Xfinity Mobile is the exclusive carrier for the Samsung Galaxy A70, launched Monday. Customers switching to Xfinity Mobile or adding a line through early December, will receive $250 off any new Samsung device.
The Florida League of Cities and that state's Pembroke Pines and Coral Gables want to intervene in support of a challenge to the FCC's cable TV local franchise authority order. In a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals motion for leave to intervene Wednesday (in Pacer, docket 19-72760), they said the petitioners -- including Baltimore, Boston and Washington, D.C. (see 1911010057) -- respondent FCC and respondent intervenors NATOA and NCTA -- consented.
Comments are due Dec. 6, replies Dec. 13, on an NCTA petition for clarification of the FCC Media Bureau order denying a stay of implementation of the agency's cable TV local franchise authority order (see 1911130021), said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest.
NCTA sought clarification of last week's FCC staff denial of a stay (see report, Nov. 7, p. 8 of PDF) of a cable TV local franchise authority order. Lawyers for the association had meetings with Chief Michelle Carey and others in the Media Bureau and General Counsel Thomas Johnson and other Office of General Counsel staff about the order. Paragraph 21, though "only meant to paraphrase controlling statements," could "be misinterpreted in a manner that conflicts with" the rules, the association said, posted Wednesday in docket 05-311. That could create "unnecessary confusion as franchising authorities and cable operators begin to implement the" regulations, the group said. "Issue a simple correction," it asked. The group didn't specify exactly what needs changing and declined to comment. The MB also declined to comment.
Top U.S. phone companies lost 226,257 broadband subscribers in Q3, more net losses than in any quarter except Q2 2016, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Leading cable companies added 830,000, 114 percent of the net add in the year-ago quarter. AT&T was the telco loss leader, dropping 123,000 subscribers, followed by 71,000 losses at Frontier, 36,000 from CenturyLink and 7,000 leaving Verizon. Windstream, TDS and Consolidated gained 11,143 total. All cable companies had subscriber growth, led by Charter with 380,000, followed by Comcast (379,000), Cox (25,000) and Altice (14,900). Total broadband subs among the firms with 96 percent of the market, were 100.5 million; cable had 67 percent.
Comments now are due Feb. 21, replies March 6, on a Pluto TV ask for a one-year waiver of rules requiring closed captioning of IPTV content, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice In Thursday's Daily Digest. The bureau OK was for a second deadline extension, this sought by Pluto and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as they said they're collaborating on technical issues. Pluto also received an extension in July.
FCC denial of a motion by the National League of Cities and other local interests for a stay of its cable TV local franchise authority order pending judicial review (see 1911050014) is a disappointment, NLC emailed. The order "is already causing real harm to communities undergoing franchise negotiations or renegotiations with providers," and communities making up the franchise fee difference in their budgets "is not as easy as the Commission suggests ... particularly with little notice," it said Wednesday. "We intend to continue pursuing relief in our appeal."
Civil rights law is meant to ax racial discrimination in contracts, "not as a litigation tool that unhappy plaintiffs can use to browbeat others into making unwanted deals," like the Supreme Court taking up Comcast's appeal in litigation alleging the operator engaged in with racial animus in a programming decision (see 1906100024), Washington Legal Foundation Chief Counsel Richard Samp blogged Thursday. Rather than trying to make it more difficult for minorities to redress discrimination, the cabler is arguing only that proving racial discrimination in contracting means having to prove an injury was suffered, he said. Respondent Entertain Studios Networks, which is suing Comcast, emailed that Samp "is completely incorrect -- it was COMCAST who brought this case to the U.S. Supreme Court, not our company. Mr. Samp also fails to realize that the goal of Congress in passing Section 1981 after the racist Civil War was NOT to make dismissal of race discrimination claims easy, but rather to stamp out racism in contracting. Unfortunately, in partnership with Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, Comcast made a conscious choice to petition the U.S. Supreme Court in their attempt to eviscerate this original civil rights statute (Section 1981), which was put on the books 153 years ago, and currently protects over 100 million Americans.” Oral argument is Wednesday.
Forty-seven percent of TVs in use connect to a pay-TV providers’ set-top box, the first year since 2010 that set-top boxes have been connected to less than half of all TVs, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Three-quarters of U.S. TV households subscribe to a live pay-TV service, down from 84 percent in 2014 and 87 percent in 2009, but average monthly spending on pay TV, $109.60, is up 6 percent since 2016. Average spending on pay TV across all households, including nonsubscribers, is about $80 per month, slightly lower than in 2015, said LRG. Some 83 percent of adults 45 and over have a pay-TV service vs. 64 percent ages 18-44, it said; 27 percent of TV households have an over-the-air TV antenna, 53 percent for pay-TV nonsubscribers. Among all TV households, 54 percent have both pay-TV and a subscription video-on-demand service, 21 percent have only pay TV, 20 percent have SVOD only and 5 percent have neither, LRG said. “With more options for watching live and on-demand video, consumers are increasingly choosing to cobble together the services that meet the viewing and economic needs of their household,” said principal Bruce Leichtman. Survey results were based on a September-October poll of 1,115 adults ages 18 and older in the continental U.S.
ISPs are committed to providing managed Wi-Fi, but few have a clear strategy for providing cybersecurity and connected home services, reported an industry researcher. Wi-Fi quality of experience is a priority for most ISPs, including lower latency for 4K and 8K gaming and virtual reality, Maravedis said. Few ISPs are attempting to monetize managed Wi-Fi, it said Monday. A top priority for 51 percent of operators is to protect the network from new threats, abuse and unnecessary traffic, ahead of protecting customers from new threats and privacy breaches. Slow Wi-Fi triggers 49 percent of service calls followed by unstable Wi-Fi at 23 percent. Half of service providers plan to deploy Wi-Fi 6 after 2020. NCTA declined to comment Tuesday.