The FTC appealed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals August decision giving companies that provide any common-carrier service (see 1608290032) "blanket immunity" from commission enforcement, the agency said, as expected (see 1609270033). The decision is "wrong and should be corrected," argued the commission in a Thursday filing, seeking a rehearing en banc. A three-judge panel tossed out an FTC lawsuit accusing AT&T Mobility of inadequately informing customers of its data throttling program (see 1608300055, 1608310010 and 1609020021). The FTC said the ruling creates "an enforcement gap," leaving millions of consumers vulnerable to unfair or deceptive practices and unable to obtain redress. Companies -- including AT&T, Comcast, Google and even ExxonMobil -- provide both common-carrier and non-common-carrier services, the FTC said. "The panel's ruling calls into question the FTC's ability to protect consumers from unlawful practices by such companies in any of their lines of business," said the commission. It argued the FCC is limited in its enforcement authority and only the FTC has broad powers over consumer data privacy and security. The FTC also said the ruling conflicts with decisions by other circuit courts and that the 9th Circuit panel misread the FTC Act.

New York sought an expedited FCC waiver of Connect America Fund rules requiring Phase II subsidy support for broadband-oriented service to be awarded in the state through competitive bidding. New York said it must soon carry out a state auction of subsidies for the same areas covered by the FCC's planned CAF II reverse auction. "Grant of the requested waiver would allow New York to coordinate allocation of the CAF funding with its own broadband auction, resulting in significant benefits to New York consumers," said a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90 by Empire State Development, which is overseeing the state auction. "New York’s allocation of CAF funds would be undertaken in accordance with key Commission requirements and would not impose any additional financial burdens on the CAF." ESD said the waiver would facilitate federal-state coordination, encourage broadband investment and provide "significant cost efficiencies and financial synergies." The state auction is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D) $500 million program to expand broadband access, ESD said. Round 1 resulted in $75.8 million in broadband investment, $54.2 million from the state and $21.6 million from private parties. Round 2 would cover the territories where Verizon, as the incumbent telco, declined the FCC's $170.4 million offer of CAF II support. New York wants the waiver to use that funding in its auction.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is to open Friday’s meeting of the commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee. The final meeting of CAC’s current term starts at 9 a.m. EDT, said an FCC public notice. “The Committee is expected to consider a recommendation from its No Surprise Billing Task Force regarding the clarity of charges at point of sale and on bills,” the agency said. “The Committee will also receive briefings from Commission staff on issues of interest to the Committee.” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn also is scheduled to speak to the group.

The FCC Robocall Strike Force is to release a report at a meeting Oct. 26, the agency said Thursday. It's "an industry-led group which has been working for two months to develop comprehensive solutions to prevent, detect, and filter unwanted robocalls,” the FCC said in a Thursday public notice. “Giving consumers meaningful control over the calls and texts they receive requires collective action by the industry.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler directed the task force to develop an “action plan” within 60 days, at the group's initial meeting in August (see 1608190034). AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, chairing the group, is to speak, as are Wheeler and other commissioners. The meeting is to run 1-2 p.m. EDT in the Commission Meeting Room.

While still monitoring North Carolina flooding from Hurricane Matthew, the FCC Public Safety Bureau deactivated the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) in all counties of Florida, Georgia and Virginia and most of South Carolina, the bureau said in a public notice Thursday. DIRS remains active in North Carolina and Horry County, South Carolina, it said. The North Carolina flooding has challenged telecom companies trying to restore service (see 1610110038). In the 18 counties still reporting to DIRS, 2.1 percent of cell sites were down at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the FCC reported. Nearly 15 percent of cellsites were still down in Robeson County, North Carolina, it said. For wireline and cable, 304 switching centers were out of service, leaving 56,769 customers without service in North Carolina, the FCC said. Six radio stations and one TV station were out of service in the same state. All public safety answering points were fully operational in the disaster area, it said.

Tech spending will grow 3.1 percent to $36.05 billion during this holiday season, lower than the overall retail sales increase of 3.8 percent to $825 billion (excluding gas and restaurant sales), a CTA forecast said Tuesday. CTA estimates total online holiday sales will grow by 16.4 percent to $84.2 billion.

The District of Columbia U.S. District Court lacks jurisdiction to hear FCC employee Sharon Stewart's employment retaliation complaint since she hasn't exhausted all her administrative remedies, the agency said Tuesday in an answer (in Pacer) to Stewart's amended complaint (see 1609300016) filed this month. The FCC also said Stewart's claims she was penalized after complaining of a hostile work environment in the Office of Communications Business Opportunities are barred since they differ from or exceed the scope of a discrimination charge, and any actions it took regarding Stewart "were for legitimate, non-discriminatory, non-retaliatory reasons, were based on good faith and were not in violation of any federal law." Counsel for Stewart said Wednesday they stand by the claims.

AT&T and Verizon headed the list of the top 25 companies ranked by capital expenditures in 2015, a report by the Progressive Policy Institute said. AT&T was tops on the list, with $18.7 billion in capex spending, followed by Verizon at $16.5 billion. Comcast was eighth at $8.4 billion and Time Warner Cable 21st at $4.4 billion. “The top 25 investment heroes” invested almost $177 billion in the U.S. in 2015, the report said. That’s a 2.9 percent increase over 2014. “AT&T and Verizon invested large sums to maintain and expand their networks again this year,” PPL said. “However, according to our estimates, AT&T’s capital expenditure was down by 11.6 percent as compared to the previous year. Verizon boosted domestic capital expenditures in its wireless operations in 2015 in order to increase the capacity of its 4G LTE network. However, this rise in investment was largely offset by a decrease in their wireline segment capital spending, resulting in a net increase in investment of only 3.4 percent as compared to 2014.”

The White House released a report on the role and potential benefits of artificial intelligence, including how AI-enabled products should be regulated. "In general, the approach to regulation of AI-enabled products to protect public safety should be informed by assessment of the aspects of risk that the addition of AI may reduce alongside the aspects of risk that it may increase," said the Wednesday report. Policymakers and regulators should discuss whether existing regulations adequately address such risks and how they can change regulations if they increase compliance costs or slow the development or adoption of AI innovations without affecting safety or competition. For instance, the report pointed to the regulatory challenges in developing driverless cars and drones, which potentially could provide many economic and societal benefits, but also present public safety issues. The report also touched on government R&D to advance AI, the need for a better skilled workforce and consequences of the technology's impact on jobs, safety and security. The report, which lists nearly two dozen recommendations that federal agencies and other stakeholders should take in this area, was released a day before the White House's innovation conference in Pittsburgh that will include AI as a topic (see 1610110008).

Free Press criticized an FCC draft order on business data service regulation circulated last week by Chairman Tom Wheeler. The liberal watchdog group said the record shows incumbent BDS providers are exercising market power and charging inflated rates for both packet-based Ethernet services and legacy TDM-based services. "Unfortunately, the preliminary summary of Chairman Wheeler’s proposed final rules (released last Friday) suggests that the Commission might fail in its mission to regulate such non-competitive packet-based BDS services -- opting instead for continued monitoring alone, while kicking the can down the road once more in this decade-plus proceeding," said a Free Press filing posted Wednesday on a recent meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. It attached a recent letter from various consumer/public-interest groups urging comprehensive BDS reform. The Wheeler draft would target increased regulation of legacy DS1 and DS3 (with speeds below 45 Mbps), where market power evidence was strongest, but apply lighter-touch regulation of traditional services with speeds above 45 Mbps and all packetized services, where competition is emerging, said a "fact sheet" summary and senior agency officials (see 1610070027). Other parties made filings in docket 16-143 posted Tuesday, but they generally didn't address the summary. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering pushed for "meaningful reforms" that reduce "excessive rates" for both legacy BDS services and packet-based Ethernet services, said a filing on an Oct. 5 meeting with Wheeler, his aide Stephanie Weiner, General Counsel Howard Symons and Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero. Citing a Tuesday meeting with an aide to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, an NCTA filing argued against any Ethernet rate regulation, urged a sunset date for rate regulation of TDM-based service to encourage transitions to IP-based service, and said common carrier regulation of cable BDS wasn't justified because those companies provided service on a private carriage basis. Competitive fiber providers made a filing opposing "benchmark regulation" (which the FCC didn't propose), and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) made a filing voicing general wariness about BDS regulation.