The Obama administration plans an “all-of-the-above” approach on spectrum, wrote White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, in a joint Wall Street Journalop-ed. The AWS-3 auction “is an important step toward President [Barack] Obama ’s goal of freeing up 500 megahertz of spectrum by 2020, nearly doubling the amount available for mobile broadband use,” they said. It’s crucial to make more spectrum available and that government agencies continue to find ways to free up more spectrum, they said. “Ultimately, reaching the president’s 500 MHz goal will require changing the traditional spectrum model of exclusive, licensed use. Many organizations have begun to explore new technologies for sharing spectrum more efficiently and new economic models for allocating this scarce resource.”

Comments are due March 9, replies April 7, on a Nov. 21 NPRM on governance and oversight of 911 service in light of the IP transition, said a Thursday FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice. "The American public has developed certain expectations with respect to the availability of 911 and E911 emergency services, and Commission action is both appropriate and necessary where reliance on voluntary efforts alone proves inadequate to ensure reliable and resilient 911 service,” the FCC said in the NPRM.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s visit to Washington this week took him to Capitol Hill Thursday, according to photos posted on his Instagram account. He initially met with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for a “great” meeting, he said in posting the photo: “Thank you for supporting competition!” Later he posted a photo of himself and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., noting that he met with Markey to discuss T-Mobile and “thank him for support.” Legere previously posted photos this week showing his meetings with FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai. Legere also met with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Chairman Tom Wheeler. He tweeted: “Two very different meetings @fcc, one with @TomWheelerFCC and one with @JRosenworcel! Thank you Chairman Wheeler for supporting competition.” Clyburn posted a tweet of her own, showing Legere seated next to her wearing high-top Converse All-Stars in T-Mobile magenta.

Harman announced purchase agreements designed to position the company as a leading software provider for the connected space. CEO Dinesh Paliwal said on a Thursday conference call that Harman’s planned buys of Symphony Teleca, which provides software engineering and integration services globally, and Red Bend Software, provider of over-the-air (OTA) and cybersecurity software, will transform Harman into a “comprehensive products, systems and engineering services company” for the automotive, telecom, media, CE and healthcare markets. Harman will be able to “enable and enhance the connected lifestyle people want,” Paliwal said. Both companies have been service providers to Harman “for some time,” he said. The Red Bend transaction is valued at $170 million -- about $99 million in stock and $71 million in cash. The agreement to buy Symphony Teleca calls for a base purchase price of $780 million, including $382 million in cash and $166 million in Harman stock. The acquisitions will add some 8,000 engineers -- most from Symphony Teleca -- to Harman’s current engineering staff of 3,500 in software and 3,000 in hardware and industrial design, Paliwal said. Symphony Teleca, based in Silicon Valley, has a customer base including Adobe, Comcast, Google, Intel, Jaguar, Land Rover, Microsoft, Verizon and SiriusXM, Harman said. Symphony Teleca, which brings a platform for integrated services geared to converged markets, along with software engineering and integrated services for the connected experience, offers Harman “immediate scale and engineering services to accelerate connected car innovations,” Paliwal said. Symphony’s software development capabilities will enable Harman to integrate and leverage high-margin segments including the cloud, mobile devices, design and analytics, said Paliwal. He said Symphony is the “largest Android ecosystem scaling partner worldwide” as well as a strategic partner of Microsoft. Harman will be able to provide a “complete set of software defined services” around predictive analytics, cloud enablement, the Internet of Things gateway, turnkey mobile development and commercialization “to enable everything from autonomous driving to intelligent cities,” he said. Israeli company Red Bend -- with a customer base including AT&T, China Mobile, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, Sprint, Telit and Verizon -- provides over-the-air software and hypervisor-based virtualization technology for cybersecurity applications. The technology is positioned to meet the demands of the connected car and can be a “prerequisite to autonomous driving,” Paliwal said. That includes the ability to deliver “safe, secure OTA updates” for on-board and non-Harmon automotive systems, “either embedded or downloaded,” Paliwal said.

CEA is “disappointed” that President Barack Obama “missed the opportunity” in his State of the Union address “to push for strategic immigration reform,” said CEA President Gary Shapiro Wednesday in a statement. Immigration reform for the high-skilled is needed “to keep the world’s best and brightest here in the U.S. to build companies and create jobs, a key policy component necessary to maintain our leadership in innovation,” Shapiro said. “We also would have appreciated the recognition he provided in the 2014 State of the Union speech that patent trolls are hurting America's job creators.” Shapiro hailed Obama’s promise to “proactively seek bipartisan support” of trade promotion authority (TPA), “especially with the opportunity we have this year to pass trade agreements that help our manufacturing sector.” To compete in the global marketplace, “U.S. manufacturers have to be able to effectively supply the world with their products,” Shapiro said. “Passing TPA legislation that reflects the realities of the digital age would not only improve U.S. trade, but also strengthen job creation and bolster our economic recovery.” CEA agrees with the need to preserve an open Internet, Shapiro said. But “the best way to do so is through a measured and common-sense approach that encourages competition” among ISPs and investment in the Internet, he said. That’s “a solution that balances the desire for open access with the need to continue encouraging innovation,” he said. CEA also backs Obama’s call “to reform unfair and outdated tax laws that allow more than $2 trillion in U.S. corporate earnings to be held overseas, and use those funds to help upgrade our nation’s infrastructure,” Shapiro said.

The Department of Energy released recommendations for utility companies to ensure that all customers' energy usage data remains private. The guidelines, known as the Smart Grid Data Privacy Voluntary Code of Conduct (VCC), were developed in the past two years after customer concerns about smart metering technology, which were largely exposed in a recent white paper from the American Public Power Association, DOE said Tuesday. Its recommendations aren't mandatory but are viewed as a step toward ensuring customers can't be identified by data collected by the smart meters, said the department.

AT&T's planned acquisition of DirecTV will close in Q2, Canaccord Genuity analysts emailed investors Wednesday. The acquisition is expected to close in 2015's first half, an AT&T spokeswoman emailed us. The ongoing net neutrality debate and the FCC upcoming vote on a net neutrality order in February won’t affect the acquisition, Canaccord Genuity said. DirecTV didn't have an immediate comment. The news release announcing AT&T/DirecTV May 18 said it was expected to close within about 12 months, a DirecTV spokesman said.

The American Cable Association, in its reply comments filed at the FCC Thursday (see 1501080059), urged the commission to adopt remedial conditions to protect small- and medium-sized multichannel video programming distributors from alleged public interest harms associated with the AT&T/DirecTV acquisition. They should include redesigned nondiscriminatory program access rules and a commercial arbitration remedy to protect against unfair prices, terms and conditions, it said. ACA said the acquisition also could enhance the combined company's ability to charge higher prices for regional sports programming. ACA asked for similar protective merger conditions in its comments on the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal. In both deals ACA has proposed increased transparency of programming negotiations and a revamped system for bringing program access complaints. The FCC "must ensure" that procedures for enforcing program access on the deals "are effective for small and medium-sized MVPDs," ACA said.

The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) urged the FCC Thursday not to revise its interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, saying industry petitions to clarify portions of the law would “gut” the law’s intent. “We hope that the FCC will resist the pressure from business and industry trade groups to weaken rules that prevent robocalls to cell phones without consent,” NCLC Counsel Margot Saunders said in a news release. “Repeated unauthorized calls and texts to consumers’ cell phones invade privacy and cost money by using their precious minutes or limited text allowances.” The American Bankers Association and Consumer Bankers Association are among the groups seeking a reinterpretation of the law (see 1411060037 and 1411180026).

Motorola Solutions is investing in speech enhancement developer VocalZoom, Motorola Solutions said Wednesday. It didn’t disclose terms, but said other investors include 3M, Japanese firm FueTrak and OurCrowd. Israeli company VocalZoom has created an optoelectronic microphone that can enhance a speaker’s voice by creating a “virtual cube” so it substantially stands out above background noise. Motorola Solutions said its investment is connected to its plans to enhance public safety and commercial communications. VocalZoom’s technology “is the only technology of its kind that is not affected by any background noise, and has the potential to provide disruptive voice clarity in any condition,” VocalZoom Chairman Yechiel Kurtz said in a Motorola Solutions news release. The technology “has the potential to be the difference of whether a firefighter can communicate at a dangerous fire scene or if a transportation or utility worker can give or receive information in a noisy work environment,” Motorola Solutions Chief Technology Officer Paul Steinberg said in the release.