The FCC paused 180-day shot clocks for the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable transactions while it waits for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to issue an opinion on a petition for review brought against the agency by a group of content companies over the release of contract information. It’s “prudent” to pause the transaction clocks because the FCC “would be advantaged” by knowing the court’s decision before the clocks run out, “which both are slated to do by the end of March,” the FCC said in a public notice Friday. The Comcast clock is stopped at Day 165 while the AT&T clock is stopped at Day 170, said the FCC transaction webpages. Though the public notice points to the court case as the rationale for stopping the clock, Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman said it’s likely the FCC also has other reasons. At least on Comcast/TWC, the transaction review team sent out information requests that have been fulfilled only recently, and they may not have been in a position to meet the deadline even without the court delay. The FCC had no comment. Comcast said it's fine with the pause. "We understand the FCC's decision to pause the informal review clock while the court continues to review a procedural matter related to the transaction,” Comcast said. “A decision is expected shortly.” The FCC “appears to be making significant progress in the review of our transaction in order to bring it to a conclusion,” Comcast said. The commission was more measured. “The clock carries with it no procedural or substantive rights or obligations but merely represents an informal benchmark,” the PN said. Oral argument was heard in the case Feb. 20 (see 1502200051), and it’s not clear when a decision in the matter could be issued, Schwartzman told us. Though the court usually tries to keep within a 120-day time limit, expedited cases such as the FCC’s are on a faster track, and could arrive much sooner, he said. The D.C. Circuit could also issue an order in one side’s favor or another and then follow it with a written opinion much later, Schwartzman said. Representatives for the content company petitioners, which include CBS, Disney and Viacom, declined to comment. AT&T expects "issues surrounding the litigation between the FCC and the programmers to be resolved quickly so the FCC can complete its review of our transaction," a company spokesman emailed. "We continue to look forward to closing our deal in the first half of the year."

The FCC failed to make the full record of its consideration of a new local number portability administrator public in a way that's “consistent” with “lawful administrative procedure,” Neustar officials told Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and an aide March 10, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 09-109. The company made the same claims in a letter to the agency March 11 (see 1503110052). The agency should also protect the public if it selects a new administrator by requiring certification by an independent third-party transition manager, and that Telcordia’s parent Ericsson cannot provide LNPA services neutrally, Neustar CEO Lisa Hook, Senior Vice President Leonard Kennedy, Deputy General Counsel Scott Deutchman, Thomas Navin, of Wiley Rein, and Aaron Panner of Kellogg Huber told Rosenworcel and an aide, said the filing. An order on circulation, and slated for a vote at the March 26 commission meeting, would authorize the beginning of contract negotiations with Telcordia (see 1503040053). “It is ironic for the incumbent to claim the lack of ability to comment after filing hundreds of pages of filings,” Telcordia counsel John Nakahata emailed Friday. “Substantial opportunity for public participation has been available, at every stage over multiple years, with some information subject to protective order as is common in FCC proceedings. The current Local Number Portability Administrator is using misinformation and scare tactics again to attempt to stall the LNPA transition and ensure that carriers and consumers keep paying half a billion dollars each year for a database that has been closed to competition for nearly 20 years. The selection process was open and thorough. … We hope that the FCC and the industry will support competition and move forward with the transition. The incumbent has victimized consumers for far too long.”

Clarification: In addition to CTIA, Hogan Lovells attorney Dominic Perella represented the Competitive Carriers Association and CEA in oral argument Thursday on the FCC incentive auction (see 1503100071).

Correction: CTIA, not the Computer and Communications Industry Association, is a member of the steering committee of the Intelligent Car Coalition (see 1503110022).

Apple’s deal with HBO to exclusively offer HBO’s mobile app (see 1503090035) is exciting for most of the communications industry other than some multichannel video programming distributors, CBS President Les Moonves said Wednesday at a Deutsche Bank investor conference webcast from Palm Beach, Florida. Apple's HBO deal paves the way for others, and there will be a similar offering from CBS-owned Showtime “in the not too distant future,” he said. The popularity of subscription VOD has made this the best time to monetize video content, Moonves said. “It is far better to be in broadcast than some of the other businesses out there." CBS’ over-the-top offering, CBS All-Access, will launch nationwide in a few months, Moonves said. He also spoke on the FCC incentive auction and said he is actively looking at participating in it with spectrum from CBS's CW and independent licenses. CBS could be "a major player" in the auction, Moonves said. Though he said NAB initially characterized the auction as a bad thing, his company's analysis of the numbers makes it seem like a profitable option, he said. If CBS could put up the spectrum of its CW and other independent stations and make $2 billion, it would be "dumb" not to participate, he said. "You're gonna see us being a full-fledged participant."

FCC selection of a local number portability administrator is a “process that’s been flawed from the very beginning,” Neustar Chief Financial Officer Paul Lalljie said Tuesday at a Deutsche Bank financial conference. Dave Angelicchio, head of investor relations at Neustar, said the company is waiting to see what commissioners do at the March 26 open meeting, where the LNPA contract is slated to be discussed. “Based on what comes out … the only thing we can say is there are a lot of avenues we could take,” Angelicchio said. “We are going to ensure that we are maximizing shareholder value.” The Wireline Bureau circulated a draft order last week that would authorize North American Portability Management to begin contract negotiations with Telcordia to become the next LNPA (see 1503040053).

AT&T is ready to take the FCC to court if necessary over its net neutrality rules, Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said in the cover letter to the company’s annual report, released Tuesday. “Key policymakers in the administration and at the FCC are now going well beyond any previous concept of net neutrality.” The FCC has reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II service under rules “written in 1934 to regulate the rotary dial telephone,” he said. “We feel this antiquated approach will damage investment and damage the Internet itself.” AT&T will “aggressively make the case to policymakers -- and, if necessary, to the courts -- that the FCC’s proposed Title II regulation of the entire Internet is at best a solution in search of a problem and at worst a threat to the United States’ continued global leadership in technology and innovation,” he said.

FCC staff shouldn't be allowed to have the "editorial privilege" of making substantive changes to an item after it’s approved by the commission, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly wrote in a blog post Monday. O'Rielly raised objections to the granting of editorial privileges for the net neutrality order. Based on the name, editorial privileges may sound like they’d be limited to “non-substantive edits, such as correcting typos and updating cross-references in footnotes,” O’Rielly wrote, similar to technical and conforming edits in Congress. At the FCC, staff members “often do much more substantial editing, including adding substantive and significant rebuttals to Commissioners’ dissents and providing sometimes lengthy responses to ex parte arguments that had not been incorporated into the draft prior to the vote,” O’Rielly said. Such substantive changes should not “be made under the guise of 'editorial privileges,'” he wrote. “At times, changes seem intended solely to take further pot shots at dissenting Commissioners.” In the rare cases that substantive changes are needed, they should be approved by the commissioners who voted for the item, O’Rielly wrote. He criticized the agency practice in which dissenting commissioners are not asked about subsequent changes. “If the item is not fully baked in time for the vote, then the Commission should simply delay the vote by a month or two,” O’Rielly wrote.

Because the FCC was closed Thursday due to snow, all filings do that date were due Friday instead, the FCC said Friday in a public notice. It said Thursday “does not count in computing filing periods of fewer than seven days because it was a Commission holiday under rule 1.4(g).”

Correction: What an FCC spokesman said -- about small, rural ISPs choosing to become regulated under new Communications Act Title II FCC rules rather than the old ones they are now subject to -- is that the Feb. 26 net neutrality order would not count broadband costs in rate-of-return calculations (see 1503050054).