Oral argument is set for Sept. 17 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on the Competitive Enterprise Institute's seeking of a writ a mandamus regarding FCC inaction on a 2016 CEI administrative reconsideration petition, said a docket 17-1261 clerk's order (in Pacer) Tuesday. Judges Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard and Gregory Katsas will hear the case. CEI's recon petition was over broadband network overbuild conditions on Charter Communications buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1803050023).

Comcast's major broadband outage earlier this month from a pair of fiber cuts on its backbone (see 1806290038) typifies "a network planner's worst nightmare" and points to the trouble many ISPs have in building in redundancy, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Saturday. In remote areas, finding a second secure route can be impossible, leaving a network or communities vulnerable to a fiber cut somewhere outside the area, CCG said. That potential problem is growing as functions move to the cloud, meaning even redundant fiber routing isn't always the same as a redundant connection to a key cloud server, he said. Companies shouldn't assume every function in the cloud is redundant even if they have redundant internet access, it said. Comcast didn't comment Monday.

U.S. broadband households watch an average two hours of alternative content on a computer each week from sources including Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion, Parks Associates reported Thursday. Almost half watch user-generated content monthly and more than one in 10 watch livestreamed content. About half of TV households watch video from YouTube and similar sites on TVs, said analyst Brett Sappington, and more watch online video from an app such as YouTube than from a TV channel app. Pay-TV adoption is dropping as alternative content consumption increases, and younger respondents are more likely to watch user-generated content, both posing threats to pay TV, the firm said.

Comcast launched its parental control feature enabling parents to set a Wi-Fi usage time limit. Noting kids spend more time on devices during summers, Comcast cited Wakefield Research finding three-quarters of parents want a way to turn off their children’s Wi-Fi access whenever they want. When a kid is close to reaching the allotted time limit, the parent can receive a push notification, text or email alert and extend the time or pause Wi-Fi access.

NTCA and WTA back the American Cable Association petition that some smaller MVPDs be waived from compliance with FCC Dec. 20 talking guide requirements (see 1806180050). In a docket 12-108 posting Tuesday, NTCA said the FCC assumed demand from big MVPDs would create supply of compliant devices, but "such has not proven to be the case" and full compliance would require some smaller MVPDs to largely re-engineer video distribution networks at great cost. WTA said the one commercially available option that covers all the accessibility features required is TiVo's Quattro system, but the cost of upgrades for small providers to deploy that is at least $100,000. WTA said more affordable options that use CableCARD don't cover all accessibility features, and analog systems can't use such plug-in devices. Rural Alabama MVPD Pine Belt Communications -- also backing the ACA petition -- said it looked into possible compliance offerings and didn't find one that doesn't involve a systemwide upgrade, which is "neither practical nor affordable."

The FCC can’t ignore retransmission consent ramifications of Gray Television’s proposed purchase of stations from Red River Broadcast to create a top-four duopoly in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said the American TV Alliance and NCTA in comments on the proposed transaction Monday. Gray’s application doesn’t address the deal's possible retrans harms, ATVA said. “This is a remarkable omission in light of the importance of retransmission consent to Gray’s overall revenues.” Gray “has failed to satisfy its burden of showing that the Top-Four Prohibition should be lifted in these circumstances,” NCTA said. Gray hasn’t shown that the deal’s public interest benefits outweigh possible retrans harms, NCTA and ATVA said. The benefits listed by Gray, such as improved local news coverage, “are plainly not cognizable” and aren’t “transaction-specific nor verifiable” ATVA said. The media ownership reconsideration order lists retrans as an area the FCC will consider in case-by-case review of top-four duopoly proposals, so the deal’s potential to lead to higher consumer fees shouldn’t be ignored, ATVA said. The broadcaster didn’t comment.

The high cost of content that has made traditional pay TV so expensive is now hitting virtual MVPD operators as they are starting to pass along to consumers large increases in programmer fees, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. Thus virtual MVPDs are only going to help cut the costs of pay TV in the short term and help smooth the transition to what is likely a more direct-to-consumer TV model in the future, he said.

The FCC should keep pole attachment complaint procedures requiring complainants to include pole cost information in complaints and requiring pole owners to provide such information upon request by a cable operator or telecom carrier before a complaint is filed, said NCTA and the American Cable Association. NCTA and ACA opposed deleting the requirements in Monday meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly, and Tuesday calls with the Enforcement Bureau and an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, said a Tuesday ex-parte notice in docket 17-245. “There is no record evidence supporting the proposed elimination of these rules or contradicting the views expressed by NCTA and ACA,” the cable groups said. Verizon supported NCTA and ACA's request in Tuesday calls to a Pai aide and the Enforcement Bureau, said another ex-parte notice posted Thursday. "Those data are critical, and if pole owners do not provide them up front that will only delay and impede the complaint process -- the opposite of what the Commission wants to achieve."

Cable operators' Q1 inflation adjustment factor is 2.2 percent, said an FCC public notice Tuesday, to compensate for the annualized change in prices during that period.

MVPDs must file equal employment opportunity annual reports by Oct.1, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Monday. The PN includes a list of MVPDs that are required to complete a supplementary investigation sheet as part of their EEO submission.