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.

NARUC asked a court to reject an FCC motion to suspend review of a Lifeline order pending agency resolution of petitions to reconsider parts of its recent overhaul of the low-income telecom subsidy program. "The motion presents no justification for holding NARUC's appeal in abeyance," NARUC said in a filing (in Pacer) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the case NARUC v. FCC, No. 16-1170. In its motion, the commission said it's common practice for a court, upon request, to hold its review in abeyance pending agency reconsideration of an order, something that's "especially weighty" in this case because the recon petitions implicate two questions that state challenges raise before the D.C. Circuit (see 1609300020). But NARUC said "the FCC posits no evidence and little more than one paragraph of flawed argument that mischaracterizes both the reconsideration petitions and the thrust of NARUC's Petition for Review. It does not even address the obvious prejudice to NARUC's members that would be cause[d] by granting the motion." NARUC and individual states challenging the order are concerned the FCC's new streamlined process for designating "Lifeline broadband providers" (LBPs) improperly bypasses state authority over USF eligible telecom carriers under federal law. "The rules are in effect and petitions seeking streamline[d] review using the disputed process are pending, and could be granted before briefs are filed in this appeal," the NARUC filing said. The FCC has until early December to act on various petitions for streamlined LBP review (see 1610040049).

Stage two of the reverse auction was expected to end Wednesday on Round 52 but instead is continuing to Round 53, which will be the final round, the FCC said on its public reporting system Wednesday evening. Industry analysts and officials told us Wednesday they are expecting a clearing cost in the $60 billion range. They expect the auction to reach its final stage once the clearing target drops to 84 MHz. The clearing target is currently 114 MHz in Stage 2, and in Stage 3 will fall to 108 MHz. The first round saw a similar delay.

Facebook and its Instagram unit, and Twitter gave Geofeedia, which markets a social media tool to law enforcement agencies as a way to monitor activists and protestors, access to user data, said the American Civil Liberties Union of California in a Tuesday blog post. The ACLU said it obtained records that showed such activities, and the companies acted to curb the access only after the civil liberties group reported findings to them. "Instagram cut off Geofeedia’s access to public user posts, and Facebook has cut its access to a topic-based feed of public user posts. Twitter has also taken some recent steps to rein in Geofeedia though it has not ended the data relationship," wrote ACLU Policy Attorney Matt Cagle. But he said the companies need to do more to protect users. The group learned of Geofeedia's agreements from public records requests to 63 California law enforcement agencies, with emails from company representatives "telling law enforcement about its special access to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram user data." In an email to us, a Facebook spokesman said "this developer only had access to data that people chose to make public. Its access was subject to the limitations in our Platform Policy, which outlines what we expect from developers that receive data using the Facebook Platform. If a developer uses our APIs [application programming interface] in a way that has not been authorized, we will take swift action to stop them and we will end our relationship altogether if necessary.” The spokesman said Geofeedia's access to Instagram's API was terminated. Twitter said in a tweet that based on the ACLU report, "we are immediately suspending @Geofeedia’s commercial access to Twitter data."

President Barack Obama will participate in a White House-sponsored conference on science and technology innovation Thursday in Pittsburgh. Co-hosted by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, it will touch on technology and data use to improve communities, artificial intelligence and other areas, said a White House blog post last week. Participants will include Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Fitbit CEO James Park and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D). Representatives from Facebook, Google and Microsoft will speak.

Government should spur rural broadband by creating “gigabit opportunity zones” and pushing wireless carriers through spectrum license policies, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai wrote in the De Moines Register. Pai is visiting Iowa and Kansas this week after outlining some of his proposals last month in Cincinnati (see 1609130061). Congress should create zones that bring gigabit service to low-income communities, Pai said. “Imagine if federal and local governments worked together to bring better ultrafast, or ‘gigabit,’ Internet access to low-income communities, from neighborhoods to entire counties,” he wrote. “Imagine if state and local governments streamlined rules to make it easier to install broadband infrastructure. And imagine if federal tax credits encouraged startups to create jobs in these zones.” Separately, the FCC should require wireless companies to provide more service in rural areas covered by their spectrum licenses, Pai said. “License terms permit up to one-third of those areas to remain offline.” Wireless carriers receiving FCC subsidies should better target underserved areas, he said. “We need to make sure that scarce tax dollars bring fast wireless service to areas lacking it, not prop up multiple competitors in an already-served location.” Pai urged Congress to set aside 10 percent of future FCC spectrum auction proceeds for mobile broadband deployment. The broadband proposals have received widespread industry support (see 1609140036) and some concern (see 1609150015).

Marketing and advertising groups criticized an FCC broadband privacy draft order circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler and tentatively set for an Oct. 27 vote (see 1610060031). They have "deep concern regarding a proposed last-minute change to privacy rules for Broadband Internet Access Services ('BIAS'), which would significantly harm online commerce," said a Monday letter from the American Association of Advertising Agencies, American Advertising Federation, Association of National Advertisers, Direct Marketing Association (DMA), Interactive Advertising Bureau, and Network Advertising Initiative filed in docket 16-106. A Wheeler "fact sheet" said the FCC would "require opt-in consent to use and share 'sensitive data,' a term that the Commission would expand to include web browsing and application use history when linked to a device alone," the groups said. "This proposal would upend the established and thriving Internet economy, which relies on the support of data-driven advertising." They said the FCC summary offered no explanation for departing from "the accepted industry practice and customer expectation" that Internet data collection and use for ads are "subject to an opt-out choice." The opt-out approach "has helped fuel the successful commercial Internet, made the U.S. the global Internet leader, and continues to deliver extraordinary products and services to consumers. We believe that mandating an opt-in requirement in these areas would seriously inhibit the ability of BIAS to succeed in the developing marketplace," they wrote. “The success of the digital economy is not an accident; it is the product of a proven policy framework based on notice and choice and enforced by industry self-regulation,” said Emmett O’Keefe, DMA senior vice president-advocacy, in a release. “This framework has done an excellent job protecting consumers’ privacy choices while fostering innovation that has resulted in great benefits for consumers and the U.S. economy. As drafted, the proposed rulemaking would unnecessarily put those benefits at risk.” The FCC didn't comment.

The FCC doesn't use tweets to provide helpful information to consumers, but "regularly issues" tweets that can be considered "propaganda," said Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten in a blog post. Wallsten said the FCC topped DOJ, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FTC and SEC when it came to such tweets after conducting a "back-of-the-envelope" review of each agency's 200 most recent tweets. "Of the 200 tweets from September 2, 2016 through October 3, 2016, I count 33 propaganda, as opposed to informational, tweets. The other agencies had no propaganda tweets," he wrote Thursday, in a post that TPI drew attention to the next day in a blast email. Wallsten said he considered a tweet propaganda if "clearly advocating for new rules or a particular point of view not part of an existing rule, rather than providing information, announcing speeches or events, or otherwise presenting facts." Some may argue, he said, an agency chair should use social media to promote his own agenda. "But perhaps the chair should use his own account for policy advocacy, rather than equating himself with the agency," Wallsten added. The FCC didn't comment.