The proposed pilot program under which Vonage would have access to numbering resources in a few trial markets could be in trouble after NARUC and consumer and public interest groups announced their opposition in a letter to the commission. The pilot program and an NPRM on number resources is set for a vote Thursday at the commission. It’s unclear whether the letter will cause commissioners to rethink the draft order, industry officials said Friday. Vonage is rebutting arguments made by the NARUC-led coalition.

Critics of Progeny’s proposed rollout of its E-911 location service told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that the agency should carefully consider the impact the service would have on fellow users of the 900 MHz Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service band before greenlighting it. The members of the Part 15 Coalition, a group of unlicensed Part 15 device users which occupy the 902-928 MHz band, said they're concerned the FCC was moving too quickly toward a decision on the Progeny 911 location service, which they said has the potential to cause “unacceptable levels” of interference. Coalition members and Progeny officials each said told us Friday that the other side was attempting to draw attention away from the technical record. The service would help locate wireless callers to 911.

Despite criticisms that the two don’t work well together, the Justice Department and FTC have a good relationship, DOJ Antitrust Division Chief William Baer and FTC Chairman Edith Ramirez agreed during an American Bar Association antitrust meeting panel on Friday. “The relationship between the two agencies is at a very good point,” Ramirez said. “I only expect our ties to deepen.”

The letter said Wheeler would be able to “hit the ground running” as chairman and listed his achievements in the private sector and as an advocate for the cable and wireless industries “when they were the insurgents challenging the established players.” Wheeler “has consistently fought on the side of increasing competition,” said the letter. “He understands the importance of reclaiming the pro-competition, pro-innovation, pro-growth regulatory ideal."

A Dish Explorer app for Android-based tablets isn’t on the horizon as Dish Network focuses on iPad for controlling its multi-room Hopper DVR, Dish Product Manager Robert Sadler told us at the Pepcom-sponsored DigitalFocus product showcase in New York.

FCC auction rules should guarantee that smaller carriers, especially those that need lower frequency spectrum, are able to expand their spectrum portfolios, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said in a filing at the commission. The letter comes as the agency examines whether it should restrict the ability of Verizon Wireless and AT&T to bid in the upcoming incentive auction of broadcast-TV spectrum.

Debate on the actual language of a treaty updating broadcasting copyright protections begins in July, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Law Division Director Michele Woods told us Friday. The April 10-12 meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) gave delegations the opportunity to discuss issues in depth, and the July meeting is likely to focus on the three core matters of who will benefit from the treaty, what the object of protection will be, and what rights broadcasting organizations will be granted, she said. NAB and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said progress was made at the “intersessional” meeting, including a growing consensus that signal protection must be extended to the Internet, but the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said agreement on any issue is as far away as ever.

The fight to reform communications law in Illinois has quietly evolved in recent months, as industry delivers broad rhetoric while consumer advocates wait with concern, both sides told us. AT&T has emerged as one of the primary proponents of what it sees as needed changes, even from 2010 Illinois law, and has come out with public statements, ads, a study the telco funded and a website to that end. The AT&T message ties communications reform to public safety, with repeated references to the benefits wireless broadband gives first responders, as well as economic investment. But no legislation has hit the Illinois floor, leaving consumer advocates worried that industry might try to rush a bill through.

The House Communications Subcommittee approved a bill by a voice vote Thursday aimed at codifying the U.S. policy against “government control” of the Internet, during a brief vote that clocked in at less than 10 minutes. Democrats continued to raise their objections that the bill, as currently written, could be used to challenge the FCC’s net neutrality order, but agreed to offer no amendments in order to negotiate the bill during the full committee markup. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., acknowledged that there “still appears to be a misunderstanding about what this legislation does and doesn’t do.” Walden said his staff are willing to speak with minority staffers “in good faith, between now and the full committee markup, to see if we can come to an agreement. Nothing will be off the table, nothing,” Walden said in his opening statement. “We should give this an opportunity to work.”

Commissioner Joshua Wright outlined his agenda for his time at the FTC, including a focus on encouraging the agency to issue a policy statement on unfair methods of competition, at an American Bar Association meeting Thursday. During the second day of the three-day conference, former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz spoke about the role of politics in the agency, and Division of Privacy and Identity Protection Associate Director Maneesha Mithal told attendees about consumer protection responsibilities when user-facing companies employ cloud service providers.