Ownership

A battle is brewing at the Federal Communications Commission between cable and telecom industry groups and state attorneys general over broadband speed investigations. Citing state complaints alleging false advertising of internet speeds, USTelecom and NCTA have asked the FCC for a ruling confirming internet service proviers are following federal transparency rules by posting online their average performance during times of peak usage, as evaluated by the Measuring Broadband America program. But a bipartisan group of 35 attorneys general told the agency the petition “represents nothing more than the industry’s effort to shield itself from state law enforcement.”

One of the AGs involved, New York’s Eric Schneiderman, accused Charter in February of misleading customers by advertising internet speeds the company hasn’t delivered. The industry groups say the Charter complaint relies on unofficial speed measurement tools. The deadline for reply comments to the FCC is July 3.

A regional power company in Tennessee has emerged as Consumer Reports’ top-rated TV provider, edging out Google Fiber by one point. The company, identified as EPB Fiber in the August issue of Consumer Reports, is the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (TN), owned by that city. In terms of the homes to which it provides TV, EPB Fiber is tiny compared to cable TV giants such as Comcast, which has an estimated 30 million subscriber households. The power company serves 170,000 homes and businesses in its 600-square mile service area. In the August Consumer Reports, EPB's Internet service was ranked fourth, behind Google Fiber (No. 1), Consolidated Fiber (No. 2) and Armstrong Cable (No. 3).

PBS, in coordination with America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), announced an agreement with T-Mobile to deliver universal service of both broadcast and wireless service to millions of Americans living in rural areas. T-Mobile has committed to covering the costs for local public television low-power facilities that are required to relocate to new broadcasting frequencies following the government’s recent spectrum incentive auction. They said the project will also result in increased wireless choice in these underserved areas as T-Mobile leverages the new spectrum that the company acquired in the auction to expand its wireless network.

“Public broadcasting has been one of America’s greatest and most enduring public-private partnerships,” said PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger. “We are thrilled that T-Mobile sees the value that public broadcasting brings to the American people and is helping to ensure that everyone—regardless of income or zip code—continues to have access to PBS, including vital emergency alerts and programs that help prepare children for success in school.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement after PBS and America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) announced an agreement with T-Mobile whereby T-Mobile will provide financial assistance during the post-incentive auction repack to translator stations that extend public television signals into hard-to-reach rural areas: “I commend PBS, APTS, and T-Mobile for developing a creative solution to assist millions of TV viewers during the post-incentive auction transition. The financial assistance provided by TMobile will help the many Americans who rely on public television, especially in rural areas. It will also help expand wireless connectivity in rural America. Today’s announcement is precisely the kind of cross-industry cooperation we need to ensure a smooth transition for broadcasters, wireless providers, and American consumers.”

A version of the the New York Times’s Trump bump has materialized across the media landscape, as readers have been galvanized by a man who may well be the most polarizing president in American history. But the boon carries significant risks, especially for the Times. And it highlights some business-model vulnerabilities for a newspaper that is struggling mightily to wade through a brutal media climate: Not only is the company becoming increasingly dependent on Trump for its core subscription revenue, but its print readers are subsidizing the rest of the operation through repeated, and often opaque, price increases—a practice that at some point will have to ease.

Verizon Communications wants to challenge Google and Facebook. So it's reaching out to some of its biggest rivals in the wireless industry for help. Now that the telecommunications company has completed its acquisition of Yahoo and rolled out Oath, a division which includes a wide collection of digital advertising assets, it is looking to ramp up its ability to challenge Google and Facebook in the sector.

The wireless giant is exploring building a data partnership with other top wireless players, including T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone and Telefónica, apparently. Specifically, Verizon wants to pool together more wireless consumer data that can be used for ad targeting. A big reason Google and Facebook are so dominant in digital advertising – besides the fact that their platforms reach huge audiences –is that they have powerful, accurate data sets on millions of consumers that can be used by advertisers to target people with more relevant ads.

Charter Communications has filed a complaint against Verizon, saying the company violated New York state's public service law and regulations by denying access to utility poles. Charter is required to extend its network in New York state to 145,000 homes and businesses by May 2020 under a condition imposed on its purchase of Time Warner Cable, and it was supposed to complete the first 36,250 locations by May of this year. Charter last week was fined by New York regulators for failing to complete the first wave of construction on time, but it largely blamed its failure on Verizon in a complaint filed on Saturday with the New York Public Service Commission. "In the face of Verizon’s intransigence, Charter has been unable to satisfy the milestones in the Buildout Condition," Charter said. Charter is the second-largest cable company in the US after Comcast.

The European Union’s antitrust watchdog has handed down a string of big decisions in recent years against top US technology firms, in what might look to US companies and officials like a trend by Brussels to train investigations on large American companies.

EU officials deny any bias. “We don’t go against Google because it’s an American company but because it’s a company abusing its dominant position in our market.… If it were in Brazil, we wouldn’t care,” a senior EU official said, referring to the EU’s €2.42 billion ($2.71 billion) fine June 27 against Google for unfairly favoring its shopping ads in its search results. EU competition officials are, to a large extent, constrained by antitrust rules and legal precedents when making decisions against any companies, be they American, European or otherwise. But unlike Washington, where U.S. enforcers need to prove their cases before a judge, the EU’s competition directorate acts as prosecutor, judge and jury in competition cases—and only needs to convince itself. Experts say American tech companies are currently getting increased scrutiny because they happen to dominate the industry. This comes at a time when one of the top priorities for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, is to ensure the EU’s common market functions more efficiently online and across borders.

Google suddenly grew up at midday June 27 — and the way it conducts business in Europe and probably further afield will have to catch up fast.

Likely more important in the immediate future for Google, which rejects the findings and says it may appeal, the decision will serve as a model for regulators across the globe closely scrutinizing Google, from Seoul to Brasilia, and it will bolster those in the U.S. trying to prod domestic regulators into action. “As matters now stand, the Commission is the primary regulator of internet services in the Western world,” said David Cantor, a Brussels-based technology lawyer. In addition, the decision hurts Google’s otherwise stellar brand and reputation. Its “search franchise is built upon the notion that it is an honest broker of the world’s information,” said Scott Cleland, a founder of consultancy Precursor, an adviser to Google rivals and a trenchant critic of Google. That damage can work in significant and long-lasting ways. For example, Microsoft’s aggressive tactics and antitrust problems made it less attractive to some of the best engineers and university talent, who opted to join nicer companies — like Google.

Fox News has hired Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to be a contributor for the cable news channel after the congressman ends his House term early on June 30. Rep Chaffetz will start his role at Fox on July 1, according to a statement from the network. "In this role he will offer political analysis across FNC and FOX Business Network’s (FBN) daytime and primetime programming," the network said.

The Utah congressman and head of the House Oversight Committee announced in May that he he would resign from Congress to pursue other opportunities. Shortly after, Washingtonian reported that he'd been telling fellow lawmakers he planned to join Fox News.