Matt Daneman

The FCC's best route to LTE-U/Wi-Fi coexistence is by watching and encouraging industry-led progress toward that goal, the Wi-Fi Alliance said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-105. The group, which earlier this month put out its own suggested guidelines on how the two can coexist in the same spectrum (see 1511040059), has said the agency should monitor that coexistence development and step in on coexistence issues only if necessary. "I hope we have stepped in on it," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday after the agency's November meeting. "I've said to [LTE-U and Wi-Fi industry representatives], 'Folks, you've got to come together and resolve this in a broad-based standard.' It appears the House subcommittee has done the same. This is the way things ought to be taken care of. There are two things that characterize unlicensed spectrum. One, it's the innovation band; it's where all kinds of new innovations happen. And you want to make sure that in fact continues. The second is, it's the 'everybody respects everybody else' band. And we want to make sure both of those are happening. And the way that can be done is by a broad-based development of commonly agreed-to standards that meets both of those criteria." LTE-U backer Verizon "agrees," Patrick Welsh, assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, told us Friday in an email. "We are actively working with the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop coexistence guidelines for LTE-U." And in a statement, fellow LTE-U advocate Qualcomm said "proponents of LTE-U, including the members of the LTE-U Forum -- whose members also are members of the Wi-Fi Alliance -- are pleased to continue our ongoing collaboration with the industry through our work with the Wi-Fi Alliance initiative to develop an agreed-upon coexistence test regimen that will ensure that LTE-U and Wi-Fi successfully co-exist in the unlicensed spectrum, where the watchword is permission-less innovation, as Chairman Wheeler has correctly recognized.” The Wi-Fi Alliance ex parte recapped meetings between alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa and front-line staff of Wheeler and of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, plus with Office of Engineering and Technology representatives. The Wi-Fi Alliance said it plans a Coexistence Test Workshop for the week of Feb. 8. The group's members include Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Comcast, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Sony and T-Mobile, its website said.

Public Knowledge used Globalstar's proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) proceeding to swipe at Qualcomm, which backs LTE-U that groups like PK and the cable industry contend can interfere with Wi-Fi. PK said the FCC should use Globalstar's TLPS proceeding as an opportunity to make it clear unlicensed is "equal to, not subordinate to, licensed spectrum," in a filing posted Friday in dockets 13-213 and 15-105. That wouldn't recast Part 15 rules on interference, Public Knowledge said. Instead it would add to "a steady evolution in the Commission's thinking" illustrated by its 2013 order approving Progeny's E-911 locator service for commercial use in the 902-928 MHz band (see 1306070030), PK said.

The FCC and Comcast are wrong when they claim a 2013 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling didn't set up a new evidentiary framework for deciding program carriage violations, Tennis Channel said in a proof reply brief in its petition seeking to force the agency to reopen a complaint against the cable operator. FCC arguments that Tennis Channel was supposed to anticipate the D.C. Circuit would put in place new evidentiary requirements and produce evidence in advance satisfying those hypothetical requirements "cannot be right in a case like this one, where an appellate court altered the standard of proof after the case was tried," Tennis Channel said Thursday. "Because the explanation in the FCC’s Order entirely fails to grapple with the relevant interests at stake, its refusal to reopen the record must be vacated."

World Radiocommunication Conference delegates agreed on a globally harmonized network of vehicular radar in the 77.5-78 GHz frequency band that opens the door to short-range collision avoidance systems, said Decker Anstrom, U.S. ambassador to WRC-15. Given the rise of smart cars and the “still unacceptable levels of traffic accidents or deaths [worldwide] … this will save lives,” Anstrom said on a call with reporters Thursday.

One major piece of the updated FCC.gov is in place, as the agency this summer put out a new search application and integrated it into the existing website, said Deanna Stephens, project manager of the website modernization effort. That faceted search goes through both FCC.gov and the Electronic Document Management System for results, though the search can be filtered, and will be carried over into the new site expected to go live in mid-December, agency representatives said Wednesday. So far, the site is getting good reviews from those we interviewed.

The FCC -- which once requested far less data and fewer documents than the Justice Department for use in evaluating mergers and acquisitions -- has caught up to and in some cases surpassed DOJ, Arthur Burke of Davis Polk said Tuesday at an FCBA panel on M&As. "Today, it's millions of documents, just like at DOJ -- maybe more," said Burke, who represented Comcast in a variety of antitrust matters, including its failed bid to buy Time Warner Cable. During the pendancy of Comcast/TWC, Comcast at one point had 300 contract lawyers reviewing documents in Falls Church, Virginia, office space, Burke said. "It's an enormous undertaking ... and it has to be done at breakneck speed," he said. "There's no easy way to resolve that."

Neither the Liberty companies nor Chairman John Malone has “the incentive or ability” to use any New Charter leverage in any way that represents a conflict of interest, Liberty Broadband, Liberty Interactive and Liberty Media said in filings posted Tuesday in FCC docket 15-149. Numerous conditions have been proposed as the commission reviews Charter Communications' proposed buying of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (see 1511130021). Regulators will likely impose some that attempt to put up a barrier to any Malone leverage, said Andrew Schwartzman, who represents Zoom Telephonics, which is among those suggesting conditions.

From breaking out the cost of renting a cable modem on customers' bills to making any conditions indefinite, opponents of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable put multiple proposed conditions before the FCC by the Thursday deadline for replies or responses to opposition. Parties argued in comments posted Friday in docket 15-149 for conditions to govern New Charter activities if the $89.1 billion pair of deals were to go through. Multiple Charter/TWC/BHN filings urged outright, unconditional opposition, often pointing to possible injury to online video distribution (OVD). "The single biggest barrier to providing video services is obtaining access to reasonably priced programming, followed by competing with other providers," NTCA said in its filing. "This merger will exacerbate both of these significant competitive issues."

Major corporate investment in satellite systems is likely to grow, financing experts said Tuesday in New York at SatCon. As "the Googles of the world" step into this space, "it's something for the industry to take advantage of," said John Schuster, principal with 32 Advisors' Project and Structured Finance practice. Satellite mergers and acquisitions -- slower than expected in recent years -- almost surely will pick up, said Randy Russell, co-head of Americas Telecom Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank.

The FCC expects “significant” broadcaster and wireless industry interest in March's incentive auction, said Howard Symons, vice chairman of the FCC's incentive auction task force, Thursday at NAB's Content and Communications World show in New York. Agency representatives have met with hundreds of broadcasters about the auction, but Symons gave no specifics on level of participation expected. "The interest is broad and deep," he said, the same as it is among carriers.