The Department of Justice “has properly withheld” docket information from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosures to the American Civil Liberties Union for prosecutions in which the government had obtained cellphone tracking data without a warrant and the defendant had been either acquitted or had the charges dismissed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1kXq2Lw). The court had said in its original 2011 decision in the case that Justice needed to disclose the docket information to the ACLU in cases in which the defendant was convicted (CD Sept 7/11 p6). The court’s 2011 decision did not touch on whether DOJ needed to also disclose that information when the cases ended in acquittal or dismissal. The court now believes Justice could withhold that information in those cases “given the substantial privacy interest individuals have in controlling information concerning criminal charges for which they were not convicted,” said Judge David Tatel in the majority opinion for the three-judge panel. Judge Janice Rogers Brown dissented, noting in her opinion that “the right to be left alone, once forfeited, is gone for good. An individual who is indicted and tried has no privacy interest that can protect the public record of prosecution from disclosure -- even if the ultimate outcome was acquittal or dismissal.” The ACLU believes the D.C. Circuit erred in its majority opinion, said ACLU of the Nation’s Capital Legal Director Arthur Spitzer, who argued the case. “The idea that someone who’s been publicly indicted in federal court has any real privacy interest in that fact seems unrealistic to us,” he said, noting that docket information in those cases is easily searchable over the Internet.

The FCC should tighten rather than loosen restrictions on AT&T and Verizon bidding in the incentive auction, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition said in a filing at the commission, posted by the FCC Friday. “In light of the dramatic expansion of the spectrum screen contemplated by the Commission in the Mobile Spectrum Holdings proceeding, further opening the door to future acquisitions and consolidation by AT&T and Verizon, the current proposal to hold approximately 30 MHz (depending on the amount of spectrum that is reclaimed) in reserve for non-dominant carriers constitutes the bare minimum needed to promote competition,” the group said (http://bit.ly/1sv0HPb). AT&T and Verizon have “launched an all-out attack on even this modest proposal to ensure that competitive carriers have a chance to obtain low-band spectrum,” PISC said, but “have raised no new arguments."

Oceus Networks supports the proposal for Globalstar to establish a low-power terrestrial service (CD May 8 p18). Such a service would meet the specialized needs of Oceus’s federal and public safety customers, commented the wireless broadband solutions provider in docket 13-213 (http://bit.ly/1jjPrCI). These users require solutions that offer more control, Oceus said. End users of the low-power service have a wide selection of equipment they could use, it said. This dramatically decreases an end-user’s costs “and accelerates the time-to-market of this new service, helping users realize this new service’s benefits more rapidly than with a completely greenfield service,” it said. The commission should follow through with its proposal to provide an exception to its integrated services rule, which is critical “to allowing existing, software-modified WiFi enabled devices to be used with the new service,” it said.

Incentive auction revenue would be maximized if the FCC increases the number of reserved spectrum blocks and allocates an odd number of unreserved spectrum blocks, said a paper by University of Maryland economist and auction expert Peter Cramton. The reserved blocks would only be available to carriers without a dominant low-band spectrum position in an individual market, under the FCC’s proposed aggregation rules (CD May 8 p1). The Competitive Carriers Association filed the paper Thursday at the FCC, the group said in a news release. “Professor Cramton’s declaration clearly shows that the FCC is on the right path with its proposed auction framework,” said CCA President Steve Berry. “Reserving spectrum at a certain point for carriers without nationwide market … is absolutely <essential, />

Consumer Federation of America Research Director Mark Cooper now will call unlicensed spectrum “public access” spectrum, at the suggestion of House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, said Cooper at a WiFiForward event Tuesday (CD May 7 p1). Cooper spoke Wednesday at a New America Foundation event. (See separate story above in this issue.) “I will never use the word unlicensed again,” Cooper said. “When CFA and Darrell Issa agree on something, that ought to be a no-brainer for the FCC."

Certainty going in is key if the FCC wants to ensure a successful TV incentive auction, Verizon representatives said in meetings at the FCC with Chief of Staff Ruth Milkman and aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “In the context of the incentive auction, Verizon stated that the more certainty the rules provide, the more broadcasters and wireless providers will participate, and the more spectrum will be repurposed for use by all providers to meet the needs of consumers and businesses for broadband,” said a Tuesday ex parte filing from the carrier. “Verizon stressed that the best way to promote a successful incentive auction is to ensure the widest possible participation from broadcasters and robust competition between wireless carriers.” Verizon also slammed a Sprint filing asking the FCC to scrap proposed spectrum aggregation rules in favor of a weighted spectrum plan (CD May 5 p4). “Sprint’s eleventh-hour proposal replacing its previous weighting scheme with an even more arbitrary one should be seen for what it is: a self-serving proposal designed to give Sprint preferential treatment in future transactions,” Verizon said. “It bears no semblance to rational spectrum policy and should be promptly rejected.”

CTIA praised the Rhode Island legislature’s decision to not move ahead with bills that would have required smartphone manufacturers to install a kill switch rendering the devices useless should they be stolen or lost. Referring to the Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment (CD April 17 p10) made by manufacturers to preload or enable downloadable anti-theft software, Jamie Hastings, CTIA vice president-external and state affairs, said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1jBwL0T) the voluntary pledge, “not legislation,” was the way to handle the issue. A spokesman for Sen. Dominick Ruggerio, sponsor of S-2897 (http://bit.ly/1kNnzmS), said the senator did not plan to ask for committee hearings after the companies made the pledge. Rep. Mary Duffy Messier, sponsor of H-8115 (http://bit.ly/1j44346), withdrew her bill from consideration on Tuesday. Messier was not available for comment on Wednesday.

The FCC rechartered its 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee for two more years, said a Federal Register notice published Wednesday. The WRC-15 committee, which offers industry perspective on WRC policy calls, was extended through April 25, 2016 (http://1.usa.gov/1npcMDf).

The FTC updated its online complaint filing form for better compatibility with a mobile device, said a Tuesday news release (http://1.usa.gov/1nlKyJE). Mobile device users wishing to file a complaint will “be presented with a format that is simpler to navigate on a smaller screen and without a keyboard,” the FTC said. Consumers wishing to report an incident of identity theft will still be encouraged to do so through a desktop or laptop “due to the sensitive personal information required to file such a complaint,” the agency said.

T-Mobile needs more low-band spectrum to continue to play the disruptive role the carrier is now playing in the U.S. wireless market, T-Mobile said in a filing at the FCC. T-Mobile executives met with aides to the five commissioners, as well as Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman, the carrier said in an ex parte filing. “Access to low-band spectrum and the economies of scale that greater access would enable represent two of the most pressing needs T-Mobile must satisfy if the company is to continue to play as disruptive a role in the market for the benefit of consumers as it has played over the last two years,” T-Mobile said. “Numerous studies … have demonstrated that low-band spectrum experiences significantly less path loss over wide areas than higher-frequency spectrum and less penetration loss when traveling through building walls, yielding improved consistency and reliability of coverage over wide-areas and indoors.” Meanwhile, T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham responded Tuesday to comments by a second carrier official on why low-band spectrum is not a substitute for a denser network (CD May 6 p3). “On the one hand, they're arguing low-band doesn’t matter, but on the other they say that it does,” Ham told us. “If it doesn’t matter, go at it and bid in the AWS-3 auction. Get as much spectrum there as you want. Go for it.” Ham jabbed at AT&T in particular, which has been in a long-standing conflict with T-Mobile over spectrum aggregation rules. “It’s great for them to speak about how low-band is no big deal when they control so much of it,” she said.