The U.S. had an average internet connection speed in Q1 of 18.7 Mbps, among the top 10 countries, Akamai reported Wednesday. The U.S. average connection speed increased year-over-year and was up 8.8 percent over Q4, when it was 14th-highest at 17.2 Mbps. South Korea had the highest average speed in Q1 at 28.6 Mbps, Norway No. 2 at 23.5 Mbps, Sweden No. 3 at 22.5 Mbps and Hong Kong No. 4 at 21.9 Mbps. The global average peak speeds in Q1 stood at 44.6 Mbps, with Singapore registering the highest at 184.5 Mbps. The U.S. ranked No. 16 for average peak speed for the quarter at 86.5 Mbps. Global adoption of connection speeds of at least 25 Mbps rose to 12 percent for Q1, with the U.S. having 38 percent adoption of that minimum speed, Akamai said.

A recent court ruling supports the FCC rationale for proposing to return broadband internet access service to a Title I regulatory classification, said Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow, in a Monday blog post. He said the FCC 2015 broadband reclassification as a Title II telecom service reached its "strained result" by excluding "Internet access service" from the 1996 Telecom Act's definition of a Title I "information service." A May 8 ruling by Judge Susan Richard Nelson of the U.S. District Court for Minnesota "recognized that an offering’s performance of one function listed under Title I -- transforming -- sufficed to render it an 'information service,'" Cooper wrote, referring to Charter Advanced Services v. Lange, (Case No. 15-cv-3935). The ruling also "emphasized that the information service definition is keyed to the provision of the 'capability' of performing certain functions -- regardless of whether those functions are actually performed in every instance," Cooper wrote. "In Charter Advanced Services v. Lange, it was 'the capability to convert calls' between Internet Protocol (IP) and Time Division Mutiplexing (TDM) that brought Charter Advanced within the meaning of Title I."

FCC staff certified the Perkins School for the Blind as administrator of its $10 million annual National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program ("iCanConnect") in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. A Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Monday in docket 10-210 also said the Colorado Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was certified for Colorado and the Connecticut Tech Act Project for Connecticut. The certifications take effect July 1, said the PN, which noted the bureau would continue to make certification announcements on a rolling basis after reviewing applications and supplemental materials. The Perkins school applied for certification for 22 states and territories, the most of any applicant (see 1704260029).

That FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly are backing an appellate court panel decision declaring the junk fax rule unlawful (see 1703310018) means intervenors seeking an en banc rehearing can't show extraordinary circumstances that would warrant granting their request (see 1705010061), said the class-action defendant petitioners. In a response (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the defendant petitioners said the panel decision was "a routine application" of the Chevron standard and in line with prior Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit Court decisions. Counsel for intervenors didn't comment Monday.

Comments are due July 3 on the FCC illegal robocalls NPRM and notice of inquiry, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said Thursday after the item appeared in Wednesday’s Federal Register. Replies are due July 31, said a public notice. The FCC released the robocall items in March (see 1703240046).

Telcordia/iconectiv asked the FCC to approve changes to its code of conduct and voting trust, and if necessary, transfer of control, without waiting for replies due Tuesday. Telcordia/iconectiv, the incoming local number portability administrator (LNPA), said it didn't plan to reply. "Prompt approval would allow the parties to move forward to diversify Telcordia’s ownership and to bring about the other public interest benefits of the transaction," said a Telcordia/iconectiv counsel filing Wednesday in docket 09-109 on a conversation with Wireline Bureau officials. The trust holds the voting stock in iconectiv owned by its only current shareholder, Ericsson Holdings II. The trust and the code are intended to ensure Ericsson won't exert undue influence on iconectiv -- which is taking over LNPA duties from Neustar -- in favor of any telecom service provider, said the approval request of Telcordia/iconectiv and FP Investors, which plans to acquire a minority stake in iconectiv (see 1704030034). They said the transaction will bolster "iconectiv's neutrality" and eliminate a possible legal dispute under Delaware corporate law.

In response to a 2015 petition by various groups asking for a repeal of the FCC rule requiring telcos to retain toll-call data for 18 months, the agency is taking comments, said a public notice Wednesday. Comments in docket 17-130 are due June 16, replies July 3. The petition was brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center's advisory board and 26 consumer rights, human rights and civil liberties organizations (see 1508040027).

Two hundred more "startups" endorsed a call for the FCC to keep net neutrality rules, adding to the 800 signers of an April 26 open letter, a policy group said. "The success of America’s startup ecosystem depends on an open internet with enforceable net neutrality rules, ensuring that small companies can compete on a level playing field without the threat that their services will be discriminated against by big cable and wireless companies," an Engine post said.

The Perkins School for the Blind was certified to administer the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) for Arizona, Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau in a public notice Friday. It said Access Technologies was certified to administer the NDBEDP for Oregon, and the South Dakota Department of Human Services to administer the NDBEDP for South Dakota. The certifications are effective July 1, it said.

The "Title II-reversal story" that helped cable stocks rally "has begun to unravel," said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson Thursday. He noted he upgraded cable stocks after the Republican election victory on the expectation that Title II would be reversed, preferably through legislation to mandate net neutrality principles and clarify agency authority. But Republicans used the "nuclear option" and pushed through a Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal the FCC's broadband privacy rules, he said. "Unfortunately, that scorched-Earth strategy appears now to have been a terrible miscalculation," Moffett wrote. "Predictably, ramming the ISP Privacy reversal down the throats of the Democrats poisoned the well for any cooperation on telecom matters, let alone something as politically volatile as Net Neutrality or Title II." He noted the FCC has proposed to reverse the Title II reclassification and return to Title I broadband, but whether it will "have the stomach to follow through in the face of what is likely to be absolutely withering opposition is unclear." Even if the FCC does roll back Title II, "it would be a temporary solution at best," given legal questions about net neutrality under Title I, and the possibility that a return to Title II "would simply be one Democratic FCC away," he wrote.