Enforcement Bureau handling of a Verizon petition drew criticism by the NCTA, which attacked the bureau for commingling review of that request with its consideration of whether the Bell broke FCC rules on switching phone numbers to cable operators when customers change service providers. In a Thursday letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, copied to the other commissioners, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said the bureau acted in an “inappropriate” manner on Verizon’s request that the agency consider establishing a porting process for video customers. NCTA deemed Verizon’s petition irrelevant to its recently completed review (CD April 15 p5) of a complaint by Bright House, Comcast and Time Warner Cable that Verizon broke phone porting rules by using subscriber information from those companies to try to lure back departing phone customers.

An FCC notice asking if the agency should expand digital TV consumer education with requirements on telco, cable and satellite TV raises constitutional questions, Commissioner Robert McDowell and a lobbying group said. But the group, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, praised a revised FCC order increasing flexibility given to telecom companies’ educational efforts. The combined order and notice were issued about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, less than a week after being circulated by Chairman Kevin Martin. Commissioners wanted to clarify which types of devices consumer-electronics sellers must fit with DTV information before the rules take effect April 30, said an agency official. CE retailers got a month’s delay on enforcement of the rules.

Many decisions must be run past the FCC chairman’s office before the Media Bureau acts, said current and former commission officials. That has delayed action on some license transfers of duopolies, backlogged orders finding cable operators no longer subject to rate rules, and other matters, they said. The bureau’s five division chiefs often must ask their superiors to check with Chairman Kevin Martin or his representatives for guidance, they said. Martin declined to comment for this article.

Four large Internet service providers were asked to disclose their network-management practices by an online video provider whose petition for rulemaking the FCC is reviewing (CD Jan 15 p2). In an ongoing but limited study cited by that company in its requests to the ISPs, Vuze said it found many communications over AOL, AT&T, Cablevision and Cogeco networks being interrupted. It asked those companies to specify their practices, including whether so-called false-reset messages are being used. The messages can block downloads of peer-to-peer files, video streaming and other bandwidth intensive applications that slow networks.

The FCC lacks authority to reduce full-power radio stations’ interference protection (CD April 10 p8), said full-service broadcasters and the licensee of 350 FM translators. Low-power FM stations disagreed. They said the commissioners should vote to let them file waivers to reduce the protection when full-power broadcasters move closer to them. HD Radio developer iBiquity opposed a waiver process and efforts to lift interference protection, saying they would mean interference with HD Radio. The reply filings are on an FCC notice, which a broadcast attorney said probably will be very contentious.

Negotiations on how Internet service providers, content rights holders and peer-to-peer application providers should handle P2P file transfers on broadband networks (CD April 16 p6) are expected to include dozens of companies, said two officials who will be involved in the talks. Most of the approximately 60 members of the Distributed Computing Industry Association’s P4P Working Group probably will join discussions on a so-called bill of rights for P2P consumers, ISPs and content providers, they said. Comcast and Pando, a company whose product helps hasten P2P file transfers and save network capacity, said Tuesday they'll lead the talks and hope to have a finished document this year.

Comcast and Pando agreed to publish a peer-to-peer “bill of rights and responsibilities” detailing best practices for broadband subscribers, Internet service providers, P2P companies and content owners. The two companies will work with ISPs, P2P companies and others to publish the document this year, they said Tuesday. The announcement comes amid an FCC investigation of whether Comcast blocked P2P file transfers using BitTorrent. The companies have reached an agreement to work together (CD March 28 p1).

Pay-TV companies and home shopping channels disagree over whether the channels should get the low leased-access rates soon to be accorded independent programmers. In replies filed Monday to a commission notice, NCTA and Verizon said the FCC should deny the channels the extremely low rates the agency ordered for community groups and others (CD Special Bulletin Nov 27 p2) leasing system capacity, often by the hour, from pay-TV companies. Two home-shopping channels want the same terms. A group of cable overbuilders including RCN and SureWest predicted Friday that NCTA will prevail in a lawsuit against the FCC over rates for independent programmers. So the group asked the agency to put off imposing the 75 percent cut, set to take effect May 31.

Verizon’s use of information from cable operators to lure defecting phone customers back to the Bell broke no FCC number porting rules, the Enforcement Bureau said. In a recommendation to the full commission that was released at 7:45 p.m. Friday and that some found surprising, the bureau said three cable operators had failed to prove that Verizon marketing efforts violated sections 222(a) and (b) of the Communications Act. The provisions define what telecommunications carriers can do with information obtained from competitors. The bureau said it will judge later whether Verizon broke section 201(b) rules on customer retention practices. It asked commissioners to approve a broad notice seeking comment on that question.

Commissioners may hear testimony on broadband network management from members of many endorsers of net neutrality rules at Thursday’s FCC hearing at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. (CD April 8 p8). KPFA(FM) Berkeley and the Media Alliance, Media Center, One East Palo Alto and other local groups are conferring to prepare members to testify, said Free Press, a net neutrality rule backer. Thursday’s hearing is “an important opportunity for the public to participate in the high-stakes debate,” Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver said in a press release. Internet service providers and Web sites, meanwhile, are talking about how to prevent so-called bandwidth hogs from grabbing network capacity.