Large cable companies added 790,000 broadband subscribers and wireline telcos lost 140,000 in Q3, Leichtman Research Group said Tuesday in a release. The cable gain was 34 percent higher than in Q3 2014, while the telco loss was a reversal from a 110,000-subscriber gain in the year-ago quarter, said LRG. It said cable companies added 2.3 million subscribers in 2015, while telcos lost 130,000. Cable now has almost 54.3 million subscribers, compared with the telcos’ 35.2 million, a split of 60.6 percent and 39.4 percent of the 89.5 million total, the research firm said. The net gain of 645,000 landline broadband subscribers by the 17 largest cable and telco providers was higher than the 360,000 added in Q2 (see 1508180028), said LRG, which cited the companies' and its own research. Comcast led cable in Q3 with a 320,000 subscriber gain, followed by Time Warner Cable with 246,000 adds, Charter Communications with 147,000, Suddenlink with 21,600, Mediacom with 16,000 and Cablevision with 3,000, while WideOpenWest lost 800 and Cable One lost 171, said LRG. The group estimated Bright House Networks and Cox Communications added 35,000 subscribers between them. On the telco side, Frontier Communications gained 27,000 subscribers, Cincinnati Bell gained 6,200 and Verizon gained 2,000, while AT&T lost 129,000, CenturyLink lost 37,000, Windstream lost 11,200 and FairPoint lost 1,338, LRG said. AT&T and Verizon added a combined 305,000 fiber-based subscribers, but lost a combined 432,000 copper-based DSL subscribers, it said. Among the largest landline providers, Comcast now has 22.87 million broadband subscribers, followed by AT&T's 15.83 million, TWC's 13.02 million, Verizon's 9.22 million, CenturyLink's 6.07 million, Charter's 5.44 million Cablevision's 2.78 million and Frontier's 2.42 million, while BHN and Cox have an estimated 6.68 million between them, the group said. Charter is buying BHN and TWC.

Consumer groups asked the FCC to revisit its tech transition backup power order by putting more of the onus and cost on fixed-service providers and less on consumers. The commission should reconsider the order because its rules “depart from the approach” in an NPRM, “transfer the responsibility for ensuring the reliability of 911 and other emergency voice communications from the provider to the consumer, and undermine the public safety and other policy goals” of Section 151 of the Communications Act, said a petition posted in docket 14-174 Tuesday by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and other groups. The FCC should revise its conclusion that “carriers are not required to provide back-up power, and need only make back-up power available at the customer’s option and expense,” the groups said. They said consumers expect their 911 and other emergency calls will be completed, but the order's mandates are “insufficient” to protect public health and safety. “The Commission concludes that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for back-up power would disserve customer interests,” they said. “This conclusion is erroneous. It rests on an observation that many customers rely on wireless and cordless phones and an inference that consumers have come to prefer the minimal backup-power afforded by the charge on a wireless phone or the convenience of a cordless phone without backup power. There is no basis for this inference.” Joining the petition were Access Sonoma Broadband, the Benton Foundation, Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County, Center for Rural Strategies, Greenlining Institute, Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-income clients, and Public Knowledge.

The FCC granted USTelecom's request to withdraw without prejudice a request for structural separation relief that was part of a broader pending forbearance petition, in a Wireline Bureau order issued in docket 14-192 Monday. The targeted structural separation regulation covers ILECs in the provision of long-distance service. The bureau noted there was "limited discussion in the record" on that particular forbearance request. An FCC decision on the USTelecom petition, which seeks relief in various other areas, is due to Jan. 4.

A U.S. appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that CoreTel Virginia owes Verizon almost $367,000 from an interconnection dispute that resulted in a second round of litigation. In a ruling Monday, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after a bench trial that determined CoreTel, a CLEC, owed Verizon $227,974 in facilities charges and $138,724 in late-payment fees (CoreTel v. Verizon Virginia, No. 15-1008). Although a previous 4th Circuit decision sided with CoreTel on its belief it should pay charges based on the FCC's "TELRIC" incremental-cost methodology, it didn't resolve Verizon's claims for damages based on allegations CoreTel breached its interconnection agreements. CoreTel could not be reached for comment.

The FCC authorized $16.1 million to four entities to do rural broadband experiments to bring high-speed service to 2,451 census blocks in five states. Skybeam was authorized to receive $11.8 million for five experiments in Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, said a Wireline Bureau public notice issued Thursday in docket 14-259. The bureau also authorized Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative to receive $2 million for two experiments in Minnesota; Federated Telephone Cooperative to receive $1.4 million for one experiment in Minnesota; and Daktel Communications to receive $875,000 for one experiment in North Dakota.

Securus Technologies said it's contacting law enforcement authorities about media reports that inmate calling records were leaked online. In a statement Friday, the inmate calling service provider said it has "seen no evidence that records were shared as a result of a technology breach or hack into our systems." Instead, it said, the preliminary evidence "suggests that an individual or individuals with authorized access to a limited set of records may have used that access to inappropriately share those records." Securus said it will support law enforcement in prosecution of individuals found to have illegally shared information. "Data security is critically important to the law enforcement and criminal justice organizations that we serve, and we implement extensive measures to help ensure that all data is protected from both digital and physical breaches," Securus said. "It is very important to note that we have found absolutely no evidence of attorney-client calls that were recorded without the knowledge and consent of those parties. Our calling systems include multiple safeguards to prevent this from occurring. Attorneys are able to register their numbers to exempt them from the recording that is standard for other inmate calls. Those attorneys who did not register their numbers would also hear a warning about recording prior to the beginning of each call, requiring active acceptance." The Intercept Wednesday ran a story headlined "Not So Securus: Massive Hack of 70 Million Phone Calls Indicates Violations of Attorney-Client Privilege."

USTelecom believes the FCC and industry are "close to the finish line" in the effort to overhaul rural USF voice subsidy mechanisms to support both broadband and voice service by rate-of-return carriers. USTelecom is "committed to reaching agreement on the few remaining points that need to be resolved," said a filing posted Thursday by Robert Mayer, USTelecom vice president-industry and state affairs, after a meeting with FCC and state officials. "I noted that USTelecom had been working closely with a group of associations and our members on the plan and that we had members who were leaning towards the proposed Model option and others who were interested in the Non-Model option. I indicated that it was in our mutual interest to reach agreement among the participating associations," Mayer's filing said. NTCA earlier this week warned there wasn't enough time to adopt a broad rural USF overhaul this year, though more targeted reforms to fix the "standalone broadband problem" were more doable (see 1511100064). Other groups posted short filings Thursday in docket 10-90 noting FCC meetings on USF issues.

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly wants the FCC to "see market realities and eliminate the requirements associated with this supposedly 'dominant' status" of incumbent phone companies, he wrote on the agency's blog Thursday. He said a USTelecom petition seeking a review on the matter that has been pending since December 2012 should be OK'd. "While it is true that incumbents still account for most of the remaining switched access lines, that’s no longer a useful or relevant way of looking at the voice market," as options abound for consumer phone calls, he said. "In 2013, less than one-third of American households purchased an incumbent switched access service, and that figure is projected to drop to under 20 percent by the end of this year." O'Rielly said such trends are shown in the commission's local phone competition reports. "Dust off" USTelecom's "petition and grant some relief," O'Rielly wrote of the association's request for a declaratory ruling to give ILECs relief from dominant-carrier regulation. A commission spokesman declined to comment. USTelecom thinks "the blog is accurate," emailed an association spokeswoman.

NTCA said more time is needed for a comprehensive rural carrier USF overhaul than is currently anticipated under the FCC's timetable for action this year. Citing the "complexity of proposals and the currently fluctuating and unclear state of the record on them," the FCC processes "necessarily require more time than permitted before a year-end Commission vote," NTCA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. NTCA said the FCC could by year-end adopt a fix to solve some targeted issues, including the "standalone broadband problem" under which rate-of-return rural carriers currently lose high-cost USF support when customers switch voice service to other providers.

The FCC dismissed three Frontier Communications pole-attachment complaints against Duke Energy after the companies settled their disputes, the Enforcement Bureau said in orders released Tuesday in dockets 14-213, 14-214 and 14-215 (here, here and here).