000 households in the communities of Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove, Sacramento and Sacramento County. Comcast has also submitted an effective competition request for eight communities in Massachusetts, said a filing in FCC docket 12-1 (http://bit.ly/15kmWNg). The proposed Massachusetts deregulation would affect just under 40,000 households, including the communities of Milford, Holliston and Ashland.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued an advisory reminding handset makers of their obligation to report on compliance with the commission’s hearing aid compatibility rules on or before July 15. “The hearing aid compatibility rules ensure that individuals with hearing loss can fully access advanced wireless phone services without excessive feedback or noise,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/17XIMtZ).

SES signed an agreement with EuropaSat for the distribution of SES Broadband. The service will offer download speeds of up to 20 Mbps in the U.K. and other countries across Europe, said SES in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/12LqQxS). The service uses Ka-band capacity on ASTRA 2F, which is located at 28.2 degrees east, it said. “This capacity will be further extended after the launch of ASTRA 2E.”