Representatives of the Minority Cellular Partners Coalition told an aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn that AT&T has engaged in conduct that should bar it from buying DirecTV. AT&T violated Section 222(c)(l) of the Communications Act and Section 1.20003 of the FCC’s rules when it “voluntarily allowed the National Security Agency to have access to telephony and Internet metadata, and telephony and Internet content,” the coalition said. “AT&T has engaged in an established pattern of misconduct and bad behavior. Taken together, these actions should bear upon its qualifications to acquire additional FCC licenses in the proposed acquisition of DirecTV.” The coalition first raised the issue in a March 4 letter to the commission. AT&T said in a recent filing the FCC should give no weight to the charges. The FCC held in the AT&T/BellSouth merger order these very same “allegations are outside the scope of the FCC’s investigative powers,” AT&T said. The filings were in docket 14-90.

CTIA questioned whether the FCC identified any real problems that the agency needed addressed before adopting its Feb. 26 net neutrality rules. A blog post Friday by Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs, was the fourth in a series by the association last week, making its case against the rules. “The nominal instances cited as alleged attacks on an open Internet do not reflect a pattern of behavior or any systemic issue resulting in any harm to mobile consumers,” Bergmann wrote. “In fact, the proffered examples were few and far between and quickly remedied by the consumer-driven marketplace.” The FCC order acknowledges the rapid increases in mobile speeds and data traffic and the more than 140 million people who subscribed to LTE service in 2014, he said. “Without a hint of irony, the FCC then proceeds to abandon its prior framework under which mobile broadband blossomed.”

The record bidding in the AWS-3 auction points to the need for the FCC to “re-double its efforts” to finalize rules for the 3.5 GHz band as a band for small cells and sharing, said representatives of New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge in agency meetings. The FCC also should make sure the TV incentive auction takes place next year as planned, the groups said in a filing in docket 12-269. The commission should focus on the public interest, not auction revenue, OTI and PK said: “Competition policy and consumer welfare should drive spectrum policy, not arbitrary revenue goals.”

Rural wireless carriers weren't helped by the FCC designated entity program in the AWS-3 auction and the agency should offer a rural phone company bidding credit in the TV incentive auction, representatives of NTCA, the Rural Wireless Association and the Blooston group of rural carriers said in meetings at the commission. They met with Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly and aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Pai and O’Rielly criticized Dish Network’s use of DEs to win spectrum licenses at reduced prices in the AWS-3 auction. “More than half of the 70 qualified bidders in the auction were rural telcos or rural telco affiliates, yet only 28.9 percent of these entities were successful in winning any licenses,” the groups said, according to a filing in docket 14-170. “Less than half of the rural telcos that were successful bidders were able to qualify under the Commission’s DE rules as small businesses, and at the close of the auction rural bidders accounted for just $871,350 (or 0.024 percent) of the total $3.57 billion in bidding credits awarded.”

AT&T Wireless is part of a new loyalty program called Plenti, said American Express Wednesday. Plenti bills itself as the first U.S.-based coalition loyalty program, and comprises brands including American Express, AT&T Wireless, DirectEnergy, ExxonMobile, Hulu, Macy’s, Nationwide and Rite Aid. Shoppers can earn and use Plenti points for buying a variety of products, regardless of payment method, said the companies. Plenti customers can earn points and discounts using any form of payment accepted by the participating partners including cash, prepaid and debit or credit cards with every 1,000 accrued points translating to at least $10 in savings, said Plenti. Consumers can accumulate Plenti points when signing up for qualifying wireless services at AT&T, or for eligible charges on AT&T wireless bills. The free program launches this spring.

CTIA President Meredith Baker made two more leadership changes. Baker Wednesday named Tom Sawanobori senior vice president and chief technology officer. Sawanobori spent 20 years at Verizon and was “lead planner” of the carrier’s 4G LTE network, CTIA said. “With Tom leading the newly created CTO department, our ability to aid our members and serve as a technical resource to policymakers is greatly enhanced,” Baker said. Stephanie Mathews O’Keefe was named senior vice president-chief communications officer. She was formerly at the American Bankers Association. Baker also announced a series of promotions. She said Brad Gillen, formerly chief of staff, will be executive vice president “responsible for CTIA’s day-to-day management and strategic initiatives.” Gillen was an aide to Baker when she was an FCC member. Rocco Carlitti, formerly vice president-operations, is now senior vice president-chief financial officer. Amy Storey, formerly assistant vice president-public affairs, is now a vice president. Baker became CTIA president in June.

An FCC proposal to shift its enforcement officials away from the field to headquarters (see 1503110054) was recommended in a $745,603 study by Oceaneast Associates, commissioned by the agency, said a blog post by Michael Marcus, a former commission engineer. “Office closures and overall staff reductions will be balanced by increased field travel budgets, increased use of pre-positioned fixed equipment in locations where there is no field office, and establishment of a new quick-response,” Marcus wrote. The agency had no immediate comment.

In its latest un-carrier move, T-Mobile is going after the enterprise market, looking to take business customers from AT&T and Verizon with simplified rate cards, said CEO John Legere at an event Wednesday. Legere asked if anyone in the audience was on the Sprint network. When no one raised a hand, Legere said, “You fuckers are lying.” T-Mobile is gunning for Verizon's and AT&T’s business, Legere said. “They think their business is safe, and it’s not.” In 2014, T-Mobile earned 3 percent of the $83 billion spent by businesses on wireless services, so the aggressive pricing -- offering lines with unlimited talk and text and 1 GB of data for $15 each -- is something Legere said he can do because he’s attacking a business that T-Mobile doesn’t have. And customers can add more data per line or in a pool for the whole company at $4.75/GB for a 100 GB minimum, he said. Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert said today is the beginning of a “major disruption in the business space.” T-Mobile is also partnering with GoDaddy to offer a free .com domain and website optimized for mobile viewing to businesses customers that buy the new plan with at least one line of additional paid data. “I think that’s a big deal, maybe not in mega corporations, but for the businesses that American runs on,” Legere said. T-Mobile also announced the “un-contract” and carrier freedom. Legere said he will sign a contract to his customers that says the rates may go down but they will not go up, making promotional plans permanent. When it comes to getting more customers, Legere is willing to pay early termination fees plus up to $650 for those who are still paying for or renting their phones. He said there's a war analogy to be made in this announcement regarding the business market, saying “we’re bombing their factories.”

The FCC is wrong in findings in its net neutrality order that wireless subscribers can’t readily switch carriers, CTIA said Wednesday. “Based exclusively on a single filing of public interest groups that lacks basic analytical rigor, the FCC suggests that consumers have no effective ability to switch wireless carriers today,” said a blog post by Krista Witanowski, assistant vice president-regulatory affairs. The order calls switching costs “a significant factor” in wireless carriers’ ability to “threaten the open nature of the Internet,” she said. It has never been easier for subscribers to switch providers, she said. “A simple trip to the mall or large retail store would ease any perceived concerns. It has never been easier for consumers to change mobile providers in this fiercely competitive mobile marketplace.”

The recently concluded AWS-3 auction in Canada shows the relative value placed on spectrum available to all carriers, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk wrote Tuesday. In the Canadian auction, reserve spectrum fetched less than 10 cents per MHz/POP from smaller operators, while unrestricted spectrum attracted winning bids of $2.40 MHz/POP, Piecyk said. “Interestingly, the prices paid at the Canadian auction were not far off the $2.71/MHz/POP from the U.S. auction of similar spectrum,” he said. “That throws some cold water on what we consider an absurd assertion by spectrum ‘truthers’ that Dish’s participation in the AWS-3 auction did anything more than reveal the true value that wireless operators assign to mid-band spectrum relative to the incremental cost to split cell sites.”