The net neutrality order cut but didn't eliminate the number of ISPs trying to extract interconnection fees, Level 3 said in an FCC filing posted Thursday in docket 15-149. It was part of a response to Media Bureau document requests (see 1510130063) on data in the review of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. Since the order, Level 3 said, it has announced peering agreements with consumer ISPs AT&T, Comcast and Verizon that are a "real improvement over the situation ... that existed before the Order's release." But Level 3 said the FCC "should not conclude that large ISPs have stopped exploiting their gatekeeper power to the detriment of the open Internet. ... several of the largest consumer ISPs continue to do just that -- including some of those Level 3 has formed new agreements with." Level 3 said some of those exploitations include "insist[ing] on arbitrary limits on interconnection capacity growth in the new peering agreements ... [and refusing] to add capacity ... without payment of arbitrary tolls." Verizon until recently tried to impose an interconnection fee, Level 3 said. "Even though Verizon and Level 3 networks had plenty of additional unused capacity available, Verizon refused to allow Level 3 sufficient interconnection capacity unless Level 3 would agree to pay a toll to 'open the door' for more traffic. As a result, only a fraction of the Level 3 traffic bound for the Verizon network was successfully transmitted; the rest was blocked by Verizon's conduct." Level 3 urged the agency to make clear what Internet traffic exchange practices are in line with Sections 201 and 202 of the Communications Act "from those that exploit [broadband Internet Access Service] providers' gatekeeper power and therefore are not" in line. Verizon didn't comment Friday. In a separate filing in the docket Thursday, One World Sports (OWS) came out in favor of Charter/BHN/TWC. In its filing, the sports network cited Charter's carriage of One World Sports, its large tier of Hispanic programming that will then be made available to additional customers, and its plans to extend its network to unserved areas. OWS also lauded Charter's eschewing of data caps, usage-based billing, early termination fees and modem lease fees.

IBM is buying various Weather Co. properties, but not the Weather Channel, to help be the foundation for its Watson IoT Unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform, IBM said in a news release Wednesday. Financial terms of the deal -- which would see IBM picking up WSI, weather.com, Weather Underground and the Weather Co. brand, as well as its meteorological data science experts, forecasting capabilities and a high-volume cloud-based analytics platform and is expected to close in Q1 -- weren't disclosed. Weather Channel will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM, the company said. Weather Co. CEO David Kenny said the company "see[s] the next wave of improved forecasting coming from the intersection of atmospheric science, computer science and analytics." IBM and Weather Co. jointly began integrating real-time weather analytics into business earlier this year through a variety of data services packages and application programming interfaces, and Weather Co. announced plans to move its weather data services platform behind its business-to-business division to the IBM cloud, IBM said.

NCTA wants a 30-day extension to file reply comments in the FCC Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee proceeding, it said in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 15-64. NCTA wants extra time so it can respond to an Oct. 20 ex parte filing describing a meeting between Public Knowledge and Media Bureau staff over the matter, NCTA said. “That ex parte presentation raises new and significant issues affecting, among other things, security, service delivery and compliance with Title VI requirements.”

Broadcasters seeking extended deadlines in the "totality of circumstances" test rulemaking are facing a bigger fight, with Incompas, ITTA, NTCA and Public Knowledge now resisting the motion. The Incompas et al. opposition posted Wednesday in docket 15-216 joins similar pushback posted earlier this week from the American Television Alliance (see 1510260025). While broadcasters have said they need more time while they deal with spectrum auction issues, "both Congress and the Commission have provided sufficient notice of this proceeding and consumers have waited long enough for a resolution to address the increasing number of disputes ... over retransmission consent agreements," the groups said. Such a delay "would maintain the status quo [for multichannel video programming distributors] who have had to deal with exorbitant price increases for both broadcast and non-broadcast programming, as well as for their customers who have seen these increases reflected in their monthly billing statements," Incompas et al. said. Since the FCC adopted the NPRM in September and a summary was published Oct. 2 in the Federal Register, they said, "the notice ... has been more than sufficient for parties to gather information and prepare comments and an additional 60-day delay cannot be justified."

Comcast plans to take part in the broadcast TV incentive auction through NBCUniversal and plans to activate the Verizon mobile virtual network operator "to trial some things and test some things," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Tuesday during the company's Q3 earnings call. "We're in a [wireless] test-and-learn mode and I think it's a natural part of the evolution of our company and participation in the mobile space beyond Wi-Fi," Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit said in response to a question about the company's wireless strategy. Q3 revenue was up 11.2 percent year over year to $18.7 billion, due to factors including a growing high-speed Internet subscriber base and the performance of Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic World. Roberts said deployment of X1 set-top boxes is at 40,000 per day, with 25 percent of its video subscribers now X1 customers, which is lowering churn and leading to higher revenue per subscriber. While multichannel video programming distributors saw their biggest customer losses ever in Q2, Comcast said it hasn't been a major contributor to that. It reported 69,000 video customers lost in Q2, and 48,000 for Q3. Those 48,000 make for Comcast's best third quarter in nine years, and cable "is now unmistakably taking shares from satellite and TelCo TV is fading fast," Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson Research emailed investors Tuesday. While broadband has driven some of that, Moffett said, so too has "cable's two-way architecture and Comcast's ... user interface and VOD libraries. Cable's improvement in basic video looks sustainable." Though Comcast is buying a majority of Universal Studios Japan, large acquisitions in the U.S. are "unlikely ... under the current administration," wrote analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak of Pivotal Research Group.

Comcast's board approved reclassifying each share of Class A special common stock into a share of Class A common stock, the company said Monday. The reclassification needs shareholder approval. The move will help eliminate investor confusion that comes with having two classes of publicly traded stock and improve the stock's trading liquidity, said the operator. Shareholders of record as of Oct. 20 will be entitled to vote on the matter.

Apple began taking pre-orders Monday for the latest Apple TV that is slightly taller and heavier than the third-generation version. The fourth-gen device adds Siri voice control but lacks 4K video output, according to a comparison chart at the Apple website. Apple didn’t respond to questions on 4K support. The next-generation version includes Siri voice control, which adds the need for remote control charging via a Lightning connector, said Apple. Prices are $149 for 32 GB and $199 for 64 GB, while the third-gen model remains in the line at $69. Apple recommends the higher storage box for consumers who download a lot of apps and games and the 32 GB version for music and video streamers who play only “a few” apps and games. Orders taken Monday will deliver beginning Friday to customers who pay $17 for next-day shipping or $19 for next-day shipping before noon. Delivery dates are Nov. 2-4 for free shipping, said the company. Gen 4 Apple TV comes with HBO Now and Showtime apps, and users can subscribe for $14.99 and $10.99 per month. Other apps include Netflix and Hulu and access to sports subscriptions from MLB, the NBA and NHL, said Apple.

Describing the FCC's protective order for confidential information as "an appropriate balance between the competitive concerns and the more general public interest," American Cable Association (ACA), Dish Network and Incompas are opposing a petition for reconsideration of those rules. Some content companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier this month petitioned the agency to vacate its order allowing confidential contract information to be shared with third parties during the merger review process (see Ref:1510130065]). But the arguments they used citing the Trade Secrets Act and the FCC standards under the Freedom of Information Act don't prevent the FCC from such confidential materials rules, ACA, Dish and Incompas said in their opposition posted Monday in docket 15-149; the "persuasive showing" standard isn't required when the Communications Act allows such disclosure, and the Trade Secrets Act comes into play only when disclosure is not authorized by law, but federal law authorizes the agency to permit such disclosures. Data about negotiations, programming practices and the business arrangements of Charter, Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable "is particularly important in this proceeding," the three said. Charter/TWC/BHN will have "an increased incentive and ability to strong arm third party programmers" into shutting out competing over-the-top services, plus "increased ability and incentive" to deny such affiliated content as Discovery and Starz to competing video distributors, the three said. Since the FCC on Sept. 11 issued an order setting new rules for the handling of confidential information, numerous entities have filed in docket 15-149 indicating they seek access to the confidential and highly confidential information filed in the proceeding, including ACA, Charter Communications, Dish Network, Free Press, Hawaiian Telecom Services, Incompas, New York State Public Service Commission and Zoom Telephonics.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is keeping up his public opposition to regulation of the online video distribution marketplace. "Given the remarkable success of the over-the-top (OTT) video industry -- success driven in part by regulatory restraint -- I don’t believe we should change our regulatory approach," Pai said, according to his published remarks for a speech made Monday at the 2015 convention of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia's Policy Roundtable, held in Hong Kong. Pai's address largely gave an overview of what he described as a successful online video distribution marketplace of "many different companies, of many different sizes, are offering many different choices at many different prices." That has come about because of the up-to-now "hands-off approach" to regulating the over-the-top video market, which "has yielded terrific results," Pai said. While he did not specifically cite any regulations he opposed, he quoted House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who earlier this month spoke out against regulating a specific type of OTT service as a multichannel video programming distributor (see 1510090054). "For me as a regulator and an online video consumer, the way forward is simple," Pai said. "There is no market failure. There is no problem to be solved. Therefore, there is no need for the U.S. government to impose regulations designed for markets and technologies as they existed over 20 years ago." Pai made similar arguments in July at a Churchill Club address (see 1507170030).

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court dismissal of Stored Communications Act complaints against Time Warner Cable for giving the wrong basic subscriber information in response to a grand jury subpoena. U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Gaughan of Cleveland in 2014 tossed out a suit brought earlier that year by the Long family of Chardon, Ohio, against Insight Communications of Central Ohio, doing business as Time Warner Cable, after law enforcement searched the Long family house as part of an online child pornography investigation, only to determine that TWC had provided the wrong house address through a clerical error in running the IP address in question. In the 6th Circuit ruling filed Friday, Gaughan said the Longs "have not alleged any facts (or argued that there are any facts) to suggest that TWC was aware of the error at the time of the disclosure," that they have no claims for negligent disclosure of private information under Ohio law because that governs only records maintained by a public agency, and that the TWC subscriber agreement explains that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act allows for the subpoena of personally identifiable information by government entities in some circumstances.