The FCC's AT&T/DirecTV conditions weren't onerous and signal that Charter's planned takeover of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks won't be blocked just because of the combo's size, said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts Wednesday in a note to investors on the agency's 241-page order (see 1507280043). "The Order imposes very few conditions on AT&T and none that we view as financially material," said Paul de Sa, a former FCC official, and other Bernstein analysts. "We expect the deal as approved to be at most slightly negative for other players in the sector (cable, regional fixed telco, content, Verizon)." They also called the order consistent with their view of the Obama administration's approach to transactions. "The Order disproves the theory that Charter/TWC/Bright House, or other cable/cable deals, will be challenged because regulators are against any merger that increases the size of integrated broadband/payTV providers," they said.

NCTA took issue with Qualcomm’s recent critique of many LTE-unlicensed comments filed at the FCC as being “misleading or outright incorrect statements” (see 1507280013). “In Qualcomm’s through-the-looking-glass world, PowerPoint presentations and unilateral pronouncements amount to collaboration, and sharing mechanisms that can be unilaterally scaled back or turned off constitute a fair and equitable approach,” NCTA said. NCTA said it's willing to work with Qualcomm and other LTE-U advocates on solutions that will allow the technology to make full use of unlicensed spectrum. “But this process will require Qualcomm and others to recognize the shortsightedness of their ongoing efforts to downplay the serious concerns of consumers and the unlicensed community, and to recognize that the so-called ‘sharing solutions’ suggested to date are incomplete and insufficient,” NCTA said. The comments were in docket 15-105.

Bulk collection of telephony metadata began before 9/11, just as drones and cyberwarfare began long before the public knew about them, said former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio Wednesday during a news conference on what he considers the USA Freedom Act's shortcomings. The intelligence community doesn’t advertise what it does and has never liked oversight, Nacchio said. The retroactive immunity granted to telecom companies after 9/11 was the first retroactive immunity ever given to the private sector, he said. There are at least 23 intelligence agencies in the U.S., he said, and USA Freedom is insufficient because it attempts to rein in the NSA’s activities by outsourcing bulk collection to the telecom companies, as well as Internet and social media companies, which have no choice but to cooperate, but doesn’t address activities at any other agency. Telecom or Internet companies that say no to the government will be subject to some sort of sanction such as an antitrust or FCC investigation, he said. Americans should be worried about the defense/intelligence complex and put nothing on the Web, he said. Social networking is a “dangerous trend” that immunizes individuals against the dangers of surveillance, he said. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures are just a moment in time that shouldn't be fixated upon, but should be used to look at when developing policies that affect the future, Nacchio said. Nacchio couldn’t say whether the intelligence community will protest any actions to restrict Section 702 surveillance authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when it sunsets in 2017. But even if intelligence agencies turn their attention to Internet and social media communications, that ISP traffic has to travel through fiber networks controlled by telecom companies, so telecom companies will continue to be affected, he said. The U.S. government has to be on the cutting edge of technology, but Americans don't have to give away their freedoms and liberties in the name of national security, Nacchio said.

The “NSA will destroy the Section 215 bulk telephony metadata upon expiration of its litigation preservation obligations,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement Monday. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved the NSA’s ability to resume the Section 215 bulk telephony metadata program so the government could transition the program to the telephone companies as directed by USA Freedom, it said. “As part of our effort to transition to the new authority, we have evaluated whether NSA should maintain access to the historical metadata after the conclusion of that 180-day period,” the statement said. The NSA will cease collecting bulk telephony metadata on Nov. 29, it said. Technical personnel will be allowed to continue to access historical metadata for an additional three months to verify the records produced under the “new targeted production,” it said. The NSA also will have a legal obligation to preserve metadata until civil litigation on the program is resolved or relevant courts “relieve NSA of such obligations,” it said. The data preserved solely because of preservation obligations “will not be used or accessed for any other purpose,” and will be destroyed as soon as possible, it said.

The Communications Workers of America said 86 percent of the Verizon employees it represents voted to authorize a strike if negotiations between the carrier and both the CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) aren't successful by the time the current contract expires, a CWA news release said. The current contract is to expire at midnight Aug. 1, and covers 39,000 CWA and IBEW Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia, the release said. "Our members are clear and they are determined," Dennis Trainor, CWA vice president-district one, said in a statement. "They reject management's harsh concessionary demands, including the elimination of job security, sharp increases in workers' healthcare costs and slashing retirement security." "Saturday's union vote was predictable and achieved nothing," a Verizon spokesman told us Monday. "As we move closer to this weekend's contract deadline, we hope the unions work with us on ways that will continue to ensure solid, upper middle-class jobs for our employees and exceptional services for our customers."

The Competitive Enterprise Institute intends to argue against the FCC net neutrality order, becoming the latest party seeking to file an amicus brief supporting petitioners challenging the order in court. The brief would focus on the FCC's claim that Section 706 of the Telecom Act gives the agency "affirmative legal authority" for all rules in the order, said CEI's notice to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063. The free-market-oriented public interest group said it had sought to consolidate its brief with other potential amici, but none shared its particular Section 706 interest. Initial briefs by petitioners are due Thursday, while amicus briefs from supporters are due Aug. 6.

NAB wants a 21-day extension of the deadline for comments on the FCC’s proposal to preserve one TV channel for use by TV white space devices and wireless microphones, the association said in a motion posted online Monday. Comments in the proceeding are currently due Aug. 3, replies Aug. 31. Under the NAB proposal, those deadlines would move to Aug. 24 and Sept. 23. The extension is merited by the FCC’s delay in releasing a procedures public notice (see 1507150058), NAB said. “Because the vote on the Procedures Public Notice was delayed by three weeks, NAB respectfully submits that a three-week delay in the comment deadline in this proceeding would be appropriate,” the motion said. The FCC “will have a better, more informed record” if comments are filed after the procedures PN, NAB said.

The FCC should include time frames when making predictive judgments and adopting interim rules, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a blog post Monday. Such procedures are used when the FCC is pressed for time, but then rarely are followed up with more considered rules, O’Rielly said. “That means those offering or receiving communications services in the marketplace are forced to adhere to rules based on stale decisions or outdated information.” The FCC’s predictive judgments are afforded deference by the courts, O’Rielly said, but “can endure for years without being revisited.” Such judgments are “typically reexamined only when the agency has a desire to reverse prior decisions,” O’Rielly said. The commission should include a time frame to revisit predictive judgments in its rulemakings, the commissioner said. “The exact duration will depend on the circumstances. However, it is not unreasonable to expect that a predictive judgment not be allowed to last for more than three to five years without affirmative review,” O’Rielly said. A similar solution would also work for interim rules, and prevent them from becoming permanent by default, O’Rielly said. Interim rules have been used by the FCC to “lock in a policy preference for an extensive period of time, free from significant legal challenge,” O’Rielly said. “Any interim rule should be accompanied by a timeframe for completing the final rules. Here, the presumption should be that an interim rule not last for more than 18 months,” he said.

The FCC Electronic Comment Filing System experienced a minor processing delay Thursday and Friday that has since been fixed, a commission spokeswoman told us. The delay was responsible for a very low number of filings being timely posted online, she said. No filings from entities outside the commission appeared in ECFS Thursday, but Friday afternoon some filings were posted.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated multicircuit petitions for review of the FCC declaratory ruling and order on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a Friday panel order said. The panel randomly chose the D.C. Circuit as the circuit of record, acting on a notice of petitions for review filed there and in the 7th Circuit, the order said.