Multichannel News

USTelecom has been talking up cable as a strong competitor in the business data services (BDS) market.

In a supplemental filing at the Federal Communications Commission on its BDS revamp proposal -- potentially regulating, including rates, new entrants like cable as they have historically regulated incumbent telecoms like those represented by USTelecom -- the telecom trade group said small and medium-sized businesses (with between 5 and 100 employees) using business data service see cable as a competitive alternative. It said its survey found that among data networking customers who did not currently use cable, 70 percent of decisionmakers said they were willing to consider cable, and only 12 percent said they would be unwilling.

AT&T said that the leadership of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has notified the company that IBEW-represented former DirecTV employees have voted to ratify two contracts. AT&T noted that one agreement covers over 1,600 employees in AT&T's field services group, located in 14 states.

While a federal court has ruled that Congress did not give the Federal Communications Commission explicit authority to preempt state laws it sees as impeding broadband buildouts, the will of one member of Congress is clear on that point. Reacting to the decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversing the FCC's preemption of Tennessee and North Carolina municipal broadband expansions, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), a supporter of FCC preemption, said he was "disappointed with the court's ruling," but suggested the FCC should not treat it as a stop sign on the road to more muni broadband buildouts. "Congress intended to provide the FCC the tools needed to encourage deployment of advanced telecommunications networks," he said, "and when states impose barriers to that very deployment, the FCC should act." The court say it, instead, as an FCC intrusion into state sovereignty that lacked a clear congressional mandate.

The first round of comments in the Federal Communications Commission's Connect America Fund (CAF) rulemaking have "strayed from the statute's 'reasonable comparability' requirement," according to the American Cable Association's reply comments on the competitive bidding program. The responses of the major telecommunication providers "not only ... downplay the statute, but [also discourage] many parties from participating in the auction, thereby limiting the cost-effective distribution of support," the ACA said.

The FCC's final weighting of CAF Phase II bids must be based on the original statute and "an evolving level or service," ACA contended in its reply to the proposed rulemaking, which encompasses Rural Broadband Experiments. Many of the companies responding to the FCC "tended to emphasize the need to maximize the number of locations served within the budget," according to a statement from ACA president/CEO Matthew Polka. "The FCC should weight bids based on the statutory requirement that consumers in eligible areas receive reasonably comparable service to urban consumer preferences for broadband Internet access services over the 10-year timeframe of the program and that, to maximize participation, the deployment cost of bids in different performance tiers be normalized. Both of these factors can be determined using a methodology based on market data and are quantifiable," Polka said. The ACA filing urged the FCC to reject the weighting system proposed by earlier commenters.

Despite the rise of virtual multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs, or pay-TV) that can deliver services nationwide by going over-the-top, Comcast still believes that the most prudent business path is to grow its video subscriber base in-footprint. “We just fundamentally believe, for now, that our in-market footprint strategy is where we add the most value to consumers,” said Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chairman and CEO, echoing sentiments he shared in May at the INTX show in Boston (MA). “OTT economics are unproven to us,” he added. “It’s not clear that that’s the right strategy for us.” Comcast, however, is expanding the reach of its X1 technology platform outside its own footprint ostensibly through syndication/licensing agreements with multiple system operators such as Cox Communications and Shaw Communications, which plans to start rolling out X1-based set-tops later in 2016.

Looking to provide better, more consistent in-home Wi-Fi, Frontier Communications is hawking AirTies Wireless Networks’ Smart Mesh Wi-Fi” platform via Frontier Secure, a site that sells a mix of smart home products and services. Per the site, Frontier is selling the AirTies Smart Mesh Wi-Fi product individually for $72 and in pairs for $144. Customers link those devices to the main router/gateway to expand and improve Wi-Fi access in the home. Frontier sells products and services via Frontier Secure to residential and small business customers on a national basis, and offers products wholesale through strategic partnerships.

Frontier is the second (and largest) North American operator to deploy AirTies’s Wi-Fi Mesh product; the first was Midco, which is selling a whole-home Wi-Fi service starting at $7.95 per month. Frontier said it also has trials underway with mid-sized and large service providers in the US AirTies is working with several providers outside the US, including Sky, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom.

CenturyLink appears poised to join Internet service providers such as Comcast, AT&T and Mediacom Communications that are testing or have launched usage-based policies for residential broadband services. Per updated policy data, CenturyLink plans to kick off a usage-based billing trial in Yakima (WA) starting July 26, that will charge $50 for a bucket of 50 gigabytes per data when customers exceed their monthly limit.

According to CenturyLink's current data policy FAQ, customers will get a grace period, as they will not be charged for the first two months that they exceed their monthly usage cap. Customers who are subject to the test policy will receive an electronic “no charge” warning the first two times. During months that customers are not billed, they’ll receive online alerts when they approach 85% of their data plan.

Forget cybercriminals and rogue states: President Barack Obama is the biggest threat to a free and open Internet, at least according to the platform approved at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (OH).

“The survival of the Internet as we know it is at risk,” the platform says in its "Protecting Internet Freedom" plank. “Its gravest peril originates in the White House, the current occupant of which has launched a campaign, both at home and internationally, to subjugate it to agents of government.” President Obama pushed for the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify Internet access as a Title II common-carrier service subject to some new regulations, which it did. It was a move Congressional Republicans fought and blamed on what they saw as the president’s intervention. They are also not happy with the Administration’s decision to move oversight of Internet domain names to a multistakeholder model.

Comcast said it has begun to deploy a portable broadband platform, called Xfinity Wi-Fi on Wheels, that was developed in partnership with Ericsson. The platform, tailored to bring Wi-Fi connectivity to venues such as concerts and festivals as well as emergency response situations, is a customized Ford T-350 van equipped with six Ericsson Wi-Fi access points perched on a 40-foot tall mast.

“The Wi-Fi has a 500-foot range and can support up to 3,000 users, potentially reaching speeds five times faster than cellular,” noted Eric Schaefer, Comcast’s SVP of wireless product management. He said Comcast conducted a practice run at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia, noting that the platform provided users with access to WiFi speeds of more than 50 Mbps. Comcast has since taken its act on the road, stopping by the New Haven Arts and Ideas Festival in June, but have it back in Philadelphia in time for next week’s Democratic National Convention.

[Commentary] We expect regulators, at least those within a single administration, to speak with a common voice. So when the Federal Trade Commission staff took the unprecedented action of criticizing proposed Internet privacy rules being considered by the Federal Communications Commission, it became clear we must hit the pause button.

The FCC proposes to replace that system with much broader “opt-in” requirements that ignore the sensitivity of the data. But unmooring the level of data protection from consumer expectations is counterproductive and wrong — 83% of consumers believe online privacy should be based on the sensitivity of data, not the kind of company or organization gathering it. As one FTC commissioner put it, the FTC filing “politely recognizes that the FCC’s current proposal would impose more restrictions than are necessary to protect consumer privacy in many cases, and yet would fail to protect consumer privacy in others.” When I was in the leadership of the FTC, we often filed comments guiding states or other regulators to recognize the need for regulatory humility. Regulations and legislation can become permanent impediments to competition. When the nation’s leading consumer-protection enforcer says you’ve gotten it wrong, it’s time to rethink and return to the drawing board.

[David Balto is a former policy director at the Federal Trade Commission and a former attorney in the Justice Department’s antitrust division]