USTelecom asked the FCC for a waiver extension for various rules adopted in the Lifeline order (http://bit.ly/1biS02p). The Wireline Bureau granted the ILEC association a waiver until Feb. 1, but that’s not long enough, USTelecom said. “Some state Lifeline administrators or other state agencies have indicated that they will not be prepared to begin providing [eligible telecom carriers] in their states with copies of subscriber certification forms” by that date, it said. USTelecom asked for an additional six-month extension for these states: Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah and Vermont. USTelecom also asked for a five-month waiver of the same rules for carriers in California.

A Senate Democrat called for stronger limits on U.S. surveillance activities following revelations from leaked documents that the U.S. tracks the cellphone location information for millions of people abroad. The tracking program described in recent reports focuses on foreigners but collects data from millions of Americans who travel abroad. “Secretly tracking millions of Americans raises urgent, serious legal questions -- never apparently presented to any court,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a statement Thursday, calling for immediate resolution “by Congress and the courts. These reports are additional powerful evidence that the system needs to be reformed, which must include more transparency and accountability enforced by a constitutional advocate.” Blumenthal has backed bills to that effect. The information came from documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, which The Washington Post reported online Wednesday (http://wapo.st/IIaYWp). The American Civil Liberties Union slammed the revelations in a statement from staff attorney Catherine Crump. She called the news “staggering” and labeled the activities “dragnet surveillance,” flouting “international privacy obligations” when the U.S. should be targeting its surveillance. The Center for Democracy & Technology also criticized the practices and pressed for congressional action. “It’s time for Congress to finally act to rein in NSA surveillance,” Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim said in a statement. “Passing the USA FREEDOM Act would be a strong step.” Blumenthal also backs that legislation.

Martha Wright and other supporters of inmate calling service changes oppose a CenturyLink request to stay the FCC’s prison phone order, they said in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1biRktT). CenturyLink asked for a stay pending judicial review, but the ICS provider is unlikely to be successful in court, said the filing, made by the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, the Policy Initiative, and the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice. “CenturyLink is simply wrong in concluding that third parties will not be harmed by the grant of the Petition,” the filing said. “The record in this proceeding overwhelmingly demonstrates significant and adverse effects are caused the unjust, unreasonable and unfair rates and fees charged by the ICS providers on a daily basis."

Aereo will expand its streaming service to the Baltimore metro area starting Dec. 16, the company said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1gaxG7S) Thursday. Along with the city of Baltimore, Aereo’s streaming TV service will also be available in 11 counties in central Maryland, including Anne Arundel, Caroline and Carroll. The streaming service is already available in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Miami, Houston and Dallas, the release said. Users in the Baltimore area will be able to use Aereo to watch special interest channels such as MeTV and local network channels, including WMAR, WBAL, WJZ and WMPT.

NTIA is trying to “get to the bottom of what do people want, versus what they actually need,” on spectrum allocation, said Chief of Staff Angela Simpson at a Practising Law Institute telecom seminar Thursday. “It’s very difficult differentiating,” she said, especially when counsel is “sometimes advocating wants as needs.” NTIA is looking into what constitutes “effective” use of spectrum, said Simpson. The agency will meet with the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee next week to take the lessons CSMAC has learned on spectrum management and “turn them into a game plan,” she said. It’s “imperative that the government agencies and private sector continue to find innovative ways” to solve complex spectrum access issues, she said. Spectrum sharing needs to be a key tool, she said. As time goes by and more spectrum gets allocated, relocating spectrum users becomes more complicated, she said. Spectrum sharing is “not a pie in the sky proposition,” but is really possible now, said Simpson. NTIA is staying active in President Barack Obama’s ConnectED initiative, she said. The agency plans to work closely with the FCC, Department of Education and all other stakeholders to achieve Obama’s goal of connecting K-12 to high-speed circuits within the next 5 years, said Simpson. NTIA expects the lessons it learned from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program to play a role in this discussion, she said. BTOP projects connected 10 percent of U.S. schools to broadband, in a way that saved “significant amounts of money,” said Simpson. She said she hopes the FCC can use those lessons as it looks into E-rate overhauls. The multistakeholder process works, as can codes of conduct. NTIA plans to use such a process in consumer privacy issues, and NTIA will take the lessons it learned from 2013 and expand it to 2014, said Simpson. Facial recognition technology has the potential to significantly improve many services, but brings with it potential privacy concerns, she said. NTIA plans to explore the issue and see what progress it can make on those issues, she said. The agency plans multistakeholder discussions on facial recognition technologies, it said earlier this week (CD Dec 5 p11).

An FCC oversight hearing of the House Communications Subcommittee will take place at 10 a.m. on Dec. 12, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters Thursday. Walden met separately with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly this week, and those meetings included “good” discussion focused on public policy, Walden said. “We look forward to a productive relationship in the years ahead,” Walden said, citing this as important in the subcommittee’s oversight work. The hearing will feature all five FCC commissioners, who also will hold an FCC meeting later that same day from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Walden and House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., have been “passionate” about FCC process overhaul for three years, House Commerce Committee Republican Chief Counsel David Redl said during a Practising Law Institute event in Washington Thursday, pointing to the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act that unanimously passed the House earlier this year. But Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., “publicly stated that he does not intend to move those measures in the Senate,” said Committee Democratic Senior Counsel John Branscome during the same panel discussion. “In terms of FCC process reform legislation, Sen. Rockefeller will be looking at how this legislation ultimately strengthens the FCC’s consumer protection role. I think that’s how he'll judge any measure.” Redl and House Commerce Democratic Chief Counsel Shawn Chang, both pointed to the incentive auctions as a major concern and said they remain optimistic the FCC can meet its deadlines. Chang cautioned, however, that observers should be “mindful of the Healthcare.gov experience,” which was fraught with problems. “We've got to get this right.” Redl described various known “hurdles” and questions: “What’s the repacking process going to look like?"

Huawei joined the HomeGrid Forum as a contributing member. The company will participate in working groups to define the future of the technology and to promote G.hn (Gigabit Home Networking) plastic optical fiber home networking technology through standards and interoperability and compliance work along with marketing and events, it said. It’s joining due to “the maturity of G.hn and growing demand for the home networking technology worldwide,” said Matthew Leung, head of Huawei’s home network key-tech research and development group. Huawei is focused on future business needs from the cloud to the terminal, with home network connectivity a main area of growth, he said. The China-based telecom gear maker won’t completely exit the U.S. market, it said earlier this week after media reports to the contrary (CD Dec 4 p15).

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $20,000 fine for the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission for violations of the commission’s equal employment opportunity rules at six public television stations in the state, said a notice of apparent liability issued Thursday. The stations -- WMPB(TV) Baltimore, WCPB(TV) Salisbury, WFPT(TV) Frederick, WGPT(TV) Oakland, WWPB Hagerstown and WMPT Annapolis -- failed to notify job referral sources about vacancies, to assess their own EEO performance, and provided “incorrect factual information of a material nature to the Commission without a reasonable basis for believing that the information was correct and accurate,” said the NAL. Between June 2008 and May 2010, the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission filled 11 vacancies at stations, without notifying a broadcasting school that had requested notice of vacancies about the job openings, the NAL said. The commission requires licensees to provide information about vacancies to organizations that request them, said the NAL. MPBC told the FCC it hadn’t received any such requests, but in its public file listed CSB Broadcasting School as having requested that information. MPBC said the contact information for CSB had been misplaced during an employee change, said the NAL. A $20,000 NAL for EEO violations was also issued against AMFM Broadcasting Licenses, licensee of Illinois stations WNUA(FM) Chicago, WGCI Chicago, WKSC-FM Chicago, WGRB(AM) Chicago, WLIT-FM Chicago, and WVAZ(FM) Oak Park, said an NAL. Between August 2009 and July 2011, AMFM filled 36 vacancies without notifying several organizations that had requested the information.

Correction: Replies on 3.5 GHz band licensing models and technical requirements are due Dec. 20, the FCC said in a corrected a Federal Register notice (CD Dec 4 p11).

The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment on Key Bridge Global’s proposal that it be designated a database manager for link registrations by licensees in the 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz and 92-95 GHz bands. Federal and non-federal users currently share the three bands on a mostly co-primary basis, but the government holds the 94.0-94.1 GHz portion on a primary basis, the FCC said. Key Bridge is asking the FCC to designate it as an additional manager under the 2004 WTB proposal or waive Key Bridge from the original 2004 filing deadline. Key Bridge says it will comply with the duties and responsibilities included in the 2004 FCC order. Comments are due Dec. 12, reply comments Dec. 23, the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1aDIinM).