The FCC shouldn’t impose rules that would limit the participation of the largest carriers in future spectrum auctions, former FCC Chief Economist Tom Hazlett said Wednesday during a presentation sponsored by the Hudson Institute. Legislation approved by Congress last week opens the door to such rules, but only through a separate public rulemaking with general industry applicability (CD Feb 17 p1). Hazlett is a professor at the George Mason University Law School.

A Michigan bill would make it easier for providers to install telecom facilities on state-owned lands now being used for rail trails. The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Tom Casperson and recently passed in the Senate, is expected to gain House support, industry officials said. The bill is significant for broadband expansion in the state because Michigan has more than 2,000 miles of rail trails, they said. However, opponents feared the bill might hurt funding for trail maintenance and development.

Verizon’s plan to buy AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox, and marketing agreements tied to the deal, are running into opposition similar to opposition that aimed at AT&T’s failed bid to buy T-Mobile. But this time around T-Mobile is leading the charge, with Sprint Nextel also emerging once again as a prominent opponent. Public interest groups and other competitors also filed petitions to deny.

Democrats and the telecom industry are pushing for “dig once” language to be added to the surface transportation legislation due for votes after Congress returns next week from recess. House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has an amendment that would require states to evaluate including broadband conduit during the construction of federal highways. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have a Senate amendment requiring states to include the conduit. CTIA, USTelecom and the Telecom Industry Association support the broadband conduit proposals, their officials said.

Calling cyberattacks a “critical threat to our economic future and national security,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked Internet stakeholders Wednesday to address three significant cyberthreats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking. Specifically, Genachowski called on ISPs to develop and adopt an industry-wide code of conduct to combat botnets; develop secure routing standards to eliminate maliciously misrouted traffic; and adopt a series of DNS security extensions, called DNSSEC, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Genachowski said the vulnerabilities were identified after he tasked the FCC’s Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) with making recommendations in March 2011.

Tower operator SBA Communications will acquire 2,300 tower sites in the U.S. and Central America and some distributed antenna systems from Mobilitie for $1 billion, the companies said. Rivals American Tower and Crown Castle recently snapped up tower sites and small antenna assets. More tower deals, especially carrier deals and small antenna system transactions, are expected, analysts said.

FCC VoIP outage reporting rules will apply to both facilities-based and non-facilities based interconnected VoIP providers, according to the text of the order extending outage reporting requirements to VoIP service providers released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmsyer). Because non-facilities-based VoIP providers may have difficulty complying with mandatory outage reporting for underlying broadband networks not in their control, the rules require non-facilities based providers to report service outages only “that involve facilities that they own, operate, lease, or otherwise utilize.”

Spectrum legislation approved by Congress last week as part of the payroll tax cut extension bill offers $115 million to help defray the costs of a next generation 911 (NG911) network. That’s the good news for public safety. The bad news is that amount is less than one twentieth of the expected cost. But public safety officials said other provisions should be helpful in making NG911 a reality.

Debate between broadcasters and nonprofits about what information TV stations should be required to report online, by moving paper files in studios to the Internet, heated up as an FCC vote on an order nears. The Media Bureau continues work on an order to require many parts of stations’ public files to be put online, and may circulate an order in time for a vote at the March 21 meeting, agency and industry officials said. Public interest groups and broadcasters continued trading FCC filings about the merits of scaling back the commission’s proposed rules, with industry wanting fewer requirements than the commission has proposed and nonprofits urging the agency to stick with what was floated in an October rulemaking notice.

The Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecommunications Group both warned the FCC the Mobility Fund created by the Connect America Fund order is too small to meet the needs of rural America. Replies were due last week on the dedicated wireless fund created by the FCC’s October Universal Service Fund reform order (CD Oct 28 p1).