Public Knowledge and Dish Network filed petitions asking the FCC to reject a series of spectrum deals unveiled by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Grain Spectrum in January (CD Jan 28 p9). The Competitive Carriers Association, which objected when the transaction was announced, asked the FCC to impose what CCA called pro-competitive conditions, including a 700 MHz interoperability mandate.

DirecTV and the Weather Channel would get more time to comply with coming FCC requirements (CD March 29 p4) for on-screen emergency information to be carried in a format where it can be aurally relayed to those with vision problems, while some small cable operators could seek waivers, said agency and industry officials. They said Media Bureau staff recently proposed to other FCC officials making such changes to a draft order due under statute to be issued by Tuesday. Those changes address some of the concerns of DirecTV and the Weather Channel to give the DBS provider and the programmer a delay in making localized emergency information available on the secondary audio programming stream, or carrying that SAP information as video descriptions, said commission and industry officials. Those two companies and the American Cable Association had sought changes for passing along SAP to TV viewers to what’s in the Feb. 28 version of the draft order.

The FCC Wireline Bureau has chosen a “greenfield” model for Phase II of the Connect America Fund, said industry and agency officials. A greenfield approach estimates the full cost of building and operating a network from scratch. The ABC Coalition, consisting of USTelecom and several ILECs, supports the greenfield approach. The American Cable Association, a primary proponent of the competing brownfield model (CD Jan 16 p3), criticized the choice of a greenfield model as a “wasteful” move that will hurt consumers and small cable operators.

Mobile privacy stakeholders met Thursday to talk about the newest discussion draft of a voluntary code of conduct that would require apps to provide short-form notices to users about what data they collect from users and which third parties the apps share that data with (http://1.usa.gov/14HsqCG). Chris Olsen, assistant director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, highlighted concerns the agency has about the code. The code may not adequately address the issues of just-in-time notices, how data collection does or doesn’t comport with consumer expectations, and material retroactive changes, Olsen said at the meeting’s end. The meeting -- the twelfth facilitated by NTIA in a process that started last summer -- focused on changes to the draft, including language that addresses open text fields, and outstanding issues.

Rulings and pending cases involving rebroadcasting TV over the Internet have huge implications for the TV industry and copyright law, and could be headed for the Supreme Court, said several communications attorneys at an FCBA event Wednesday night. On Monday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision denying broadcasters a preliminary injunction against Aereo, which lets customers watch New York City-area TV broadcasts online by leasing them personal DVRs and antennas (CD April 2 p8). However, in December, a similar injunction against a competing Internet TV company called Aereokiller was upheld in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said he hopes coming changes in the agency’s leadership due to the impending departure of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell won’t impede progress on the development of rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. However, CTIA President Steve Largent joined other industry figures who have expressed fear that changes at the agency could be a roadblock as it moves toward what Genachowski hopes will be a 2014 auction (CD April 3 p1).

Public interest groups put differences aside and collaborated on a joint letter on the attributes that they said a new FCC chairman and new member of the FCC should have. The letter reminds President Barack Obama that as a senator and as a presidential candidate in 2008, he raised concerns about media consolidation. Last week, Public Knowledge in particular declined to sign on to a letter raising questions about Tom Wheeler, who’s considered the leading contender to be the next chairman (CD March 28 p1), without mentioning him by name. Some public interest groups officials have even signaled to the White House support for Wheeler, the former president of CTIA and NCTA (CD March 26 p1). Last week’s letter had 15 signatories while more than 40 signed the latest letter (http://bit.ly/16zqc6Q).

The U.S. Trade Representative will actively monitor issues and barriers to VoIP services, international telephone termination rates and other problems in the telecom field that must be revisited by foreign trading partners, it said Wednesday. USTR’s Section 1377 Review, issued to Congress this week, identified those areas to encourage trading partners to implement appropriate solutions, said the review (http://1.usa.gov/Yw1mDh).

The 2011 FCC USF order has spurred multiple Texas telcos to seek recovery of millions of dollars worth of lost federal support money from the state’s USF. Valley Telephone Cooperative petitioned the Texas PUC on Friday to allow it to hike rates and recover $613,903.69 from the Texas USF, citing the destructive impact of FCC reform. Valley is the latest among many companies that want state USF money for that reason. Valley and other telcos have asked to recover a total of more than $2.6 million in federal support losses from the Texas USF fund, with more companies potentially following suit despite some opposition.

One potential side effect of the pending change in leadership at the FCC is an almost inevitable slowdown in the development of rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, industry officials agree. The FCC has already been quiet in recent months on the auction, targeted for 2014, with no workshops on the agenda and comparatively little public outreach in recent months. Industry officials following the auction closely say in some cases they are already getting mixed signals from the Wireless and Media bureaus and the staff team overseeing the rules.