A project team will do research, prototyping and usability-testing to complete a data and stakeholder-driven design for www.fcc.gov. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by mid-January, said FCC Chief Information Officer David Bray in a blog post (http://fcc.us/1pyb0O4). That phase will focus on audience research, content research, prototyping and usability testing, and search and analytics, he said Friday. The second phase will include a “fully functioning, responsively designed website with updated content and robust search capability,” he said. The third phase involves improving the FCC’s employee intranet website, he said.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly recently spent eight days touring Alaska as a guest of the state’s congressional delegation. Among his takeaways was enforcement of the notion that Alaska is unique, O'Rielly said Friday in a blog post (http://fcc.us/1lFDFFM). “Seeing it again, however, reminded me not only of its immense size, but also of its uncompromising terrain,” he said. Another observation is that Alaska schools need connections, not Wi-Fi, he said. “My visit reaffirmed the serious concerns that have been expressed with shifting the E-Rate program’s attention from basic connectivity to Wi-Fi.” O'Rielly said he also took note of the extent to which federal subsidies have distorted the communications marketplace there. “My conversations with providers in the state highlighted the number of Federal programs and the influence of these programs on Alaskan communications,” he said. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also recently toured the state (CD Sept 3 p12).

An NPRM on the incentive auction and low-power TV will be circulated to the FCC commissioners’ offices next week, LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino told us Friday. The information came from Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, Gravino said. The FCC and bureau declined to comment. Lake said the NPRM was in the works at April’s NAB Show. Auction-related NPRMs on Part-15 unlicensed spectrum, wireless mics and aggregate interference will go on circulation at the same time, Gravino said. After the LPTV notice, the commission will also hold a LEARN (Learn Everything About Reverse-Auctions Now) session on the impact of the auction on LPTV, Gravino said the bureau told him. “While the exact date is not available, we anticipate this important event to be held in October or November 2014,” Gravino said in an email to coalition members (http://bit.ly/1xml6Mb). “We are glad the FCC has stepped up and is now giving LPTV their full attention for our very important rule making.” Though Fletcher Heald LPTV attorney Peter Tannenwald said it’s good that the FCC is moving quickly to address LPTV issues, he said the timing might also make the rulemaking more difficult, since many details of the auction still remain unclear. The LPTV rulemaking will include the issue of construction permits (CD Sept 5 p8), LPTV channel sharing, and how the commission will handle displacement filings, Gravino said. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, which had opposed an extension for LPTV CPs, “looks forward to participating in the Commission’s proceeding so that important issues about the rights of LPTV permittees and licensees can be fully considered in advance of the incentive auction,” said Vice President Alex Phillips.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted NAB’s emergency motion asking that its challenge of the commission’s incentive auction order (CD Aug 19 p1) be expedited, a Friday court order said. The FCC supported the NAB motion, saying it was in the public’s interest to resolve the NAB’s petition for review “as promptly as possible” (CD Aug 29 p1). Per the FCC’s request, the court order allows the timing of the case to change if additional challenges to the auction order are filed. The current briefing schedule for the case would be completed in December, after which a date for oral argument would be scheduled, the order said. The D.C. Circuit’s timeline “closely tracks” with the NAB request, said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan. “The great thing is that all of our goals align here; everyone, especially NAB, wants to see these issues resolved expeditiously.” The schedule for the court proceeding makes it “crystal clear” that the legal issues can be resolved “well before the mid-2015 start of the auction,” emailed Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden. The FCC declined to comment.

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).

Correction: The dates when comments on intercarrier compensation for VoIP calls were due was Aug. 4, replies Aug. 14 (CD Sept 3 p7).

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.

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."

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.

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.