The FCC mostly heard from industry commenters who said the U.S. wireless market is effectively competitive, in comments on the new, biennial “Communications Marketplace Report.” That market "is vibrant, innovative, and highly competitive,” CTIA said. “Consumers today have unparalleled choice among wireless providers, services, plans, and devices.” Monthly data traffic per smartphone increased last year from 3.9 GB to 5.1 GB, CTIA said. Carriers invested some $25.6 billion in their networks in 2017, the group said. “4G LTE service is now available to at least 99.7 percent of Americans,” CTIA said. “That connectivity is enabled by the 323,448 cell sites. ... The deployment of small cells, which helps satisfy consumers’ data demands and provides an important network densification precursor for 5G, is expected to see a skyrocketing increase of 550 percent in 2018.” Comments were due Thursday in docket 18-203 (see 1806260056). The Competitive Carriers Association again warned all is not well. “Increasing concentration of the wireless market between the two largest providers -- AT&T and Verizon -- combined with existing regulatory barriers to wireless market expansion negatively impact competitive entry and competitive expansion, particularly in rural and remote areas,” the group said.” CCA represents nearly 100 mobile carriers, yet by the end of 2017, AT&T and Verizon had 70 percent market share of wireless subscriptions, it said. Verizon and AT&T offered similar comments to those filed by CTIA. “The mobile wireless marketplace is constantly evolving with each ‘generation’ of wireless technology ushering in dramatic innovations for consumers that change not only the way they communicate but also how they go about their lives,” Verizon said. AT&T cited as evidence how each of the four major carriers offered unlimited plans, starting with its offer in 2016, and undercut each other on price. “Carriers have also continued to innovate to offer greater value at those lower prices," AT&T said. “AT&T added HBO to its $90 offering, and now also includes a live television service called WatchTV. T-Mobile responded by adding Netflix and MLB.tv to its unlimited offerings, and Sprint added Hulu and TIDAL.” Mobile Future said competition among carriers “has predictably yielded higher connection speeds, broader network coverage and falling prices.”

Advocates for people with disabilities urged the FCC to back off Lifeline proposals to bar pure resellers, and to impose mandatory "co-pay" charges on eligible low-income consumers. The proposals "would cause irreparable harm to the very consumers this program is intended to help," wrote the American Association of People with Disabilities, Hearing Loss Association of America, National Association of the Deaf, National Council on Independent Living and World Institute on Disability, posted Wednesday in docket 17-287. They asked the FCC to suspend the subsidy phaseout of voice-only Lifeline support across the country, not just in rural areas. TracFone renewed a request for a Section 54.408(b) waiver or a ruling that it could comply with minimum service standards by giving customers "a specified quantity of 'units' per month," the subject of a November emergency petition (see 1711030064). "Those units could be used at the consumers’ discretion either for voice service, mobile broadband Internet access service, or for a combination," it said, noting updated standards taking effect Dec. 1 (see 1807180038).

NAB and FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment members dispute what markets the agency should consider comparable for purposes of waiving radio ownership limits in exchange for incubating a new entrant, said filings in docket 14-50 Thursday. The agency should disallow such waivers from applying in markets that are more than five Nielsen audio market rank sizes removed in either direction from the incubated station’s market, said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Senior Advisor David Honig and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston in meetings with Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and aides. Winston and Honig appeared on the behalf of other ACDDE members, including former Commissioner Henry Rivera. Such a limit is “unduly restrictive and would inhibit participation by potential incubating broadcasters,” NAB told aides to Pai, Rosenworcel and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Allow such waivers to be transferable, NAB recommended. The two sides pushed for the incubator program to include TV stations.

Comcast ended its bidding for Fox's nonbroadcast assets (see 1807190022) when it decided it "couldn't build enough shareholder value" to justify the cost, CEO Brian Roberts said in a Q2 earnings call Thursday. He said Sky, for which it's vying with Disney (see 1807120001), "will fit well." He said Comcast's focus on connectivity means it's increasingly investing for its xFi service, and it now offers 1 GB speeds across virtually its entire footprint. Comcast Cable CEO David Watson said the company is putting more focus on expanding its broadband-only customer segment. Asked about growth of virtual MVPDs, Roberts said Comcast is "benefiting more from that competition than we're losing," with NBCUniversal having more distributors and through increased data traffic the company is seeing. For Q2, Comcast revenue rose 2.1 percent to $21.7 billion from the year-ago quarter, it said. The 260,000 added broadband customers gave it one of the highest Q2 results in 10 years, it said. The operator ended the quarter with 21.1 million residential video customers, down 136,000; 24.4 million residential broadband customers, up 226,000; and 10.2 million residential voice customers, down 32,000. Its Xfinity Mobile service ended the quarter with 781,000 subscribers, up 204,000. Comcast shares closed Thursday up 4 percent to $34.75. BTIG analyst Walt Piecyk wrote investors that losses from Comcast's wireless business since its May 2017 launch have topped $1.2 billion, while subscriber growth seems to have flattened out at 200,000 per quarter, lower than expected. He said Comcast isn't likely to end its wireless push given the 5G threat to wired broadband, and it makes sense for Comcast to build a wireless network atop its growing fiber investments.

A draft NPRM on repacking reimbursement for FM stations, low-power TV stations and translators appears to “penalize T-Mobile for taking a proactive approach” to funding LPTV relocation (see 1707170043), said the carrier in meetings with the Media Bureau, Incentive Auction Task Force, and aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, it recounted in docket 18-214, which also had other filings posted Thursday, a week before commissioners vote. The company was represented by former IATF Vice Chairman Howard Symons, now of Jenner & Block. T-Mobile “was willing to step in at a time when Congress had not funded the post-auction relocation of LPTV stations,” but Congress’ authorization of reimbursement funds for LPTV and translators “has materially altered the post-auction landscape for these stations,” T-Mobile said. The draft suggests T-Mobile could remain responsible for funding LPTV repacking despite the new reimbursement fund, and proposes precluding stations that received funding from the company, even for future expenses, it said. Stations that received money from T-Mobile should be able to use the fund “provided that they demonstrate that funds received from the third party have been returned or have not been used to fund the same eligible expenses” and likewise for the future, T-Mobile said. Microsoft also met with the IATF and Office of Engineering and Technology on the draft reimbursement NPRM. It should include questions about letting LPTV, translators and FM stations be reimbursed for transmit filters that will promote “greater overall band utilization,” wrote Microsoft, hoping “the NPRM ask whether the Commission could promote greater use of the television band by reimbursing full-service filters for all low-power broadcasters, rather than stringent or simple masks.” The draft misinterprets legislation authorizing the additional reimbursement, NAB continued to say (see 1807240061) in meetings and calls with Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry, Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, and aides to Pai, Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, it said (and filings). The draft operates from the premise the legislation lets the FCC draw FY 2018 funds only to reimburse LPTV, FM stations and translators, but NAB argued that’s a “phantom reading.” That led the NPRM to propose graduated payments for FMs based on how they are disrupted by the repacking, NAB said. “Congress specified funding levels from Fiscal Year 2018 funds, but also provided the FCC with discretion as to how to allocate Fiscal 2019 funds.”

Qualcomm will terminate its agreement to buy NXP Semiconductors when the deal expires at the end Wednesday, CEO Steve Mollenkopf said, accompanying release of results for the quarter ended June 24. Qualcomm will buy back up to $30 billion worth of stock, he said. Buying NXP would have created “the semiconductor engine for the connected world,” said Mollenkopf announcing the $38 billion deal in October 2016 (see 1610270028).

T-Mobile asked the FCC to clarify that it can bid in spectrum auctions independent of Sprint, despite its proposed purchase of the smaller carrier. T-Mobile said “pending merger agreements” with Sprint aren't a joint-bidding arrangement under FCC rules. T-Mobile said executives spoke with Commissioner Brendan Carr, aides to the other commissioners, Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and others. “The Commission intended for the joint-bidding prohibition to be narrow in scope,” the carrier said in docket 18-85. “Over-broad interpretation of the term ‘post-auction market structure’ would create uncertainty over the permissibility of nearly any business decision with the potential to alter the wireless communications sector, in any way or degree. For example, a nationwide provider’s decision to cooperate with another nationwide provider on infrastructure deployment could be said to alter the ‘post-auction market structure’ of the existing wireless sector.”

Political considerations shouldn't drive antitrust enforcement actions at DOJ, and there's no evidence they have, former FTC Commissioner and Global Antitrust Institute Director Joshua Wright tweeted Tuesday. "Claims that a tweet or congressional hearing shake agency staff from their enforcement mission reveal ignorance of how FTC and DOJ work," he said. "Tweets and politics ... are not helpful" but claiming appointees and staff "are so easily swayed from their mission is inappropriate & inconsistent w my experience," he said. DOJ didn't comment.

The FCC unanimously voted to move its equal employment opportunity enforcement and auditing from the Media to the Enforcement bureau, said an order issued Tuesday. “We take this action in recognition of the important role our EEO rules play in encouraging a diverse and multi-talented workforce and at the request of [the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council] and other civil rights organizations.” The order was circulated earlier this month, timed with the 50th anniversary of FCC EEO rules (see 1807030048). The order will move Media Bureau Policy Division staffers who handle EEO audits and enforcement to the Enforcement Bureau’s Investigation and Hearings Division, the order said. EEO staff will continue to perform “periodic random audits, review of filings that broadcasters must submit to the Commission at the same time as their license renewal applications, and mid-term reviews,” the order said. “Rulemaking proceedings pertaining to EEO issues will continue to be conducted by the Media Bureau.”

A court affirmed an FCC video relay service order that updated rate tiers for VRS provider compensation. A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a petition from Sorenson Communications and dismissed a Video Relay Services Consumer Association petition. The panel found the commission's justifications reasonable under Chevron deference and said VRSCA lacked standing. The FCC interprets an "efficiency mandate to permit consideration of both short- and long-term efficiency, including efficiency-promoting objectives other than the lowest possible price, such as service competition," said the opinion of Judge Thomas Griffith, backed by Judges Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, in Sorenson v. FCC, No. 17-1198. "To promote the efficiency of the VRS market, the agency retained its tiered-rate system to prevent the market from devolving into a monopoly." The panel noted Sorenson controls 80 percent of the VRS market and the agency had concerns that a single rate tier could hurt smaller providers. Oral argument was May 7 (see 1805070045). Last July, a commission order set a four-tier VRS compensation structure for 2017-21 that cut the rate covering some calling minutes of Sorenson, the largest provider (see 1707060062). Sorenson unsuccessfully argued the tiered rates are incompatible with a Communications Act efficiency mandate. The panel said VRSCA failed to show it had standing, including by not disclosing it's fully funded by Sorenson. Representatives of Sorenson and VRSCA didn't comment.