State and local laws stopping municipal broadband “are particularly offensive,” FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter tweeted Tuesday night. “What is the public interest rationale for preventing communities from banding together to add a broadband competitor in their markets?” The Democrat also tweeted concurrence with Georgetown Law Institute for Tech Law & Policy Fellow Gigi Sohn’s tweet urging Congress to pre-empt such laws and require dominant ISPs to share networks with competitors. “The lack of meaningful #competition in broadband is a real problem,” Slaughter said.

Comments are due Oct. 29 on FCC rules to be reviewed under Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. "The purpose of the review is to determine whether Commission rules whose ten-year anniversary dates are in the years 2015-2016, as contained in the Appendix, should be continued without change, amended, or rescinded in order to minimize any significant impact the rules may have on a substantial number of small entities," said a proposed rule in docket 18-31 and Tuesday's Federal Register.

Having soft launched its mobile service June 30, Charter Communications plans to ramp up features and marketing this summer, expanding mobile devices supported and letting customers transfer handsets, CEO Tom Rutledge said in a Q2 call Tuesday. Rutledge said company labor issues in New York City "politicized the actions" of the state Public Service Commission, which revoked approval of the TWC takeover (see 1807270027). "We're in compliance with the plain reading and the buildout requirements that the state imposed on us in merger conditions and we have a very strong legal case and ability to defend ourselves," he said. "It could play out over a lengthy period of time, if required. If necessary, we'll litigate." Asked about T-Mobile/Sprint, Rutledge said Charter wasn't one of the parties interested in Sprint (see 1807310042). "It doesn't mean in the future mobile assets might be priced right and that natural convergence would occur," he said. The chief said 91 percent of the footprint is all-digital and 6 percent of legacy Time Warner Cable customers had a full analog video lineup. He said about half of the Bright House Networks footprint is analog, and the all-digital shift started in June. He said the whole company will be fully digital by year's end and plans to launch a cloud-based DVR later this year. Rutledge said 62 percent of residential TWC and BHN customers were moved to Spectrum pricing and packaging, up from 55 percent at the end of Q1. He said Charter offers 1 GB service in about 60 percent of its footprint and it raised its minimum Spectrum to 200 Mbps in about 40 percent of its footprint. Charter has 16.2 million residential video customers, down 1.8 percent year over year; 23.1 million residential internet customers, up 4.8 percent; and 10.3 million voice customers, down 0.5 percent. The stock closed Tuesday up 3.6 percent to $304.58

The Trump administration views development and deployment of 5G networks and other advanced communications and continued leadership in advancing cybersecurity and AI among its top research and development priorities for federal agencies to consider as they develop their FY 2020 budget proposals, said the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology in a Tuesday memo. OMB and OSTP highlighted cybersecurity and quantum computing among the Trump administration's FY 2019 R&D priorities. The focus on deployment of 5G and other communications networks follows the January release of a leaked National Security Council draft memo that proposed nationalization (see 1801290034 and 1803210019). 5G and other advanced communications networks “will be critical to an increasingly connected society,” OMB and OSTP said. “Agencies should support the development and deployment of these networks, including by prioritizing R&D to manage spectrum, secure networks, and increase access to high-speed internet.” Autonomous vehicles, drones and other connected systems “rely heavily on robust and secure connectivity to provide novel, low-cost capabilities,” with additional R&D needed to “safely and efficiently” integrate them “onto our roadways and into the national airspace,” they said. “Agencies should prioritize R&D to lower barriers to the deployment of autonomous vehicles and to develop operating standards and a traffic management system” for drones. Agencies should invest in R&D on cybersecurity to protect U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including “prioritized investment” in AI, computing and cyber capabilities, OMB and OSTP said. “Advanced cyber capabilities at scale require investment in new computing and technology paradigms, including adaptive and automated defensive measures.”

Elizabeth Bowles, chair of the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, told us she would welcome additional local government members, and BDAC's work hasn’t been compromised (see 1807300029). “Anyone who has been paying attention to the BDAC and its process knows that municipal viewpoints are vetted, heard, and even prevail,” Bowles emailed. “Industry representatives and municipal representatives have worked together to reach a compromise resolution that is acceptable to both constituencies. While I understand that it is easy to take a headcount of the members of the BDAC and criticize its diversity, many of those who have taken this position prejudged the BDAC’s process, making a number of assumptions that have not proven out with time. Many critics of the BDAC itself have repeated what they have been led to believe, but in my opinion, anyone who has actually watched the BDAC’s proceedings would be hard-pressed to argue that municipalities and their representatives are not given ample opportunity to express their views.” Bowles noted the group unanimously approved the municipal code and an official from Lincoln, Nebraska, David Young, was the vice chair of the committee that harmonized muni and state codes. “The municipal representatives on the Harmonization Working Group were able to make substantive changes to portions of the Model State Code,” Bowles said. “In the last BDAC meeting this month, one of the recommendations in the Model State Code -- that States consider enacting State Franchise agreements -- was narrowly defeated, in large measure because of municipal opposition.” CTIA supports the new focus on disaster preparation (see 1807270020), a spokesperson said. “Providers have been working hard to further bolster networks ahead of the 2018 hurricane season.”

Trouble with communications sector companies was the seventh-highest source of 2017 consumer complaints, the Consumer Federation of America reported Monday. CFA cited complaints about communications companies for “misleading offers, installation issues, service problems, billing disputes with phone and internet services.” Misrepresentations or other deceptive practices and failure to deliver online purchases made through online sales also made the list tied for 10th The report was based on a survey of city, county and state consumer agencies. CFA said 38 agencies handled 908,595 complaints last year.

CTIA said the FCC is right to move forward on a ban on state and local moratoriums on new wireless facilities, part of a larger infrastructure item set to get a vote at Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting (see 1807130045 and 1807300040). CTIA said in a Friday filing in docket 17-79 that it spoke with aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel about the moratoriums and other infrastructure issues. “CTIA therefore applauded the Commission for its proposal to adopt a Declaratory Ruling to clarify that moratoria -- whether express or de facto, interim or not -- are barriers to wireless deployment and prohibited under the Communications Act,” the group said. “There is no more absolute prohibition on deployment than refusing to accept or act on applications. A local law that bars acceptance of applications and a local agency’s refusal to act on them have precisely the same impact -- no deployment is permitted -- and they are thus per se unlawful.” NATOA opposed the moratoriums. “We object to this ill-defined attempt to bend federal law to accommodate industry desires while ignoring the impact on communities across the country and doing nothing to address the digital divide,” the group said.

Initial briefs in consolidated challenges to the FCC’s net neutrality rollback order are due in late August, with briefing running through November, said a schedule (in Pacer) released Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC, No. 18-1051. It also imposed word limits. The joint brief of government petitioners is due Aug. 20, and the joint brief of nongovernment petitioner-intervenors and the brief of intervenor Digital Justice Foundation are due Aug. 27, it said. The FCC/DOJ response is due Oct. 11, and the joint brief of ISPs and the brief of another intervenor supporting respondents are due Oct. 18. Reply briefs from petitioners and their supporting intervenors are due Nov. 16; a deferred joint appendix is due Nov. 20; and final briefs are due Nov. 27. The court will set oral argument later, the order said.

An FCC order on regulatory fees will take effect Aug. 29, after its scheduled publication in the Federal Register on Monday. The order adopts new tiers for calculating submarine cable fees and retains the bulk rate calculation method for determining the number of subscribers in multiple dwelling units (see 1805220075).

AT&T’s representative on the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee is now Chris Nurse (see 1807260055) ... Charter Communications' position on an FCC pole-attachment proposal included that it backs it -- with tweaks (see 1807260036).