Apple’s deal with HBO to exclusively offer HBO’s mobile app (see 1503090035) is exciting for most of the communications industry other than some multichannel video programming distributors, CBS President Les Moonves said Wednesday at a Deutsche Bank investor conference webcast from Palm Beach, Florida. Apple's HBO deal paves the way for others, and there will be a similar offering from CBS-owned Showtime “in the not too distant future,” he said. The popularity of subscription VOD has made this the best time to monetize video content, Moonves said. “It is far better to be in broadcast than some of the other businesses out there." CBS’ over-the-top offering, CBS All-Access, will launch nationwide in a few months, Moonves said. He also spoke on the FCC incentive auction and said he is actively looking at participating in it with spectrum from CBS's CW and independent licenses. CBS could be "a major player" in the auction, Moonves said. Though he said NAB initially characterized the auction as a bad thing, his company's analysis of the numbers makes it seem like a profitable option, he said. If CBS could put up the spectrum of its CW and other independent stations and make $2 billion, it would be "dumb" not to participate, he said. "You're gonna see us being a full-fledged participant."

FCC selection of a local number portability administrator is a “process that’s been flawed from the very beginning,” Neustar Chief Financial Officer Paul Lalljie said Tuesday at a Deutsche Bank financial conference. Dave Angelicchio, head of investor relations at Neustar, said the company is waiting to see what commissioners do at the March 26 open meeting, where the LNPA contract is slated to be discussed. “Based on what comes out … the only thing we can say is there are a lot of avenues we could take,” Angelicchio said. “We are going to ensure that we are maximizing shareholder value.” The Wireline Bureau circulated a draft order last week that would authorize North American Portability Management to begin contract negotiations with Telcordia to become the next LNPA (see 1503040053).

AT&T is ready to take the FCC to court if necessary over its net neutrality rules, Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said in the cover letter to the company’s annual report, released Tuesday. “Key policymakers in the administration and at the FCC are now going well beyond any previous concept of net neutrality.” The FCC has reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II service under rules “written in 1934 to regulate the rotary dial telephone,” he said. “We feel this antiquated approach will damage investment and damage the Internet itself.” AT&T will “aggressively make the case to policymakers -- and, if necessary, to the courts -- that the FCC’s proposed Title II regulation of the entire Internet is at best a solution in search of a problem and at worst a threat to the United States’ continued global leadership in technology and innovation,” he said.

FCC staff shouldn't be allowed to have the "editorial privilege" of making substantive changes to an item after it’s approved by the commission, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly wrote in a blog post Monday. O'Rielly raised objections to the granting of editorial privileges for the net neutrality order. Based on the name, editorial privileges may sound like they’d be limited to “non-substantive edits, such as correcting typos and updating cross-references in footnotes,” O’Rielly wrote, similar to technical and conforming edits in Congress. At the FCC, staff members “often do much more substantial editing, including adding substantive and significant rebuttals to Commissioners’ dissents and providing sometimes lengthy responses to ex parte arguments that had not been incorporated into the draft prior to the vote,” O’Rielly said. Such substantive changes should not “be made under the guise of 'editorial privileges,'” he wrote. “At times, changes seem intended solely to take further pot shots at dissenting Commissioners.” In the rare cases that substantive changes are needed, they should be approved by the commissioners who voted for the item, O’Rielly wrote. He criticized the agency practice in which dissenting commissioners are not asked about subsequent changes. “If the item is not fully baked in time for the vote, then the Commission should simply delay the vote by a month or two,” O’Rielly wrote.

The FCC should reconsider its Feb. 3 policy statement creating treble damages in calculating fines for violations of federal payment rules, said Comptel, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom in a joint petition Friday that also seeks a stay. The policy statement makes a “substantial rule change” affecting the USF, Telecom Relay Service Fund, local number portability, North American Numbering Plan and regulatory fee programs, USTelecom said in a blog post. The commission didn't follow proper notice and comment requirements, USTelecom said. Tripling damages is “’arbitrary and capricious,’” it said.

Because the FCC was closed Thursday due to snow, all filings do that date were due Friday instead, the FCC said Friday in a public notice. It said Thursday “does not count in computing filing periods of fewer than seven days because it was a Commission holiday under rule 1.4(g).”

ABC filed an FCC compliant on interference Verizon allegedly caused to electronic news gathering (ENG) operations of WABC-TV New York. ABC said emissions from Verizon’s AWS network compromised the station’s use of the 2025-2110 MHz band. Problems have been ongoing since September 2013, ABC said. The letter asks that the Enforcement Bureau find Verizon is in violation of FCC rules and require the carrier to install notch filters “at all current and future” base stations that use AWS A- and B-block spectrum within 36 miles of ENG sites operated by WABC. “We are aware of the issue,” a Verizon spokesman said Friday. “We have been working cooperatively with WABC-TV and will continue to do so.”

Correction: What an FCC spokesman said -- about small, rural ISPs choosing to become regulated under new Communications Act Title II FCC rules rather than the old ones they are now subject to -- is that the Feb. 26 net neutrality order would not count broadband costs in rate-of-return calculations (see 1503050054).

Clarification: The focus of ex-White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Nicole Wong’s op-ed was the White House's Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. The multistakeholder meeting she mentions on Do-Not-Track discussions was facilitated by the World Wide Web Consortium (see 1503040035).

Dish Network is unlikely to build its own wireless network despite a rash of spectrum buys, said T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter Thursday at a Morgan Stanley financial conference. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen “has done a masterful job” of creating a mid-band spectrum portfolio important to carrying data traffic, he said. “What Charlie ends up doing, gosh, I wish I could answer that.” Ergen has said recently that Dish would be in no hurry to monetize its spectrum holdings (see 1502230038). T-Mobile would be a “very interesting” party to work with Dish on deploying its spectrum, Carter said. Carter also said T-Mobile followed a “very disciplined” strategy in the AWS-3 auction since it's already well positioned in the mid-band spectrum offered in that auction. “We went into the AWS-3 auction with the best mid-band portfolio in the U.S. and we came out of it with the best mid-band portfolio,” he said. Carter hinted T-Mobile may go much bigger in the TV incentive auction and the 600 MHz spectrum that will be for sale. “Our priority is to perfect our low-band footprint” and put T-Mobile on a level playing field with the other three national carriers, he said. T-Mobile has “years of runway” to expand its network with its current spectrum holding, he said.