Numerous American TV Alliance members lobbied the FCC in recent days on proposed changes to the totality of circumstances test for good-faith retransmission consent negotiating. In an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-216, ATVA recapped a pair of meetings with Media Bureau staff, including Chief Bill Lake, and separately with the chairman's office, including Senior Counselor Philip Verveer. ATVA members at the meetings included representatives of the American Cable Association, AT&T, Dish Network, Mediacom, Suddenlink, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom. During the meetings, ATVA said the representatives said the FCC has "unquestionable authority to act in this area" and went over ATVA's proposals (see 1601140026).

Skirmishing over the FCC’s broad special access review began Wednesday, though many hadn’t yet filed comments in a rulemaking after the deadline was pushed back until Thursday due to the recent blizzard in Washington. In comments and releases shared with us, Sprint and some allies said the FCC needs to act to counter incumbent telco business broadband market dominance and practices. But USTelecom said 2013 industry data would show competition already was robust, and it had only strengthened since then, blunting the need for new regulation.

The Rural Broadband Alliance (RBA) joined the Stop Mega Cable Coalition opposing regulatory approval of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (see [Ref:1601210028]), the coalition said in a news release Tuesday. In a statement, RBA Chief Counsel Steve Kraskin called Charter/TWC/BHN “a ‘lose, lose’ for rural communities." “Ongoing consolidation and the dominance of a handful of companies in the cable and broadband marketplace has dramatically reduced the bargaining power of small and rural entities to obtain must-have video content, undermined their ability to compete, much less remain economically viable, and diluted the diversity of service options available to consumers in rural areas," Kraskin said. "Mega Cable would further tip the balance against these smaller providers and their customers." In a statement, Charter called itself "a different type of cable company -- committed to creating American jobs, offering the most innovative products, delivering fast internet speeds, preserving an open internet and advancing online video friendly policies including no data caps and no modem fees. ... It should come as no surprise that Dish and other parties seeking to use the regulatory review process to extract concessions are also engaging in tired PR tactics to further their self-interests. Their arguments against the pending transactions are baseless. The facts are that New Charter has received significant and broad support from leading [online video] provider Netflix because of its online video friendly practices, independent programmers including Fuse Media and RFD-TV due to its commitment to diverse programming, national multicultural organizations like National Urban League, National Action Network and the League of United Latin American Citizens with whom it is collaborating to expand diversity and inclusion, and from the State of New York which recently approved the merger. These parties have taken a close and honest look at the benefits of these transactions and have all come to the same conclusion: they are in the public interest.” Stop Mega Cable members include Consumers Union, Dish Network, ITTA, Public Knowledge and USTelecom.

The FCC should halt “unjust” incumbent telco special access rates and practices that drive up prices for telecom competitors, businesses and consumers, creating “an unmitigated drag on the U.S. economy,” Public Knowledge said. “Doing so will stimulate broadband deployment and economic growth, and save consumers and businesses billions in anti-competitive charges,” it said in comments filed Friday that were shared with us but haven't been posted in docket 05-25 because the FCC has been closed due to the weekend blizzard. Most stakeholders we checked with hadn't filed Friday when the agency shut down early.

USTelecom said it's starting a campaign to urge the FCC to consider the "enormous growth and investment" in the business marketplace as it conducts its special access review. "Newly released 2013 data collected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) show a multitude of providers -- cable, fiber and fixed wireless -- compete for business customers in a thriving marketplace," a release said. Competition is working and prices are declining for backhaul and other special access services, USTelecom said. "A major game-changer is entry of the nation’s major cable operators, which are using their large network footprints to serve multiple business locations," the group said. "New competition from cable and other providers isn’t captured in the FCC’s 2013 data, which at best provides a snapshot of a single point in time. In just the last two years -- 2014 and 2015 -- cable business service units have invested an estimated $6 billion in capital, while competitive fiber providers an estimated $9 billion." It urged the FCC to recognize the marketplace changes and modernize its policies. Comments in the FCC's broad special access rulemaking were due Friday but haven't been posted yet because the agency is closed due to Winter Storm Jonas.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly welcomed an FCC request for additional comments on a 2012 USTelecom petition for ILEC nondominance on certain services (see 1601210066). "Although refreshing the record is likely to confirm [what] we already know, I’m pleased that the ball is finally starting to roll on this item as it should allow the Commission to move to final action of providing the requested and appropriate relief very soon. I hope commenters will focus on the petition before the Commission and not esoteric issues, views or concerns," O’Rielly said in a statement Thursday. USTelecom had asked that incumbent telcos be declared "no longer presumptively dominant when providing interstate mass market and enterprise switched access services," said a Wireline Bureau public notice earlier Thursday in docket 13-3. Comments are due Feb. 22, replies March 7.

Almost all top communications Internet and tech firms, related industry groups and privacy groups remained as engaged in lobbying Capitol Hill on cybersecurity issues in Q4 as they had during the same period in 2014, while more entities from other industries lobbied on those issues during Q4 than had the previous year. The number of overall firms lobbying on cybersecurity issues increased more than 20 percent year-over-year in Q4 2015, while the number of major telecom and Internet entities lobbying on those issues remained nearly flat. Both communications and tech firms’ telecom expenditures were a mixed bag in Q4. AT&T was among the communications firms that increased their lobbying expenditures during the quarter (see 1601200061), while Amazon and Microsoft were among the tech firms that increased their spending (see 1601210034).

Critics of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable are continuing to lobby the FCC, seeking conditions or full blockage. The docket had been relatively quiet until the FCC paused the 180-day shot clock earlier this month, one cable industry lawyer told us. The shot clock resumed Wednesday and stood at 118 days Friday.

Large telcos are seeking renewed USF voice support in remote areas where funding was cut off but their obligations to provide phone service continue under a transition to broadband-oriented mechanisms. Representatives of AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications, Verizon, Windstream and USTelecom jointly discussed the issue with FCC officials in a series of recent meetings, and Frontier sought relief in separate meetings with two commissioners, according to filings in docket 14-192. “It will happen, with some sort of path to broadband,” USTelecom Senior Vice President Jon Banks told us.

Kerbey Harrington hires John Raposa, ex-Verizon, as of counsel ... Among those Comcast adds in Twin Cities Region are Dan Gillan, promoted to vice president-sales & marketing, and Rachel Williams, ex-General Dynamics, as vice president-engineering ... LifeLock promotes Hilary Schneider to CEO, and she joins board, succeeding Todd Davis, who becomes executive vice chairman; director Roy Guthrie becomes chairman, effective March 1 ... Internet Infrastructure Coalition names Christian Dawson, who now no longer is chairman, its first full-time executive director; David Snead, chairman of public policy working group, named the coalition's chairman ... At Microsoft, Jenny Lay-Flurrie moves to chief accessibility officer, succeeding Rob Sinclair, leading accessibility efforts in Windows and Devices Group; Susan Hauser moved to corporate vice president-new Business and Corporate Responsibility Group.