Correction: The Kansas City where Google Fiber began was in Kansas (CD Mar 5 p16).

An FCC docket on “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet” has been flooded with comments since it was opened by Chairman Tom Wheeler last month (CD Feb 20 p1). As of Tuesday, the FCC had logged 9,341, many of which appeared to have been submitted as text messages. Most offered the same one-sentence of advice: “Reclassify Internet Service Providers As Common Carriers.” Some elaborated. For example, one signed by “Harold Kelley” said, “It is NOT right for BIG TELECOM companies to be allowed to discriminate in any way whatsoever in the manner in how they carry and or transmit Internet Traffic.” (http://bit.ly/1n8lSDP)

The FCC’s Technological Advisory Council will meet Monday from 1-4 p.m. EDT at FCC headquarters, the FCC said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kVniQN). The main topic is “the proposed work program for the coming year,” the FCC said. TAC was formerly chaired by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. TAC last met Dec. 16, when it was addressed by Wheeler (CD Dec 17 p9).

The deadline to file comments on the FCC’s proposed methodology for predicting potential interference between broadcast TV and licensed wireless signals has been moved to March 17, said the Office of Engineering & Technology in a public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1jMGlgi). The comment deadline was Friday, the notice said. The extension was the result of a joint request (CD Feb 21 p18) from NAB, several network affiliate boards, the Association of Public Television Stations, Univision and the Public Broadcasting Service, which said they need more time to prepare comments in the wake of an FCC workshop on the channel assignment repacking process.

The FCC Wireless Bureau confirmed that Dish Network bought all 176 licenses sold in the H-block auction (http://fcc.us/1dhJjHU), which closed last week (CD Feb 28 p3). Dish paid a total of $1.564 billion, bidding through a subsidiary, American H Block Wireless. Dish paid a low of $10,000 for the American Samoa licenses and a high of $216.955 million for the license covering New York City and several adjoining areas. Dish had competition for some of the licenses, though none of the major wireless carriers were players. The most competition came from bidder CTM Spectrum, which made two separate bids for the New York license, before Dish made the final winning bid in round 24, FCC records show. CTM made a run on other major licenses as well, including those covering the Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco markets, but in each case its bid was trumped by Dish. CTM was backed by various venture capitalists firms and its primary contact is listed on an FCC form as Monish Kundra, a partner at Columbia Capital.

The FCC Media Bureau will allow broadcasters filing ex parte notices in the incentive auction proceeding to do so without disclosing their identities, the bureau said in a public notice Friday. “We recognize that broadcasters may have legitimate reasons for not wanting to disclose their potential interest in reverse auction participation,” the bureau said. Allowing anonymity “in this limited circumstance will encourage broadcasters to engage in frank discussions with Commission staff, promoting informed participation in the reverse auction and a more robust Commission decision-making process,” said the notice. However, such notices should “provide sufficient basic information to better allow the FCC and the public to understand and evaluate the positions taken during such an anonymous ex parte presentation.” That could include the market tiers the involved stations operate in and whether they are network affiliated or independent, the notice said. Broadcasters “must otherwise continue to follow the ex parte rules, including providing all data presented and arguments made during an ex parte presentation, except with respect to the provision of specific information that would reveal the filer’s identity, e.g., the call sign of its station,” the notice said.

Correction: RIAA’s position on the Songwriter Equity Act is that it’s neutral (CD Feb 27 p12).

There’s nothing in Comcast and Netflix’s paid peering deal that’s anticompetitive, Technology Policy Institute President Tom Lenard told us Thursday. A day earlier, Consumers Union said it asked the FCC to see if degradation of Netflix quality for Comcast broadband subscribers violated an order’s conditions letting the ISP buy control of NBCUniversal, and asked the Justice Department to see if it violated a consent decree on the NBCU deal (CD Feb 27 p10). There’s nothing in CU’s letters to the agencies that shows the paid peering is anticompetitive or that consumers won’t benefit, said Lenard, an economist who has opposed the FCC net neutrality order. “It would be great if everything was free” as CU suggests, “but unfortunately that’s not the real world,” he said. “I don’t see any evidence that Comcast has more ‘clout’ than Netflix in these negotiations, and Netflix would not have agreed if the company did not think the deal would be beneficial.” The “reality” of the peering deal, which addresses congestion slowing delivery of Netflix to Comcast Internet subscribers, is it “reflects a common market transaction that yields an outcome more efficient and more quickly than any regulatory intervention could have,” wrote Lenard on TPI’s blog Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1eAsiVJ). “When Netflix pays Comcast for transit, the cost is passed through to Netflix subscribers. This is both efficient and fair, because the consumer of Netflix services is paying for the cost of that service."

Liberation Music, an Australian record label, will pay Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig an undisclosed amount in a settlement for “harm it caused” when it sued Lessig over his use of a song by the band Phoenix, which Liberation represents, said a Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/N8BqL8). The EFF helped represent Lessig, it said. Lessig countersued on fair-use grounds, it said. “Hopefully this lawsuit and this settlement will send a message to copyright owners to adopt fair takedown practices -- or face the consequences,” said Lessig, in the release. “Liberation Music agrees that Professor Lessig’s use of the Phoenix song ‘Lisztomania’ was both fair use under US law and fair dealing under Australian law,” said the record label, in the release.

Officials of CTIA and Los Angeles TV stations KLCS and KJLA met with various FCC officials to discuss their channel-sharing pilot program, said an ex parte filing. “Alan Popkin, of KLCS discussed a number of issues related to bandwidth management, bit rate efficiency, quality of experience, virtual information, program count and engineering best practices,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/1gFGL58). “The parties noted their expectation that this testing will yield critically important data to the FCC and other parties interested in undertaking their own channel sharing efforts, by arming them with the information necessary to make informed decisions and to promote a productive channel sharing system.” CTIA and the stations proposed the project in January (CD Jan 29 p4).