The FCC incentive auction and subsequent TV station repacking don’t threaten rural TV viewers or the translators that deliver their signals, said the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition in an informal comment (http://bit.ly/1g33rNp) filed Thursday. It responded to a letter signed by 23 senators concerned that the repacking will eliminate TV translator service (CD Nov 14 p21), since translators aren’t protected in the incentive auction process. Concerns that the FCC will reclaim more spectrum than it needs in rural areas or that the repacking won’t leave room for translators are contrary to the auction design and to “commitments made by Commission staff,” said EOBC. The FCC has said that while less spectrum may be cleared in “constrained markets,” it won’t compensate by clearing more in rural areas, said EOBC. “There is no rational basis to conclude that the FCC will recover more spectrum than it needs in rural areas.” An examination of markets with heavy translator use “reveals that there would be ample spectrum post-repack on which TV translators could continue to operate,” said EOBC.

A major National Security Agency bill was attached to S-1197, the National Defense Authorization Act, according to the act’s tally of amendments at the end of Thursday. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attached the FISA Improvements Act of 2013 as an amendment. This bill, S-1681, preserves bulk collection of phone metadata but makes several smaller changes to surveillance law. It cleared Senate Intelligence in an 11-4 vote on Oct. 31. But a Senate aide told us it’s not Feinstein’s intention to amend FISA through the defense authorization bill. The aide emphasized the shared jurisdiction between Senate Intelligence and the Senate Judiciary Committee. But other members have filed amendments updating FISA, and given those amendments, Feinstein wanted to ensure her legislation is available in case FISA legislation is brought to the floor through the defense authorization’s amendment process, the aide said. Privacy advocates have criticized this Feinstein bill and pointed to the USA Freedom Act of Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as the stronger package limiting surveillance. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., also filed an amendment with a surveillance provision. Enzi’s brief amendment said that to be funded, any order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court carried out must include the following sentence: “This Order limits the collection of any tangible things (including telephone numbers dialed, telephone numbers of incoming calls, and the duration of calls) authorized to be collected pursuant to this Order to those tangible things that pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation described in section 501” of FISA. Several other senators this week have filed amendments to the act touching on surveillance transparency and practices (CD Nov 21 p10). More than 500 amendments have now been proposed, and the Senate is in recess until Dec. 9. Senate leaders had initially hoped to pass the act before Thanksgiving.

Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary, Windy City Cellular, made an impassioned plea to FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly in a meeting Wednesday, said an ex parte filing posted Friday (http://bit.ly/1h7JCHJ). “With winter fast approaching and the already harsh weather on Adak Island [Alaska] becoming even more severe, it is crucial that the remote Adak community be able to continue relying on the essential services provided by AEE and WCC,” the filing said. The telco and carrier have only six more weeks until their interim funding runs out. “It is up to the Commission to make clear that it did not intend for the USF/[intercarrier compensation] Transformation Order to result in remote communities losing wireline service (service built with tax payer-funded RUS loans), losing broadband service, losing 911 service, and losing most of their wireless service,” the filing said. “The Commission did not intend to discourage investment” or “intend for communities that have working communications systems go dark.” AEE and WCC understand that “O'Rielly was not responsible for the 84% flash-cut to WCC’s funding and the rapid phasedown of AEE’s funding that took effect in early 2012,” they said. They are merely “hopeful that he will take this opportunity to help correct the Commission’s course before the companies are forced into bankruptcy and the remote Adak community is left without its only broadband service, only wireline service, only working 911 service, and most comprehensive wireless service -- a service that regularly saves lives."

The FTC said Friday that it is extending the comment deadline on its proposed study of the business practices of patent assertion entities (PAEs) to Dec. 16 to give interested parties more time to provide input. The original deadline was Dec. 2. The FTC voted in September to propose launching the PAE study using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act. Section 6(b) allows the FTC to investigate an industry’s business practices, including issuing subpoenas, and report their findings to Congress and the public. The FTC has proposed asking for information from 25 PAEs on their corporate legal structure, the types of patents they hold and how they assert their patents (CD Sept 30 p15).

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released Friday the full text of its report on immediate ways to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity (http://1.usa.gov/1aVVUL3). PCAST approved and released details on the report at a meeting Thursday, but didn’t then release the actual text. The report recommended, among other things, that the U.S. government more frequently follow accepted cybersecurity best practices. PCAST recommended the government phase out Windows XP and other operating systems it regards as insecure in favor of current versions of Windows, Linux and Macintosh OS, encourage universal adoption of the Trusted Platform Module microchip and require the use of proofed identities for data exchanges among federal users. The report recommended regulatory agencies require regulated industries to demonstrate improved adoption of cybersecurity best practices, but proposed a more limited government role in encouraging adoption of best practices in non-regulated industries. The report also called for further industry and academic research on more fully integrating cybersecurity into future systems infrastructures (CD Nov 22 p10).

Cox Communications customers can now use the Contour app on some Android devices, said the company in a news release Friday (http://yhoo.it/1bcD5t9). Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, Tab 3 and Note users can now use the app to get content and personalized recommendations, said Cox. Introduced to the iPad in August, the Contour app provides access to live TV from more than 100 national cable channels and to more than 6,000 video-on-demand selections, said Cox.

A House Republican dismissed the prospects of video legislation introduced recently by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. “That’s not really going to see very much work in our side, if any,” said House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, speaking on an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to be telecast Saturday, of Rockefeller’s Consumer Choice in Online Video Act. “I don’t see it moving along in the House.” He doubts the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act will be a comprehensive bill and cited subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., expressing desire for a clean reauthorization. “Dec. 31, 2014, is going to be here before we know it,” Latta said, referring to when STELA will expire. FCC spectrum auctions have occupied much subcommittee attention, particularly given the immense complexity of the broadcast incentive auction, Latta said. “This auction is going to be absolutely crucial,” he said, mentioning the revenue expected to come from it -- more than $20 billion. “We want it to be fair. You've got to really look at who the players are going to be out there.” He said there will have to be companies “willing to sell.” If AT&T and Verizon are excluded from the auction, it may cause others not to participate and affect overall revenue, he said. The subcommittee has invited all five FCC commissioners for a potential December oversight hearing. “It’s important that they all appear before us in committee, and that the committee can ask them questions to find out where they're going,” particularly in the area of process reform, Latta said, citing an interest in the “thought and philosophy” of the commissioners. Latta emphasized transparency and predictability and the importance of moving proceedings along at the agency. He stressed “cost-based analysis.”

The initial results of the FCC’s speed test app are in, and “they are very promising,” officials from the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis said in a blog post Thursday (http://fcc.us/17zWRvB). In just the first two days after the app’s public release, there were 30,000 installations and 200 reviews averaging 4.5 stars in the Google Play store, they said. More than half of the 40,000 tests conducted were run on LTE networks, with all major carriers represented. Results came in from all 50 states, the post said. “The rapid uptake of this app will benefit the country as a whole by incentivizing better mobile broadband performance,” it said. “The app also provides a new and productive way for consumers, providers, and the FCC to interact.” Actual speed test results were not posted publicly.

A new gigabit broadband service is available to business customers in Russellville, Ky., said EPB SmartNet in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1g3a9D7). The city’s municipally owned fiber-to-the-premises network, EPB SmartNet operates a high-speed fiber network to more than 4,000 homes and businesses in the Russellville area.

NTIA should “convene industry stakeholders and privacy advocates to establish consensus-driven best practices” for facial recognition technology, Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., wrote Administrator Lawrence Strickling. “Our privacy laws provide no express protections for facial recognition data.” Franken said his letter was prompted by Facebook’s expansion of its facial recognition database -- the technology that enables the social networking site to recognize users in posted pictures and make tagging suggestions. The letter said Franken questioned Facebook on its facial recognition practices during a congressional hearing and a letter to the company in September, which asked how many faceprints the company had stored. Franken said he was not satisfied with Facebook’s responses and its claim that the number of faceprints stored is proprietary information. “I will be exploring legislation to protect the privacy of biometric information, particularly facial recognition technology,” Franken said: Technology developers “won’t be waiting for us,” he said, so the NTIA should “take up this subject … as quickly as possible.” NTIA acknowledged it had received the letter and plans to respond.