Matt Daneman

Political shadows and fog are obscuring the view of what DOJ priorities are in its review of AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner, with no clear consensus among experts we talked to, due largely to uncertainty about the approach of the incoming Trump administration. "It's very difficult to know what to expect" since the Trump transition team hasn't named key DOJ personnel, such as head of the Antitrust Division, ITTA President Genny Morelli said. Justice, the Trump transition team and AT&T didn't comment.

The multitudinous uses of S-band around the globe, including fixed wireless and radionavigation operations of the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), are potential hurdles as Globalstar looks for international regulatory approval of its terrestrial broadband (see 1701060047), experts told us. When dealing with low-power services as Globalstar has proposed, interference concerns can usually be resolved relatively easily, said a communications lawyer with satellite and wireless experience.

The billionaire investors backing space launch ventures like SpaceX and Blue Origin "are a market distortion," attracting other investors to businesses chock full of risk and uncertainty, said Carissa Christensen, managing partner of satellite consulting firm Tauri Group, during a Transportation Research Board panel Tuesday on the commercial space industry. "Those individuals are having a very big effect." She said traditional satellite operators are a mature, stable industry attracting mainstream financial investment, but the growing boom in smallsats is attracting a new type of commercial space investor in the form of venture capitalists. The last couple of years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of VC firms getting into commercial space ventures, she said. The smallsat boom is also creating a different supply chain than traditional satellite operators have used, with a focus on building smallsats from relatively available components instead of custom parts and thus letting companies that aren't vertically integrated enter the market, said Jason Crusan, NASA director-advanced exploration systems division.

Fixed wireless and satellite interests are starting to square off over suggested FCC earth station licensing rules changes in the 3700-4200 MHz band being pushed by the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC), as expected (see 1612270034). In comments in RM-11778, satellite interests labeled the FWCC petition as a rehash and "deja vu all over again." Wireless interests not only backed FWCC's proposal but also suggested expanding the scope of the proceeding to other sharing matters.

Cox Communications' stance that to be a repeat copyright infringer one first has to be adjudicated as an infringer would torpedo incentives for ISPs to help combat infringement even when they know such infringement is going on, multiple groups said in amicus curiae briefs siding with BMG Rights Management filed Friday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Various public interest, educational and library groups filed amicus briefs in November supporting Cox's appeal (see 1611150049) of a $25 million torrent piracy verdict (see 1608090047). Cox didn't comment Monday; its reply brief is due Jan. 27.

The FCC theoretically could still find a regulatory hook for reviewing AT&T's proposed $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner, but the multichannel video programming distributor indicated no TW licenses will need to transfer to the buyer, and that probably means the agency won't have a direct role, cable insiders and experts told us Friday. The MVPD anticipates TW won't need to "transfer any of its FCC licenses to AT&T in order to continue to conduct its business operations after the closing of the transaction," AT&T said in an SEC proxy statement. The filing doesn't give any details about what TW plans to do regarding the licenses and says TW won't give AT&T any information about its WPCH-TV Atlanta station. Sale of that station as part of the deal was expected (see 1610240046).

Having received FCC approval for its revised low-power mobile broadband plans (see 1612230060), a chief Globalstar focus now is getting similar regulatory approval in other countries, with the aim of creating a global LTE band at 2.4 GHz. Going for similar approval, rather than pursuing its original plans that combined licensed and unlicensed spectrum, represents probably the lowest-risk, high-speed outcome, Chairman-CEO Jay Monroe said in a call with analysts Friday. "We have fewer conflicts doing that.”

Forcing Cablevision to comply with the FCC administrative law judge's initial decision in the Game Show Network carriage discrimination complaint before an administrative and judicial review is done would be unprecedented and violate the Administrative Procedure Act and Cablevision's due process rights, the cable company said in an opposition posted Wednesday in docket 12-122. Cablevision filed exceptions urging the agency to reverse the ALJ initial decision and a petition seeking a stay of GSN's petition pending an administrative review.

Globalstar's revised terrestrial low-power service plans netted the company FCC approval (see 1612230060), but they might have left the company with few options for deploying in the spectrum, experts tell us. "All sorts of things have been cut away to get an approval, so the question is, how do you use this and what value?" said satellite industry consultant Tim Farrar. Globalstar didn't comment, and said it would address use case issues in a call with investors Friday. In its revised application in November, the company didn't discuss specific use cases. Approval would "support high data rates, provide a diversity of customers and locations with additional terrestrial broadband capacity, and help satisfy consumers’ demand for wireless broadband," said the satellite firm.

With its NBC affiliation agreement now expired, WHDH Boston dropped its appeal in its NBC affiliation fight with Comcast. In a motion (in Pacer) for voluntary dismissal filed Wednesday in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, WHDH said since its June appeal "the parties' respective circumstances have changed," leading to WHDH's dropping its appeal. The station's appeal brief had been due Friday. Michael Gass of Choate Hall, representing the station, told us that with it not getting injunctive relief to prevent the expiration of WHDH's NBC affiliation agreement, which expired Sunday, "it's hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube." Station management instead decided to continue focusing on running the station as an independent with local news and syndicated programming like WHDH owner Sunbeam previously did with its WSVN Miami, Gass said: "There's no reason to think they can't do that here." WHDH sued Comcast last year over plans to move its NBC affiliation to a Comcast-owned station (see 1603110031).