Matt Daneman

Wi-Fi advocates and the wireless industry are increasingly jousting over LTE-unlicensed. The WifiForward coalition labeled LTE-U users "spectrum bullies," in a short advocacy video put on YouTube Tuesday. The animated video shows a schoolyard bully-like tablet running on LTE-U pushing around smartphones and smart watches. "If Wi-Fi won't work, we all suffer," the video narrator says. "We can insist on politeness, ensuring that Wi-Fi and other new technologies can live in harmony and preventing spectrum bullies from disrupting unlicensed bands." WifiForward launched in 2014 with the goal of increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum available for Wi-Fi use (see 1402140055). In a conference call Tuesday with reporters, Wi-Fi advocates said licensed assisted access standards should be finalized by the spring and until they are other LTE-U iterations shouldn't be approved (see 1509080046). Such unlicensed spectrum bands used in everything from cordless phones and baby monitors to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi "have been incredibly useful to consumers," said David Young, Verizon vice president-public policy, in a blog Wednesday. "The FCC’s 'permissionless innovation' approach to unlicensed spectrum has been an incredible success, unleashing torrents of innovation in spectrum bands that were once considered useless." Unlicensed spectrum "is poised to unleash a new wave of mobile innovation," said Young. LTE-U "will benefit consumers, competition and innovation," said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs, in a statement Wednesday: "Unlicensed spectrum has always offered an opportunity for permissionless innovation and we look forward to continuing to educate all stakeholders about the benefits of LTE Unlicensed."

As FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has set his sights on repealing exclusivity rules, broadcasters increasingly are arguing that compulsory license requirements should go down with them. The likelihood of saving the network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules is questionable, broadcast experts said in interviews Friday.

Whether retransmission consent negotiations will be smoother in the near future is debatable as the FCC spelled out 15 negotiation tactics now under its microscope in a rulemaking notice Wednesday on the totality of circumstances in good-faith negotiating (see 1509020061), officials said in interviews. "This is known as 'regulation by raised eyebrow,'" said cable consultant Steve Effros. "The commission is saying ‘you ought to be very careful if you're engaged in this sort of activity -- we're watching.’" But an NAB spokesman said the group expects pay TV "to use the FCC’s NPRM as an opportunity to create more programming disruptions, not fewer. There is demonstrable evidence suggesting that pay TV providers like Dish use the prospect of government intervention into a free market as grounds for forcing impasses.”

The FCC approved rules for how it will handle confidential information in Charter Communications' planned buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable and in other regulatory proceedings going forward. The agency said Wednesday that the rules on the handling of confidential information had been passed in a 3-2 vote and adopted, but said they would release them later.

The FCC is seeking feedback on 15 negotiation practices and whether they should figure into a "totality of circumstances" test for good faith negotiations. Pay-TV and broadcasters have been filling docket 10-71 in recent weeks with arguments on what should be considered as the FCC follows through on congressional direction in the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) Act that it revisit good faith negotiation rules (see 1508270036).

DBS operators and toll-free number responsible organizations will begin paying FCC regulatory fees, while radio and TV stations could see notable changes in what they pay in the future. That is according to the FCC's FY 2015 fee order and Further NPRM released Wednesday.

The seven must-have changes pay TV seeks in retransmission consent rule reforms won't solve all that ails the retrans market, but they will improve it, Dish Network Deputy Counsel Jeffrey Blum told us Tuesday. Numerous multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and allies -- including the American Cable Association, Cablevision, CenturyLink, DirecTV, Dish, ITTA, Mediacom, NTCA, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom -- through the American Television Alliance have lined up behind seven specific reforms they're pushing at the FCC. The deadline for the agency to issue an NPRM is Friday. Broadcasters are opposing many retrans changes (see 1508310026).

Market inefficiency and a dearth of local TV content would be likely outcomes if the FCC axes network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, broadcasters said in filings in docket 10-71. Broadcasters have been resisting Chairman Tom Wheeler's goal of repealing nondupe and syndex rules (see 1508270036).

A petition seeking a review of the FCC cable TV effective competition decision faces hurdles to success, said two sometime-critics of the industry. Much like the opposition to the agency's open Internet rule, the order faces a big legal hurdle in trying to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the way the agency came to that decision was flawed, a communications attorney said. The plaintiffs said they have a strong case.

Communications satellite operators increasingly are struggling to deal with a bottleneck of launch delays after a pair of launch failures earlier this year, said industry officials in interviews last week. Satcom operators "are really struggling to find a place to launch" following launch failures by the SpaceX and International Launch Services that set schedules behind, satellite communications consultant Tim Farrar said. Arianespace, meanwhile, is "doing fine, but they're booked up," he said.