AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings are among more than 50 major technology, cable TV and other business executives who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Thursday, her campaign said in an email. “I’ve supported every Republican Presidential candidate since 1976, and was honored to work for two of them," said Cicconi in a statement supplied by the Clinton campaign. "But this year I think it's vital to put our country's wellbeing ahead of party. Hillary Clinton is experienced, qualified, and will make a fine President. The alternative, I fear, would set our Nation on a very dark path.” Hastings said in a statement from the campaign that presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump "would destroy much of what is great about America. Hillary Clinton is the strong leader we need, and it's important that Trump lose by a landslide to reject what he stands for." The Trump campaign didn't comment. Others who endorsed Clinton include Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff; Airbnb Chief Technology Officer Nathan Blecharczyk, CEO Brian Chesky and Chief Privacy Officer Joe Gebbia; IAC and Expedia Chairmen Barry Diller; Dish Network co-founder Candy Ergen; Dropbox CEO Drew Houston; Qualcomm CEO Emeritus Irwin Jacobs and Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs; Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson and CEO Debra Lee; Tumblr CEO David Karp; Box CEO Aaron Levie; former Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus; Prologis CEO Hamid Moghadam; Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus; Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg; Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt; Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman; and Entravision Communications CEO Walter Ulloa.

The FCC tentatively plans to take new tech transition actions at its July 14 meeting. "The Commission will consider a Declaratory Ruling, Report and Order, and Order on Reconsideration that adopts a framework to guide transitions to next-generation communications technologies while protecting the interests of consumers and competition," said a tentative agenda released Thursday.

FairPoint Communications plans to stop offering its broadband internet transmission service as a telecom service "and offer it instead as a private service," the company told the FCC Wireline Bureau Thursday in a filing in docket 14-28. "In the Open Internet Order, the Commission classified retail mass market broadband Internet access service ('BIAS') as a partially forborne telecommunications service, but declined to reclassify other broadband services, such as special access, enterprise broadband and wholesale broadband services, as telecommunications services," FairPoint said. "The Commission's forbearance allowed telecommunications carriers to provide BIAS free from a variety of provisions of the Communications Act otherwise applicable to telecommunications carriers, such as ratemaking regulations. At the same time the Commission indicated that any carrier that had elected to provide BIAS subject to 'the full range of Title II requirements' remained subject to all the applicable Title II rights and obligations unless and until such carrier elects to change its offering of broadband Internet transmission services 'pursuant to the construct adopted in this Order,' in which event the carrier 'should notify the Wireline Competition Bureau 60 days prior to implementing such a change.'" The company said its filing was such notice, meaning the change would take effect Aug. 22. FairPoint didn't comment further Thursday.

CTA and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) want more testing of Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) and its possible effects on unlicensed users in the 2.4 GHz band. In a filing Wednesday in docket 13-213, CTA opposed FCC approval before more testing to ensure TLPS deployment wouldn't negatively affect Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. "While we appreciate the potential of TLPS to open up new spectrum resources, it must be balanced against the potential harm to existing uses with proven consumer value," CTA said, saying Globalstar-submitted data from its demonstration seemingly didn't include comprehensive testing of unlicensed uses. In an ex parte filing Tuesday in the docket about phone calls to staff of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael O'Rielly, ITI said its member companies have similar concerns about TLPS effects and that more testing could help in assessing safeguards. Globalstar didn't comment.

The FCC put a hold on Lifeline USF reimbursement payments to Total Call Mobile, said a Wireline Bureau order Wednesday in docket 11-42 directing Universal Service Administrative Co. to carry out the action. "This temporary hold is a limited one," the bureau said. "It shall be effective beginning with TCM’s request for reimbursement in all states filed for the data month of May 2016, and shall remain in effect pending the Bureau’s receipt and evaluation of TCM’s final, complete response to the Bureau’s letter of June 1, 2016 and subject to the Bureau notifying USAC of any change in the terms of the temporary hold." The bureau noted the commission issued a notice of apparent liability for forfeiture and order resulting from an investigation by the Enforcement Bureau. The notice proposed fining Total Call Mobile $51 million for allegedly enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers into the low-income telecom support program (see 1604080032). Total Call Mobile General Counsel Mike Morrissey told us his company was "a bit surprised" by the FCC action "because we thought we had been responding" adequately. He said TCM had told the FCC it couldn't provide all the information the agency sought by June 13, but it provided over 120,000 documents, and planned to provide the rest by June 27. "Frankly, we hadn't heard there was a problem with that," he said, but the company is now trying to complete its submissions to the commission by Friday. "I think we’re working this out and believe we will be able to do so to their satisfaction and show that whatever happened back in 2013 and 2014, that we’re now in full compliance" with their reimbursement rules, he said, suggesting it could take weeks, not months.

Telecom heavyweights urged the FCC to promptly approve the Telcordia contract to be local number portability administrator that was negotiated by North American Portability Management (NAPM). Officials from AT&T, CenturyLink, CTIA, NCTA, T-Mobile, USTelecom and Verizon met with commissioner aides about the planned LNPA transition from Neustar to Telcordia (iconectiv). "The parties stated that the approval of the [master services agreement or MSA] is a prerequisite to the continued progress of the transition and that there are mounting costs to consumers for every day the transition is delayed," said a USTelecom filing posted Wednesday in docket 09-109. "The parties noted that all segments of the industry support the MSA and that those opposed to approval of the MSA and moving forward with the transition have had ample opportunity to be a part of the process." Neustar recently asked the FCC to force Ericsson-owned Telcordia to explain why it shouldn't be disqualified as LNPA due to possible misrepresentations about the citizenship of employees doing initial system coding work (see 1606020050). Telcordia and NAPM opposed the motion (see 1606130040 and 1606170027). The telecom officials told the commissioner aides "security issues have been exhaustively addressed and resolved and with the Commission staff and with the approval of relevant federal government stakeholders," said the filing. "In addition ... the cost savings in selecting Telcordia are exponential and would provide significant savings not only to companies of all sizes, but more importantly to consumers." In a separate filing, Neustar summarized a meeting with FCC officials about law enforcement authorities' transition to an "Enhanced Law Enforcement Platform." Neustar said it won't provide its Local Number Portability Enhanced Analytical Platform service in regions where it's no longer the Number Portability Administration Center administrator. Neustar said the MSA "sets the expectation that the ELEP service will not be available until after all NPAC regions are transitioned, thereby potentially creating a gap in the provision of the law enforcement service." Neustar also raised concerns about increased transition risk from the "compressed timeline and substantial reduction in testing" announced by PwC, NAPM's transition oversight manager.

AT&T accused Sprint and other rivals of engaging in doublespeak on special access. The proceeding has become a "showcase" for "both sides of our mouth" (BSOM) advocacy as some parties press the FCC to regulate their competitors, said Frank Simone, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory, in a blog post Wednesday. "But one company truly rises above the rest when it comes to saying one thing to the FCC and another to investors -- Sprint," he said. "Not even two months ago, Sprint came to the FCC and argued that it has no choice but to purchase business broadband services from incumbent carriers because only they provide those connections for the vast majority of buildings with business data service (BDS) demand in the country." Simone said Sprint executives had made candid statements, including in a recent article, touting the company's ability to tap cable Ethernet over DOCSIS and other competitive alternatives to fill out its Ethernet footprint in most of the country. "Yet at the Commission, Sprint continues to discredit cable DOCSIS services as an alternative to incumbent carrier special access services," he said. "While Sprint’s economists completely ignore the impact of cable BDS in their filings at the Commission, their business executives have already negotiated agreements with these very same cable companies." Simone urged the FCC to ignore Sprint's "hollow arguments" and focus on encouraging the industry to invest in deploying more fiber and other facilities. But he said the commission's recent Further NPRM "looks to make it easier for companies" to lease other providers' networks, which will discourage investment. With BDS comments due Tuesday, Sprint and others will undoubtedly "bog down the docket with their bald-faced special brand of BSOM advocacy," he said. "Let’s just hope the Commission ignores their tall tales of woe and focuses on policies that encourage the investment necessary to bring high-speed broadband to more American businesses." Sprint didn't comment.

Frontier Communications' entry into California and Texas is being met by "false and misleading" claims by Charter Communications about its HDTV and data offerings and phone service, Frontier said in a lawsuit (in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The suit asks for Charter to be enjoined from its advertising claims, ordered to disseminate new ads "designed to correct the false and misleading claims" and forced to pay unspecified damages. The suit said Frontier's buy of Verizon's wireline operations (see 1604010036) has been followed by Charter radio and print ads targeting former Verizon Fios customers in Texas and California, falsely claiming Frontier charges additional fees for HDTV service and puts limits on the amount of domestic calling available monthly. The suit also says the ads understate the speed of Frontier's internet offering, and Charter has run radio spots and mailed out ads claiming former Verizon Fios customers are being "ripped off by Frontier." Charter didn't comment Tuesday.

Neustar plans to split into two publicly traded companies in a tax-free spinoff, with one providing order management and numbering services and the other focused on information services, said a company release Tuesday. "As the market opportunities in the information services and telecommunications sectors continue to evolve, today’s announcement is the logical next step for Neustar. Each business will be better-positioned to grow as focused and sustainable companies," said CEO Lisa Hook, who will become CEO of the information services company. The order management and numbering services company will retain the Neustar name while the information services company will be rebranded, said Hook on a webcast. Neustar expects the spinoff to be completed in a year, subject to customary conditions, including final approval by the company's board and the effectiveness of a Form 10 to be filed with the SEC, said Chief Financial Officer Paul Lalljie, who will become CEO of the order management and numbering services company. He said order management and numbering service revenue was $580 million in 2015, with a compounded annual growth rate of 8 percent over the last four years. That includes Number Portability Administration Center revenue, which he said is expected to total $496 million annually for the duration of Neustar's contract as local number portability administrator. Lalljie was "bullish" on the opportunities for order management and numbering services, despite the looming loss of the NPAC business to Ericsson's Telcordia, which the FCC chose to be the next LNPA. He said Neustar's information services had revenue of $470 million in 2015, with a compounded annual growth rate of 25 percent over the past four years.

The FCC's revamped Electronic Comment Filing System was "online and running" on schedule Monday, a commission spokesman emailed us. "The modernized system seems to be effectively receiving and processing comments." Though most archived comments successfully have migrated to the new system, some files still were being moved Monday, the spokesman said, but the migration should be complete by Tuesday: "We continue to seek feedback from users as to any concerns or bugs they might encounter." Feedback can be sent to ECFSfeedback@fcc.gov.