The U.S. government shortened the length of Wednesday’s emergency alert system nationwide test to 30 seconds from more than three minutes, a public noticed released by the FCC Thursday said. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shortening the duration of the test will achieve its two goals of testing the system while minimizing the potential disruption and chance for creating concern among the public. That’s something broadcasters and pay-TV providers have been working to remedy, along with the government (CD Oct 28 p12). FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate on Friday asked EAS stakeholders for help educating the public about the exercise.

Chances appear very good that a spectrum sale will be part of any legislation recommended by the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, CEA President Gary Shapiro said in an interview on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, scheduled to be broadcast over the weekend. Shapiro was asked repeatedly about recommendations the group made in an Oct. 27 letter to the super committee (http://xrl.us/bmhuym). Shapiro said the likelihood the committee will recommend spectrum auctions is “well over 90 percent.”

Any Networx contractors that can’t start fulfilling client agencies’ requests for IPv6 work risk losing that work to competitors, a Defense Department official told us. “Discussions in various forums are underway to try to resolve this,” Ron Broersma, a member of the Federal IPv6 Task Force, said by email. “However, if I had my way I wouldn’t wait around for every Networx customer to ask for IPv6 service, but would instead use a top-down approach and ask every Carrier to deploy IPv6 service NOW to every Federal customer, since all will need the IPv6 connectivity to achieve the Federal mandates. If the Carriers can’t deliver, then the Agencies have the choice to switch Carriers.” Broersma spoke last week in San Jose, Calif., at the Gogonet Live conference on IPv6 implementation, about agencies’ poor start on meeting a September 2012 adoption deadline (CD Nov 3 p8). He’s the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s network security manager.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Congress will keep holding hearings about privacy about every couple of weeks into December at least, but it won’t pass a scrap of legislation, said Maureen Cooney, the director of Sprint’s privacy office. “Privacy is one of the hot-button issues on the legislative agenda,” but “it’s very unlikely -- very unlikely -- we'll have new privacy legislation,” she said last week at the Sprint Open Solutions Conference for developers.

Members from each side of the political aisle at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on Friday voiced privacy concerns with a bill (HR-3035) to relax requirements on calls to cellphones now contained in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). But many agreed the 1991 law may need an update. The TCPA is the basis for many consumer complaints submitted to the FCC about unsolicited calls. HR-3035 is supported by the wireless industry, businesses and universities, but opposed by several consumer advocates and state attorneys general (CD Nov 4 p7). Sponsor Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Ed Towns, D-N.Y., said they're open to revising the bill.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sprint is considering selling WiMAX devices beyond its commitment to do so through 2012, as it forges toward the more broadly accepted LTE technology for 4G wireless broadband, CEO Dan Hesse said. Speaking at the Sprint Open Solutions Conference for developers late last week, he didn’t elaborate on the possibility of sticking longer than promised with handsets or other hardware that can use both 3G and WiMAX.

The Rural Cellular Association turned up the heat on the FCC and Congress in an effort to get them to mandate device interoperability across the 700 MHz band, releasing a study by Information Age Economics on the economic effects of doing nothing (http://xrl.us/bmhsag). RCA filed the report Thursday with the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, which is expected to consider spectrum auctions as a way to raise revenue to lower the deficit.

DirecTV has tested a fixed-line Long Term Evolution (LTE) service, but it remains open to wireless and other technologies for supplying broadband to its customers, DirecTV CEO Michael White said Thursday in a conference call.

Judge Ellen Huvelle will allow Sprint Nextel and C Spire to pursue part of their claims against AT&T/T-Mobile, rejecting most claims but allowing two to proceed, in a complicated, 44-page decision handed down Wednesday night. AT&T, Sprint and C Spire all portrayed the decision as a win, as the Department of Justice’s case against the deal moves forward.

A new channel that offers PBS programming in Great Britain will feed back funding to its U.S. component. The intent of PBS UK, which launched this week, is to expand distribution for programming and offer content to a larger audience, said Jan McNamara, PBS spokeswoman. However, the net proceeds earned by PBS through PBS UK “will be invested back into PBS’ domestic operations and content,” she said. Some industry professionals and supporters of funding said adding new revenue sources is imperative, though public broadcasting also needs government funding.