Twitter (TWTR) stock value was up by nearly 4.8 percent at the close of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday (http://bit.ly/K77WLU). After closing at $70 per share on Tuesday, Twitter stock was trading at $73.31 per share by the end of trading Thursday.

Level 3 and the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA) “have resolved their differences and have generally settled matters” regarding placement of Level 3 facilities in NYSTA rights of way, Level 3 told the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/1bsEhmI). Level 3 asked the FCC in 2009 to preempt “unreasonable, unfair and discriminatory annual rents” required by the NYSTA for Level 3 infrastructure. Level 3 had argued that the rates were hundreds of times higher than prevailing charges and prevented the company from providing middle-mile broadband transport to small- and mid-sized communities along the Thruway (CD July 28/09 p7). Level 3 is “no longer seeking any relief vis a vis NYSTA” in state proceedings, it said Thursday.

A district court does not have jurisdiction under the Hobbs Act to review an FCC order in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case when the plaintiff does not challenge the validity of the order, the FCC said in an amicus brief filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the case from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Mark Mais filed suit against Gulf Coast Collection Bureau. Mais charged the debt collection company “violated the TCPA by using a predictive dialer to make between 15 and 30 calls to his cellular telephone number, and left four messages, in an effort to collect a debt Mais had incurred for medical services,” the FCC said (http://fcc.us/1bsBppH). “Mais’s wife had provided the cellular telephone number on his behalf at the time the medical services were rendered.” Gulf Coast sought summary judgment, citing a 2008 FCC ruling that since the calls had been made with express consent by Mais, via his wife, Gulf Coast could not be held liable for violating the TCPA. The district court let the case proceed, “holding it was not bound by the 2008 FCC decision” and “the Hobbs Act did not divest it of jurisdiction because ’the Plaintiff does not seek to collaterally attack an FCC order in any respect,'” the FCC said. The agency disagreed. “Section 402(a) of the Communications Act ... specifies that (with certain exceptions not applicable here) any challenge to a final order of the FCC must be brought under the Hobbs Act,” the FCC said. “The Hobbs Act, in turn, gives the courts of appeals ‘exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in part), or to determine the validity of’ such action.” Upholding the lower court’s decision would have many negative implications, the FCC said. “If the district court’s decision is left to stand, the validity of FCC orders and rules could be called into question in a host of collateral challenges in which the FCC is not a party and as to which its lawyers have no notice,” the agency said. “That result raises the specter of conflicting opinions from different courts as to whether a particular FCC order or rule is, or is not, valid. ... There would be little point to consolidating challenges to agency orders in a single court of appeals if the validity of the agency’s order also could be challenged during the course of private litigation in courts across the country."

GCI subsidy Denali Media will buy three Alaska CBS-affiliated stations from Ketchikan TV, Denali said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dFToMb). The stations involved in the transaction are KXLJ Juneau, KTNL-TV Sitka and KUBD Ketchikan, Denali said. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2014, Denali said.

The FCC should maintain a “flexible regime” in its oversight of closed captions, said NAB in an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cUfWad). Broadcasting is a “diverse industry” with “some errors and latency issues that cannot be avoided, due to human and transmission issues,” said NAB. The commission should continue to allow broadcasters to use the Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) to provide captions, the filing said. A phase-out of ENT “could likely result in a loss of competitive local news coverage, as well as additional voices in the market,” NAB said. Instead, the commission should “work with industry to examine how ENT can be better utilized to ensure local viewers have improved access to important news and information,” said the filing.

Purple Communications supports a request for a temporary waiver of the FCC’s speed-of-answer requirements for Video Relay Service, it said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kJzDsp). ZVRS, Sorenson and the Communication Axess Ability Group asked earlier this month for waiver of the requirements, set to go into effect Jan. 1 (http://bit.ly/1bsDL80). Purple said it shares the FCC’s desire for consumers to get a faster speed of answer, but “without properly funding an elevated service level through increased VRS rates, the revised standard is neither operationally practical nor ultimately in the best interests of the consumers who are the intended beneficiaries of the standard,” the VRS provider said. In a separate filing Tuesday, Purple stressed the need for “greater interoperability” in the VRS industry (http://bit.ly/1kJCqSw). “The use of legacy equipment is the largest switching barrier preventing free consumer choice of providers, further perpetuating the highly concentrated market status quo,” it said.

The FCC defended its denial of Spectrum Five’s request for a review of the International Bureau’s decision to grant EchoStar special temporary authority to move its EchoStar 6 satellite (CD July 10 p20). Spectrum Five appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC questioned whether Spectrum Five has standing to appeal the ruling and asserted that the decision made was well within agency authority. Spectrum Five is a privately held company formed in 2004 to develop and operate satellite systems, and does not yet have any satellites in operation. “This case lies in the heartland of agency discretion: the Commission’s judgment involving the technically complex allocation of orbital slots and the evaluation of the public interest in light of arrangements with foreign nations,” the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1g4o2RU). “Spectrum Five questions the agency’s policy judgment, but the Commission acted reasonably and explained its actions. Nothing more is required."

The FCC should grant time extensions to stations that need to buy new equipment to comply with the commission’s proposed procedural update to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act rules, said NAB in comments filed in response to the commission’s November FNPRM on the proposed update (http://bit.ly/1aaVmBV). The proposed changes are prompted by changes in March to the Advanced Television Systems Committee algorithm used to calculate loudness (CD Nov 5 p18). Because the CALM Act legislation references the old standard, the commission proposal would update the language with the new standard. NAB supports the proposed change, and said most stations should be able to follow the proposed new standard with “relatively low-cost software upgrades” within the proposed one-year deadline. However, some stations may need to buy additional equipment, and may need time to do it, since most 2014 budgets have already been finalized, NAB said. The commission should “clarify that it will look favorably on requests for waivers for extensions of time” to comply with the proposed new standards, NAB said.

The FCC is getting tough against companies violating rules designed to protect licensees from stray radio waves thrown off as a by-product by all digital devices, warned Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald on the law firm’s blog. All manufacturers need should beware, he said. “The biggest FCC fine in recent memory for an equipment violation -- an even $1 million -- came down against a company that marketed digital audio devices,” Lazarus wrote (http://bit.ly/19l2y1l). “Another company that distributes professional audio equipment settled with the FCC for $125,000. Still another company that makes professional gear settled for $72,000. The iconic guitar-maker Fender agreed to pay an impressive $265,000.” Another company, Rane, which supplies DJs and contractors, “agreed to hand over $61,500 because some of its gear (and the associated instruction manuals) did not contain certain fine print disclosures required by the FCC,” he said. Equipment makers should learn from these mistakes, Lazarus said. “Perhaps you think you are safe -- that the FCC will never find you. Think again. We don’t know how the Rane matter came to the FCC’s attention. But we do know that many enforcement actions originate with tips sent in by the offender’s competitors. If you have competitors, chances are they double as FCC agents who watch your company’s every move. The only good defense is to know the rules and comply with them."

The Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico asked to withdraw its petition to opt out of the National Lifeline Accountability Database, in a letter to the FCC posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/18N4MZh). The board had previously sought a participation waiver because it had already implemented a similar database. Due to cuts to the board’s budget, however, it won’t be able to make the Puerto Rico database compliant with the Lifeline rules, it said. “The Board commits to maintaining the current Puerto Rico database to retain its ability to eliminate and prevent duplicates in the Lifeline rolls until such time as Puerto Rico has been successfully migrated to the national system,” which will happen in the spring, it said.