The FCC has it backward in its concerns that AT&T's Data Free TV sponsored data service could hurt competition in the video market, the company said in a 14-page white paper it submitted Monday. The telco responded to an earlier letter from the Wireless Bureau raising concerns about the zero-rating service. "Cable companies, not AT&T or DirecTV, dominate the video marketplace," AT&T said, saying its Data Free TV service, which lets AT&T Mobility customers stream DirecTV over the AT&T wireless network without cutting into their monthly data allotments, is increasing video competition "by helping to challenge cable dominance." The company said the service is nondiscriminatory and thus not a violation of net neutrality since the open internet order didn't overrule the core Computer Inquiries principle that telcos can provide enhanced services via their transmission facilities as long as they offer that transmission component on a common-carrier basis. AT&T also said the order specificity declined to prohibit sponsored data arrangements as a general matter, and the FCC still hasn't issued guidance on sponsored-data activities. The claim that Data Free TV discriminates against unaffiliated providers "is economically incoherent," the ISP said, "given that telco monopolists have been free to do that very thing for more than three decades, whereas AT&T Mobility is neither a monopolist nor even the leading U.S. mobile provider." AT&T also disputed FCC arguments the company could take part in a predatory price squeeze, targeting unaffiliated providers with sponsored data charges. The notion that third-party competitors might have difficulty competing with the prices of DirecTV Now streaming service retail prices "reads like a request [that] DirecTV raise those rates, at its customer's expense, to give less efficient competitors a retail price umbrella," the company said. "That position is indefensible." AT&T also said the bureau "lacks any unilateral authority to attack this program" since delegated authority doesn't extend to new or novel issues. A bureau order aimed at Data Free TV "would chart a radical new legal and policy path," the company said. The white paper said the DirecTV Now over-the-top service won't carry data charges for AT&T mobile customers. In an accompanying letter, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs Robert Quinn said the company more than meets the nondiscrimination requirement set by law by letting content providers specify how much data they want to sponsor and charging them the same regardless of the amount of data they buy. The FCC said it was reviewing the AT&T submission.

The FCC Technological Advisory Council will hold its final meeting of the year Dec. 7, with an early starting time of 10 a.m. EST, it said in a Friday public notice. TAC is slated to take up a number of final recommendations during a scheduled six-hour meeting. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler previously chaired TAC.

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling emphasized the importance of future discussions around multistakeholder internet governance, including during the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Guadalajara, Mexico. Internet governance is one of several issues set to come up during the IGF meeting, which is set for Dec. 6-9. Discussions about the multistakeholder model took on greater importance in the wake of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition in early October (see 1609300065 and 1610030042), Strickling said during a U.K. Internet Governance Forum event. The model “is a diverse, multi-layered system that thrives only through the cooperation of many different parties, operating through consensus, in a bottom-up manner,” Strickling said in a prepared version of Thursday's speech. “Unequivocally, the success of IANA functions stewardship transition serves as a validation of that premise, and of our ongoing and unrelenting commitment to the multistakeholder model.” Stakeholders should build on the handoff's success to “tackle other internet policy challenges,” Strickling said. The multistakeholder approach has worked in the allocation of critical resources like IP addresses and domain names, “but can we bring stakeholders together to address some of these other thorny issues through the consensus decision-making that characterizes the multistakeholder approach? Can the multistakeholder approach help make progress on questions of data protection, software vulnerability research, artificial intelligence, and other emerging issues? I think it can.”

Mobile Future said Diane Smith will become interim chairwoman Jan. 1, replacing Jonathan Spalter, who has been tapped to become USTelecom's CEO then (see 1610040059). She was CEO and co-founder of a Montana IPTV company. In a related move, USTelecom said Allison Remsen, Mobile Future's executive director, would be joining Spalter at USTelecom as executive vice president and chief of staff, starting Jan. 1. Before joining Mobile Future, Remsen was vice president-media relations at USTelecom from 2001 to 2008, press secretary for House Democratic Whip David Bonior of Michigan, and worked in government affairs for NCTA when the 1996 Telecom Act passed Congress, said a release. Succeeding Remsen at Mobile Future meanwhile as executive director is Nydia Gutiérrez, who works in the Latinovations practice of Dewey Square Group, where she advises clients on telecom and other issues. Gutiérrez is no stranger to the carrier group, where she used to be in its strategic communications group. She starts at Mobile Future in the new year and will be leaving her job at Dewey Square.

American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart told us that he and his group are providing "outside guidance" to the Donald Trump transition team but he isn't formally part of the transition team or its FCC "landing" team, as some said (see 1611170041). He said AAF recently put out a tech policy agenda and has been gearing up for the transition, but the group is "more focused on policy than the politics." Also as of Friday, Jeff Eisenach's status on the team seems in limbo, two knowledgeable people told us, a day after speculation and rumors circulated widely that he might have been removed. "It's not so much that he's been definitely dumped," said an industry source, who noted it's unclear if Eisenach will be removed as leader of the Trump transition's FCC team. There does appear to be a short "pause" in the FCC transition team's effort as some sort of review is conducted, the industry source said. An attorney agreed: "There is a pause and review going on. After the pause and review, nobody knows what will happen." Eisenach didn't comment. The Trump transition team didn't comment to us on Eisenach or its FCC team. The Trump team is expected to announce its economic policy landing teams Monday, and those dealing with domestic policy and independent agencies Tuesday, transition officials earlier said (see 1611180020).

NTIA released a report Thursday offering a quantitative analysis of various federal bands for potential sharing. “The release of this report today is an important milestone in our activities aimed at continuing to improve how NTIA manages scarce radio spectrum resources as demand increases from all sides,” NTIA officials said in a blog post. “The results of the quantitative assessments will help NTIA, in consultation with the agencies, determine the extent to which any of these frequency bands should be further evaluated for sharing with commercial users, particularly in major metropolitan areas.” Among its conclusions, the report found that the 3100-3550 MHz band “could be examined more closely to determine if it can be used by commercial providers,” while the 1675-1695 MHz band could also be looked at for sharing, but in only in certain areas.

Sprint and the Wireless Communications Association International threw their weight behind approval of Globalstar's pared-back broadband terrestrial low-power service plans. In a joint filing Thursday in docket 13-213, Globalstar and the two urged the FCC to adopt the proposal. They also said that since the satellite company put forward its revised TLPS plan earlier this month (see 1611100031), the three have talked about the out-of-band emissions limit at the upper edge of its licensed spectrum at 2495 MHz and have worked out emissions limits above 2495 MHz. Globalstar said its TLPS service at 2483.5-2495 MHz shouldn't cause interference issues for Sprint or other broadband radio service (BRS) operators at 2496-2502 MHz or for any educational broadband service (EBS) operators above 2502 MHz. The company also said if it happened to cause BRS or EBS interference, it would "meet its absolute obligation ... to mitigate and resolve such interference." The three also said that they would work together on technical issues during a follow-up FCC proceeding on Globalstar's application to modify its mobile satellite service licenses to provide TLPS.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly selected the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as the venue for appeals of FCC media ownership rules and the 2014 quadrennial review, it said in a consolidation order Thursday. Prometheus Radio Project challenged the order in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, while NAB and the News Media Alliance (see 1611140046) appealed the FCC orders in the D.C. Circuit. Despite the panel’s choice, attorneys connected with the matter have told us the D.C. Circuit is universally expected to transfer the case to the 3rd Circuit, which had retained jurisdiction over the case. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet and Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters filed a joint appeal of the rules Wednesday, focusing on the FCC's failure to extend rules designed to incentivize diversity in cable procurement to other industries. "Petitioners seek review of this ruling both as arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law and as agency action unreasonably delayed or withheld," the filing said. “Despite representations to the Third Circuit that the FCC Chairman would address this issue in a manner that would allow it to be resolved [in August], the FCC has once again punted the issue,” MMTC and NABOB said. Recounting a call with Media Bureau staff Monday, representatives for Connoisseur Media said in docket 09-182 that it said it was considering filing a petition for reconsideration against the order’s treatment of multiple ownership situations.

The FCC Wireline Bureau cleared the purchase of RCN Telecom Service and Grande Communications Networks by Radiate Holdings. No commenter opposed the grant of a Sept. 1 application to transfer licenses under Section 214 of the Communications Act from Yankee Cable Partners and Grande Investment to Radiate (see 1609020006), said an FCC public notice Wednesday in docket 16-276 noting the bureau approval. The PN said the approval was "without prejudice" to FCC action on "other related, pending applications." The Media, Wireless and International bureaus have yet to act on those applications, an agency spokesman told us. Radiate is a holding company controlled by principals of TPG Capital, with minority partners in Radiate including Alphabet-owned Google Capital, an affiliate of Dragoneer Investment Group and some executives from Patriot Media Consulting. Patriot manages RCN and Grande Communications for Yankee and Grande Investment, respectively, and will do the same for TPG after the close, said a filing (available here). RCN has roughly 474,000 subscribers in Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C., and Grande has more than 166,000 in Texas.

FCC financial statements received high marks overall from an independent auditor, according to a memorandum Tuesday from Managing Director Mark Stephens accompanying one piece of the agency's FY 2016 Annual Financial Report (AFR). Although the White House Office of Management and Budget granted the FCC an extension until March 1 to publish its FY 2016 AFR, it didn't extend a Nov. 15 deadline for its "improper payment reporting section," said the memo. It said the rest of the report would be issued before March 1 or when the incentive auction bidding process is completed. The auditing firm Kearney & Co. found the FCC's consolidated FY 2016 financial statements "present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Commission as of Sept. 30," Stephens wrote. He said it was the 11th straight year of "clean audit opinions" for the FCC, which was an "unprecedented accomplishment" for the agency. "The Commission made significant strides in FY 2016 by resolving a prior year finding by the auditors that the FCC was not in compliance with the Debt Collection Improvement Act," he wrote. "This is the first year that the auditors have reported no instances of non-compliance with applicable provisions of laws and regulations for the FCC." The audit did not find "any material weaknesses but did identify three significant deficiencies ... related to Universal Service Fund budgetary accounting, accounting for non-exchange revenue, and information technology controls," he wrote, noting his office concurred with auditor recommendations. On USF, the FCC addressed a previous material weakness regarding budgetary accounting in the E-rate telecom discount program for schools and libraries, but auditors found a significant deficiency in the rural healthcare program, Stephens wrote. He said the FCC was committed to addressing a "new control weakness in accounting for non-exchange revenue" and "remediating information technology control deficiencies."