Ownership

CBS News had it wrong when it reported that AT&T's DirecTV was cheating customers with "bait and switch" tactics and overcharges over the past two years, AT&T told a group of Democratic senators who raised questions about the story. "Contrary to what is suggested in the story, AT&T is fully committed to honoring its deals, offers, and promotions—and AT&T meets that commitment every day.”

Facebook and Google will be joining a mass online demonstration in support of the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules, apparently. The two internet giants join dozens of other companies and activist groups planning to rally grassroots support next week for the regulations, which require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally.

They had been conspicuously quiet as Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has launched proceedings to repeal the protections, arguing that the agency overstepped under the Obama Administration by reclassifying internet service providers as common carriers. “We have not heard directly from either Facebook or Google, but we’re glad to hear that these companies are listening to their employees and Internet users and will speak out for net neutrality with the rest of the Internet on July 12,” Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future and an organizer for the event, said in a statement. “In previous years these companies have often been on the sidelines of these fights, so we hope that they plan to do something meaningful in the spirit of the protest and educate their users about what’s at stake if we lose net neutrality protections that protect our online free speech, and give them opportunities to take action.”

[Commentary] Anyone who doubts the value of local newspapers in the 21st century should consider this: They may be the only institution capable of stopping the spread of fake news online. That’s because fake news is a local phenomenon, or rather, a rootless digital scourge masquerading as a homegrown local product. It then gets repackaged and distributed on the national level — ironically (but not coincidentally) replicating the lifecycle of real news.
[Erik Sass is editor of Publishers Daily]

John Malone is solidifying his hold on home-shopping channels — in his own particular way. His Liberty Interactive, which owns QVC, will combine with its longtime rival, the Home Shopping Network, in a $2.1 billion deal.

The deal will put together the two home-shopping television networks at a time of upheaval in the retail world. Amazon’s dominance in selling online has grown seemingly nonstop, while Walmart has made e-commerce a big priority with the purchases of start-ups like Jet and the clothing brand Bonobos. Combining QVC and HSN, which also have substantial e-commerce operations, is meant to help them gain scale, combine resources and cut costs. QVC and HSN would remain stand-alone brands under a new QVC Group structure after the merger.

Even some of the tech industry’s most prominent critics of President Donald Trump are opening their checkbooks and donating to Republican lawmakers, as Silicon Valley sets its sights on the 2018 midterm election. With the entire House on 2018’s ballot — and about one-third of the US Senate up for a vote, too — the stakes are high for those in the Bay Area who seek to erode the GOP’s control of Congress and erect a new bulwark against Trump’s agenda in areas like immigration and climate change. But some of the region’s most politically active executives — including Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet; and Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX — have contributed generously to Republicans in recent months in a bid to maintain steady relationships with both parties.

The US State Department wants to team up with other government agencies and Hollywood in a bid to create a "fake Twitter feud" about the importance of intellectual property rights. As part of this charade, the State Department's Bureau of Economic Affairs says it has been seeking the participation of the US Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, the US Patent and Trademark Office, and "others."

To make the propaganda plot seem more legitimate, the State Department is trying to enlist Stanford Law School and "similar academic institutions" to play along on the @StateDept feed on Twitter. "We're not going to participate," said Mark Lemley, the director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology at Stanford Law School. He recently received an e-mail and a telephone call from the State Department seeking his assistance. "Apparently there is not enough fake news for the US government," Lemley told his Facebook followers. On the Facebook post, he redacted the name of the official who sent him the letter out of privacy interests. The RIAA declined comment, as did the trademark office. The MPAA said it is not participating.

Chip maker Qualcomm is asking US trade authorities to ban imports of Apple products, including iPhones, that don’t use its processors. Qualcomm said it will formally request that the US International Trade Commission (ITC) temporarily ban the imports to “stop Apple’s unlawful and unfair use of Qualcomm’s technology.”

The company is accusing Apple of infringing on its patents. “Qualcomm’s inventions are at the heart of every iPhone and extend well beyond modem technologies or cellular standards,” Qualcomm general counsel Don Rosenberg said in a statement. “The patents we are asserting represent six important technologies, out of a portfolio of thousands, and each is vital to iPhone functions. Apple continues to use Qualcomm’s technology while refusing to pay for it.” The chip maker is also suing Apple to prevent it from selling any of products that have already been imported.

CenturyLink is seeking the Federal Communications Commission’s permission to shut down a number of low-speed data and analog services in 24 states located in its predecessor company CenturyTel’s territories, citing lack of demand. Specifically, the service provider wants to discontinue seven of its wholesale interstate analog and low-speed data services: Metallic, Telegraph, Narrowband, Wideband analog, Wideband Digital, Program Audio and Analog Video services.

CenturyLink, which offers these services through CenturyLink’s FCC’s Tariff numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, has requested to shut down these analog and low-speed data services by September 22, 2017. The service provider said in its FCC filing that “there are no customers for any of these low-speed analog services.” All of these services were used for applications that were part of a bygone era that have been replaced by more modern IP-based services.

CenturyLink has had a change of heart about implementing usage caps on its low-speed DSL users, stopping a one-year trial in Washington state. The service provider said the usage-based metering is not in line with its efforts to provide clear plans on how to charge for its DSL services.

“Because this approach no longer aligns with our goal to simplify offers and pricing for our customers, we have decided to end this program, effective May 3, 2017,” CenturyLink said in an announcement on its site. A key part of this latest announcement is that it will give bill credits to customers in Yakima, Washington, who were charged overage fees during the trial. “If you incurred overage charges related to this program, those charges will be credited and appear on your June or July monthly billing statement,” CenturyLink said. “No action is required on your part, and there are no impacts to your existing CenturyLink service."

Billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil argued on July 5 against rules brought in by an overhaul of the country's telecommunications industry, saying in a statement they were unfair and had led to a loss of its business rights. In the latest chapter in a fight that could shape the future of competition in the sector, the supreme court is considering whether to undo parts of an overhaul that tilted the playing field against Slim's long-dominant America Movil and led to steep drops in prices that Mexicans pay for cell phone service and internet access.

Slim's lawyers argued that unfair "asymmetrical" rules prohibit America Movil from charging other telephone carriers for connecting their calls made to customers on its network, but let those companies charge America Movil for connecting its calls to their customers. The so-called "zero tariff" applied to Slim's company has undermined the power of the sector's regulator IFT as well as the rights of America Movil units Telmex and Telcel under past concessions awarded to them by the government, the statement said. The company said it has been harmed by the elimination of its rights to "cost recovery, economic stability and financial balance" granted by the concessions.