AT&T’s Q3 net income fell 70 percent year-over-year to $3.62 billion, as the company faced a slowdown in subscriber growth. But the company expects a “blockbuster” Q4 in smartphone sales, helped by the launch of new iPhone 4S and new LTE smartphones, said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, on a conference call Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge pounded a city attorney Thursday with First Amendment objections to a San Francisco ordinance requiring cellphone retailers to provide government-written disclosures about handset radiation, health questions and ways to minimize exposure. “It’s possible UFOs are going to come down,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup told Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria, challenging him as to whether the city could require a disclosure that “if you're concerned about UFOs, here are the steps you can take.”

EU lawmakers appear to be taking a tougher stance in favor of net neutrality than rights advocates originally feared, said European Digital Rights and La Quadrature du Net Thursday. The European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) approved a resolution that, as amended, has more positive than negative aspects, they said. The main concern is that it backs the European Commission’s proposal to “wait and see” if there actually are net neutrality problems before regulating, they said. A plenary vote on the text is expected next month.

House Communications Subcommittee leaders are at odds over the right approach to unlicensed spectrum as the subcommittee continues negotiations on spectrum legislation, without a clear picture of when a markup will happen. Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., pushed Wednesday for more unlicensed spectrum to be released. But Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., questioned giving spectrum away for free. Unlicensed spectrum is “one of the most important issues in the continued negotiations over spectrum” in the committee and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a Democratic House staffer said.

International harmonization of spectrum is critical, but difficult to achieve, and the U.S. so far has only a “mixed record” aligning its allocations with those in the rest of the world, said FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp Wednesday in a keynote speech at The Americas Spectrum Management Conference. Knapp cited in particular spectrum allocated to PCS, a different use than in most of the world. Knapp also said the outlook for widespread use of TV white spaces spectrum remains positive.

A draft policy allowing cellphone service shutdowns on BART only over “extraordinary” risks of injury, damage to the San Francisco regional rail system, or “substantial” disruption of service will be taken up by the governing board Oct. 27, its president said Wednesday. The board could vote on the policy then, but changes resulting from suggestions in public comments at the meeting or otherwise could put the decision off to the next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 17, President Bob Franklin told us. He said Bay Area Rapid Transit heard Monday from the FCC that it hasn’t decided whether to put out for public comment a petition challenging a July shutdown ordered to forestall a political demonstration in a downtown San Francisco station.

Industries and disabled advocates seek changes to what the FCC proposed for rules requiring broadcast and pay-TV videos to be captioned when they're delivered by Internet Protocol. Wireless carriers, makers of consumer electronics, multichannel video programming distributors, broadcasters and advocates for those with trouble hearing sought changes to a rulemaking notice. The notice is on implementing the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, under which the commission must complete rules for IP captions by Jan. 12 (CD Sept 21 p12). Comments are in docket 11-154 (http://xrl.us/bmgjgj).

Media General isn’t planning to break up the company, CEO Marshall Morton said during the company’s Q3 earnings call. The vote of confidence in Media General’s business from its CEO was in response to questions from Mario Gabelli, whose investment funds own about 35 percent of Media General’s shares, according to SEC filings. “Where are you in your thinking about taking your bad assets and good assets and dividing them up and assigning debt to those,” Gabelli asked.

Apple is “confident” that it “will have a large supply” of the iPhone 4S for consumers to buy, but CEO Timothy Cook said in an earnings call late Tuesday that he wouldn’t “predict when supply and demand might balance because the demand is obviously extremely high right now.” The company said it sold more than 4 million units of its new smartphone in the device’s first three days available. Apple is “confident that we will set an all-time record for iPhone” in Q1 that started Sept. 25, he said.

The Internet radio company Pandora is only now ready to make a successful run at radio stations’ bread-and-butter advertising, particularly outside the largest markets, the company’s founder said. “We can actively attract the interest of local advertisers … historically the largest part of revenue for radio,” said Tim Westergren, Pandora’s chief strategy officer. Previous efforts concentrated on national advertisers, and, Westergren indicated Tuesday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, didn’t make the desired dent. “I wouldn’t be surprised” if broadcasters “weren’t far more efficient at monetizing at this point” than Pandora is, he said.