Clarification: Media Institute Executive Director Richard Kaplar was referring to FCC licensees in recommending agency officials not tweet about news coverage of the agency by such licensees (see 1709260014).

Time Warner stock closed down 6.5 percent to $88.50 Wednesday after reports (here and here) DOJ was pushing for divestiture of Turner Networks or of DirecTV as conditions on AT&T's proposed $108.7 billion buy of the programmer. AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens told investors it's in active discussions with Justice, but "timing of the closing of the deal is now uncertain." Separately in a statement, CEO Randall Stephenson said that throughout DOJ's review of the deal, "I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so.” Turner's assets include CNN. AT&T had expected to close on TW by year's end (see 1711020051). Free Press said it continues to oppose AT&T/TW on media consolidation grounds, and forcing divestiture of content properties such as Turner distribution properties or DirecTV could soften those consolidation harms, but department opposition is problematic if it's based on President Donald Trump's antipathy to CNN coverage: "Everyone should agree that the government shouldn’t base antitrust decisions or FCC rulings on whether it likes a newsroom’s coverage." As a candidate for president, Trump said he opposed AT&T/TW (see 1610220002). If Justice has a problem with a vertical merger like AT&T/TW, the possibility of horizontal mergers in the sector seems "substantially lower" than previously thought, meaning a Disney move for Fox wouldn't pass muster, let alone Comcast buying Charter or any further content assets, BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield emailed investors Wednesday. He raised the specter of Comcast having to sell its NBC or Hulu ownership after the Comcast/NBCUniversal consent decree ends, saying if AT&T/TW is problematic for DOJ, "how is the former okay?" DOJ in a statement said it's "committed to carrying out its duties in accordance with the laws and the facts." Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker, in an email to investors, said there are no potential buyers for DirecTV, but CNN could command $8 billion to $10 billion and be a strategic fit with CBS. She also said while there's now "a really uncertain spell on M&A in general," Discovery/Scripps Network and Sinclair/Tribune are likely not at risk.

Lack of electricity throughout Puerto Rico continues to bedevil communications network recovery efforts, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told Broadcasting & Cable, as the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency said "power restoration continues to make steady progress throughout" the island. "Power is absolutely essential," Pai said after his trip there (see 1711070068). "Especially in a situation like this where huge swaths of the island are without power and it is exceptionally difficult to be able to bring networks back." With operational status of many TV stations unknown, it's "difficult to predict when some of the hardest hit stations are going to get power," Pai said, B&C reported Tuesday evening. He criticized past FCC acts that resulted in closure of a field office in the territory. "The universal message I heard from broadcasters to wireless companies was that having staff on the ground had been tremendously helpful. I met the individual who was in that office. I was able hear from him and from the FCC staff there temporarily about how important that office was," he said: "It would have been helpful at the time of the storm and the lead-up to the storm to have had personnel there" full time. Tom Wheeler, FCC chief when the field office was shut in 2015 in trims to field staff amid cost cuts (see 1709280053 and 1507160036) didn't comment Wednesday. Under the commission’s 2015 order, "the San Juan office became unstaffed and was converted to a forward deployed location with staged equipment and vehicles," a commission spokesman said Wednesday: "Visiting FCC agents have since used that location when they have traveled to Puerto Rico, and following the storm we sent staff there in cooperation with FEMA. We have not yet made long-term staffing decisions" there. "Power has been restored to more than 41 percent of the island," DHS/FEMA reported Tuesday. "Puerto Rico has 1,261 working cell phone towers, bringing cell phone service to 92.5 percent of Puerto Rico residents."

ADT and others criticized an FCC draft wireline broadband infrastructure order tentatively on commissioners' Nov. 16 meeting agenda (see 1710270040), while the American Cable Association supported pole-attachment provisions. The draft "threatens to disrupt vital alarm monitoring services and creates an unfair competitive advantage for [ILEC] alarm company affiliates," filed ADT Tuesday in docket 17-84. "The tilted playing field results from a confluence of changes ... relating to network change notifications, particularly for copper retirement. These changes will enable ILECs to inform their affiliates of copper retirement or other network changes long before a customer's existing chosen outside provider like ADT would be given notice, providing an unfair head start for the ILEC-affiliated companies to plan for such changes and to engage in marketing campaigns focused on converting and upselling their services." Public Knowledge and the Communications Workers of America opposed the draft's rollback of copper retirement notice and discontinuance rules. Proposals to "eliminate the advance notice requirement for retail customers and to reduce the advance notice requirement for interconnecting carriers from 180 to 90 days will leave consumers, small businesses, and anchor institutions confused and unprepared" when incumbents retire copper networks, wrote PK and CWA on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. They said scrapping a "de facto copper retirement definition will allow incumbent carriers to neglect their copper infrastructure" where consumers lack viable alternatives, and criticized a proposal to eliminate a "functional test" and "narrowly reinterpret the definition of service" under Communications Act Section 214. ACA backed proposals to exclude from pole-attachment rates the capital costs recovered from make-ready fees and create a 180-day shot clock for resolving pole-access complaints. It supported a proposed rulemaking "to address requests by attachers to overlash existing wires or install drops from poles to customers without filing pole attachment applications," meeting with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico is "unimaginable," and more funds may be necessary. He concluded a two-day trip Monday during which he met with government and industry officials. The recovery path has challenges, "most notably the lack of power and functional infrastructure," he said Tuesday. "I’m heartened by the dedication of our public safety community to the people of Puerto Rico." He said everybody is pitching in: the people of territory, its Telecommunications Regulatory Board, Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers and native and Public Safety Bureau's Roberto Mussenden. "Amateur radio operators, broadcasters, cable operators, fixed wireless companies, wireline carriers, and mobile providers have stepped up to the plate, working overtime," Pai said. "Recovering ... requires an all-hands-on-deck effort. The FCC remains committed to doing everything we can to help restore communications networks." Noting the FCC's $77 million in advanced USF support, he said he believed more funding would be needed.

The FCC and others asked a court not to review two inmate calling service rate orders from 2013 and 2016, after the court in June vacated and remanded key parts of a 2015 order restricting ICS rates and fees in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 (see 1706130047). The 2013 and 2016 orders have been held in abeyance by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which recently asked for motions on further proceedings. The commission and most other litigants said the D.C. Circuit should summarily vacate the 2016 reconsideration order being challenged in Securus v. FCC, No. 16-1321, because it relied on the same industry-averaging cost methodology vacated in GTL. They asked the court to dismiss as moot challenges to the 2013 interim interstate ICS rate order in Securus v. FCC, No. 13-1280, because it was superseded by parts of the 2015 order that weren't vacated in GTL. "Those aspects of the 2015 ICS Order not vacated by this Court in GTL are now the governing regulatory scheme for ICS unless and until revisited by the Commission in further administrative proceedings," said the joint motion (in Pacer) filed Monday by GTL, Securus, CenturyLink, Telmate, correctional facility petitioners, state and local government petitioners, the FCC and DOJ and their supporting intervenors. "That includes the 2015 ICS Order’s recodification of the interim interstate rate caps ... which, with respect to interstate calls only, remain in effect." Pay Tel Communications asked (in Pacer) asked the court to "vacate (or at least maintain the existing stay of)" the 2016 recon order's revised rate caps and remand the order to the commission.

FCC employees generally believe the work they do is important and supervisors listen. Those are some of the 2017 results from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey done by the Office of Personnel Management in Q2 and posted Monday. The survey asked primarily about perceptions of agency management of its workforce. Majorities said they like the kind of work they do (79 percent), are held accountable for performance results (81 percent) and the overall quality of work done by their work units is good (87 percent). Some 85 percent said supervisors listen to them and 83 percent said their work is important. Roughly a third disagreed or strongly disagreed they have sufficient resources to get their job done (35 percent) and that steps are taken to deal with poor performers (36 percent). It said 715 FCC employees completed the online questionnaire.

Civil rights groups and others urged the FCC to affirm that advanced telecom capability "means access to both fixed and mobile broadband service" under a Telecom Act Section 706 mandate to ensure ATC is deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely way. "These services are complementary, not substitutes," and the FCC should evaluate both by its 25/3 Mbps definition for fixed ATC service, said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-199 by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, American Civil Liberties Union, AFL-CIO, Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, NAACP and six other groups . "Even if the Commission considers 'deployment' to refer only to infrastructure, evidence does not support reversal [of the 25/3 Mbps benchmark]. At least six studies issued in the last year and a half find that many of the lowest income neighborhoods in the United States lack fiber-optic network access." They said the FCC "should take action to adopt subsidies, support tax policies and digital inclusion programs, and bolster robust broadband Lifeline service." A notice of inquiry proposed to keep the 25/3 Mbps fixed-service benchmark while asking about other possible benchmarks, including whether 10/1 Mbps mobile service could provide adequate ATC. That drew objections from some, including Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1709200042).

A court delayed briefing deadlines for business data service litigation a week to 10 days, granting an FCC motion (in Pacer). An 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order (in Pacer) Monday said the FCC/DOJ brief is now due Nov. 17, intervenors' briefs Nov. 27, and petitioner reply briefs Dec. 19 in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296 and consolidated cases. The FCC Friday cited arrival of a new general counsel for the delay request, and said other parties consented. Petitioners are challenging an FCC overhaul of its BDS regime as overly deregulatory and prescriptive (see 1709280035).

With Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) initial recommendations imminent, more than 230 local elected officials signed a letter urging FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to “more fully” consider local perspectives on broadband infrastructure deployment issues (see 1710200030). The National Association of Counties, National League of Cities and U.S. Conference of Mayors on Friday re-sent the Oct. 17 letter with additional local signatures. They asked for Pai’s attention in wireline and wireless infrastructure rulemakings and at the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. NARUC raised state concerns about BDAC and the FCC infrastructure rulemakings in separate meetings last week with FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson and aides to four commissioners, said an ex-parte notice posted Monday in several dockets including 17-79. The committee lacks balance and the FCC "lacks statutory authority to take most of the proposed actions in these proceedings," NARUC said. In a separate letter to Pai posted Friday in docket 17-83, BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles said the BDAC “made tremendous progress in fulfilling its charter,” but recommended the FCC schedule a two-day meeting in January. Thursday’s meeting “should put the BDAC much closer to finalizing its recommendations in key areas, including on the model codes,” and each working group will “come ready to present a detailed, substantive work product for the BDAC to consider,” said Bowles, Aristotle president and legislative committee chair of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. After the meeting, the BDAC likely will have “some initial recommendations for the FCC as well as a plan to tackle the next phase of work,” Bowles said. The committee may “identify areas that would benefit from harmonization as each working group seeks to complete its recommendations for the full BDAC,” she said.