The FCC touted its efforts to reduce barriers to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the communications industry, in a report to Congress listed in Friday's Daily Digest. Communications Act Section 257 requires the FCC to report on such efforts every three years. Among the items the commission cited were its net neutrality order to safeguard Internet "edge" opportunities, "designated entity" rules to facilitate the ability of start-ups to acquire licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum and spectrum sharing for innovative uses, and amended joint sales agreement rules and other actions to assist small broadcasters. "We have created unprecedented opportunities for new and diverse media voices to find audiences," said the report. "We have promoted vigorous competition on a playing field that is fair for both large and small firms, and that is consequently attracting record amounts of venture capital at the edge and in networks." Chairman Tom Wheeler's statement said: "Our Open Internet Order protects entrepreneurs and small businesses free and open access to the Internet, enabling innovation without permission. At the same time, we forbear from sections of Title II like rate regulation and unbundling that might reduce network owners’ incentives to continue building out their networks and investing in new technologies like 5G." Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly partially dissented. Pai agreed some actions had helped small businesses, but others, such as Title II reclassification "disproportionately burdens smaller broadband providers." O'Rielly said, "At best, only a portion of this report can be said to be responsive to the law. Even if the statute were read to suggest a broader application, Congress certainly did not expect that the report would be considered as just another opportunity to proselytize in favor of the current Commission’s partisan agenda." O'Rielly also called it "alarming" that the report is more than two years late, following the last one in 2011, and without explanation. "I cannot support this blatant indifference to Congressional requirements," he wrote. "Overall, this report is flawed and extremely late. I approve its issuance, as required under the law, approve instances where it actually acknowledges and addresses legitimate and applicable market entry barriers for small businesses, and reject the rest."

To illustrate cable industry actions to prevent robocalls, NCTA launched a website that includes links to Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable information about blocking such calls on the cable ISPs' telephone systems. NCTA said Charter, Comcast and Cox also are members of the FCC's Robocall Strike Force, which presented its initial report Wednesday to the commission (see 1610260053).

CenturyLink "is in advanced talks" to combine with Level 3, with a deal announcement possible "in the coming weeks," The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Both companies declined to comment to us on the report. "While we don't know if true, it looks like CTL [CenturyLink] would be the buyer," Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote investors. "A LVLT [Level 3] merger or purchase could make sense for a telecom carrier looking to deepen its fiber presence both inside and outside of its network. CTL does not have wireless and it has a less robust fiber footprint than some of its peers. We believe CTL is motivated to be aggressive with its fiber push to keep up with the competition. The addition of LVLT helps it do this." The deal could create "significant cost synergies and revenue synergy opportunities," Fritzsche wrote, citing special access (business data services), since CenturyLink is a net seller and Level 3 a net payer of such services. She suggested CenturyLink would have to pay a "significant premium" to combine with Level 3, which could attract interest from others such as "cable and content" companies. BDS rules are tentatively set for a Nov. 17 FCC member vote (see 1610270054).

As the FCC moves forward on broadband data services and other major wireline issues, Stephanie Weiner, Chairman Tom Wheeler’s wireline aide, is leaving, Wheeler said Thursday. Weiner is being replaced by Lisa Hone, an associate chief in the Wireline Bureau. Hone was previously an aide to former Commissioner Michael Copps and logged time at the FTC. Weiner played a big role both in drafting and defending the 2015 net neutrality rules, Wheeler said in a news release.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Freedom of Information Act request and accompanying blog post (see 1610260060) are an attempt to “fabricate drama,” said MPAA Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Neil Fried in his blog post Thursday. EFF said the Copyright Office met with programmers and content interests and didn't do enough to seek out all sides on the FCC set-top box proposal before deciding it violated copyright law. “The bottom line is that the Copyright Office did not approach stakeholders, selectively or otherwise,” Fried said. “It spoke with any and all comers who asked for the opportunity. It then examined the issues and met its statutory obligation to advise federal agencies and Congress on the law. Any EFF suggestion to the contrary is entirely false.” The CO “studiously avoided being brought into the debate” until it was asked by the FCC and Congress to weigh in, Fried said. “EFF’s great 'revelation' is that the Copyright Office did its job, responding to inquiries from various groups -- including technology companies, labor unions, copyright owners, the FCC and Congress,” he said. “Like anyone else, the EFF could have just as easily made its own inquiries, rather than issue a hyperbolic blog complaining about the entirely legitimate practice of a government agency communicating with a range of parties.”

Comments are due Nov. 9, replies Nov. 16 on a telecom industry petition for FCC reconsideration of a policy statement instituting treble damages for violations of rules for payments to USF and other funding programs. The pleading cycle was triggered Wednesday by Federal Register publication of an FCC notice, which created docket 16-330. "The policy statement adopts a new treble damages formula for calculating forfeitures for telecommunications service providers' failure: (1) to timely pay their assessments for the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund, local number portability (LNP), North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and regulatory fee programs; and (2) to file data required to assess payment obligations for these programs," said a petition filed March 6, 2015, by CTIA, NCTA, Comptel (now Incompas) and USTelecom (see 1503310052). The FCC's goals are laudable, the groups said, but the policy statement must be vacated because it wasn't promulgated with notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act. On substance, the treble damages policy is arbitrary and capricious, reflecting "a results-oriented effort by the Commission to drive the relevant forfeiture amounts as high as possible," said the groups, which pressed the agency in August to open a docket and seek comment on their petition (see 1608050061).

The Lifeline Connects Coalition asked FCC staff to temporarily waive new rules that shorten a "nonusage window" from 60 days to 30 days and a "cure period" from 30 days to 15 days. Under rules adopted as part of a FCC Lifeline broadband and administrative overhaul, many wireless Lifeline providers would be required to de-enroll low-income customers who don't use the subsidized service for 30 days and fail to cure that nonuse in 15 days. Absent a waiver, "many eligible low-income consumers face the significant likelihood that they will through no action of their own be denied Lifeline benefits to which they are entitled and for which they have expressed no desire to discontinue," said an LCC petition to the Wireline Bureau posted Wednesday in docket 11-42, saying millions may lose service. The LCC also asked the bureau to direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to rescind guidance that would implement the 30-day nonusage rule prior to Dec. 2, which the group called "unlawful and impractical" to administer. It further asked the commission to waive a rule barring reimbursements for providers serving Lifeline subscribers enrolled in the program who are in a non-usage cure period. The LCC said the rules should be waived until the commission resolves TracFone's related petition for reconsideration and stay motion (see 1609190008). LCC members are Telrite, i-wireless, Blue Jay Wireless and American Broadband & Telecommunications Co.

With AT&T's planned DirecTV Now service a driver of its buy of Time Warner (see 1610240011), NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke questioned the likelihood it and other over-the-top entrants will siphon off significant numbers of traditional pay-TV subscribers. "Most people find tremendous value in their cable or satellite subscription and are not going to change," he said during the cable operator company's Q3 earnings call Wednesday. He also said it's unlikely such services would materially benefit NBCU at least in the first couple of years by delivering major numbers of cord-cutters and cord-nevers. Comcast executives said they wouldn't comment on the AT&T/TW deal itself. CEO Brian Roberts said Comcast is targeting mid-2017 for rolling out a wireless service as part of a multiproduct bundle. For the quarter, revenue was $21.3 billion, up 14.2 percent year over year, and it added 432,000 video customers vs. a 48,000 decline the same quarter a year earlier. The cable ISP said it added 330,000 broadband customers in the quarter, for the company's best Q3 result in seven years. Programming costs were up 11.4 percent in the quarter due to contract renewals, higher retransmission consent fees and sports programing costs. Comcast expects programming cost to be up more than 10 percent this year and similarly higher than normal in 2017, but further out they should increase more along the traditional 7-8 percent a year, Chief Financial Officer Michael Cavanagh said. Comcast closed Wednesday at $62.56, down 3 percent. Roberts was sanguine about the possible threat of streaming cannibalizing NFL and Olympics TV viewership, with the streaming portion of the Rio Olympics being 1 to 2 percent of what TV viewership was. Similar numbers apply to the NFL, he said, saying the ratings drops might reflect that the current NFL season isn't as strong as others. NFL and Olympics coverage is profitable, Roberts said, and the modest ratings decline "doesn't cause us too much discomfort." The company meanwhile just started the launch of its Xi5 all-Wi-Fi set-top box, Roberts said. Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit said the company should be moving to IP-based delivery of content "over the next couple years."

The FCC commissioner meeting will start at 9:30 a.m. EDT Thursday rather than the usual 10:30 a.m., said a notice. The agency is to consider four enforcement orders, followed by an item on rules for protecting ISP privacy.

The FCC added a way for consumers to share “concerns and observations” through the Consumer Help Center's “Tell your Story” feature, said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Alison Kutler in a blog post Tuesday. Comments made to the FCC using the “Tell Your Story” feature “will not be formally served” on telecom providers as complaints are, Kutler said. “Instead, they will be used by Commission staff to inform policy making and identify practices that may be ripe for potential enforcement action,” she wrote. “This differentiation will better allow the agency to focus its complaint resolution resources on those types of issues while maintaining and enhancing consumers’ ability to give voice to other concerns and thoughts.” The option will “add another layer of granularity” to FCC data since it differentiates between comments and complaints, Kutler said. “Whether you are confused, frustrated, or feel you’ve been harmed, we want to hear from you,” the post read. “With the insights we gain, we can identify trends and ensure that we remain aware of the issues and concerns that matter most to consumers."