House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Wednesday he didn’t think there is enough political will for lawmakers to tackle music royalty performance rights this session. He'd prefer an industry-based solution rather than congressional intervention, he said: “Frankly you see a stalemate up here on these issues, and so it really is better done out in the marketplace,” he told us following a subcommittee hearing on the future of audio. He and other subcommittee members praised a recent Clear Channel agreement to pay performance royalties to the Big Machine Label Group and its artists (CD June 6 p12).

DALLAS -- U.S. networks have seen a 20,000 percent increase in mobile data traffic over the past five years, and that growth could freeze in its tracks without public policy that makes enough spectrum available, AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson. Getting the public policy right will drive economic growth, he told a Telecommunications Industry Association conference in his keynote.

Wednesday’s Internet Society world IPv6 launch appeared headed for success at our deadline, with several participants saying they had encountered few if any problems in their own or customers’ connectivity, and experienced significant leaps in traffic. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to do, they said. Among other things, concerns remain in Europe, which is about to run out of IPv4 addresses and is lagging in IPv6 deployment, several observers said.

The FCC lacks authority for disabilities accessibility rules in areas where a committee of representatives of industry and those with problems seeing couldn’t agree, three associations said. CEA, NAB and NCTA were the only initial commenters by a 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline in dockets 12-107 and 12-108 on a Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee report on areas including device and user interface accessibility and getting emergency information. The associations said that just because the VPAAC couldn’t achieve consensus doesn’t mean regulation’s needed or lawful.

There’s little leeway in the timing of the FCC’s recently adopted political file rule if it’s to be in place in time for the 2012 general election, industry officials who opposed the order and public-interest officials who backed it told us. The rule would require TV stations affiliated with the Big Four broadcast networks in the top-50 markets to post on a website run by the commission their political file information, including who’s buying airtime at government-mandated rates. The NAB has already asked a court to review the decision and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must sign off on it before it takes effect.

FirstNet faces a tough challenge starting this summer to put in place a wireless network for first responders, Steve Proctor, a member of the 15-member Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability, told the National Public Safety Telecommunication Council at a meeting in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday. The board, which operated under the FCC, submitted its report to the agency in May. The FirstNet board, which is under NTIA, hasn’t been appointed. Both committees were established by the spectrum legislation, which was enacted in February.

Public safety officials in many major U.S. cities remain concerned about a requirement that they vacate the 700 MHz T-band, Public Safety Spectrum Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen told the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council. Under spectrum legislation that became law in February, public safety got the 700 MHz D-block, but had to give up the T-band, heavily used in a number of major cities. Public safety is required to vacate the T-band within nine years, under the spectrum law. In April, the FCC Public Safety Bureau imposed an immediate freeze on applications for new stations and major modifications in the T-band.

Executives from CEA and Pandora said in separate interviews Tuesday lawmakers are increasingly supportive of leveling the playing field among broadcast, radio and Internet radio stations. CEA President Gary Shapiro and Pandora founder Tim Westergren are scheduled to testify Wednesday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the future of audio.

U.S. network operators’ privacy practices generally work, and the FCC has a role to play on the issue, Chairman Julius Genachowski said. Both the FCC and the FTC have “a very important role,” one that’s “in many respects” complementary, he said in a Q-and-A Tuesday at an FCBA luncheon. “In other respects they overlap,” Genachowski said of the agencies’ privacy roles, with the FCC focused on networks and “the FTC is more focused on apps.” He again said an update of the 1996 Telecom Act may be a good idea.

USTelecom objected to the FCC’s draft decision to freeze further grants of pricing flexibility as it seeks more data on special access. But competitive carriers as a group and individually welcomed the move. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated an order Monday suspending the grant of any new “price flexibility” petitions while the special access probe moves forward (CD June 5 p3). The order also denied three pending pricing flexibility petitions. In January, CompTel and allies withdrew a petition at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking the court to grant a writ of mandamus that would have forced the FCC to act on special access reform. Officials said then they did so following promises that a special access order was being readied by the Wireline Bureau (CD Jan 27 p1).