An upcoming rulemaking notice asks about an FCC advisory group’s recommendations (CD July 15 p5) on putting online captioned programming from traditional sources, agency and industry officials said. They said the draft notice seeks to implement definitions of and rules for such captions once they go into Internet Protocol format. Many commissioners haven’t voted on the item, but are expected to do so soon, agency officials said.

Lee Hamilton, vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, and Tom Ridge, the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday they're extremely frustrated that, 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, first responders still lack effective, interoperable communications. Both testified at a hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cisco is pressing the FCC for a broad swath of “contiguous spectrum” in the 5 GHz band for unlicensed sharing for broadband, the chief technology officer of the company’s wireless networking unit said Thursday. But the executive, Bob Friday, said the effort is complicated by a need to accommodate weather radars on the band. Cisco wants to add 195 MHz total in the 5.350-5.470 and 5.850-5.925 GHz bands to the 455 MHz of spectrum now available to mobile communications in the 5 GHz, a spokeswoman said.

Industry was cool to FCC proposals to include performance metrics for its expanded network outage reporting requirements. Speaking on a pair of panels at the commission Thursday, executives from CenturyLink, Vonage, Cox and the Telecommunications Industry Association raised concerns that the proposals might unfairly burden companies without adding any clarity to communications network failures.

TiVo got an FCC waiver to sell all-digital DVR devices that can’t get analog cable channels or analog broadcasts. The conditional waiver was issued by the Media Bureau Wednesday afternoon, citing cost reduction and power consumption as benefits. The company was required to include post-sale materials on some of the new products’ limitations, including that traditional set-tops still may be needed to get all the pay-TV companies’ services. TiVo had sought speedy approval of the waiver, which it got, to begin selling the device in time for the holiday shopping season for consumer electronics (CD June 9 p12).

The FCC has one more rulemaking to issue on putting into place new low-power FM rules from legislation last year that paved the way for the licensing of many more LPFMs, agency and industry officials said. They said the Media Bureau will circulate for a vote a rulemaking notice to implement the rest of the Local Community Radio Act. The forthcoming notice, which may not be finished yet and ready to circulate, is expected to deal with the technical details of licensing new LPFM stations that are closer to frequencies used by existing full-power FM broadcasters than the commission had permitted. Comments, meanwhile, came in to dockets 99-25 and 07-712 on another rulemaking implementing other parts of the act, including from members of the House and Senate who are proponents of LPFM.

Wireless carriers other than AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which signed the ABC Plan for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation reform, hope to win concessions as proposed changes to the program move forward at the FCC. With the wireless industry presenting a divided front, it’s unclear how much leverage smaller wireless carriers will have and what changes they will be able to push through at the commission.

Several governmental agencies will voice strong reservations over LightSquared’s revised plans for beginning wireless service in the lower part of its L-band spectrum in a Thursday Congressional hearing, according to copies of written testimony obtained by Communications Daily. The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing on the impact of LightSquared on federal science activities is scheduled for 2 p.m. in room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

State regulators took aim at the industry-endorsed proposals for universal service and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, in reply comments on docket 10-90. Drawing the heaviest fire was the incumbent-backed America’s Broadband Connectivity plan. Regulators from Maine to Alaska blasted the proposals. State regulators have formed themselves into a task force hoping to convince the FCC that it’s too early to create uniform compensation rates (CD Sept 2 p7).

As Congress returns to tackling technology-related legislation, some bills could get some movement, said Internet policy experts for the Center for Democracy & Technology. Bills concerning location privacy from Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and HR-1981, a data retention bill from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, could move through the process this Congress, they said.