Prominent communications and tech companies were among the dozens of firms in a diversity of industries signing off on an amicus brief in favor of “marriage equality” as the Supreme Court prepares to hear Obergefell v. Hodges. Among those adding their names to thee brief were Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Broadcom, Cablevision, Cisco, Comcast, DirecTV, Disney, eBay, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Twitter and Verizon. The companies said they do business in states that both allow and prohibit same-sex marriage. “It creates legal uncertainty and imposes unnecessary costs and administrative complexities on employers, and requires differential employer treatment of employees who are similarly situated save for the state where they reside,” the brief said. The case examines whether the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex or recognize such a marriage that is lawfully licensed and performed in another state. Justices will hear the case April 28.

The FCC asked the three largest U.S. telcos for updated information about their interconnection deals linking systems, networks and equipment, in letters from Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake dated Tuesday and released Wednesday in docket 14-57. He asked AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon (see here, here and here) to provide copies of all deals between them and other companies about on-net-only interconnection service from Jan. 1, 2012, through Tuesday. Lake also sought copies of CenturyLink's and Verizon's paid peering deals. From them, he sought updated data through Dec. 31, 2014, on interconnection after data was submitted in response to a previous request to the telcos. Last week, Lake asked programmers including CBS, Discovery Communications, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and Univision about their dealings with online video distributors (OVD), as part of the Comcast/TWC review (see 1502260022). Those letters suggest "FCC staff does not believe it has finished the fact-gathering phase," wrote New Street Research analysts including Jonathan Chaplin to investors Wednesday. "The primary focus of the government" appears to be on "the potential harm the transaction could cause the OVD market," they said. In Tuesday's inquiries, AT&T also was asked to report information on all national and regional sports channels the telco-TV provider distributes. Lake sought details including the number of AT&T subscribers to those networks and the per-subscriber fee the company pays, plus what it pays in retransmission consent fees to TV stations. AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon were asked to respond by March 20. “The FCC is taking this merger very seriously," emailed a spokeswoman for CenturyLink, which has "serious concerns" with how the deal may affect video competition. "It’s not unusual for the commission to ask for more information when they’re considering a merger of this significance. This is second data request we’ve received from FCC." The other two telcos and Comcast had no comment.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured Wall Street Tuesday that Title II Communications Act reclassification of broadband won’t mean “utility” regulation for ISPs. Wheeler appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box, live from the show floor at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The order (see 1502260043) assures that those building networks still “have the capital, have the revenue base, on which to build,” Wheeler said. The FCC doesn't regulate rates or impose tariffs or unbundling requirements, he said. “The reality is that the day after our order goes into effect, the revenues from consumer services for Internet service providers will be exactly the same as they were the day before,” he said. “We want those revenues to be there. We want those revenues to generate a good return.” Wheeler denied he changed direction on net neutrality only because of pressure from President Barack Obama. “I’ve always been for a strong and open Internet,” he said. “Over the summer,” it became clear that only Title II would protect consumers and the Internet, he said. Title II was always “one of the myriad of things we were looking at,” he said.

Corrections: Statements from a blog post on FTC regulatory authority should have been attributed to the agency, not the blog’s author, Covington & Burling privacy lawyer Morgan Kennedy (see 1502240070) ... The group holding the May 6 meeting of its Network Reliability Steering Committee corrected its name on a news release about the event to the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions.

The FCC should relax its rules restricting foreign investments in radio licenses, whether in the wireless or broadcast arena, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Tuesday in a blog post. “The case to remove the shackles on foreign investment in U.S. companies is exceptionally strong,” he wrote. Current law prohibits more than a 25 percent foreign investment in a U.S. company that controls, directly or indirectly, a U.S. radio licensee, unless there is a waiver. “U.S. companies, especially smaller ones, stand to benefit from new sources of capital necessary in the super-challenging, ever-changing, consumer-centric, competitive environment that is the U.S. marketplace,” O’Rielly said. Also, as U.S. companies have tried to invest internationally, “they have run into legal and procedural roadblocks by foreign governments” partly as a result of the U.S. cap, he said. “In some instances, the responding countries have used the differences between how the U.S. considers foreign ownership and other nations.” Other nations allow bigger foreign investment in communications, he noted. The U.K. allows 100 percent foreign ownership; South Korea, 49 percent; Mexico, 49 percent; and India, 74 percent, he said.

Verizon met with staff in the FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday to discuss Dish Network’s use of designated entities (DEs) in the AWS-3 auction, the telco said in an ex parte notice filed Friday in docket 14-170. Dish and its DEs submitted “two or three bids for the same amount on the same licenses in the same round,” Verizon said. This bidding pattern goes beyond typical bidding agreements or consortia, it said. It allowed Dish to leave the auction once bidding reached a certain level and be replaced by its DEs, Verizon said. This raises questions as to whether the DE owners had control or if “the bidding was centrally coordinated and controlled” by Dish, it said. This type of bidding may have reduced competition, it said. The DE program increases auction revenue and mobile broadband competition, Dish said in a recent ex parte notice posted Monday. Dish didn’t comment. The DEs in question couldn't be reached for comment.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly released a statement late Thursday saying Republicans are not to blame for any delay in release of the FCC’s net neutrality order, approved by commissioners on a 3-2 vote earlier in the day. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had mentioned in the press conference after Thursday's meeting the FCC's need to respond to dissents as one of the factors that could slow release of an order. “To be clear, I filed a version of my dissenting statement … with a longer one to follow in the next few days,” O'Rielly said. “To say that this is somehow holding up the Commission’s release of the document and extending the process is ludicrous. After refusing to share this document for three weeks, it takes a lot of nerve for Commission leadership to blame me for its lack of transparency.” FCC General Counsel Jon Sallet said Thursday that waiting for the dissents to be filed is mandated by language in a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which requires federal agencies to provide a response in the final order. The FCC will work “as quickly as possible,” Sallet said. “Our goal is to get the process moving forward.” The opinion Sallet cited is Electric Power Supply Association v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a May 2014 decision on which the administration is seeking Supreme Court review.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council issued separate statements raising concerns about FCC net neutrality rules. Rainbow PUSH “is concerned about potential unintended consequences,” the group said in a news release. “We are particularly uneasy about the potential imposition of new telecom-related taxes and fees, and the under-capitalization of broadband infrastructure in vulnerable communities that may result from this regulatory course.” MMTC President Kim Keenan also expressed concerns. “While MMTC needs to thoroughly review the extensive Order to evaluate its potential impact on our constituents, we have clearly gone backward in how we regulate a tool as dynamic as high-speed broadband,” she said.

Consumer Watchdog called AT&T’s proposed buy of DirecTV anti-competitive and anti-consumer, in a letter it sent Wednesday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Attorney General Eric Holder. The deal would lead to “higher prices, less competition and an expansion of the notorious anti-consumer practices that DirecTV currently practices,” said the letter posted Thursday in FCC docket 14-90. Consumer Watchdog said AT&T has failed to show why the purchase is in the public's best interest, and if it's approved the company should be required to discontinue the improper practices and maintain its current rates for at least five years. Among the practices Consumer Watchdog called improper are a mandatory service term of 18 months to two years, charging early cancellation fees and deactivation fees to those customers who cancel early and charging the fees without notifying customers. The group asked the FCC to “ignore the lofty pronouncements of those who have a direct financial interest in the proposed merger and focus instead on the practical impact upon the companies’ customers and the average American family.”

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai expects relations at the agency to remain cordial following the big fight over net neutrality rules (see 1502260043), he said in a news conference after Thursday's FCC meeting. Pai said he tries to take the same approach every month. “I approach the item on the merits and I figure out is there some way for us to reach a consensus,” he said. “I certainly don’t see the well as being poisoned.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, the FCC’s other Republican, said he looks forward to a continuing friendship with Chairman Tom Wheeler. But he said he's concerned about the stance the commission majority took on net neutrality. “Here, they not only asked us to violate our principles, they ran over our principles,” he said. O’Rielly predicted much of the FCC’s future focus will be on implementing the new rules. “I don’t hold out hopes we’re going to have many kumbaya moments going forward, but let’s hope that’s not the case,” he said.