Increased wireless industry competition from cable, particularly with Altice joining the market (see 1909050050), and a more-mature industry could mean more moderate wireless customer growth and service revenue, S&P said Wednesday. The debt ratings firm said Comcast and Charter Communications could sign wholesale wireless arrangements with AT&T at better rates than their Verizon mobile virtual network operators, making them more competitive. It said 5G deployments and spectrum acquisitions will carry sizable price tags, and fifth-generation revenue opportunities "will be slow to materialize." S&P said 5G fixed wireless could start affecting cable revenue in four to five years. It said a Democratic presidential administration in 2021 could reclassify broadband under Communications Act Title II, possibly leading to federal price caps. S&P said it's unclear if the FCC can block state-level net neutrality efforts, or when it might.

Data in a December NAB filing on unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band includes errors and reaches inapplicable conclusions (see 1912060007), wrote tech and consumer electronics companies including Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel and Microsoft, posted Wednesday in FCC docket 18-295: NAB studied power levels “400 percent higher than appropriate." The tech interests only request indoor use of the band, but the study includes information about outdoor devices, the filing said. NAB also doesn’t account for frequency coordination, the tech interests said. “These important factors have caused NAB to overestimate the risk of harmful interference by more than 30 dB, and likely more.” The association didn't comment.

ITTA will shut Jan. 31. President Genny Morelli told us Wednesday funding issues that arose late last year led to the board's decision to shutter the broadband and telecom trade group. After larger members CenturyLink and Consolidated told the association they wouldn't renew membership for 2020, it created a situation financially untenable for the organization, Morelli said. The companies confirmed to us the accuracy of Morelli’s remarks. "ITTA's successes in the policy arena are particularly noteworthy when measured against the size and resources of other industry stakeholders," Morelli said in a statement. "Financial constraints in the wireline service provider sector have presented insurmountable challenges and made it untenable for ITTA to continue to operate." The group opened in 1993.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau deactivated the disaster information reporting system for the Puerto Rico earthquakes (see 2001080006), said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest.

If FirstNet doesn't work with America’s Public Television Stations, the FCC "may wish to engage through oversight or other action to ensure that the nation’s first responders have the full benefit of public television’s datacasting capability," APTS told Public Safety Bureau staff in a filing for docket 19-254. "APTS seeks first and foremost to work with FirstNet and AT&T in a cooperative approach." FirstNet didn't comment Monday. “In an ideal world, the Commission would encourage the integration of datacasting and, if necessary, mandate that ATSC 3.0 broadcast chips be included in all public safety phones and devices,” the public broadcaster group said. “Such action would allow for a transparent hand-off of datacasting from public TV broadcast stations to the public safety LTE network allowing for a two-way mobile communications path.” Friday, FirstNet Executive Director Edward Parkinson said at CES FirstNet has more than 1 million connections. "We’ve seen commercial carriers competing like they never have before to gain public safety’s business,” he said: “We’ve seen industry rising to the occasion for our first responders with new devices, apps, and solutions."

The FTC and DOJ requested comment by Feb. 11 on draft vertical merger guidelines Friday. The FTC voted 3-0-2 to approve the draft, with the two Democrats abstaining. DOJ withdrew the 1984 non-horizontal merger guidelines, eliminating application of the guidelines for either agency. “Greater transparency about the complex issues surrounding vertical mergers will benefit the business community, practitioners, and the courts,” said Chairman Joe Simons. The guidelines will “provide more clarity and transparency on how we review vertical transactions,” said DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim. The draft guidelines aren’t “supported by an analysis of past enforcement decisions, perpetuate an overdependence on theoretical models, and do not reflect all of the ways that competition can be harmed,” said Commissioner Rohit Chopra. He asked that the 1984 non-horizontal merger guidelines be rescinded due to economic shifts in the past 40 years. “Increasing concentration, declining new firm formation, and other market trends necessitate a modernization of vertical merger review,” he said. Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said her biggest concern is an apparent safe harbor indicating agencies are unlikely to challenge vertical deals if the parties “have a share in the relevant market of less than 20 percent, and the related product is used in less than 20 percent of the relevant market.” She said the 20 percent threshold lacks evidence and justification. Commissioner Christine Wilson agreed the 1984 guidelines need to be updated and replaced. She suggested commenters weigh the safe harbor and its threshold, asking if agencies should focus on “oligopoly markets.”

The North American Numbering Council is sending draft technical requirements document for a reassigned numbers database administrator to the FCC. NANC members approved an amended version of its draft Monday. Contract Oversight Subcommittee co-Chairman Phil Linse of CenturyLink said the database would function so that when it gets a query of a number and date, it would respond with "yes," "no" or "no data" to show if the number has been permanently disconnected since that date. He said the database would be federally procured and owned, provided through a contract, with updates monthly -- on the 15th or the next available business day. The hourlong meeting had back and forth about whether the scope of the database also covers number resellers having to submit information; the consensus being they do. Also discussed were database capabilities for querying 50 numbers at once, how mistakes would be addressed and whether data updates could be done more frequently. NANC Chair Jennifer McKee of NCTA said the next step is for the FCC to seek public comment. The agency didn't comment about timing. The agency in 2018 directed NANC to make recommendations on reassigned number database technical and operational issues (see 1812120026).

San Francisco, defending before the FCC its Police Code Article 52 that mandated building owners let ISP share all wiring, followed an "incoherent strategy" of vagueness about what the ordinance says, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Jan. 3 and released Friday. He said the city finally asserted its ordinance doesn't require sharing of in-use wiring, but the ordinance language seemed to say otherwise. If the municipality's correct, he said, "there is no reason ... to object to our narrow ruling." Commissioners voted 3-2 in July to pre-empt part of the open access rule (see 1907100020). Mayor London Breed (D) didn't comment Friday. Pelosi's letter, dated July 10, said the proposed pre-emption "is deeply misguided [and would put] a chilling effect on much-needed competition in the telecommunications sector."

DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim filed a notice of appearance at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in the Tunney Act review of T-Mobile's buying Sprint, he said Friday (in Pacer). DOJ didn’t comment. Judge Timothy Kelly said Wednesday he won't pause while states separately challenge the deal at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 2001080051). The D.C. federal court held a telephone status conference with parties Friday. Amici may file briefs of up to 20 pages by Jan. 24; parties must respond by Feb. 7, Kelly said in a Friday minute order in case 1:19-cv-02232. State plaintiffs in the SDNY case may file one joint brief, he said: "All potential amici shall address in their briefs only the precise and limited issues before the Court in this proceeding." The D.C. federal court held a telephone status conference with parties Friday. Amici may file briefs of up to 20 pages by Jan. 24; parties must respond by Feb. 7, Kelly said in a Friday minute order in case 1:19-cv-02232. State plaintiffs in the SDNY case may file one joint brief, he said: "All potential amici shall address in their briefs only the precise and limited issues before the Court in this proceeding."

Ajit Pai was to visit Hawaii Thursday and Friday as his 49th state since taking the FCC helm. His schedule included discussing the proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 2001090025) at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in Wailea and visiting a Hawaiian Telecom site that received support from RDOF's precursor, as well as telehealth and distance learning sites.