Qualcomm told the FCC that it’s more equitable and efficient to create two 250 MHz blocks for a proposed air-to-ground (ATG) broadband system, rather than creating four 125 MHz blocks. Doing so would allow each licensee in affected areas to have sufficient bandwidth despite the impairments, it said in a letter posted Friday in docket 13-114 (http://bit.ly/1seUSaN). A 250 MHz-wide spectrum block is needed to support bandwidth-intensive applications to all aircraft passengers flying above the continental U.S., such as full-motion video, it said. A single 125 MHz-wide license wouldn’t be able “to provide full broadband connectivity to each passenger, and thus offer the kind of user experience that we're all used to having on the ground,” it said. Qualcomm opposed Gogo’s claim that Qualcomm’s proposed regulations aren’t technology neutral. Qualcomm said it has always urged the commission to adopt technology neutral rules.

The FCC is creating a Universal Service Fund Strike Force in the Enforcement Bureau, charged with combating waste, fraud and abuse in agency funding programs, said Chairman Tom Wheeler in a news release (http://fcc.us/1qACHZl) Monday. The strike force will be led by Loyaan Egal, who joins the FCC after being a senior assistant U.S. attorney in the Fraud and Public Corruption Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The strike force will expand commission efforts, including those of the FCC Office of Inspector General, “to protect the integrity of the Universal Service Fund and ensure that the American people’s money is wisely spent,” Wheeler said. The Strike Force will investigate violations of the Communications Act, commission rules and other laws involving USF programs and contributions, said the FCC.

CTIA President Meredith Baker made her first big personnel move and the group is expected to announce Tuesday that Brad Gillen is leaving Wilkinson Barker to become CTIA chief of staff, industry officials said Monday. Gillen was an aide to Baker when she was an FCC commissioner. He also is a former special counsel to the Wireline Bureau and formerly worked for Dish Network.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said at the NARUC meeting Monday that engagement and efforts to improve a utility’s resilience are just as critical to recovering from a disaster as efforts to improve critical infrastructure components, improve networks and promote cybersecurity. She noted that in communities affected by Superstorm Sandy, competitors collaborated to recover from the storm and made their networks more secure in the process. Clyburn and NARUC President Colette Honorable said the interests of the energy and telecom sectors are increasingly converging, with energy companies expressing an interest in spectrum that Honorable said she would not have contemplated in the past. Engagement will also be important as the FCC and other regulators conduct workforce recruitment, Clyburn said, saying regulators will have to approach younger workers differently because they are “wired differently.” Training will need to be different, and “we're going to have to put on a happier face,” she said.

LTE interference can affect DirecTV’s ability to decode and re-encode digital broadcast signals, said (http://bit.ly/1oqZcgC) the company in response to an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology public notice on LTE to DTV interference. “This could take the form of increased pixilation or artifacts in the signal,” said the DBS provider. “If the interference is severe enough, there might be no picture or sound at all.” Though the OET PN was asking about consumer TV receivers, DirecTV is seeing the interference at its local receive facilities, where “off-air” DTV signals are collected to be retransmitted to DBS subscribers, said the filing posted Friday in docket 14-14. While most larger broadcasters send their signals to DirecTV by fiber, many “smaller, noncommercial, and religious stations” rely on digital off-air signals, DirecTV said. Since the problem affects the DBS company’s ability to decode signals rather than the signals themselves, “a station might deliver DirecTV a ‘good quality’ signal, and DirecTV might be required to carry it, but DirecTV’s subscribers would not be able to actually view it,” said the filing. The severity of the problem depends on how close LTE base stations are to DirecTV receive facilities, and if DirecTV’s antenna are pointed toward the LTE stations, the filing said, saying DirecTV has begun studying the issue: “Once those measurements are complete, DirecTV will be prepared to discuss whether and how the Commission should account for this increased interference, whether in the incentive auction or otherwise.” FCC testing of LTE interference with DTV is a “fine first step,” but doesn’t do enough to address possible interference problems between wireless and broadcast signals after the incentive auction, NAB said in a comment (http://bit.ly/1mSLRT0). The FCC “must move forward in a transparent process with proposing and seeking comment specific rules for inter-service interference protection,” NAB said. The association has “grave concerns” that the FCC is more focused on finding out which markets could be impaired from the perspective of wireless bidders than addressing broadcast issues or not planning to do further research on preventing inter-service interference, it said. “An approach based on separation distances is far simpler and more appropriate in keeping with the FCC’s desire to move forward expeditiously with the incentive auction."

"Take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in” by ending politically driven “suppression” of news and information about federal agencies, a few dozen news associations and other media interests wrote President Barack Obama (http://bit.ly/1nl7iuW). While reporters used to walk “the halls of agencies and called staff people at will,” the past two administrations have “tightened” control of media access, said the letter dated Tuesday and released by the Society of Professional Journalists. The SPJ-led letter said public affairs officers now speak about routine matters without being identified in news articles, and agencies hold “on-background press conferences” with officials speaking on a not-for-attribution basis. “Meanwhile, agency personnel are free speak to others -- lobbyists, special-interest representatives, people with money -- without these controls and without public oversight,” said the letter. Signers included Radio Television Digital News Association Executive Director Mike Cavender, SPJ President David Cuillier, Center for Media and Democracy Executive Director Lisa Graves, Online News Association Executive Director Jane McDonnell and National Newspaper Association President Robert Williams. The White House didn’t comment Friday and the FCC declined to comment. Many federal agencies must work to make good on administration goals of being forthcoming in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests and being transparent with the public and media, though the FCC does better than some at making experts available and responding to FOIA requests, stakeholders have told us (CD Oct 18 p6).

Lost in the net neutrality debate “is the lack of a demonstrable need" for open Internet rules “as validated by a rigorous and factually sound cost-benefit analysis,” wrote FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in an op-ed in the National Review Online Thursday (http://bit.ly/1mCyGUp). “Consumers can already access whatever Internet content, applications, and services they desire. When traffic is treated differently, such as prioritizing a voice call or video stream over an e-mail, it is part of sensible network management. And if you talk to broadband providers, they'll tell you that this isn’t going to change. The Internet has flourished because of the government’s hands-off approach."

CEA hailed the Obama administration’s decision to “bypass” Philip Johnson, who has been chief intellectual property counsel for Johnson & Johnson, as nominee for next head of the Patent and Trademark Office. Johnson is “an opponent of patent reform” who would have thwarted “stopping frivolous patent litigation,” which “has long been a key priority for the administration,” said Michael Petricone, CEA senior vice president-government affairs, in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1xYzYNK). “We urge the president to find a highly qualified candidate who will advance the president’s reform agenda and curb the patent troll racket that is targeting our most innovative businesses, harming our economy and killing U.S. jobs.” Last week, CEA and other groups lambasted Johnson as a possible PTO nominee on grounds that he took a leading role in stalling patent reform in the Senate (CD July 3 p12) . Some opponents cited his testimony in December before the Senate Judiciary Committee (http://bit.ly/1nbk8qO) in which he said that “while troll abuse is a problem that should be addressed, it is critical that Congress not do so at the expense of the vast majority of innovation stakeholders for whom the patent system is working.” Other major patent revamp groups, like the Innovation Alliance and Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform (21C), declined to comment Thursday because the nomination and withdrawal were never made official. Johnson has often represented 21C in the patent debate over the past several months. The White House and PTO did not comment. In the end, Johnson’s critics praised the White House for bowing to their pressure and realizing he might not be the best choice to head the PTO. Said one: “To its credit, the White House realized it was in the process of making a mistake. Why on earth would you want a PTO head who aggressively opposes administration policies?” Characterizing the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform as being “'opposed to patent reform'” is “as inaccurate as it is disingenuous,” said the coalition in a statement Thursday. The coalition opposes “legislative proposals that go beyond what is necessary or desirable to combat abusive patent litigation or assertion, and risk unintended consequences that would seriously undermine legitimate patent enforcement or the innovation incentives of the patent system,” it said. “Drafting legislation based on the premise that every patent holder who wishes to enforce its rights is a patent troll, or based on the rhetoric that the patent system is somehow ‘broken,’ weakens all patents, favors business models that do not rely on innovation, and tilts the balance in favor of patent infringers.” The coalition supports “patent reform that is sufficiently fair, balanced and effective for diverse industries and stakeholders,” it said.

Correction: NARUC’s FCC reply filing on HD voice is at http://bit.ly/VLFXaJ (CD July 10 p5).

The Digital Policy Institute urged the FCC in a filing in docket 14-28 to exercise caution as it moves forward on net neutrality rules. The agency posted the filing Wednesday. The group said the rules are likely to face judicial review. “It is essential that the agency take steps that are based on sound economic theory and analysis,” DPI said (http://bit.ly/1mJunrX). FCC action also “must be limited to that for which it plausibly has the authority to take, as well as the policy basis to pursue,” the group said.