The FirstNet board plans multiple meetings later this month in Denver, it said in a notice Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1eTdJiM). The first batch of meetings will be Dec. 16 and happen in order by committee -- first the governance and personnel committee, then the finance, audit and budget committee, the planning and technology committee and finally the outreach committee. The board also scheduled an open meeting Dec. 17. All meetings will be open to the public and will be webcast.

Lawmakers and industry stakeholders applauded NTIA’s announcement it would convene multistakeholder discussions on facial recognition technology. But some privacy advocates said the decision further avoids addressing the heart of the privacy issue. The talks are another step in implementing the White House’s Privacy Bill of Rights (http://1.usa.gov/1hwy3KA), said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling in a blog post Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/18B9klC). “Facial recognition technology has the potential to improve services for consumers, support innovation by businesses, and affect identification and authentication online and offline. However, the technology poses distinct consumer privacy challenges.” Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn. -- who has sent a letter to the NTIA asking the agency to conduct these talks (CD Nov 25 p10) and held a hearing on the issue -- called the announcement “great news for privacy.” He said “expansive facial recognition programs” from “major companies like Facebook and government agencies like the FBI” have shown that “while facial recognition can be useful, these programs don’t do enough to protect privacy -- and they are just the beginning of what is a growing technology.” Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester disagreed, saying the announcement showed the NTIA was bowing to industry pressure. “Industry lobbyists pressed the NTIA to focus on creating a self-regulatory scheme for facial recognition, so marketers can expand without worry how they capture our physical features and combine it with other personal data,” he said. NTIA scheduled its first facial recognition meeting for Feb. 6, said the announcement.

Data traffic on metropolitan access and aggregation networks will increase by 560 percent between now and 2017, said Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs Tuesday in a study. Metro networks’ data traffic will grow primarily due to demand for video and continued proliferation of data centers, Bell Labs said. Traffic from video services alone will grow 720 percent by 2017, while data center traffic will rise 440 percent, the study said. Video services are increasing their local delivery of content over metro networks, meaning that by 2017 about 75 percent of traffic originating on metro networks will completely stay on those networks rather than access content through a backbone network. About 57 of metro network traffic remains on the network now, Bell Labs said (http://bit.ly/18flqhF).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended the agency’s rulemaking that may open the possibility of cellphone conversations on airplanes and emphasized the technical role of the agency. The Federal Aviation Administration decides on safety, and the airlines make the call on what to allow, Wheeler said. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, had voiced his objections in a Nov. 22 letter (http://fcc.us/1hwhhLx), joining other lawmakers who have criticized the proposal. “While the thought of listening to the constant babble of phone conversations during commercial flights already makes my head hurt, I am writing not about the annoyance such calls would bring, but rather about the more serious topic of in-flight safety,” Begich wrote. He said “an already-distracted flying public would pay even less attention to safety-related announcements. They could miss announcements related to pending turbulence, preparations for landing, or even more serious in-flight emergencies.” He cited “incidents of ‘air rage'” and asked the FCC to withdraw the NPRM, slated for consideration at the agency’s Dec. 12 meeting. Wheeler replied in a Monday letter, released Tuesday (http://fcc.us/IKjzbE). “As a frequent airline passenger, I would prefer that voice calls not be made on planes,” Wheeler told Begich. “However, the responsibility of the Commission is to make technical judgments, and on that matter the evidence appears clear. Nothing in this proposal limits the ability of airlines to ban voice conversations.” Wheeler expects “months of public comment and debate on the specific issues raised in the proposal,” if adopted, according to his letter. Airlines can even “disable the ability of devices to make voice calls should the airline so determine,” he said.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers began projects on three new standards and recommended practices to improve cable operators’ energy efficiency and “business continuity,” said SCTE in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cSkLCy). “Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for Network Operators” will study best preparation and response methods to “disasters that may result in widespread network outages,” said the standards group. “Recommended Practices for Carbon Data Collection and Management” will help cable operators measure carbon footprints to find ways to boost energy efficiency and cut costs, said SCTE. That work is being led by Adrian Shulock of Coppervale Enterprises, while the disaster project’s chairman is Joseph Viens of Time Warner Cable. Operators and makers of consumer electronics have in recent years stepped up work on saving electricity in CE devices and at cable systems’ headends and other backend equipment (CD July 24/12 p12).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s policy speech Monday (CD Dec 3 p1) demonstrated “openness toward improved carrier monetization of broadband ... but also a strong commitment to promoting competition among networks,” wrote analyst Paul Gallant of Guggenheim Partners in a research note Tuesday. Wheeler indicated his support for reasonable usage-based pricing and quality-of-service deals, but Gallant noted reason for “slight caution": Wheeler’s pronouncement (http://bit.ly/188rYRk) that companies have “control over their own regulatory fates” could be read as “signaling cable operators not to deploy broadband pricing that is clearly aimed at deterring [over-the-top] entry.” Wheeler’s comments about permitting broadband providers to explore “two-sided markets” are “encouraging for wireline and wireless ISPs,” but it’s not yet clear how far ISPs will be able to go “to persuade content/apps companies to do deals,” Gallant said. Gallant cautioned that mergers and acquisitions “may not be easy,” given Wheeler’s endorsement of the agency’s 2011 rejection of AT&T buying T-Mobile. “We view these comments as quite noteworthy because, as a [venture capitalist] in 2011, he blogged that he would have approved AT&T/T-Mobile in order to establish certain merger conditions he favored,” wrote the analyst. He said Wheeler was also “negative” toward a possible Sprint/T-Mobile merger. The Department of Justice and the FCC “probably would seek to block any effort by Sprint to acquire T-Mobile,” wrote Gallant. Wheeler seemed to favor limits on how much broadcast spectrum Verizon and AT&T can buy, Gallant said. Wheeler’s comments about not rushing into a broadcast auction “support our expectation for a mid-2015 spectrum auction,” Gallant said. Gallant was concerned about Wheeler’s “vaguely ominous comments” when he said he would “not hesitate to invoke the full authority granted to us by Congress to protect competition.” That could portend Title II classification for wireline broadband, or limiting content companies from leveraging their power over distribution, Gallant said.

Intelsat repointed a Ku-band beam on the Intelsat 8 satellite to provide capacity to the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan, it said. Intelsat is providing an uplink via the IntelsatOne terrestrial network from the Kumsan, South Korea, Teleport and a downlink in the Philippines, Intelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/18XE52j). It also donated C-band capacity on Intelsat 902 to provide Astrium satellite connectivity “for major global humanitarian agencies to conduct emergency rescue missions in the region affected by the typhoon,” Intelsat said.

Inmarsat plans a Sunday launch of the first satellite in its forthcoming Ka-band network. Inmarsat-5 F1 is to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard an International Launch Services Proton Breeze M rocket, Inmarsat said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/IElVIz). The Ka-band network fleet, Global Xpress, is on schedule to achieve full global coverage by the end of 2014, it said. The Inmarsat-5 FI launch can be viewed at 7:12 a.m. EST at http://bit.ly/1bdQwGw.

New FCC data on the state of voice competition reinforces the “urgency” of the IP transition, said USTelecom Vice President-Industry Analysis Patrick Brogan in a blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/188nwSv). The data shows the number of traditional voice lines declined by nearly 10 million from 2011 to 2012, continuing a pace of losses averaging 10 percent per year over the past five years, Brogan said. “These statistics underscore the urgency for regulators and providers to address IP transition issues,” he said. Given the dwindling use of traditional voice lines, ILECs should “no longer be subject to dominant carrier regulation,” he said.

The FCC Media Bureau’s priority in processing the low-power FM applications is the identification of acceptable singleton applications. This month, the bureau will identify the mutually exclusive application groups, it said in a public notice aimed at offering guidance on the processing of the applications (http://bit.ly/1hwrDLi). The bureau received more than 2,800 LPFM applications during the Oct. 17-Nov. 15 application window (CD Nov 25 p2). It identified about 900 technically acceptable LPFM applications that aren’t in conflict with any other application, it said (CD Nov 29 p6). Mutually exclusive (MX) groups also will be identified this year, it said. The bureau will establish a settlement period allowing applicants to file minor amendments, which include site relocations of 5.6 km. or less and partial and universal voluntary time-sharing agreements, it said. States with the most filings include Texas with 303 applications and California with 283, and Florida organizations submitted 276, the bureau said. The public notice also offers guidance on petitions to deny and dismissed applications. Applicants don’t have to wait for the formal announcement of the MX groups to start figuring out how to eliminate mutual exclusivities, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Harry Cole. It should be relatively easy “for many applicants to sift through the already available lists of applications and identify obvious mutual exclusivities,” he said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1be4Akv). The information from the Audio Division should encourage all applicants “to take whatever steps they can, as soon as they can, to avail themselves of the various options to help the division along in the process,” he said.