Progress is being made on a plan to test coexistence between Wi-Fi devices and LTE-unlicensed devices, Edgar Figueroa, president of the Wi-Fi Alliance, and Wi-Fi advocates told the FCC. The alliance reported on meetings with Edward Smith, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Ira Keltz, deputy chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology. “The Wi-Fi Alliance process is working, and Wi-Fi Alliance met its target of releasing an alpha version of the draft test plan on April 1, which reflected changes to account for recent requests made by LTE-U stakeholders as part of the process,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 15-105. The “Wi-Fi Alliance has been responsive to the requests of LTE-U interests," it added. "Validation of this alpha version of the test plan has already begun and LTE-U stakeholders are free today to perform test plan validation exercises.” Some makers of LTE-U devices may prefer to exercise the alpha test plan against their equipment internally first, the alliance said. “The process is moving forward rapidly with the goal of delivering a final coexistence test plan (which can then be used to test devices) during the summer of 2016.” Also attending the meetings were representatives of Comcast, Google, Microsoft and NCTA.

A week after the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation heard oral argument on motions to transfer 16 of the 20 class-action complaints against the Inscape viewer-tracking feature on Vizio smart TVs to the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, and "centralize" them there into one case (see 1602260059), the 21st such complaint was filed against Vizio by a Brooklyn man, Isaac Altman, who, like the earlier plaintiffs, alleged his rights were violated under the federal Video Privacy Protection Act. Since buying his Vizio E500 smart TV in September, Altman has connected the set “to personal wireless networks and has used his television to watch shows and movies, including via connected applications,” said his complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the first of the 21 actions to be filed in New York. At no time did Altman consent to having his TV viewing activity “-- or any additional activity related to the use of WiFi in his home -- tracked by Vizio,” the complaint said. Had Altman known Vizio “employed such tracking functionality, he would not have purchased his Smart TV,” it says. Vizio representatives didn’t comment.

The federal USF had more than $8 billion in financial assets as of Dec. 31, said the 2015 annual report of Universal Service Administrative Co., which oversees the fund for the FCC. The USF, which had assets of $4.5 billion in 2006, paid out $8.4 billion in 2015 but collected more than that, further increasing its cash and other assets, said industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg in an email Wednesday summarizing findings from his analysis of the annual report (see 1603310052). A portion of the assets was used to offset USF funding commitments in 2015, such as model-based Connect America Fund Phase II support, Gregg said. "These assets also provide the reserve funds which the FCC will use to mitigate the $1.5 billion annual increase in the Schools and Libraries Fund, and to underwrite CAF Phase II competitive bidding support." The assets include $6.8 billion in investments, the report said.

NTIA postponed Friday's meeting of stakeholders continuing their work to develop a best practices privacy guide aimed at commercial and private drone users, possibly until May. John Verdi, NTIA director of privacy initiatives, said Tuesday in an email to participants that a group of stakeholders has been making "excellent progress" on a revised draft, but that draft just won't be ready before the meeting. He said the participants expect to circulate the draft to the full group by April 22. Verdi said the plan is to reschedule the meeting to early May. "We recognize that the next meeting will be more constructive for everyone if stakeholders are able to review and consider a revised best practices document," he wrote. The multistakeholder meetings have been ongoing since summer to produce a nonbinding guide for drone users. Progress appears to have been made over several meetings, but participants haven't been able to reach consensus partly due to the level of detail that some want included in the document (see 1602240048).

Whether the FCC's look into independent and diverse programming issues leads to rules or a policy statement remains to be seen, "but this is a great first step," Public Knowledge Policy Fellow John Gasparini said in a PK-organized media conference call Tuesday discussing the notice of inquiry (see 1602180044). PK in a filing in the indie programming NOI docket singled out most-favored-nation (MFN) and alternative distribution means (ADM) contractual clauses as particularly stifling video marketplace diversity (see 1603310044) and echoed that sentiment Tuesday. "Why is so much video still held hostage by the legacy pay-TV model?” PK Government Affairs Associate Counsel Kate Forscey asked, contrasting the digital video market with the digital music and literature markets. MVPD incumbents hold back competition through limits on over-the-top competitors and those limits disproportionately disadvantage indie and niche programmers, she said. Forscey also said the FCC would have authority under Title VI of the Telecom Act to tackle such issues. ISwop Networks CEO Broderick Byers said the job search advice-centric Employment Channel he created, while popular, couldn't get MVPD carriage because of concerns that unemployed viewers who might be unable to pay cable bills are undesirable viewers. “Corporate was out of touch," Byers said. "Having a few people decide what mass audiences would be interested in is absurd. You should let the consumer decide.” Independence in the linear market is at an all-time low, with 5 percent of original scripted contents on broadcast networks in prime time during the 2014-15 season being independently produced, compared with 12 percent of all scripted series on basic cable/pay-TV, said Garrett Schneider, research and policy analyst at the Writers Guild of America, West. Meanwhile, indie producers accounted for 49 percent of TV-length scripted shows released digitally in that same season, he said. "We hope to see an effort to reopen the market." NOI replies are due April 19.

The FTC will host a second PrivacyCon event Jan. 12, and it issued a call for presentations for consumer privacy and data security research from academia, industry and other sectors. In a Monday news release, the commission outlined the scope of research, selection criteria, review process and other information regarding the event. The FTC said it hopes to expand on previous research by focusing on areas such as harms from privacy violations, how attackers are compromising privacy, consumer use of ad blocking tools and cost of malware to consumers and businesses. Deadline for submissions is Oct. 3. “Bringing together leading thinkers and new voices from the academic, tech, and policy arenas is crucial as we seek to better address the challenges in protecting consumer privacy,” Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said. The first PrivacyCon was held in January and featured 19 presentations from academic, industry and other researchers (see 1508280046, 1601140062 and 1601140029).

National Urban League President Marc Morial waded into the debate over the FCC vacant channel proposal, warning that it could be negative for minority-owned TV stations. The fight has pitted public interest groups and Internet companies like Google against broadcasters (see 1603310059). “Minority broadcast ownership remains a vital issue,” Morial said in a letter to the FCC. “The need for diversity in programming and language access, especially in low-income communities, is more critical than ever.” The FCC should not “disregard its longstanding goal of increasing broadcast ownership by minorities and underrepresented groups,” he said. “We urge the FCC to ensure that any actions in addition to the incentive auction will not disenfranchise underserved viewers in low-income households who disproportionally rely on over-the-air programming.” Meanwhile, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, supported the FCC proposal in a meeting with Daudeline Meme, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Leading chipmakers and other tech industry stakeholders have steadfastly maintained that if the post-auction band plan and repacking policies do not ensure at least three channels of 6 megahertz of unlicensed access in every market, especially in the most populated metro markets, the Commission will be killing off many emerging unlicensed use cases and the economic and social benefits that depend on low-band spectrum,” a filing on the meeting said. Both documents were posted in docket 15-146.

Red flags Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless raised regarding Ligado Networks' LTE plans and possible AWS-3 interference (see 1603230029 and 1604010032) either were addressed or can be during an FCC proceeding on service rules for the 1675-1680 MHz band, Ligado said in a filing Monday in docket 12-340. Claims that use of that band could affect AWS-3 band usage and that Auction 97 bidders like SNR didn't contemplate those effects fall flat because SNR has known at least since 2012 of Ligado's intentions for shared terrestrial use of 1675-1680 MHz because that is when Ligado first petitioned the FCC, while the Obama administration at the same time put forward the idea of shared commercial use of the band, Ligado said. The satellite company said the protection zones it asked for in proposed service rules for 1675-1680 follow the protection zones talked about in a study prepared by Alion to address National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration earth station protection, and that its proposed service rules also include a provision that the spectrum licensee provide high-speed access and cloud based storage of satellite-obtained weather data for non-NOAA users. SNR's worry about LTE affecting commercial users in adjacent bands "is an issue that we look forward to addressing as part of the notice-and-comment process," Ligado said. It said that SNR worries that only 15 megahertz separate the spectrum it's interested in from the 1695-1710 uplink band are overblown and lists six examples of downlink and uplink bands separated by 15 or less. Ligado said SNR's concern that using the 1675-1680 MHz band for satellite and terrestrial purposes would perhaps require deploying more base stations on SNR's part "is a speculative assertion," and an FCC public notice would give the opportunity to review such a claim. Ligado and others have asked the FCC to issue a PN seeking comment on a proposed auction of 1675-1680 and of the company's related license modification request (see 1602120052, 1602040015 and 1603170020).

North American Portability Management submitted a proposed master services agreement with Telcordia (iconectiv) in a filing to the FCC Friday in docket 95-116. The agreement, which was totally redacted as confidential and highly confidential, is part of the FCC's planned shift of local number portability administration (LNPA) duties from Neustar to Telcordia/iconectiv. The LNP Alliance and New America's Open Technology Institute said in a filing that they don't understand why NAPM carriers have had access to the proposed agreement for at least five months longer than non-NAPM carriers.

Frontier Communications completed its $10.5 billion buy of Verizon wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas, Frontier said Friday. The acquired businesses include about 3.3 million voice connections, 2.1 million broadband connections and 1.2 million Fios video subscribers across the three states. The buy also includes a transfer of 9,400 employees. New customers will start receiving monthly bills in mid-April, Frontier said. After the deal’s announcement Feb. 5 last year, Frontier and Verizon received approval from the FCC, DOJ and utility commissions in California and Texas (see 1512030059). The deal "significantly expands our presence in three high-growth, high-density states, and improves our revenue mix by increasing the percentage of our revenues coming from segments with the most promising growth potential," Frontier CEO Daniel McCarthy said. Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said that for Frontier, “the focus now turns to successfully integrating the systems and assets.” It’s good timing for Verizon, she said, because it brings in pretax capital to the company’s balance sheet just as the company enters the FCC broadcast incentive auction.