A federal court denied an appeal of a three-judge panel's inmate calling service ruling that reversed key FCC pricing decisions in a 2015 order, including intrastate rate caps (see 1707280058 and 1706130047). No judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asked for a vote on Wright Petitioners' request for en banc review, said a brief order Tuesday in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461. "This was not unexpected, but it is nonetheless very disappointing," said petitioners' counsel Andrew Schwartzman, Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation senior counselor, Wednesday.

Following expected regulatory approvals of autonomous vehicle in the late 2020s, costs will fall and consumer acceptance will gain, Cowen Research reported Monday. Shifting from individually owned cars to a network of self-driving vehicles, called “intelligent mobility,” means ride hailing, car sharing and networks of connected autonomous vehicles are poised for increased adoption, it said. Cowen sees a consumer-driven transition from owning cars to one of access to transportation services with the transportation-as-a-service market becoming five to six times the size of the automobile market. “Every product is a service waiting to happen,” said Cowen. Today’s $1.50-per-mile cost for Uber and Lyft -- vs. about $0.80 for personally owned vehicles -- can be cut 40-50 percent for full AV, it said. Cowen calculated an $11 trillion market, five to six times larger than the automobile market. Juniper Research Monday meanwhile said the number of ride-hailing drivers will increase nearly 15 percent this year, rising from 4.3 million in 2017 to 8.6 million by 2022. Platform providers can expect revenue to almost double in the period to $19 billion, the industry researcher said. Surge pricing could account for 30 percent of revenue by 2022, said the study, and overuse could cause "cries of extortion."

Garmin and Iridium brought concerns about Ligado's broadband terrestrial low-power service plans to meetings with Wireless Bureau and eighth-floor staff, said FCC docket 11-109 filings posted Tuesday. Recapping a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Garmin said it discussed its worries about Ligado interference with Garmin's certified aviation devices. It repeated its oft-made argument in favor of the 1 dB standard for determining harmful interference to GPS receivers. Iridium -- recapping meetings with the Office of Engineering and Technology, the Wireless and International bureaus and the offices of Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel (see here, here, here, here, here and here) -- said it repeated its technical analysis findings (see 1609020029 and 1612140061) that Ligado's L-band operations would cause significant harmful out-of-band emission interference to Iridium's mobile terminals. It said Ligado's proposed OOBE limit at 1626.5 MHz doesn't provide enough interference protection. It said the FCC shouldn't grant Ligado's application on its 1627.5-1637.5 MHz plans but that if it does, it must impose conditions to ensure enough interference protection for Iridium services. Ligado didn't comment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should overturn FCC restoration of the UHF discount, said Free Press, the United Church of Christ Office of Communications, Common Cause and other groups in their initial brief challenging restoration of the rule. The technical reasons for the original UHF discount rule no longer apply, and the FCC doesn’t have the authority to alter the national ownership cap, they said. That makes restoring the discount “arbitrary and capricious,” the groups said. The brief challenged the FCC’s connection of its action on the discount to a future proceeding that would look at the national cap: “Even if had authority, it could be years before this yet-to-be launched proceeding could be completed.” Public interest groups had sought to have the restoration of the discount stayed but were rejected by the court (see 1706150033).

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking any analyses done by or for the FCC of public comments during the 2014-2015 open internet proceeding, the Wireline Bureau last week gave us 25 pages of various blog posts and said it was withholding the remaining responsive records. It said it was withholding reports, emails, memos and other materials on the analysis of docket 14-28 comments because releasing them through the FOIA process would cause competitive harm to the entity that created them. It cited the exemption of interagency and intra-agency records, saying since they reflect staff analysis, thought processes and recommendations, they "would impair candid discussions about the subject-matter [of the docket] and thereby diminish the deliberative process" that goes with agency orders. It also said such nonexempt information is so intertwined with exempt information that "reasonable segregation is not possible." The blog posts the FCC provided were on NPR in 2014, looking at a breakdown done by data analysis firm Quid, and a series of 2014 blog posts by social media analysis firm Textifter -- three about open internet comments and a variety of unrelated blog posts. How the agency is handling public comments in the current net neutrality proceeding has been questioned (see 1707180019).

DOJ likely will be the main agency reviewing potential wireless and cable transactions that Wall Street is anticipating, "as the FCC majority is likely to be more hands off," said Raymond James analysts in an investor note Monday that cited conversations with Washington contacts. They "are not convinced" DOJ would clear major wireless mergers, "but the bar at the FCC should be less challenging." The analysts continue to believe the FCC will reverse its prior Title II net neutrality approach under the Communications Act, and that Congress is unlikely to legislate on that. Citing FCC interest in promoting small-cell wireless efforts, they said they believe the commission "will have little tolerance for local hold ups, with no hesitation to use preemption in states that are unreasonable," though such "deployments are likely to be significantly more delayed than they need to be because of the municipality influence."

A "coherent framework" with a single regulator to oversee and consistently apply privacy practices across the internet, including advertising networks, apps, browsers, devices, ISPs, operating systems and social media platforms, is needed, blogged Jeff Brueggeman, AT&T vice president-global public policy. Such privacy policies and protections "should be based on the sensitivity of the data from the consumer’s perspective, not the technology or company," he said. Federal and state legislation (see 1709180032 and 1709200053) will lead to a fragmented approach and only confuse consumers and hinder innovation and competition, he said Monday. He added that it's "simply false" that ISPs have more visibility into consumers' browsing activity than Facebook, Google and others, mainly because encryption increasingly is used, Brueggeman said. The digital ad market is expected to grow to $83 billion revenue, a 16 percent hike, this year. Whether the FCC or FTC should be the sole cop on the beat is still a matter of debate, he said. He noted Congress "wisely repealed" FCC ISP privacy rules (see 1704050037).

A discrimination complaint brought against the FCC by a now-retired employee should be rejected because plaintiff Alexander Chan didn't exhaust his administrative remedies, the agency said in a docket 17-00921 motion (in Pacer) to dismiss filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The FCC said Chan's complaint to the FCC Office of Workplace Diversity in January came more than six years after he retired, and he didn't contact the agency's Equal Employment Opportunity office within 45 days of the action giving rise to his discrimination claim, as required. Chan, who pro se filed his complaint alleging he was passed over for promotions because of his race and a disability, couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

Ten governors, Democrats and Republicans, signed a letter to Chairman Ajit Pai urging the FCC to set aside at least three channels in every market as white space channels for unlicensed use. Then-Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated an NPRM in June 2015 on reserving TV spectrum for Wi-Fi (see 1506160043) and Microsoft has been urging action (see 1707050048). The letter says 34 million Americans don’t have access to high-speed broadband. “If approved, companies from across the private sector will be able to invest and deploy innovative white space technologies,” the governors said. “Concerns from all parties can be addressed in a way that allows this game-changing initiative to positively impact the lives of countless Americans.” Meanwhile, Microsoft President Brad Smith told Commissioner Brendan Carr of the company's initiative. A lawyer for the company also reported representatives met with aides to Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The executives told Office of Engineering and Technology staff they want the agency to "consider clarifying the application of its transmitter height restriction rules as they relate to fixed White Spaces radios operating indoors in buildings."

Two items were removed Friday from Tuesday's commissioners' meeting agenda after being approved, the FCC said. Adopted was a requirement that QAM-based cable operators comply with the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers 40 standard for cable signal quality, and a draft item on relaxing certification and measurement requirements for AM broadcasters that use directional arrays. Both items were considered non-controversial and unanimous approval was expected (see 1709150003) and 1709150058). An FCC spokesman confirmed that both votes were unanimous.