Broadband service provider Quantis Global will use Intelsat's EpicNG high-throughput satellites and its IntelsatOne Flex services to enhance its broadband services in Europe and northern Africa, Intelsat said in a news release Tuesday. It said Quantis will use capacity from the 33e and 37e satellites, plus Intelsat managed services, to target such customers as nongovernmental organizations, enterprises, embassies, oil and gas, and maritime. Intelsat 33e began operations this week (see 1701300009), and Intelsat 37e is scheduled to begin service in 2018, the company said.

Satellite communications can start serving the mass consumer market due to the coming wave of competitively priced capacity, but first satcom operators must put more emphasis on sales channels, partners and product architecture to reach that market, said Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm-Serra in an NSR blog post Tuesday. NSR said satcom must build a strong retail presence for satellite Internet: "The 'build it and they will come' approach does not work, and the market requires significant effort for demand stimulation." The research firm said some satcom operators are creating their own demand aggregation points of Wi-Fi hot spots in unconnected underserved locations, and those aggregation points will be big drivers of consumer broadband demand for satellite services.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn wants consumers frustrated with their phone, TV or broadband provider to tweet about their issues with the hashtag #consumersfirst, she said in a tweet Thursday. “Use #consumersfirst to share your story,” Clyburn said. “As an @FCC Cmmr [commissioner] I want to hear about it.” Putting consumers first means “robust #competition, #reliable service, no #surprisebilling, #innovation and an #openInternet for all,” she said in another tweet. Clyburn criticized the set-top box market as not being pro-consumer. “Consumers pay avg of $200+ per year to rent their #SetTopBox, grossing video providers more than $20b annually. Is this #consumersfirst?”

Gilat and AirMedia Group signed a deal to provide in-flight connectivity services over mainland China, Gilat said in a news release Tuesday. It said the service will use its own high-throughput satellite platform alongside ChinaSatcom's Ka-band capacity to be launched this year, and should begin commercial rollout in early 2018. Gilat China General Manager Jun Xiang said the company is in talks with several other potential Chinese and international partners about similar in-flight connectivity ventures in China.

Comcast opened free access to 6,800 Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots in Washington to the 1 million people expected to attend Friday’s presidential inauguration, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Even those who aren't customers will be able to connect for no charge until Jan. 26, it said. Wireless carriers announced temporary and permanent capacity upgrades to meet high network demand expected over the weekend, including for the inauguration and demonstrations (see 1701060023).

Internet sector businesses now make up 6 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, meaning it's now “rivaling the auto industry in size,” the Internet Association reported Thursday. “The internet beats out powerhouse sectors like construction, the federal government, as well as many others, and it is growing at a far faster rate. It is now, indisputably, a discrete section of the American economy.” IA said it analyzed a range of economic studies and methodologies, which all point to the internet being a “major economic sector” and one that's “growing rapidly” as a contributor to GDP. IA said it estimates internet companies could become 7 percent of the U.S. GDP by 2020.

The 71 percent of U.S. broadband households with Wi-Fi or Apple AirPort access own an average 30 percent more computing devices than non-Wi-Fi households, Parks Associates reported Tuesday. Wi-Fi is “by far” the most common road to internet access in broadband households, but half use 3G/4G mobile data as a primary source of broadband, Parks said. More than half of U.S. broadband households with speeds under 1 Gbps would upgrade to gigabit-speed services if they were offered, said the industry research firm. Seven percent of those households have only one device connected via Ethernet, it said. Wi-Fi households own an average 5.7 computing devices and 8.1 connectable CE devices, said the researcher.

The new FCC should adopt an "objective, activity-based" broadband speed definition, said Daniel Lyons, a Boston College law professor and American Enterprise Institute scholar. Otherwise, the commission "is vulnerable to allegations that it may manipulate the benchmark for policy purposes," he wrote in a Friday blog post. He noted the agency in early 2015 raised its advanced telecom capability download benchmark from 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps, with Chairman Tom Wheeler calling it "table stakes" and citing the need to support multiple devices and 4K video. Dissenting Commissioner Ajit Pai said the standard was arbitrary and intended to help justify net neutrality rules, Lyons recounted. The minimum standard should be based on an assessment of what consumers need for "core activities" on a broadband network, Lyons said. "This list might include access to email, news, job boards, or digital voice service for easy access to public safety officials," he wrote. "Consistent with former Commissioner [Jessica] Rosenworcel’s work on the 'homework gap,' it might also include access to educational resources such as school intranets and associated multimedia applications." The FCC should calculate the speed needed to accomplish the activities, the professor said: An activity-based standard could change over time and facilitate broadband competition.

Cable, wireless and other parties asked the FCC to reconsider privacy rules targeting broadband ISPs, joining local telcos, advertising groups and Oracle which had also filed petitions in docket 16-106 (see 1701030051 and 1612220017). NCTA said the FCC should withdraw the "unsustainable" regulations approved by Democratic commissioners because they exceed the agency's authority, arbitrarily and capriciously depart from the FTC's "long-standing and effective privacy framework" covering all Internet players, infringe on ISP free speech, and create "unworkable and conflicting" data security requirements that will cause "overnotification to law enforcement and consumers of putative data breaches." The order "compounds the errors" from the FCC's "ill-advised decision to reclassify" broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, NCTA said. The American Cable Association said the order "goes off the rails because it makes material errors on the law, facts, and policy." The "train wreck" can't be salvaged and the rules should be eliminated, and, if necessary, replaced with a framework grounded in the FTC's "time-tested" regime, the ACA said. CTIA said the rules undermine the FCC's stated goals and should be vacated, modified or clarified. The agency should at least take certain steps, including to "limit the scope of information to which the Rules apply to customer proprietary network information (CPNI)," reconsider limits on ISP use of financial incentives in exchange for customer information, and narrow data-breach notifications, it said. The Competitive Carriers Association said the FCC regime "will undercut" internet competition by saddling ISPs "with unparalleled, restrictive data use and sharing rules without the benefits of actually protecting consumers" and without giving small providers "appropriate relief." The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said the agency lacked legal authority and impermissibly combined the definition of CPNI with "personally identifiable information" and "content of communications" to create a broad new "customer proprietary information" category. If the commission determines it has authority, WISPA urged the agency to account for ISP/edge "asymmetry" that "its rules exacerbate" and provide further relief to small providers. CTA credited the FCC with improving its initial proposal but said its rules still fail "to ensure a coherent and consistent approach." Level 3 said the exemption for serving enterprise voice customers wasn't broad enough to account for differences with broadband access providers, and should be changed.

Frontier Communications agreed to discontinue various advertising claims about its DSL and Fios broadband services that were challenged by Charter Communications before the National Advertising Division, said a release Wednesday from the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. NAD, the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system, recommended Frontier stop making certain performance claims in print and internet advertising, ASRC said. It said Frontier agreed to discontinue the many challenged claims, including: "Connect all your devices with blazing-fast speed"; "Frontier Internet is enough to handle all you do online. ... You name it online, you can do it with Frontier"; and "Every tier of Frontier DSL is able to stream SD and HD movies without buffering." NAD also reviewed modified advertising and recommended Frontier discontinue claims that its high-speed internet service will do "practically anything you and your family needs," and that customers need "never worry about" such internet connections, the release said. NAD further recommended Frontier discontinue claims its Fios network and service are superior to cable internet architecture and service, and refrain from comparing their performance. "Frontier, in its advertiser’s statement, said the company has 'reviewed its advertising and has implemented NAD’s recommendations. Frontier will also take NAD’s recommendations into consideration for future advertising,'" ASRC said. Frontier and Charter didn't comment to us. The Council of Better Business Bureaus administers NAD.