Speculation about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile US merger “will continue to persist,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche Thursday in an email to investors. There would likely be “little resistance of such a move from both” AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Fritzsche said. “If the industry continues to see more consolidation, we remain confident that Sprint will play a key role."

It’s time for new telecom policies to match the “new marketplace,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ijg7DA). One hundred years after the Kingsbury Commitment that made AT&T a government-sanctioned monopoly in exchange for “agreeing to pervasive economic regulation,” it’s time for “early 20th century policies” to sunset, McCormick said. “Today the notion of a single voice provider is quaint, at best,” he said. “After 100 years, it’s time to leave the wireline-centric regulation of the monopoly voice era behind, focus on the broader social compact between network operators and their customers, and embrace our nation’s highly competitive, consumer driven, Internet-enabled future."

Four House members signed onto the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) as co-sponsors, said an NAB news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1eGw6uQ). They are Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., Robert Hurt, R-Va., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. The LRFA was introduced in the House in February as H.Con. Res. 16 (http://1.usa.gov/1bstiK2) and in the Senate in March as S.Con. Res. 6 (http://1.usa.gov/19jGhxF), said the NAB. The bill says Congress “should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over-the-air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings,” it said. The LRFA has 188 co-sponsors in the House and 12 co-sponsors in the Senate, NAB said.

GCI subsidy Denali Media will buy three Alaska CBS-affiliated stations from Ketchikan TV, Denali said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dFToMb). The stations involved in the transaction are KXLJ Juneau, KTNL-TV Sitka and KUBD Ketchikan, Denali said. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2014, Denali said.

Purple Communications supports a request for a temporary waiver of the FCC’s speed-of-answer requirements for Video Relay Service, it said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kJzDsp). ZVRS, Sorenson and the Communication Axess Ability Group asked earlier this month for waiver of the requirements, set to go into effect Jan. 1 (http://bit.ly/1bsDL80). Purple said it shares the FCC’s desire for consumers to get a faster speed of answer, but “without properly funding an elevated service level through increased VRS rates, the revised standard is neither operationally practical nor ultimately in the best interests of the consumers who are the intended beneficiaries of the standard,” the VRS provider said. In a separate filing Tuesday, Purple stressed the need for “greater interoperability” in the VRS industry (http://bit.ly/1kJCqSw). “The use of legacy equipment is the largest switching barrier preventing free consumer choice of providers, further perpetuating the highly concentrated market status quo,” it said.

CTIA unveiled a website aimed at helping wireless subscribers make sense of the apps on their phones. CTIA, its members and the app developer community “created KnowMyApp.org so you know how the most popular apps use data,” CTIA said Thursday. “With Intertek Testing Services North America, we offer data usage estimates on some of the most popular apps in the Apple and Google stores.” Offering advice to help networks and devices run better, including using Wi-Fi connections when possible, CTIA said: “Adjust your apps’ settings to stop or minimize updates unless you're on a secure Wi-Fi hotspot. Minimize apps that aren’t in use so they're not running in the background. Uninstall any apps you don’t use.”

The FCC is getting tough against companies violating rules designed to protect licensees from stray radio waves thrown off as a by-product by all digital devices, warned Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald on the law firm’s blog. All manufacturers need should beware, he said. “The biggest FCC fine in recent memory for an equipment violation -- an even $1 million -- came down against a company that marketed digital audio devices,” Lazarus wrote (http://bit.ly/19l2y1l). “Another company that distributes professional audio equipment settled with the FCC for $125,000. Still another company that makes professional gear settled for $72,000. The iconic guitar-maker Fender agreed to pay an impressive $265,000.” Another company, Rane, which supplies DJs and contractors, “agreed to hand over $61,500 because some of its gear (and the associated instruction manuals) did not contain certain fine print disclosures required by the FCC,” he said. Equipment makers should learn from these mistakes, Lazarus said. “Perhaps you think you are safe -- that the FCC will never find you. Think again. We don’t know how the Rane matter came to the FCC’s attention. But we do know that many enforcement actions originate with tips sent in by the offender’s competitors. If you have competitors, chances are they double as FCC agents who watch your company’s every move. The only good defense is to know the rules and comply with them."

The FCC should grant time extensions to stations that need to buy new equipment to comply with the commission’s proposed procedural update to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act rules, said NAB in comments filed in response to the commission’s November FNPRM on the proposed update (http://bit.ly/1aaVmBV). The proposed changes are prompted by changes in March to the Advanced Television Systems Committee algorithm used to calculate loudness (CD Nov 5 p18). Because the CALM Act legislation references the old standard, the commission proposal would update the language with the new standard. NAB supports the proposed change, and said most stations should be able to follow the proposed new standard with “relatively low-cost software upgrades” within the proposed one-year deadline. However, some stations may need to buy additional equipment, and may need time to do it, since most 2014 budgets have already been finalized, NAB said. The commission should “clarify that it will look favorably on requests for waivers for extensions of time” to comply with the proposed new standards, NAB said.

The FCC should maintain a “flexible regime” in its oversight of closed captions, said NAB in an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cUfWad). Broadcasting is a “diverse industry” with “some errors and latency issues that cannot be avoided, due to human and transmission issues,” said NAB. The commission should continue to allow broadcasters to use the Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) to provide captions, the filing said. A phase-out of ENT “could likely result in a loss of competitive local news coverage, as well as additional voices in the market,” NAB said. Instead, the commission should “work with industry to examine how ENT can be better utilized to ensure local viewers have improved access to important news and information,” said the filing.

The FCC should raise the maximum effective radiated power for low power FM stations from 100 watts to 250 watts and hold an FM translator window exclusively for LPFM licenses, said the Prometheus Radio Project in an ex parte filing this week (http://bit.ly/1hHfVLF). Those changes would “significantly unburden” LPFM stations while addressing the problem of limited signal coverage, a “major threat” to LPFM, Prometheus said. The FCC should also delay a proposed FM translator filing window for AM stations until all LPFM applications have been resolved, Prometheus said. That window should also be restricted to Class D and C stations, the filing said.