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."

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).

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.

The FCC seeks comment on draft recommendations approved by the advisory committee for the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference. Comments are due Sept. 12, the commission said Thursday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1qldiUt). It’s necessary that all comments be received by that date “to allow sufficient time to finalize the U.S. position before commencement of regional WRC-15 preparatory meetings,” it said. The commission seeks comment on the recommendations (http://bit.ly/1tPt8rS), and draft proposals from NTIA (http://bit.ly/XWvt9Q), it said.

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.”

The FCC should use Communications Act Section 706 to deal with open Internet rules, but should make improvements in the section’s complaint process, representatives of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Aug. 22, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1p73QAh) posted Tuesday in docket 14-28. MMTC urged the agency to create a customer-friendly complaint process modeled after one used in connection with the Civil Rights Act, in which the commission could do an initial screening of complaints and if it finds probable cause, begin expedited enforcement or mediation. Representing MMTC were David Honig, president; Nicol Turner-Lee, vice president; Jacqueline Clary, senior counsel, and Maria Lesinski, law clerk. Meanwhile, the “soundest, clearest path forward for strong open Internet protections” is through reclassifying broadband as a Title II service, with appropriate forbearance, said Sarah Morris, senior policy counsel for New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. That’s what she told members of the FCC general counsel’s office in a phone call Aug. 21, said an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/1q1PXZ7) posted in the docket Tuesday. Other parties like Mozilla are proposing alternative approaches, which would rely on creating new definitions and new relationships among ISPs, Internet users and what Mozilla terms “remote hosts,” OTI said. That would be “legally riskier than straightforward reclassification,” Morris said. The agency should “refrain from alternative approaches ... that are unduly complicated or legally risky."

Harris Wiltshire has moved into some historic office space -- the 8th floor of the old FCC building, at 1919 M St. NW, said Scott Harris, the communication law firm’s chairman. The space is the same floor previously occupied by FCC commissioners and their staff. The FCC left the building, and offices in nearby buildings, in the late 1990s for its current home in the Portals building.

The FCC Wireless Bureau seeks comment on an AT&T petition asking for a rulemaking to amend FCC rules for the C and D blocks of the Wireless Communications Services. AT&T sought revision to the construction requirement, power limits and out-of-band emission limits rules for the 2.3 GHz spectrum, and proposed a new coordination rule to protect adjacent Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) spectrum from harmful interference (http://bit.ly/1sDuvMr). Comments are due Sept. 22 and replies, Oct. 6, a public notice released by the bureau Thursday said (http://bit.ly/1tpXaT5).

Given the “gravity and complexity” of the municipal broadband issue, as well as the large number of major issues being considered by the FCC, the agency should extend the comment period for petitions filed by Wilson, North Carolina, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, by a month to around Sept. 26, said TechFreedom and several groups in a petition (http://bit.ly/1tuP3Ub) posted in dockets 14-115 and 14-116 on Wednesday. Wilson and EPB are seeking preemption of state laws restricting municipal broadband (CD July 25 p16). The groups said comment periods on several major issues are ending soon, including Comcast’s plan to buy Time Warner Cable on Aug. 25, AT&T/DirecTV on Sept. 16, the net neutrality NPRM on Sept. 10, and the broadband progress notice of inquiry on Sept. 4. TechFreedom President Berin Szoka told us he thought the FCC stacking the comment deadline for the municipal broadband petitions so close to deadlines for the net neutrality NPRM and transaction proceedings was “astonishing.” He wasn’t optimistic the commission will grant his extension request.