The FCC could get rid of Title II regulation and still protect consumers, said American Enterprise Institute Adjunct Scholar Bronwyn Howell in a Monday blog post. “While there may still sometimes be a need to regulate the provision of broadband, it appears that it is better addressed as a matter of constraining market power, rather than relying on common carriage provisions to constrain the activities of broadband providers,” Howell said. “And, after all, it is the explicit no-blocking terms of the 2015 Open Internet Order and not the common carrier obligations under Title II that actually bind a broadband provider to deliver all traffic requested by and sent to an end consumer.”

USTelecom painted a positive picture of U.S. wireline broadband availability. "As of mid-2016, 96 percent of Americans had at least one wired broadband network platform available to them, and 84 percent had at least two wired options," said a report Friday analyzing FCC data. It said 65 percent of households had access to at least two wired 10/1 Mbps service options, and 49 percent had access to at least two 25/3 Mbps service options -- those data speeds are FCC broadband definitions, in effect, for rural areas and urban/suburban areas, respectively. "The increasingly competitive state of broadband availability is the result of substantial capital investments by broadband providers in a dynamic, evolving market," said a release.

The proposed final judgment on DirecTV's coordinating with Charter Communications, Cox Communications and AT&T in those MVPDs' negotiations with SportsNet LA is effective and an appropriate remedy for the antitrust claims, the DOJ said in a comment published Friday in the Federal Register. DOJ also said it will ask U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for entry of the proposed final judgment. It said it received one comment on the proposed final judgment by the June 13 deadline, with the commenter urging a separate lawsuit against Time Warner Cable, owner of the Dodgers Channel and now part of Charter. DOJ said the comment sought relief beyond that included in the proposed final judgment, such as requiring DirecTV carry Dodgers games, but the agency said no additional relief is needed to prevent DirecTV from information-sharing agreements like the one alleged in the 2016 antitrust suit (see 1611040035). Under the proposed settlement, AT&T won't directly or indirectly communicate or seek competitively sensitive information from any MVPD, except for a lawful purpose (see 1703240005). DirecTV's now-owner AT&T didn't comment.

The FCC's net neutrality proceeding gets huge media attention, but consumers are far more interested in unwanted calls and service problems, judging by consumer complaint data, Georgetown University adjunct professor-communication, culture and technology Adonis Hoffman wrote in summer issue of his Inside the FCC journal. Between Jan. 1 and June 12, consumers filed more than twice as many service availability complaints, more than eight times as many billing complaints and more than 23 times as many complaints about unwanted calls as about open internet, he said. In most months, net neutrality accounts for about 1 to 3 percent of all complaints received by the FCC, said Hoffman, who heads a policy consulting firm.

The Public Safety Bureau Thursday encouraged service providers to implement Signaling System 7 security countermeasures recommended by the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council. “SS7 supports fixed and mobile service providers in processing and routing calls and text messages between networks, enabling fixed and mobile networks to connect, and providing call session information such as Caller ID and billing data for circuit switched infrastructure,” said a public notice. “Over the last several years, numerous research findings and media reports call attention to security vulnerabilities present within SS7 networks.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai kept a busy schedule during the last part of his Southwest road trip Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday, Pai was in Reno, tweeting he would be “exploring Western #Nevada infrastructure” at a roundtable with Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev. Wednesday, Pai met with Arizona broadcasters and Arizona State University professor Subbarao Kambhampati to discuss artificial intelligence. Also Wednesday, Pai went for a ride in Chandler, Arizona, in a (Alphabet/Google) Waymo self-driving car. “Impressive reactions to speed bumps, construction crews, & more!” Pai tweeted. Pai said he met with the Bureau of Land Management‘s team in Arizona on siting issues.

Oral argument in FTC's fight against AT&T Mobility at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled for Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. in San Francisco, the court said. The 9th Circuit agreed in May to an en banc review after the commission appealed a panel ruling that jettisoned its case against AT&T, alleged to have inadequately informed customers of its data-throttling program (see 1705090068). The ruling has larger implications regarding FTC authority to oversee ISP privacy (see 1608290032).

The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee next meets Sept. 18 and will consider a recommendation from its Robocalls Working Group on blocking of unwanted calls, the FCC said Wednesday. Also on the agenda is the usual round of staff briefings, a notice said. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the FCC commission meeting room.

Iridium is trying to fence off the 29.1-29.25 GHz band from CTIA's proposed high-band spectrum road map, saying terrestrial mobile services there wouldn't fit terrestrial 5G use. In a docket 14-177 filing posted Friday, Iridium said the FCC explicitly didn't rope in the 150 MHz as possible terrestrial mobile spectrum in the 2015 high-band spectrum NPRM, and CTIA in its road map (see 1707140055) doesn't give much reason for changing that, especially since the 29.1-29.25 GHz band is far smaller than the other contiguous blocks in which CTIA wants terrestrial mobile operations. Iridium also said its own co-primary status in the band means exclusive terrestrial use there, as CTIA wants, can't happen. Iridium said network operators and equipment makers agree that terrestrial 5G will need more than 150 MHz of contiguous spectrum, and the band can't be harmonized internationally since the ITU hasn't designated it for consideration as a 5G candidate band. With the band supporting a co-primary incumbent satellite network, the odds it could also support nationwide terrestrial 5G are "slim to non-existent," Iridium said. CTIA didn't comment.

NAB had a reality check for a coalition of tech companies that filed a letter at the FCC asking the agency to preserve three TV white spaces stations in every U.S. market for “innovative broadband technology.” The Monday letter, by Voices for Innovation, doesn’t mention Microsoft’s proposal to use the TV white spaces (TVWS) spectrum for rural broadband (see 1707110015). NAB tied the letter back to Microsoft in a statement Wednesday. “Using even the most wildly optimistic TVWS database numbers, TVWS advocates just need to connect 33,999,132 more devices to bring broadband Internet to 34 million Americans without access,” NAB said. “Despite sitting on the sidelines for years during the TVWS experiment, Microsoft now demands that the FCC oust television broadcasters and their viewers to pave the way for free spectrum for TVWS advocates. This would jeopardize local broadcast news, programming and lifeline emergency information for millions of Americans.”