FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero outlined nine key proceedings his bureau is working on, though he said the list isn't exhaustive. First on his list is a draft order that would partially approve a USTelecom forbearance petition for ILEC relief, which is on the commission's Dec. 17 tentative meeting agenda. Speaking at the Practising Law Institute conference Thursday, DelNero said he is personally involved every day in working on separate efforts to overhaul rural rate-of-return USF mechanisms. Asked about the timetable in light of signals from a key senator that the FCC could go beyond a year-end commitment for solving the "stand-alone broadband problem" for rural carriers, DelNero said the agency is eager to complete the rulemaking but also wants "to get it right." He also invited interested parties to provide input on commission efforts to craft an NPRM on broadband privacy under Title II of the Communications Act. Among the other draft items in proceedings he cited are: a Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction framework order, which is circulating; an order to reform Part 32 accounting rules; the 2016 broadband progress report; a Lifeline modernization order; special-access reform actions; and orders on industry transactions, including Charter Communications' proposed buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, and Altice's proposed buys of Cablevision and Suddenlink. On a subsequent panel at the conference, a Netflix official sparred with officials of CenturyLink and Cox Communications over the net neutrality order. Corie Wright, Netflix director-global policy, said she believes the FCC would be upheld in court, as did Washington Utilities and Transportation Commissioner Phil Jones. Jennifer Hightower, Cox senior vice president-law and policy, said the net neutrality order is discouraging broadband investment and that her company is "more cautious than ever" due to uncertainty from the order. Melissa Newman, CenturyLink senior vice president-federal policy and regulatory affairs, agreed, saying her company doesn't know what is allowed under the Internet conduct rule's prohibitions against broadband ISP practices that create "unreasonable interference" or "unreasonable disadvantage" for other parties. Wright disputed the criticisms, which she said were contradicted by the statements and actions of industry executives and Wall Street investors. Jones also said he hadn't seen any drop in broadband investment in his state.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent letters to a dozen domestic airlines and two airplane manufacturers asking them about protections against cyberattacks on airplanes and computer systems. In the Wednesday letters, he sought answers to questions such as whether Wi-Fi capabilities on their planes could be exploited by hackers to enter their systems, whether companies do cybersecurity tests to identify vulnerabilities, how airlines protect customer flight data, if the data are shared with third parties, and whether aircraft manufacturers monitor their planes for cybersecurity issues after they've been sold. Markey said technological advancements have improved aircraft navigation, communication and operational efficiency, but their increasing interconnectedness and connection to the Internet could pose problems. "As we have witnessed recently in the automobile industry, I am concerned that these technologies may also pose great threats to our security, privacy, and economy," he said in a statement. Letters were sent to Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin America, and as well as the airplane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing. Representatives from American and Delta said they received the letters, but had no comment.

The FCC plans a live demonstration and webinar 10-11 a.m. Thursday of its updated website and improvements to its Electronic Comment Filing System, it said in an announcement Wednesday. The demos will include FCC IT staff going through the details of the changes and answering questions, the agency said. To take part in the webinar, go to this site and use meeting password fcc123. The live demonstration will be at the FCC headquarters. The site is expected to go live Dec. 10 (see 1511230053).

The FCC may question Google's plans for nationwide testing in the 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands when it already has an experimental license for testing in narrower bands, said consulting wireless engineer Steve Crowley in a blog post Wednesday. The application is heavily redacted, "but there’s enough there to infer that that this involves high-altitude airborne testing -- perhaps connected to Project Loon or to solar-powered drones emerging from Google’s Titan Aerospace acquisition," Crowley said. The application follows an experimental license the FCC granted Google in June for radio equipment testing in the 75.21-75.79 GHz, 84.21-84.79 GHz and 85.21-85.79 GHz bands specifically in a block of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. "The FCC is leery of experimental operations morphing into services and it may probe Google why it needs to go nationwide over a much larger frequency range," Crowley said. Google didn't comment.

Nearly 4.9 million customer or parent accounts and about 6.4 million related kid profiles worldwide were affected by the VTech data breach (see 1511300026), said the supplier of electronic learning toys Tuesday in an updated FAQ about the incident. The company said its Learning Lodge app store customer database was affected and its Kid Connect servers were accessed. "Kid profiles unlike account profiles only include name, gender and birthdate," the company said. VTech also listed the number of parent accounts and child profiles affected across 12 countries, the U.K., Latin America and a section called "Others." In the U.S., more than 2.2 million parent accounts and nearly 2.9 million child profiles were affected, followed by France where about 870,000 parent accounts and 1.2 million child profiles were breached. VTech also said there's no evidence any compromised data has been used or distributed criminally. It said "appointed data security legal specialists" are in the process of "liaising with local authorities" in the investigation.

Ad fraud, infringed content and malvertising are costing the U.S. digital advertising industry about $8.2 billion annually, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Ernst & Young said in report released Tuesday. In a joint news release on the report, the groups said ad fraud accounts for about $4.6 billion of the waste. "Seventy-two percent of the loss associated with the Web's fraudulent traffic happens on desktops and 28 percent on mobile," the release said. Infringed content -- stolen video programming, music and other illegally distributed editorial content -- accounts for about $2.4 billion in costs. "The findings show that unless the industry takes significant steps, there is a likelihood that the number of people consuming stolen content on digital platforms will increase," they said. Malware-related activities account for about $1.1 billion with $781 million of the losses generated by ad blocking and $204 million from costs related to investigating, remediating and documenting incidents of malicious advertising. The report provides guidance to eliminate corruption by fixing business processes, among other flaws, and encouraging the industry to collaborate on a "trustworthy supply chain," the release said.

A new auction simulation showed very few TV stations getting repacked into the duplex gap, said former Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden in a blog post Tuesday. Conducted by auction economist Peter Cramton at the request of a former EOBC member, the simulation showed “only between 1 and 3 TV Stations” being assigned a channel in the duplex gap, Padden said. The simulation showed the auction clearing 114 MHz of spectrum, with “96.8 percent of the spectrum blocks offered to bidders in the top 40 markets” classified as unimpaired, Padden said. The simulation assumed that affiliates of the top five commercial networks and PBS in the top 50 markets wouldn't participate in the auction, Padden said. “The results of the new Cramton analysis should give comfort to television broadcasters, to wireless carriers and to the FCC Officials.”

The FCC should address the likely problems of broadcasters sharing TV white spaces (TVWS) with unlicensed devices, said the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) in a letter and white paper posted online in docket 12-268 Monday. The white paper urges the FCC to adopt a joint solution proposed by broadcasters and unlicensed device manufacturers based on an accurate database of device locations to prevent interference. “Broadcasters understand the need to use spectrum effectively and efficiently, have a long history of sharing with other services and do not oppose sharing with unlicensed services provided adequate safeguards are in place,” said NABA. “To date, that is not the case with TVWS.”

Don't let ISPs "hide poor, inconsistent performance" on broadband "behind methodologies that provide a misleading 'average' performance statistic" in disclosure to customers, Level 3 said in an FCC filing on a meeting with officials. "Consumers should have access to data that tells them, for each provider, whether the provider offers consistent, high-speed performance to Internet broadly, or whether the provider offers inconsistent performance, with better connectivity to some resources than to others." Level 3 used a recent Consumer Advisory Committee proposal (see 1511040030) that consumer ISPs report average download speed, upload speed, latency and packet loss as a starting point for its own plan. For ISPs that can measure performance across their interconnections to other networks, Level 3 recommended "calculating average performance for each destination network, and disclosing the average performance for the destination networks with the best, median, and slowest averages." ISPs also should disclose a "Connectivity Rating" showing if "there is a significant likelihood that performance to some parts of the Internet could become degraded during peak hours because of lack of adequate interconnection capacity," said the backbone provider, which has feuded with ISPs and others over interconnection and other Web issues. Its filing posted Friday in docket 14-28 recounted Assistant General Counsel-Federal Affairs Joseph Cavender’s meeting with FCC Chief Technologist Scott Jordan and a officials from the Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus.

Cable officials said they had concerns with the FCC's Measuring Broadband America (MBA) program, though overall it "continues to serve the public interest." In a meeting with FCC staffers, including Chief Technologist Scott Jordan, the industry officials noted “periodic failures on the Measurement Lab test server platform” resulting in faulty test results (see 1510150052). They also discussed considerations to apply in possible guidance from Jordan under paragraph 166 of the net neutrality order. “With respect to the requirement that broadband providers disclose actual performance that is 'reasonably related' to the geographic area where the customer purchases service, we reminded the Commission that the MBA program considered reporting results at a regional level but rejected that approach because of the significant expense it would entail,” said the NCTA filing in docket 14-28 on the meeting, which also included officials from Charter Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable. “We also explained that individual cable operators generally deploy the same technology and follow the same operational practices across their footprint, so the nationwide results reported by the MBA program should reasonably reflect performance in each geographic area served by a particular operator.” In addition, the cable officials said smaller fixed broadband providers faced challenges complying with a duty to disclose actual performance data. Thousands of providers haven't been included in the program, depriving them of access to the MBA test platform and equipment, NCTA said. “While a handful of larger non-MBA companies have taken it upon themselves to deploy a similar testing regime, any guidance issued by the Commission should reiterate that alternative, less expensive, approaches also are permissible,” the group said. “We also encouraged the Commission to offer additional companies the opportunity to participate in the MBA program, thereby increasing the percentage of broadband consumers that are covered by the program.”