That one needs access to broadband to get DirecTV Now doesn't disqualify the virtual MVPD service from satisfying the LEC test, Charter Communications told FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, said a docket 18-283 ex parte posting Monday. It said Congress specified the LEC test can be satisfied by an LEC or affiliate offering video by any means other than DBS. It said Massachusetts and Hawaii have broadband subscription penetration rates of more than 80 percent -- those being the two states where it's seeking an effective competition determination based on DirecTV Now's existence (see 1809170020). It said the LEC test shouldn't have a penetration requirement since Congress didn't extend that effective competition definition to the LEC test. And it said including physical channels in the definition of comparability under the LEC test would be contrary to the lesser burdens of the LEC test.

Disruption in the video industry requires traditional pay-TV providers address “sacred cows” in a new way, Parks Associates reported last week. MVPDs that rely exclusively on video services through their managed network “will be left behind,” it said. AT&T, Sky and Orange launched online offerings to stay ahead of the market, but service bundle elements also need to evolve, said the researcher. Data services are a critical component of over-the-top video services, said Parks. Operators often bundle OTT services with broadband, giving them an advantage over pure-play OTT services. The mobile bundle needs to expand beyond data, with mobile video being a differentiator and incremental revenue generator, it said. Cord cutters look for a branded OTT video-on-demand experience beyond live TV, making new bundles of separate live and on-demand OTT services compelling opportunities, it said. Traditional MVPDs need flexibility and adaptability of OTT video services to “remain relevant,” offering new features and quickly improving where needed, the firm said. Friday, the American Cable Association and NCTA didn't comment.

Cable One said its continuing wait, almost three years, to put a fiber link to Payson, Arizona, which is surrounded by the Tonto National Forest, "is a case study in the difficulties working with Federal agencies to build-out fiber to communities located within or near federal lands." Getting National Forest Service OK to send fiber to the city and through another national forest "has been frustratingly slow," the operator said Thursday in FCC docket 17-84. More than a year after the service indicated the project didn't need a complete environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, it reversed course, the company said. It then did get NEPA leeway, but "the Forest Service was dragging its feet" on a National Historic Preservation Act report, with four versions needed. More recently, the company was told that report was nearing acceptance, and then staff "pushed the timeline for next action to mid-January 2019 at the earliest, after Forest Service staff returned from annual leave." The company thinks at most 12 months should be enough for the 22 involved Forest Service staffers to do the review. It provided the information after company General Counsel Peter Witty met FCC staff Dec. 6, and an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr asked for any details of such hurdles. The aide didn't comment right away. Such projects "tend to require thorough research, review, and coordination," a Forest Service spokesperson noted Friday.

Lines between segments in the smart home market are blurring, especially for telecom companies and ISPs, Strategy Analytics reported Thursday. Large consumer technology brands will push harder into the smart home market in 2019, with a stronger emphasis on services vs. hardware, SA said. The overall smart home market will need to evolve beyond device-centric roots by taking new roads into existing markets such as hardware-as-a-service sales models, it said. Intelligent home emergence “will take time” as it evolves, said analyst Jack Narcotta. Predictions for 2019: Facebook enters the smart home market through the Portal video calling device; Amazon partners with a major U.S. home insurer; Apple launches a lower cost HomePod; eldercare monitoring becomes an important smart home service; and service providers replace individual offerings by blending entertainment and smart home control packages.

Deny Charter Communications' petition that the FCC deem it faces effective competition, the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable (DTC) continues to ask the commission. Hawaii also opposes the cable company's request (see 1811280027). Charter wants out of local regulation in some Massachusetts franchise areas and in Kauai, Hawaii, citing DirecTV Now (see 1809170020). The DTC wants to clarify the definition of a channel in this instance remains the same as under the LEC effective competition test. There's "no discretion to apply a new, different meaning of channel to the LEC Test’s comparable-programming requirement," the department wrote Thursday in docket 18-283. That test requires an LEC provide at least 12 channels of video programming as "channel" is defined, DTC added. "Charter has not carried its burden of demonstrating that AT&T’s DIRECTV NOW offers channels." Charter declined to comment.

Charter Communications joined the UHD Alliance, said a notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register from DOJ’s Antitrust Division. Change-of-membership "written notifications," which UHD sent Nov. 16 to DOJ and the FTC, are required to extend alliance members antitrust protections under the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the notice said. "Membership in this group research project remains open, and UHD Alliance intends to file additional written notifications disclosing all changes in membership."

Goodbye, Cable One, hello, Sparklight, as the cable ISP said Tuesday it will rebrand itself with the new name starting next summer. It said its corporate name will remain Cable One. It said new residential internet service plans and pricing will accompany the rebrand.

Taking no position on Charter Communications' petition for effective competition finding in Hawaii and Massachusetts based on existence of DirecTV Now streaming service (see 1809170020), AT&T in an FCC docket 18-283 posting Friday said its DirecTV subsidiary isn't an MVPD as defined by Section 602 of the Communications Act since it doesn't provide a transmission path to subscribers. It said two of the three Cable Act tests for an effective competition finding require cable operators show competition in their franchise areas from MVPDs, and the LEC test in the act doesn't specifically require the LEC or its affiliate be an MVPD. It said courts have long followed statutory interpretation principles that say if language is included in one section of a statute but not another, that exclusion is presumed to be intentional. AT&T said Congress also didn't require the LEC or its affiliate to video programming "channels" as part of the LEC test, only video programing services.

Cable One General Counsel Peter Witty urged the FCC to confirm local communities can't require cable operators with Communications Act Title VI cable franchises also get a franchise or authorization to provide non-cable broadband services, in meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly and with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, recounted a docket 05-311 posting Monday. The agency should confirm communities can't demand payment of more franchise fees or right-of-way access fees from cable operators as a condition of providing broadband or VoIP services, the operator said. It decried "never-ending escalation" of station retransmission consent fees

Cable modems that include Chinese parts but are assembled in Mexico are subject to the third tranche of 10 percent Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, said Customs and Border Protection in a Nov. 27 ruling. The ruling request was submitted by Barnes Richardson lawyer Lawrence Friedman on behalf of Zoom Telephonics. CBP's analysis was on two types of modems -- those that include Wi-Fi gateways and those that don’t. All the components involved are products of China and "bulk-packed board assemblies will be shipped in separate boxes from the remainder of the components including the case components, feet, screws, and labels," CBP said. The assembly work done in Mexico doesn't constitute a "substantial transformation" of the Chinese components, CBP said. The modems are classifiable under subheading 8517.62.0010 and therefore subject to the tariffs imposed Sept. 24, it said. The modems meet the North American Free Trade Agreement’s tariff shift requirement and are a product of Mexico for marking purposes, CBP said.