A federal court slightly delayed briefing in Neustar's challenge to an FCC order giving Telcordia conditional rights to the next local number portability administrator (LNPA) contract (Neustar v. FCC, No. 15-1080). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday granted the joint motion of the Department of Justice, FCC and Neustar (the LNPA incumbent) to push back briefing due dates by a week or two to accommodate "competing work demands" (see 1508130042): Neustar's brief is now due Sept. 21; the FCC/DOJ's response Oct. 28; intervenors' brief supporting the FCC (CTIA, Telcordia and USTelecom) Nov. 12, Neustar's reply Nov. 25 and final briefs incorporating an appendix Dec. 17. Oral argument is usually held at least 45 days after briefing closes. Meanwhile, the FCC is moving ahead with efforts to transition the LNPA functions from Neustar to a Telcordia entity, subject to conditions and contract approval. Recognizing the need for certain communications between the LNPA entities, other telecom industry stakeholders and commission officials to carry out transition tasks seamlessly, the Wireline Bureau Tuesday exempted certain presentations from the agency's ex parte rules for disclosing FCC meetings and contacts, though it reminded parties that the agency can rely only on information placed on the record in making decisions.

Consumer Watchdog asked NASA Inspector General Paul Martin to end a special deal with Google to test unmanned drones over private land. That agency's decision to grant the company a waiver to test drones gives Google an unfair advantage over competitors, and the benefits to taxpayers are unclear, said a CW letter Tuesday to Martin. “NASA should suspend this special arrangement with Google immediately ... pending an explanation about how this technology benefits taxpayers and the federal government itself,” Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker wrote. This isn't the first time Google has abused taxpayer dollars to advance commercial technology, Tucker said. In its letter to Martin, Consumer Watchdog asked the NASA official to also investigate whether a special relationship between Google and NASA officials led to the “unusual arrangement,” which was kept secret until Google recently filed for a Federal Aviation Administration waiver to operate unmanned aircraft. Google and NASA have tested drones over private land in the U.S. throughout the past year, said a CW news release. Its letter said other U.S. companies like Amazon have been testing drones at sites outside the U.S., including Canada, due to “frustration with gaining U.S. permission to test its technology.” In the next six months, Google and NASA want to test in Merced, California, to see if cellphone signals can be used to control and land drones, it said. NASA and Google didn’t comment.

Large cable companies added 511,757 broadband subscribers and telcos lost 151,478 in Q2, continuing cable gains that have accounted for 95 percent of the roughly 3 million net (wireline) high-speed Internet additions over the last year, Leichtman Research Group said Tuesday in a news release. LRG said the cable net gain was 38 percent higher than in Q2 2014 while the telco net loss was higher than in any previous quarter, four of the past six of which have been losses. The 10 cable companies and seven telcos reviewed have about 94 percent of the market; at the end of Q2 2015, cable had 53.5 million subscribers and telcos had 35.4 million (a 60-40 cable-telco wireline market split), said LRG. Leading cable last quarter was Time Warner Cable, which added 189,000 subscribers, followed by Comcast's 179,000 adds, Charter Communications' 86,000, Cablevision's 14,000, Mediacom's 10,000 and Cable One's 457, while Bright House Networks and Cox Communications were estimated by LRG to have added 45,000 between them. WideOpenWest lost 8,900 subscribers and Suddenlink lost 2,800, Leichtman said. Comcast had 22.5 million broadband subscribers at quarter's end followed by TWC's 12.8 million, Charter's 5.3 million, Cablevision's 2.8 million, Suddenlink's 1.2 million and Mediacom's 1.1 million, with BHN and Cox estimated to have 6.6 million between them. AT&T and Verizon added 313,000 U-verse and FiOS high-speed Internet subscribers, respectively, in Q2 2015, while losing 474,000 net DSL subscribers combined, said LRG. It said U-verse and FiOS customers now are 56 percent of telco broadband subscribers, up from 42 percent two years ago. Overall, AT&T lost 136,000 net broadband subscribers, followed by Verizon's 25,000 in losses, Windstream's 11,600, CenturyLink's 9,000 and FairPoint's 1,278, while Frontier Communications added 29,000, and Cincinnati Bell added 2,400, said the industry research firm. AT&T had almost 16 million landline broadband subscribers at quarter's end, followed by Verizon's 9.2 million, CenturyLink's 6.1 million, Frontier's 2.4 million, Windstream's 1.1 million, FairPoint's 317,100 and Cincinnati Bell's 275,100.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order Monday making the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program a permanent part of the federal government within the General Services Administration, a White House news release said. The program brings executives, entrepreneurs, technologists and other innovators into government and teams them with federal employees to improve federal programs, it said. “My hope is this continues to encourage a culture of public service among our innovators, and tech entrepreneurs, so that we can keep building a government that’s as modern, as innovative, and as engaging as our incredible tech sector is,” Obama said.

Correction: Consumer complaints didn't appear to appreciably rise in Idaho during the transition of wireline systems from Qwest to CenturyLink and from Verizon to Frontier Communications (see 1508140023).

The FCC voted to deny AWS-3 auction bidding credits to SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless, the designated entities Dish Network used to buy spectrum licenses at reduced prices in the auction, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement Monday. Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said Aug. 5, when the denial was proposed, that the company was still examining its options and would make a decision after the order is released (see 1508050042). Industry officials agree Dish is likely to take the FCC to court rather than pay an extra $3.3 billion for the AWS-3 spectrum without a challenge (see 1507240048). “Small businesses require an on-ramp into the mobile marketplace to provide more choices for consumers,” Wheeler said Monday. “Our competitive bidding rules were designed to do just that—give bona fide small businesses an opportunity to acquire valuable spectrum. Today, our review of two winning bidders in the recent AWS-3 auction has concluded that they in fact are not eligible for bidding credits.”

Public TV interests want to know if FCC anti-collusion rules prohibit public TV stations from engaging in public fundraising after the short form application deadline for the incentive auction, said a joint ex parte filing from the CPB, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations. Representatives of the public TV groups and NAB met with the Incentive Auction Task Force and “raised multiple questions” about the communications prohibitions from the incentive auction's anti-collusion rules and how they could affect public TV stations' “routine business and financial operations,” the filing said. FCC officials have told us the rules bar stations from discussing their bids in the auction and other bidding strategy-related information from the deadline for applications to participate in the incentive auction until the auction is complete. Along with questions about fundraising, the public TV representatives asked whether the anti-collusion rules keep stations from stating publicly that they will continue operating after the auction, such as when requesting donations. They also asked if stations are prohibited from releasing Freedom of Information Act-requested information about their post-auction plans, or posting multiyear strategic plans on their websites. The public TV groups also asked if the rules bar them from signing multiyear contracts during the signing period, if their boards' open meetings are allowed under the rules, and other questions on how deep the anti-collusion rules go.

Thousands of Verizon workers and supporters rallied at more 50 Verizon locations Thursday, urging the company to negotiate a fair contract, said a news release from the Communications Workers of America. Verizon and CWA, along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), have hit a stalemate in bargaining for a new contract (see 1508070029). Verizon continues to insist on outsourcing more jobs, increasing healthcare costs by thousands of dollars per person and slashing retirement security, CWA said. “We’re ready to bargain. But despite one billion a month in profits, Verizon still insists on everything from eliminating job security to taking away benefits from workers injured on the job,” said Dennis Trainor, vice president of CWA District One. Verizon is working to reach an agreement that's fair to employees, good for customers and positions its landline unit well, said a company spokesman. “We respect the rights of our employees to hold rallies, but we truly believe the best way to achieve a new contract is not on the street rallying, but at the negotiating table in serious and meaningful bargaining," he said. "We’ve had discussions with union leaders from both the CWA and IBEW this week and we stand ready to meet with them again.”

The Wi-Fi interference problems that will come with nonstandard LTE-U can be headed off if the FCC acts now to set up effective means of sharing, NCTA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-105. Rick Chessen, NCTA senior vice president-law and regulatory policy, was among those who met with a variety of commissioner and Office of Engineering and Technology staff in a pair of meetings to discuss routes to "effective coexistence" between LTE-U and Wi-Fi. The problem with LTE-U is its unconstrained "duty cycling" sharing, which has LTE-U carriers deciding when to transmit, even if it's atop Wi-Fi and other unlicensed users, NCTA said. However, "Wi-Fi-like sharing" would allow for coexistence, NCTA said, saying the FCC should demand better LTE-U testing and analysis. LTE-U Forum testing has used too few devices in its tests, not properly simulating a more real-world crowded environment, and has overestimated the amount of available spectrum, NCTA said. LTE-U backers like Qualcomm have said acceptance of the technology is rising, and it disagrees with NCTA that the commission should start a review of LTE-U and license assisted access (see 1507010052). The company had no immediate comment Thursday.

Cablevision sought a hearing on the scope of a temporary restraining order awarded to Verizon in a dispute over the cable operator's advertising. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Brown of Central Islip, New York, granted Verizon the restraining order Monday, blocking any ads asserting Verizon is telling lies in its ads. The legal battle began in January when Cablevision sued Verizon in federal court over Verizon ads saying it offered "the fastest WiFi available." In a letter to Brown Tuesday, Cablevision said it's constrained by the restraining order even from responding as Verizon put out "false, misleading and defamatory" information about the court ruling itself to the media and public. "This situation is untenable," Cablevision said, though Cablevision put out its own news release about the court decision. "Cablevision continues to make 'anti-FiOS' statements," Verizon said. "What Cablevision is really upset about is that ... Verizon has now publicized the fact that Cablevision's false, misleading and defamatory advertising campaign has been put to a stop."