A Manhattan CLEC plans to introduce a new IPTV service and triple-play bundle with 100 Mbps broadband speeds. Media 3 Corp. submitted an application to the FCC last week for certification as an open video system (http://xrl.us/bnmow3). Comments on the application are due Wednesday, Aug. 22, a public notice issued Tuesday said (http://xrl.us/bnmoux). The CLEC has collocated facilities with Verizon and plans to lease local loops from the phone company and lease dark fiber from other providers to provide its service, Ted Flomenhaft, Media 3 senior vice president and one of its three owners, told us.

ASPEN, Colo. -- The U.S. government needs to focus on narrow reforms to the patent system to encourage and enhance the “magic of technology,” said Kent Walker, Google senior vice president-general counsel, Tuesday at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. He urged policymakers to refocus the patent system around software patents and urged the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to scrutinize patents more carefully before granting them.

MINNEAPOLIS -- A text-to-911 order could be released next month, FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky told the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) conference. Last September the bureau sought comment on near- and long-term options for next generation 911, and received a variety of ideas on how to best support a text-to-911 service, he said. While only a fully deployed next-gen system will support the full range of multimedia communications, including photos and video, “it’s feasible to quickly and cost-effectively implement” an interim version, which would allow people to use SMS text messaging to contact 911. An order could come at the September or October monthly meeting, he said.

ASPEN, Colo. -- A LightSquared spectrum swap with the Department of Defense remains a possibility but would likely “take some time,” said founder Philip Falcone of the bankrupt owner of mobile satellite frequency licenses, which he said Monday still hopes to use for terrestrial wireless service. In the short term, LightSquared is more focused on spectrum sharing scenarios, said Falcone, CEO of Harbinger Capital Partners, the hedge fund that’s the biggest investor in LightSquared. It will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy “in a better place” with respect to the U.S. regulatory environment, Falcone told a dinner at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen conference. The FCC has proposed rescinding a waiver to LightSquared, no longer letting it build out the terrestrial service.

Moving to end a backlog of captioning exemption requests built up since 2006, the FCC this year rejected several hundred, about three quarters of the total. That came after requiring many of the broadcast-TV programmers to update their requests. Those that didn’t do so had them rejected, and some of those hired lawyers to refile. That’s according to our review of applications, commission data and interviews with waiver seekers and those opposing them. Efforts by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to decide on hundreds of requests led CGB to dismiss 851 without prejudice against refiling in 2012, bureau data show. They show 58 requests first made in 2006, 2005 or earlier and rescinded Oct. 20 to correct procedural flaws in waiver handling during the chairmanship of Kevin Martin were reapplied for (CD Oct 6 p5), and 100 requests predating October 2010 were updated. There are now about 245 requests pending.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Nineteen months after a national wireless network for first responders was proposed in the 2011 State of the Union address, the FirstNet’s board of directors was named Monday at the opening session of the Association of Public Communications Officials annual conference. After commending President Barack Obama for calling for the creation of the national wireless network for first responders, Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank revealed the dozen selections. Most were pleased with the selections, though the National Governors Association said it was “disappointed” by the lack of representation by current state officials.

The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs isn’t transparent or effective enough, some said at a panel Monday. Hosted by the Sunlight Foundation’s Advisory Committee on Transparency, panelists discussed the future of the “super-regulators” at OIRA. OIRA doesn’t do enough to encourage regulation, said Public Citizen President Robert Weissman. Instead, he said, the agency plays a role in a “fundamentally broken system” of regulating that has “an industry bias from the start to the end.”

ASPEN, Colo. -- Tom Tauke critiqued what he called U.S. government’s “backwards looking” perspective on telecommunications regulatory policies. His comments came at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum Monday. Tauke, Verizon executive vice president-public affairs, policy and communications, urged lawmakers to revise the “obsolete” 1996 Telecom Act and focus on policies that encourage growth and innovation. Representatives from Comcast and Google, speaking on the same panel, said they're encouraged by both presidential candidates’ perspective on technology, and Congress’ appetite to tackle legacy regulations.

Verizon is endangering Prairie Mountain, a small town in central Texas, with bad service, two representatives of the town told the Texas Public Utility Commission during a Friday hearing. The carrier has provided a “continuous decline” in service over the last decade or so, said resident Wallace Klussman. The population of Llano County, home to the town, is just above 19,000.

ASPEN, Colo. -- The ITU is not the right place to consider new rules for the Web, said Fiona Alexander, NTIA’s associate administrator-office of international affairs. “It is the wrong venue … because it brings broader harm,” she said during a panel Monday at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) disagreed, saying telcos require the international forum of the ITU to address the international nature of the Internet.