Matt Daneman

The median broadband speed among U.S. consumers hit 39 Mbps this year, up 22 percent from a year ago, and most providers' actual download speeds are as good or better than what's advertised, said the FCC offices of Engineering and Technology and of Strategic Planning in their 2016 Measuring Broadband America fixed broadband report Thursday. Some say speeds may continue rising, as shown by past FCC MBA reports.

With AT&T's launch of DirecTV Now Wednesday (see 1611280058) making it only the second multichannel video programming distributor with a national video product, MVPD industry insiders and experts are divided over whether others will follow suit in the near future. It wouldn't be surprising if Comcast or Charter decided to go national with an over-the-top offering, but they would be smarter to wait and see how the OTT market develops, cable industry consultant Steve Effros told us.

With the nominations of businessmen Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary and Todd Ricketts as deputy secretary, President-elect Donald Trump is building "a cabinet of winners," transition spokesman Jason Miller said Wednesday. Ross is head of investment firm WL Ross & Co. and formerly head of investment bank Rothschild. He was Trump's economic adviser on trade policy. Rickets is co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. They -- along with Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, who previously was Goldman Sachs chief information officer -- were selected because of their firsthand knowledge of issues like tax codes and trade policies, Miller said. "When we talk about 'the art of the deal,' someone who has made good deals, that's someone like Wilbur Ross," he said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said Ross "will bring exceptional real-world business experience to the Department of Commerce as part of an administration that emphasizes job creation and the economy. I ... expect the Senate Commerce Committee will expeditiously consider this nomination once the new Congress begins in January. There will be strong support for keeping a successful entrepreneur at the helm of an agency charged with keeping our nation competitive.” Thune also issued a statement backing Trump's nomination of Elaine Chao -- who was Labor secretary under President George W. Bush and deputy Transportation secretary under President George H.W. Bush -- as Transportation secretary. "Chao has a distinguished record of serving the nation, and has already shown she can work effectively with members on both sides of the aisle," Thune said. "Her leadership will benefit the Department of Transportation in guiding investment in our infrastructure and making transportation safer and better for the public.”

Some in the weather community -- characterized by Ligado as being plagued by "widespread misunderstanding" regarding how its broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) plans shouldn't threaten National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operations (see 1611210031) -- haven't been mollified by the company's attempts at clearing the air. "Ligado must be living in a post-truth world," David Titley, director, of Penn State University Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk, told us.

Some opposition to Globalstar broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) plans is falling by the wayside, but at least one critic still has major issues with the company's spectrum plans. And, given the forthcoming change in White House administration, the likelihood the FCC moves on Globalstar's proposal between now and the Trump administration's start could be slim, lawyers representing interested parties and satellite industry sources us.

When Cablevision moved the Game Show Network (GSN) from the expanded basic tier to the Sports Pak tier in 2011, the business reasons it gave were pretexts, said FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel in a 70-page initial decision Wednesday, calling the retiering discrimination. Cablevision parent Altice USA said it "respectfully disagree[s] with the ALJ’s decision and fully intend[s] to appeal" to the full FCC. GSN outside counsel Stephen Weiswasser of Covington & Burling emailed us that the network is reviewing its own options.

Pointing to what it considers extensive confusion in the weather community, Ligado is trying to make clear its case that its broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) plans aren't a threat to the plethora of sensors the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses to track weather conditions. "We don't know why there is such confusion, but there is," said Ligado outside counsel Gerard Waldron of Covington and Burling Monday, as the company filed at the FCC a 10-page presentation on NOAA's data collection system in RM-11681. Ligado repeatedly sought an NPRM, and Waldron said that would be the best way to clear any confusion.

Antitrust experts are in the dark about how a Trump administration might look at antitrust issues before the DOJ, or how substantially the change from a Democratic White House to a Republican one will influence the Antitrust Division's take on issues like takeovers. Both Democratic and Republican White Houses have been equally vigorous about going after price-fixing cartels or antitrust criminal violations, but it's not clear what a Trump administration might do about antitrust questions beyond that low-hanging fruit, former Senate Antitrust Subcommittee general counsel Seth Bloom told us.

While Comcast and Charter Communications move toward launching mobile offerings, wireless and cable experts and observers are mixed on whether other operators will follow suit, with some seeing the possibility of smaller operators collectively creating a mobile network. Meanwhile, those major operators likely will feel pressure quickly to divert as much traffic as possible from a wireless carrier's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which could mean either big cable ISP investments in their own back ends or acquisitions of wireless companies themselves, we were told.

Mushrooming plans for non-geostationary (NGSO) mega constellations should drive the FCC to update or tweak some of its satellite regulations but don't necessitate a wholesale revamp of the rules, speakers said at an FCBA CLE. The rules set up years ago governing, for example, in-line events didn't anticipate the existence of massive NGSO constellations and thus might need to be revisited, FCC International Bureau Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque said Tuesday night. "The regulatory framework is already there -- it's just small adjustments."