A resolution urging the FCC to expand the kinds of services whose customers are required to pay into the USF (CD Feb 11 p15) was among six approved unanimously by the NARUC board at the end of the organization’s winter meeting Wednesday. The resolution, proposed by Vermont Public Service Board Commissioner John Burke, urges the FCC to expand the USF contribution base “so that all communications services, including services such as broadband that are required to be offered in order to receive federal support, contribute to USF.” The resolution took no position on whether the size of the fund should be increased. Another resolution, by Michigan Public Service Commissioner Sally Talberg, supports efforts by the FCC to allow a variety of service providers to apply for rural broadband experiments. The resolution also asked the FCC to ensure that funds for the experiments be aimed at ensuring broadband service for rural areas, and that broadband networks deployed in rural areas remain sustainable. A third resolution, by Nebraska Public Service commissioners Tim Schram and Anne Boyle, said the FCC should clarify that rules on 911 location accuracy apply to calls made from both indoors and outdoors. A resolution by Washington Utilities and Transportation Commissioner Philip Jones expressed support and encouragement to the National Association of Public Affairs Networks to establish C-SPAN-like public affairs TV networks in all 50 states. A resolution by District of Columbia Public Service Commissioner Betty Ann Kane urges the FCC to require applicants for the upcoming IP tests to prominently provide information to customers on how to submit complaints to state regulatory agencies or the FCC. Kane’s resolution also asks the FCC to require applicants requesting a waiver of a mandatory condition from the FCC to notify state regulatory commissions and customers. It also asks the FCC to provide adequate opportunity for public comment before granting a waiver.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said a pilot channel-sharing program in Los Angeles (CD Feb 11 p18) could show broadcasters that the technique can let them participate in the incentive auction and remain in the broadcast business, he wrote in a blog post on the agency’s website Tuesday (http://fcc.us/NCPP2M). “Channel sharing can allow broadcasters to bolster their balance sheets, reduce capital expenses, and continue their traditional business.” Wheeler said he recently toured public TV station KLCS, sharing channels with Spanish-language KJLA. On the tour, Wheeler said he saw KLCS multicasting one HD stream and seven standard-definition streams of programming, and the station will test broadcasting two HD streams over the same channel as part of the pilot program. “If the pilot works as engineers expect it will, this could be a game changer for the concept of channel sharing,” Wheeler said. Though discussion of the incentive auction has focused on broadcasters who “may find it attractive to simply sell their spectrum and exit the business,” sharing is a viable option as well, he said. “This pilot is not intended to prove that all broadcasters can get by with half the spectrum they're currently using,” said Association of Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler in a news release responding to Wheeler (http://bit.ly/MLwawC). Instead, the pilot program is designed to show “that all kinds of good things can happen -- for broadcasters and for the public -- with advances in compression technology and innovative business arrangements that permit the sharing of significant costs between stations,” Butler said. Most public TV stations won’t participate in the auction, but might still take advantage of channel-sharing technology, Butler said. For the “relatively few stations” with “economic circumstances” warranting an exploration of channel sharing, “this pilot will demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of such a strategy,” Butler said. The advances demonstrated in the pilot “will depend on brand new cutting-edge technology whose widespread adoption will require a substantial new capital investment in the public television system,” said Butler. The FCC granted approvals for the sharing pilot within a week of its submission, Wheeler wrote. “The speed of our decision demonstrates the importance of this pilot and the Commission’s commitment to work with broadcasters to ensure a successful incentive auction."

The FCC is seeking nominations for the 3rd Annual Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility, the commission said in a press release Wednesday. Part of the FCC’s Accessibility and Innovation Initiative, the awards “honor outstanding private and public sector ventures that advance accessibility for people with disabilities,” the FCC said. Nominees can include “mainstream or assistive technologies introduced into the marketplace,” development of new standards or implementation of “best practices” that encourage accessibility, the FCC said. Awards will be handed out by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in June. Nominations must have been introduced to the public between August 1, 2012, and December 31, 2013, and should be emailed to ChairmansAAA@fcc.gov between. Feb. 17 and March 31. Categories include Advanced Communication Services, Social Media and Closed Captions (http://fcc.us/1gv8Hc9).

The Justice Department ended a three-year hiring freeze, which led to 4,000 positions being unfilled, said the agency in a news release Monday night (http://1.usa.gov/1gqtw8O). It said “critical vacancies” will be filled “after years of uncertainty,” because Congress recently passed and President Barack Obama signed into law a budget deal restoring the department’s funding to pre-sequestration levels plus extra money “for key priorities."

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Feb. 21 workshop will be on feasibility checking during the repacking process. Topics will include the role of feasibility checking and the need for speed and certainty, and the different types of mathematical solvers and approaches to using them in an auction, the FCC said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1ogTgdd). The workshop will be 10 a.m. to noon in the Commission Meeting Room, it said. Another workshop also will be Feb. 21, 1-3:30 p.m., the FCC said in a separate public notice (http://bit.ly/MJ80Tk). It will focus on methodology for predicting potential interference between broadcast TV and licensed wireless services, it said. It also is open to the public and will be in the Commission Meeting Room.

The White House should issue a request for information on the “concerns and opinions of those whose data may be collected in bulk as a result of their engagement with technology,” said 25 civil society groups Monday in an open letter to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) (http://bit.ly/1eKDpRH). The letter coincided with a Monday meeting between privacy groups and the White House team reviewing the privacy concerns arising from big data (CD Feb 10 p15). The 25 groups -- including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Watchdog and Electronic Frontier Foundation -- called on OSTP to seek answers to some privacy-related questions: What are the harms arising from big data collection? Is the current legal frame adequate to govern big data? What technical measures might minimize privacy risks? And, how can the private and public sector be more transparent in their use of big data? The privacy groups urged the White House Monday to open the public comment period as soon as possible. “Through big data, government agencies could covertly make decisions about individuals, while denying due process rights such as information access and correction,” they said in the letter. “Today similar concerns arise about the use of personal data by large commercial entities."

The common carrier exemption in the FTC Act should be eliminated, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said Monday at a University of Colorado Law School Silicon Flatirons event. “Absolutely,” Ramirez said when asked about eliminating the exemption. “Given where we are today, it’s an exemption that no longer makes sense. I would support getting rid of that.” The three other FTC commissioners -- Republicans Maureen Ohlhausen and Joshua Wright and Democrat Julie Brill -- have all said the FTC would be capable of bringing enforcement action against common carriers to ensure net neutrality, with Wright saying the FTC would be better equipped than the FCC to handle such actions (CD Feb 3 p12). Ramirez has not been as vocal on the issue to this point. While still a commissioner in 2010, she did issue a concurring statement with Brill (http://1.usa.gov/1eiZb8W) in which they said, “An exemption from the Federal Trade Commission Act for ‘common carriers’ has impeded the FTC’s ability to take action against telecommunications service providers involved in unlawful practices. As a consequence, such companies -- which may profit handsomely from deceptive conduct -- have evaded FTC prosecution.” But before Monday, Ramirez had not commented on the issue since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision vacating the FCC’s authority to impose net neutrality rules on broadband ISPs, which some argued might lead to the FTC playing an enhanced role in overseeing ISPs (CD Jan 15 p1).

The requirement of a compulsory music license would have a “chilling effect” on music releases, said Dina LaPolt, attorney at LaPolt Law and her client, Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith, in comments for a Commerce Department green paper Monday (http://bit.ly/1bG1HWT). Artists and songwriters “deserve approval” over the use of their work, said LaPolt. The present system allows “both sides of a negotiation [to] come away satisfied -- as opposed to a compulsory license, which would often leave the rights holder frustrated,” she said. Pop star Britney Spears signed a letter supporting LaPolt’s comments, LaPolt said. Commerce released the green paper to ensure that “copyright policy provides strong incentives for creativity, while promoting innovation in the digital economy,” it said (http://1.usa.gov/1bySZcG) (CD Nov 29 p11).

Correction: The group that Director Blake Reid of the University of Colorado’s Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic is representing on IP captions is Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc. (CD Feb 6 p5).

The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, striking down FCC net neutrality rules last month may have ramifications beyond the current focus of many stakeholders on whether ISPs will slow or block Web traffic, said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. By drawing the distinction that Title II telecom regulation for neutrality could not be applied to broadband service, classified by the FCC as a Title I information service, Feld said it raises the question of what other telecom rules couldn’t be applied to VoIP. The FCC’s ability to apply its rural call completion order for VoIP may also be in jeopardy, Feld told NARUC staff at the association’s meeting in Washington Sunday. The order required phone companies to collect and report data on whether rural calls are connected.