A broad coalition representing broadcasters and wireless companies Thursday called for changes to the proposed bandplan for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. The call came in a letter to the FCC on the eve of a deadline for initial comments on the much-anticipated auction. As expected (CD Jan 24 p1), the letter objected to a proposal to put some broadcasters in the so-called duplexer gap, surrounded by wireless operations. The letter was signed by NAB, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Qualcomm and Intel.

NARUC will tackle spectrum sharing, emergency communications coordination and the FCC’s “repeated abuses of informal rulemaking,” according to draft resolutions released this week (http://xrl.us/bob6pm). State regulators will consider the resolutions at their winter meeting in Washington in February. The proposed resolutions delve into past controversial territory, such as addressing FCC referral to the Federal-State Joint Boards on Separations and Universal Service. USTelecom objected to joint board referral provisions at the past two NARUC meetings, in Baltimore in November (CD Nov 14 p5) and Portland, Ore., last July (CD July 25 p8), although both of the resolutions passed.

Verizon is raising questions about whether the amount of time proposed rules for the Experimental Radio Service would allow for companies to object to experimental license applications when they are filed is adequate. FCC officials tell us the issue is starting to heat up. The commission is tentatively slated to take up a report and order at its Jan. 31 meeting on experimental licensing rules (CD Jan 11 p12), the main item on the preliminary agenda (http://xrl.us/bob7g7).

Ovation asked the FCC to intervene just before Time Warner Cable (TWC) stopped carrying it at the end of 2012 (CD Jan 3 p10), filings show. The cable network filed an emergency petition with the commission Dec. 19, saying TWC failed to give proper notice to subscribers about the coming channel lineup change that would result from no longer carrying Ovation. The pleadings from last month were posted Thursday in docket 03-15 (http://xrl.us/bob6vs).

As the FCC weighs whether to relax a ban on mergers between newspapers and TV stations in the same market, it must heavily consider the public interest and the status of media ownership, officials watching the agency’s proceeding on new rules said Thursday at a New America Foundation event. Those with differing views on how much deregulation, if any, should be allowed agreed that minority ownership of media properties is low. The Internet hasn’t helped expand the amount of news covered, some agreed, and others said the commission needs to allow for innovation in promulgating new rules.

Telcos and carriers could soon face a mandatory data collection to determine the extent of the rural call completion problem, FCC and industry officials told us. They said a Wireline Bureau notice of proposed rulemaking that circulated Jan. 14 proposes to require the first facilities-based originating interexchange carrier to track certain information about when calls to rural areas are completed, versus when calls to urban areas are completed. The NPRM proposes banning “phantom ringback” tones, which falsely lead a caller to believe the call is being connected, FCC and industry officials said. Rural phone associations have been pushing for action since it became clear that last year’s declaratory ruling on the importance of call completion wasn’t having the effect they had hoped for (CD April 16 p3). Last month, 34 senators urged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to investigate why some calls to rural areas calls are delayed, have poor quality or fail to connect altogether.

Major changes in the U.S. telecom marketplace in the 15 years since passage of the 1996 Telecom Act highlight the need for reforms to that legislation, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May Wednesday during an event. The pro-deregulation think tank was promoting its new book, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age, which focuses on how U.S. telecom law and policy should change over the next five years. Reforms should reflect changes to the marketplace since 1996 -- the switch from analog to digital, the switch from narrow-band to broadband networks and the switch from a mostly monopolistic marketplace to one that’s highly competitive, May said. “Those changes call for a new communications law, and certainly, absent waiting for the new law, changes in the direction of communications policy,” he said.

The FCC’s proposed “preferred” band plan for an incentive auction of broadcast-TV spectrum is raising big concerns among both carriers and broadcasters, lawyers representing both said. The issue is expected to arise in comments filed by NAB, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Qualcomm and others, which are due at the FCC Friday. Concerns over the band plan and the lack of international coordination could lead to delays in the start of the incentive auction, which Chairman Julius Genachowski has predicted would get underway next year, industry and agency sources said.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters Wednesday that the subcommittee’s first hearing of the 113th Congress will investigate Internet regulation on Feb. 5. Also on tap are subcommittee hearings on the development of FirstNet, the FCC’s incentive auction and the reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).

The waiver request that’s believed to be the basis for a draft order on public files that the FCC Media Bureau staff have been working on is for KTBS-TV Shreveport, La., said industry and agency officials. The request seeks forbearance so TV stations need not post in their online public files materials from past license renewal cycles. The draft hasn’t circulated for a vote or been approved on delegated authority, industry and agency officials said. Some industry lawyers said work on the draft appeared finished or nearly finished, but approval was held up.