Telco and cable ISPs are unlikely to change broadband data policies because of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling last week (CD Jan 15 p1) that struck down most FCC net neutrality rules, said industry officials and observers in interviews. They said large telco and cable ISPs have been vocal about not changing customer-facing policies following the ruling, and aren’t likely to change other policies at least in the near term because of uncertainty about how the FCC will respond to the ruling. Small and mid-sized ISPs aren’t likely to change data policies for broadband customers or OK preferential traffic arrangements with websites because of the ruling, said their associations.

The old FCC website, which comes down Feb. 3, is much easier to use not just for those who lobby the agency but also for some members of the public, said communications industry officials who are bemoaning the looming death of a transitional website they rely on. The association and industry lawyers, a public interest official and an FCC advisory committee official who responded to our informal survey said they continue to rely on http://transition.fcc.gov/ even though some knew its fate. The new site has some advantages, and internal FCC data shared with communications lawyers during a recent meeting show it’s much more widely used than the old site, but ease of use is less than the old version, said survey respondents in interviews Tuesday. The day before, an announcement was posted on the transitional webpage that said it’s being taken down (CD Jan 14 p12).

Accuracy of state maps of broadband availability, as oversight shifts to the FCC from NTIA, is generally considered good. And any issues are on very small geographic levels, in a project that’s more comprehensive than anything ever amalgamated in the U.S. That’s according to stakeholders in interviews Thursday. The night before, government, public interest and city officials discussed the national broadband map, as data collection funding is ending for all states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia for maps that some said will be used to parcel out $1.75 billion a year of USF-for-broadband money. Some have criticized accuracy, while acknowledging improvements since the National Broadband Map went online in February 2011 (CD Jan 10/13 p5).

There’s optimism multichannel video programming distributors will embark on a third stage of reducing power consumption by set-top boxes after an expanded voluntary agreement (VA) among MVPDs that now includes energy efficiency advocates ends Dec. 31, 2017, said two advocates. They said in interviews that they have some hope that a Tier 3 for further reductions in set-top energy, following the Tier 2 in the new voluntary agreement disclosed Monday (CD Dec 24 p1), could come to fruition, though they said further VA expansion would be a long way off. Jennifer Thorne Amann, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy buildings program director, is “guardedly optimistic” for a Tier 3, she said. “We've laid the basis for a relationship where we hopefully can get there,” and now she wants to see how the industry does with the new commitments, she said. “We'll be able to keep working with them to make continued progress,” because advocates are joining the steering committee overseeing the energy savings, said Amann. “It looked like a good opportunity for us certainly to capture a larger amount of savings” for set-tops than would have occurred absent the pact and waiting for the Department of Energy’s rulemaking process, she said. DOE said Monday it’s ending that process. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has targeted version 4 Energy Star specifications for set-top boxes, had no comment Tuesday on the amended VA. “Industry was very willing to work with us to make sure we had a seat at the table” and to make continued improvements, said Amann. Any Tier 3 could start Jan. 1, 2018, said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz. Information on set-top boxes’ energy use had been in the public domain, and with the deal “now, through other forums, the information will be more readily available,” said Vice President Evan Groat of Arris, which is part of the VA. “If consumers are interested, it’s something they can look at.” At Cisco in recent years, it has “become clear that we can do better when it comes to reducing set-top-box energy consumption,” wrote Vice President Joe Chow, who runs the company’s Connected Devices unit, on the blog of the participating VA company Monday (http://bit.ly/19e9IV9). He said the amended VA is a win for saving consumers money, protecting the environment and providing “regulatory certainty for manufacturers and providers alike.”

After a perceived lack of goodwill between the FCC and broadcasters during Julius Genachowski’s tenure as chairman (CD March 5 p2), executives said there’s now guarded optimism that under Chairman Tom Wheeler the agency will have more open lines of communication with the industry. Wheeler’s comments on the importance of broadcasting and his decision a month into his tenure to delay the incentive auction of TV stations’ frequencies from 2014 to mid-2015 (CD Dec 9 p1) were among reasons for early hope cited by respondents to Communications Daily’s informal survey this month of station owners and associations. Under Genachowski, respondents said the agency had less goodwill than under previous chairmen like Kevin Martin from 2005-2009, so they hope opportunities resume for close communication between the agency and industry even when the two sides disagree.

Cable is undergoing a transition to the cloud, moving functionality out of

Draft media ownership rules circulated 13 months ago were yanked from circulation recently by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said agency, industry and public interest officials in interviews Friday. The draft order first circulated by then-Chairman Julius Genachowski and thought to have been largely unchanged when now-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was acting chairwoman would have ended some cross-ownership bans, which cheered some broadcasters and daily newspaper owners and upset some groups critical of media mergers and acquisitions. The rules, to TV stations’ chagrin, would have made it harder for them to enter into joint sharing arrangements that JSA foes say evade media ownership limits (CD Nov 15/12 p1).

Ex-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski backed the delay of the broadcast incentive auction to mid-2015 by current Chairman Tom Wheeler. Genachowski said he wanted to join three other ex-chairmen from both parties who earlier this week backed the delay that Wheeler disclosed Friday (CD Dec 10 p6). Genachowski “fully agrees with Chairman Wheeler’s decision,” said an assistant to Genachowski by email Thursday. Genachowski had planned a 2014 auction when he was chairman.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made the broadcast incentive auction more feasible by delaying it Friday (CD Dec 9 p1), but the first-of-its-kind auction won’t be easy, according to interviews Monday with former chairmen of both parties, broadcast and wireless lawyers and public-interest officials. They said not holding the auction until mid-2015, later than the 2014 then-Chairman Julius Genachowski planned, gives Wheeler more time to resolve issues like limits on bidding for the top-two U.S. carriers and holding two other wireless spectrum auctions this year.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s chief of staff stepped down and may leave the agency later this year, said commission officials Friday. They said that Dave Grimaldi, her chief of staff for the past several years except the time when she was acting chairwoman when he was chief counsel, left Clyburn’s office last week and has recused himself on all matters affecting it. Replacing him as chief of staff to Clyburn is Adonis Hoffman, said Hoffman. He had worked for the American Association of Advertising Agencies for a number of years, and more recently as an attorney advising on corporate responsibility and a Georgetown University adjunct professor. Grimaldi declined to comment.