Jon Brodkin

Before Charter purchased Time Warner Cable (TWC) in May of 2016, the company promised New York state regulators that it would bring broadband to 145,000 unserved and underserved homes and businesses by 2020. The condition helped Charter win government approval of the merger. Christian Babcock of Schuylerville (NY) is one of the state’s unserved residents, but he has no idea if his home will be included in the required buildout to 145,000 locations.

Before the merger, TWC told Babcock he’d have to pay thousands of dollars up front to subsidize construction needed to serve his home. Even now, the Charter-owned TWC is demanding more than $9,000 in exchange for service. That's the price to cover Charter's construction; Babcock would have to pay that plus the usual monthly service fees. Making the situation even more frustrating, Charter wouldn’t have to extend the TWC network very far to reach the house owned by Babcock and his wife. One nearby house has Charter service already, Babcock says. But even just getting an accurate explanation of the costs has been a hassle.

The Federal Communications Commission has given a helping hand to Louisville (KY) in the city's attempt to enforce local rules that would make it easier for Google Fiber to compete against AT&T. AT&T sued the local government in Louisville and Jefferson County in February to stop a One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) ordinance designed to give Google Fiber or other new competitors faster access to utility poles.

Oct 31, the US government submitted a statement of interest on behalf of the FCC, which says that one of AT&T’s primary legal arguments is incorrect. AT&T—also known as BellSouth Telecommunications in Kentucky—argued that the Louisville ordinance is preempted by the FCC’s pole-attachment rules. The local ordinance "conflicts with the procedures created by the FCC, and upsets the careful balances struck by the FCC in crafting its pole attachment regulations," AT&T's lawsuit said. But that is false, the FCC says. The FCC does have rules ensuring reasonable access to utility poles, but states are allowed to opt out of the federal pole-attachment rules if they certify to the commission that they regulate the rates, terms, and conditions of pole attachments. Kentucky is one of 20 states that has opted out of the federal regime and imposed its own rules, the FCC noted. “Accordingly, the federal pole-attachment regulations enacted under Section 224 [of the Communications Act] simply do not apply here,” the FCC wrote. More generally, One Touch Make Ready rules are consistent with federal communications policies and regulations that seek expanded broadband deployment, the FCC also wrote.

Some news organizations have reported that Time Warner has only one Federal Communications Commission license, for a TV station in Atlanta, and that the AT&T/Time Warner merger wouldn't be reviewed by the FCC if Time Warner sells that TV station to a third party. That is not correct, however.

Time Warner programmers such as HBO, CNN, and Turner Broadcasting System also have dozens of FCC licenses that let them upload video to satellites used by pay-TV companies. These licenses are crucial for distributing video to cable TV providers. It isn't only satellite TV companies like Dish or the AT&T-owned DirecTV that use satellites to send programmers' video to consumers' homes—even cable companies like Comcast use what's called a "headend in the sky" to receive and distribute video. The FCC's list of active satellite Earth station licenses shows that CNN America has 36 such licenses covering operations at specific locations. HBO and HBO Latin America have a combined seven licenses, and Turner Broadcasting System has 14 licenses. That's 57 licenses that could trigger an FCC review. Licenses for some of the same locations were part of the FCC's review of Time Warner's merger with AOL in 2001. AT&T would love to avoid an FCC review, which in the past has killed deals such as AT&T/T-Mobile and Comcast/Time Warner Cable.

Comcast sued the Nashville (TN) metro government and mayor to stop a new ordinance designed to give Google Fiber faster access to utility poles. Comcast's complaint in US District Court in Nashville is similar to one already filed by AT&T in Sept. Both Internet service providers are trying to invalidate a One Touch Make Ready ordinance that lets new ISPs make all of the necessary wire adjustments on utility poles themselves instead of having to wait for incumbent providers like AT&T and Comcast to send work crews to move their own wires.

The ordinance was passed largely to benefit Google Fiber, which is offering service in Nashville but says that it hasn't been able to deploy faster because it is waiting to get access to thousands of poles. Nearly all the Nashville utility poles are owned either by the municipal Nashville Electric Service or AT&T. Because Comcast has wires on many of the poles, it has some control over how quickly Google Fiber can expand its network. When Google Fiber wants to attach wires to a new pole, it needs to wait for ISPs like Comcast to move their wires to make room for Google Fiber's.

Advocacy groups are urging US regulators to consider blocking AT&T's purchase of Time Warner, but AT&T may be able to avoid any review by the Federal Communications Commission. The merger will be analyzed by the Department of Justice, but AT&T has said the FCC will be involved only if any FCC licenses are transferred to AT&T. A TV station is an example of something that requires an FCC license, but AT&T said that it and Time Warner are still "determining which FCC licenses, if any, will be transferred to AT&T in connection with the transaction."

The reason for this uncertainty is that "despite its big media footprint, Time Warner has only one FCC-regulated broadcast station, WPCH-TV in Atlanta," Reuters reported. "Time Warner could sell the license to try to avoid a formal FCC review, several analysts said." (Time Warner Inc. is completely separate from Time Warner Cable, which was sold to Charter in 2016 after an FCC review.) Transfer of a license to a third party would still require FCC review, but it would be separate from the AT&T/Time Warner transaction. Multichannel News raised the possibility that there might be other FCC licenses involved, but acknowledged that it isn't clear. "Some analysts, and one veteran communications attorney, thought there might be some satellite uplink licenses, but an FCC source said they did not know of any," the news site reported.

After a rare setback, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is still pushing for votes on plans to reform the cable TV set-top box market and impose new privacy rules on broadband providers. The FCC was scheduled to vote on the cable TV plan at its last meeting on September 29 but removed it from the agenda when the commission's Democratic majority couldn't agree on all the details. Last-minute negotiations aren't uncommon before FCC meetings, but this was a rare case of Chairman Wheeler not having enough votes to move forward with a controversial agenda item. The cable TV proposal—which would require TV providers to make video applications for third-party set-top boxes—is not on the agenda for the October FCC meeting. But it could theoretically be passed at any time, as commissioners can vote on it between meetings. It's not clear whether a vote is imminent, but Chairman Wheeler touted the plan again in an op-ed on Oct 19.

The Federal Trade Commission is worried that it may no longer be able to regulate companies such as Comcast, Google, and Verizon unless a recent court ruling is overturned.

The FTC petitioned the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing in a case involving AT&T’s throttling of unlimited data plans. A 9th Circuit panel previously ruled that the FTC cannot punish AT&T, and the decision raises questions about the FTC’s ability to regulate any company that operates a common carrier business such as telephone or Internet service. While the FTC's charter from Congress prohibits it from regulating common carriers, the agency has previously exercised authority to regulate these companies when they offer non-common carrier services. But the recent court ruling said that AT&T is immune from FTC oversight entirely, even when it’s not acting as a common carrier. It isn’t clear whether the ruling sets an ironclad precedent preventing the FTC from regulating any company with a common carrier business. But the FTC’s petition for a rehearing (full text) describes that outcome as a real possibility.

The 2016 presidential election is likely to have a major impact on how the US government tries to expand broadband deployment and how it regulates Internet service providers. But while we have a pretty good idea of how a President Hillary Clinton would approach the broadband industry, there’s very little to go on when predicting broadband policy under a President Donald Trump.

Clinton’s technology plan includes several initiatives designed to “deliver high-speed broadband to all Americans,” and it promises to defend network neutrality rules that prevent ISPs from discriminating against online services. There are questions about how Clinton would implement the plan and whether it's aggressive enough to achieve 100 percent broadband deployment, and her campaign has declined to provide more specifics. But the mere fact that Clinton has outlined some clear broadband goals sets the Democratic nominee apart from the other candidates. Republican nominee Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have any plan for increasing access to broadband, and there are indications that he would not support new consumer protection regulations.

T-Mobile USA has begun throttling mobile hotspot data when its network is congested while giving priority to smartphones and other devices that connect directly to the cellular network. T-Mobile has been notifying customers of the change with a message that says, "We just made your network better again" and that "T-Mobile device data comes first." "We've primed the network for on-device use," the carrier says on its website. "So now when there's congestion, you may notice higher speeds for data on your T-Mobile devices versus Smartphone Mobile Hotspot (tethering)."

Prioritization of on-device data is triggered "at times and at locations where there are competing customer demands for network resources, which may result in slower tethering speeds," T-Mobile also says. That means your smartphone should still be fast, but devices like laptops that connect to the phone's mobile hotspot will get slower Internet access. T-Mobile is making this change as it tries to shift customers from data buckets to plans that are nominally "unlimited" but in reality have several limits. The recently unveiled T-Mobile One plan has no monthly data cap or overage fees, but it throttles video to 1.5Mbps (enough for about 480p resolution) and throttles other data usage when customers who have used more than 26GB in a month connect to congested cell towers.

Verizon has told its field technicians in Pennsylvania that they can be fired if they try to fix broken copper phone lines. Instead, employees must try to replace copper lines with a device that connects to Verizon Wireless’s cell phone network. This directive came in a memo from Verizon to workers on September 20. “Failure to follow this directive may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal,” the memo said.

It isn't clear whether this policy has been applied to Verizon workers outside of Pennsylvania. The memo and other documents were made public by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, which asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to put a stop to the forced copper-to-wireless conversions. The wireless home phone service, VoiceLink, is not a proper replacement for copper phone lines because it doesn’t work with security alarms, fax machines, medical devices such as pacemakers that require telephone monitoring, and other services, the union said. “Field technicians are required to have VoiceLink units on their trucks and to refuse to repair copper plant serving voice-only customers,” CWA local President James Gardler wrote in testimony presented to the state Utility Commission. "Our members are being told that if they actually try to repair copper plant instead of using VoiceLink, they will be subject to disciplinary action by Verizon." The memo to field technicians says that in order to give customers the “best possible network performance in non-FiOS areas, Verizon will migrate as many customers experiencing trouble on their line to VoiceLink as possible.”