AT&T said BT Americas is peddling "stale" special access data that produces "rotten results." In a blog post Tuesday, AT&T said, "While BTA’s past claims have been repeatedly refuted by AT&T, its recent Reply Comments introduce a new 'study' purchased from European telecom consultancy, WIK. This study argues that Ethernet prices are distinctly higher in the U.S. than in Europe, and that this unhappy state is due [to] a lack of competition and competent regulation in the U.S. A little detective work shows these claims about Ethernet to be as fanciful an overreach as BTA’s prior claims about DS1 and DS3 services." BT Americas had no comment.

President Barack Obama sees a role for the FCC in the economic relationship between the U.S. and Argentina, said a White House fact sheet released this week. “Technical assistance” from the U.S. “includes support from the [FTC] and the Department of Justice for Argentina’s Commission for the Defense of Competition,” the White House said. “The United States and Argentina will also deepen discussions on telecommunications policy, including through consultations with the [FCC] regarding spectrum management and regulatory reform.”

While FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler cited network investment by AT&T as a sign the 2015 net neutrality order is not harming capital spending, a telecom carrier official said a big chunk of AT&T’s $22 billion in spending this year is outside the U.S. Wheeler cited AT&T’s capital expenditures Monday in a speech (see 1603210042). AT&T described its capital improvement plans in more depth Feb. 21. AT&T said in a news release that part of the spending is targeted to Mexico, where the company plans to “integrate more than 6,000 kilometers of Mexico fiber currently supporting the wireless operations into the AT&T wireline network; enhance these assets by investing in more AT&T global network nodes and add hundreds of sellers focused on selling business solutions in Mexico.” In a speech last month at the Heritage Foundation, Commissioner Ajit Pai said AT&T significantly increased its investments in Mexico, due in part to the net neutrality order and the reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1602260053). AT&T and the FCC didn't comment.

ON Semiconductor extended its tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Fairchild Semiconductor at $20 per share, it said Friday. ON received a request for additional information from the FTC on regulatory approvals Thursday and the offer to acquire Fairchild, announced Nov. 18, will expire March 31 unless further extended, it said. ON Semiconductor plans to dispose of its ignition insulated gate bipolar transistors business to satisfy FTC antitrust concerns and said Fairchild and ON will continue to engage “closely and cooperatively with the FTC” is it finalizes its review of the transaction. The companies are confident the necessary regulatory approval will be obtained and said they received clearance for the acquisition from antitrust authorities in Germany and Japan.

EMagin sees 2016 as an “important year” for its “strategic focus” of adapting technology it has perfected in its “core” military business and “making inroads into the consumer market” for high-contrast, high-brightness virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets, CEO Andrew Sculley said on a Thursday earnings call. The technology advancement “that we pioneered for our military work really sets a standard and expectation also in the consumer marketplace,” he said. “The features in today’s consumer VR and AR applications will not satisfy the user” very long, he said. “As the novelty of these new devices begins to wear off, the consumer will start looking for a higher-quality experience and the manufacturers of the headsets will look for better displays.” There are a “number of consumer companies with whom we've discussed our road map” for migrating military-grade OLED microdisplay technology for VR and AR consumer headsets, Sculley said. For an AR or VR headset to be successful, it “must be small for comfort like a pair of glasses,” Sculley said. Discussions are “ongoing” with “very significant interested parties,” Sculley said. In December, eMagin completed a “strategic licensing" deal with an unnamed partner that makes eMagin’s supplying of the OLED microdisplays part of the overall intellectual property deal for that partner's VR and AR headsets, he said.

An Orlando-based telemarketer selling vacation packages agreed to settle government allegations it made millions of illegal robocalls, including to those on the National Do Not Call Registry, the FTC said in a news release Thursday. The commission voted 4-0 to authorize staff to refer the complaint to DOJ and approve the proposed $1.2 million civil penalty against Lilly Management and Marketing and its owner, Kevin Lawrence, the release said. But the FTC said the defendants will pay only $19,000 due to their inability to pay the full amount, unless they are later found to have misrepresented their financial condition and then they will have to pay the entire penalty. The FTC alleged Lawrence and his firm bought leads, or lists of consumers' phone numbers, from third parties and then used automated dialing machines, "placing millions of calls that played pre-recorded messages." Each call cost less than a cent to make, the release noted. The commission's proposed order "permanently bans" Lawrence and his firm from robocalling consumers and those on the national registry, helping others make such calls or doing business with anyone making such calls. DOJ filed the complaint and proposed order in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, FTC said. A message left on a phone number associated with the telemarketer wasn't returned.

Fewer than half of information technology departments at the 50 top U.S. county governments provide software that monitors, manages and secures their employees' mobile devices, the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers said in a survey released Tuesday. IAITAM said only a quarter of the counties require that such mobile device management software (MDM) be installed across all their government departments. The survey found 43 out of the 50 counties supply mobile devices to employees, but only 20 have MDM software and the remainder either lack such software or didn't respond. Of the 20 that do have MDM software, only nine require it be installed across all departments, two don't and nine didn't answer. In a separate IAITAM survey of 177 companies, trade groups and government agencies, 92 percent of respondents said they supply mobile devices to employees, 72 percent said they have MDM software in place and 70 percent require such software be implemented across all their departments. "Most government agencies and corporations fall down on the job when it comes to Information Technology Asset Management ... in general. But mobile device management, including best-practice policies and application of MDM software, is a real blind spot," said IAITAM CEO Barbara Rembiesa in a statement. The association said last week that San Bernardino County, California, had paid for MDM software, but it was never installed on the device supplied to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two gunmen identified by the FBI in the Dec. 2 mass shooting. IAITAM said if the MDM software had been installed on Farook's phone, "investigators could have remotely and legally unlocked the phone and thereby circumvented the legal dispute now underway" (see 1603010013).

DoCoMo Pacific wants to put in a new submarine cable system connecting Guam with the Commonwealth of the North Mariana islands of Saipan, Rota and Tinian. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, DoCoMo said the Atisa system -- Atisa meaning "to brighten" or "to increase" in the Chamorro language native to Guam and Commonwealth islands -- will be run on a non-common-carrier basis, with its capacity to be used by DoCoMo retail and enterprise customers. It also said it expects to start commercial operation of the Atisa system in Q2 2017, and FCC grant of a cable landing license by December 2016 is "of paramount importance." Atisa will avoid the Tinian Channel where the Mariana-Guam Cable was severed in July, leading to "a nearly-total communications blackout" in the Commonwealth islands, and instead will go directly between Guam and Saipan in deeper water, said DoCoMo, a subsidiary of Japan's NTT DoCoMo.

Lisa Gelb is moving from the FCC Wireline Bureau to become a deputy chief and chief of staff of the Enforcement Bureau, Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a news release Monday. Gelb’s new responsibilities include ensuring compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, LeBlanc said. Gelb’s “depth of knowledge about communications law, particularly in the areas of wireline telephone and broadband, her understanding of the Commission, her extensive management experience, and her good judgment are invaluable in managing the bureau’s workload,” LeBlanc said. She's a former deputy city attorney in San Francisco who joined the Wireline Bureau in 2004.

Free Press released what it’s calling the 2016 Internet Voter Guide about the presidential election. “The Internet Voter Guide shows that some presidential candidates care more about their campaigns’ digital operations than about the digital rights and needs of Americans across the country,” said Free Press President Craig Aaron. The guide includes a chart comparing the positions for Democratic and Republican presidential contenders on issues such as net neutrality, encryption policy and affordability. The guide underscores some established partisan divides on telecom policy. “All three Republican contenders have come out against the FCC’s open Internet rules,” Free Press said of the platforms on net neutrality. “Both Democratic candidates have advocated for enforcing strong Net Neutrality rules.” Industry consolidation was an issue where Democrats staked out opposition, Free Press said: “Only a few candidates have declared any position on runaway media consolidation, which has led to skyrocketing costs for consumers as competition for services has dwindled. Both Democratic candidates have fought industry consolidation.” Free Press said no candidate of either party has backed “strong pro-consumer encryption measures.”