NTIA is “proud of the progress” its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and State Broadband Initiative program have made over the past five years, said NTIA Chief of Staff Glenn Reynolds Thursday in a speech at an NTIA community broadband workshop. NTIA is hosting a series of community broadband workshops to help states figure out how to move forward now that federal funding for BTOP and the Statewide Broadband Initiative Program is “winding down,” he said. Funding from BTOP has financed about 230 broadband projects around the U.S., while the State Broadband Initiative invested almost $300 million to aid states’ collection of data for the National Broadband Map and expand broadband capacity, Reynolds said. Future efforts to close the digital divide will require a “holistic approach” that involves robust broadband bandwidth, low-cost equipment and affordable service, along with collaboration among federal, state and local governments and the private sector, he said (http://1.usa.gov/1BefFgX).

President Barack Obama appointed Megan Smith U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Alexander Macgillivray deputy CTO, a White House news release said Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1o1p6Ij). CEA applauded the appointments, in a release (http://bit.ly/1Abbwb1) Thursday: “Smith became known for pursuing next-generation projects such as balloon-borne Internet service, drone delivery and solar-powered automobiles” while at Google, CEA CEO Gary Shapiro said. Macgillivray is a “well-known advocate for an open and uncensored Internet” based on his time at Google and Twitter, Shapiro said.

Verizon agreed to pay $7.4 million to settle an FCC investigation into allegations the company used customers’ personal information to tailor marketing campaigns without providing required opt-out notices, the Enforcement Bureau announced Wednesday. The personal information was used without notice and without the customers’ consent, said an order (http://bit.ly/1qyPtZD) adopted Tuesday and released Wednesday. The practice affected about 2 million customers over the past eight years, the agency said. Verizon, under a consent decree, will place an opt-out notice on every electronic or paper invoice to every customer for whom Verizon relies on opt-out consent, the release said. The company will also designate a senior corporate manager as a compliance officer, begin immediately notifying the officer about any problems detected with opt-out notices, and develop and implement a three-year compliance plan, the agency said. Verizon “inadvertently” did not provide an FCC notice to some “wireline customers before they received marketing materials from Verizon for other Verizon services that might be of interest to them,” the company said in a statement. “It did not involve a data breach or an unauthorized disclosure of customer information to third parties. Verizon takes seriously its obligation to comply with all FCC rules, and once we discovered the issue with the notices we informed the FCC, fixed the problem and implemented a number of measures to ensure it does not recur.” Verizon collects personal information about its customers’ services and their calling habits, like how many calls a customer makes, and where they are when they make a call, the FCC said. It must get express permission from the customer to use personally identifiable information to market new services, and provide information on how to opt out, the release said. Verizon failed to generate opt-out notices, since as early as 2006, for about 2 million customers, the release said. “These failures deprived those customers of information about Verizon’s marketing practices and its customers’ right to deny Verizon permission to access or use their personal data to market new Verizon services to those customers,” the FCC said. Verizon also took several months to notify the commission about problems with the opt-out system, instead of the required five business days, the release said.

A third case challenging government phone surveillance will go to federal appellate court. Anna Smith, the plaintiff in Smith v. Obama, filed an opening brief with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1u1l1K7). EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union are backing Smith. The other cases before federal appellate court are Klayman v. Obama and ACLU v. Clapper, which held oral argument before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday (CD Sept 3 p1). EFF said the government’s opposition to Smith should be filed by Oct. 2 and there will likely be a hearing in November. Smith contends that government phone surveillance runs contrary to the Fourth Amendment and questions the relevance of the 1979 Supreme Court case Smith v. Maryland. The government has frequently cited the 1979 Smith case, involving the question of what violates the Fourth Amendment, in justifying the legality of its surveillance tools. “The continuation of the surveillance at issue means the continuation of the government’s intrusion into Mrs. Smith’s sensitive associations and communications,” said the Smith opening brief (http://bit.ly/1unefxm). “When the government takes this private information for its own purposes, the injury is immediate -- it is complete as soon as the government interjects itself into the zone of privacy."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau added a former federal trial attorney as deputy chief, the agency said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/Y9t2B0). Paula Blizzard, previously a partner with San Francisco-based Keker & Van Nest, is a former trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Her prosecutorial experience will enhance our competition work and strengthen our efforts to protect consumers from unfair, unjust, unreasonable, and deceptive acts and practices,” said acting bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc.

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, wanted FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to see firsthand the telecom challenges of Alaska, hosting Wheeler for a visit last week. “I took Chairman Wheeler to Anchorage, Kotzebue and Kiana so that he could see how to best deliver connectivity to an urban community, a hub community and a rural village,” Begich told us in a statement. “He heard Alaskans talk about the need for better, more affordable bandwidth to improve education, medical services and to help grow businesses across the state.” Begich’s daily schedule records show visits to Kiana and Kotzebue Thursday and Anchorage the previous day, which included a meeting with General Communications Inc. and a discussion about broadband deployment. An FCC spokesman confirmed to us Friday that Wheeler was in Alaska meeting with Begich and staff to the state’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young, both Republicans. An ex parte filing from Copper Valley Telephone Cooperative recounted a meeting Wednesday that included Wheeler and aide Patrick Halley discussing Alaska’s rural challenges with Copper Valley Chief Financial Officer Pam Murphy, Alaska Telephone Association Executive Director Christine O'Connor, Begich legislative correspondent Rafi Bortnick and Young legislative assistant Jason Suslavich. “I thanked the Chairman for his leadership in eliminating the QRA [quantile regression analysis high-cost support] model, but expressed my concern with what would replace QRA to distribute High Cost USF support,” Copper Valley CEO David Dengel wrote in the ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1qXzW2L). “I told the Chairman that because of the elimination of the QRA, CVT is able to deploy fiber to the community of Slana this summer at a cost of approximately $650,000.” They discussed the factors any high-cost support model would have to include. “The FCC has already invested significant amounts of Universal Service Fund support in Alaska in the past several decades which has allowed for twenty first century technologies to reach hundreds of villages across the state,” Begich said. “Without this support, none of that would be possible and Alaska would be left in the dark. I showed Chairman Wheeler that we are putting these funds to good use and making a case for future investment."

USTelecom’s request for a 30-day extension to file comments on the broadband progress Notice of Inquiry (NOI) (CD Aug 6 p5) was denied by the FCC Wireline Bureau, in an order (http://bit.ly/1thOfFN) Friday. USTelecom had argued an extension would allow it and other commenters to submit thoughtful analyses on new and novel issues like role of mobile and satellite, the order said. Extensions are not routinely granted, the progress inquiry must be completed within 180 days after it begins, and the commission has asked in prior NOIs how various services, including mobile and satellite services, should be incorporated in the Broadband Progress Report. Comments are due Thursday and replies on Sept. 19.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will speak on “the future of broadband” Thursday at 1776, an incubator for startups in Washington, the agency said Friday (http://bit.ly/XYXCgJ). Wheeler speaks at 11 a.m., and his remarks will be webcast at www.fcc.gov/live, the agency said.

White House plans to nominate Danny Marti as U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator were generally welcomed in statements issued Thursday and Friday after the announcement. Marti is managing partner of the Kilpatrick Townsend firm, it said. “We ... hope for speedy confirmation,” said Mitch Glazier, RIAA senior executive vice president, in a statement Thursday. “We ... urge Congress to move quickly to confirm his nomination to this important position,” said Kim Harris, NBCUniversal general counsel. “Danny’s impressive record of commitment to enforcing IP rights in the Internet age makes him a particularly strong choice,” said MPAA CEO Chris Dodd (http://bit.ly/1zRsPxO). NCTA looks forward to working with Marti, it said (http://bit.ly/Z0k3lS). So does the Information Technology Industry Council, said CEO Dean Garfield (http://bit.ly/VVr0lY).

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Allband Communications Cooperative’s petition for rehearing en banc (http://bit.ly/1tP9T1K) of May’s decision (CD May 27 p1) denying challenges to the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order. No member of the original panel or judge in regular active service on the court requested the court be polled, said the 10th Circuit in a Wednesday order. The decision starts the 90-day clock on the parties to file a petition for cert, said Stinson Morrison attorney Harvey Reiter, who represented rural CLECs in the case. The petition for rehearing is not a necessary step for a petition for cert, but the motion for rehearing put the clock on hold, he said. Reiter did not know Thursday if anyone would file a petition for cert. Allband was not available for comment. Allband had petitioned (http://bit.ly/1pMYCyX) for rehearing July 7, arguing that if the order is not reversed, it would lead to the “financial destruction” of the company. Allband argued for the rehearing on a number of grounds, including that the panel decision “overlooked a major issue raised by Allband ... that the United States and its agencies may not retroactively reverse statutory or agency orders or regulations upon which entities have relied to their detriment.”