Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., introduced trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation Thursday, drawing praise and criticism alike from lawmakers and industry officials. Advocates of the bill, H.R. 3830, touted the enhanced intellectual property rights protections and the focus on Internet-based services as central to the global economy. The bill’s sponsors also emphasized the critical role the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 (http://1.usa.gov/1lYakkc) will play in closing pending trade pacts (http://1.usa.gov/K99u7T), such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a request Thursday to stay rules requiring ILECs to submit revised study area boundary data. USTelecom, NTCA, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, WTA and the Eastern Rural Telecom Association had asked for a six-month extension, pointing to comments by Chairman Tom Wheeler they said implied the new data wasn’t needed just yet. The Wireline Bureau disagreed, but granted a two-month extension to March 17. The associations told us they hoped that would be enough time.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to look at what some call shell corporations, he said on audience queries about those who may be getting around media ownership rules, at an Oakland, Calif., town hall meeting Thursday night. The event was hosted by the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition in partnership with the Center for Media Justice, Free Press, ColorOfChange and National Hispanic Media Coalition. He also passionately denounced those who try to defraud FCC services like LifeLine. Wheeler spent most of the night sitting alone at the dais of a packed room, listening to community members ask the commission for help. It was a rare opportunity for Oakland residents to appeal directly to the head of the agency, and likely an unusual situation for Wheeler, whose remarks aren’t often preceded by beat poetry by the local youth poet laureate.

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).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler isn’t afraid to intervene if sponsored data plans like AT&T’s end up hurting consumers, he told a packed house at the Computer History Museum Thursday in Mountain View, Calif. It’s the second time in two days Wheeler has indicated his willingness to step in if needed. (See separate story below in this issue). AT&T said Monday it would let content companies pay for their data to not count against a user’s data cap (CD Jan 7 p2).

Dish Network pulled its $2.2 billion bid for LightSquared during a trial within LightSquared’s bankruptcy proceeding Thursday. Dish abandoned the bid in a New York federal bankruptcy court in a lawsuit brought against it by Harbinger Capital Partners. Harbinger, LightSquared’s investor, alleged that Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen fraudulently obtained LightSquared debt (CD Aug 21 p22). The trial is expected to continue over the next few days, the court clerk said.

LAS VEGAS -- All four FCC regular commissioners indicated they're likely to support the agency’s next moves on the IP transition, during a panel discussion late Wednesday at CES. The commissioners disagreed sharply on what should happen to the net neutrality order, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Several industry officials said during CES they expected a decision soon, probably this month.

LAS VEGAS -- Even though the Federal Aviation Administration has decided in favor of passengers using tablets and other portable electronic devices (PEDs) during takeoff and landing, and all aircraft will be “PED friendly,” passengers will still be told to put their devices away some of the time, said Capt. Bill de Groh, an airline pilot representing the Air Line Pilots Association, Thursday at CES. In October, the FAA announced that airlines can allow the use of electronic devices during all aspects of flight, based on recommendations by the PED Aviation Rulemaking Committee. On Dec. 12, the FCC approved an NPRM seeking comment on cellphone use on airplanes.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC needs to drop, once and for all, a proposed system for scoring the value of TV licenses sold in the incentive TV auction based on an evaluation by FCC staff, or get ready for failure, said Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, Wednesday during a spectrum panel at CES.

The FCC forward auction of 600 MHz wireless spectrum should be split into two sequential phases, one covering high-demand urban areas and a second for smaller rural markets, suggested a NTCA- and Rural Wireless Association-sponsored report by NERA Economic Consulting (http://bit.ly/1afZ6Ws) filed Wednesday. The proposed plan would auction off urban, high-spectrum use markets under the economic areas licensing structure initially proposed by the FCC and favored by large carriers, while selling off rural spectrum in the smaller, geographically-based lots favored by NTCA and local carriers, called partial economic areas (PEAs), said NTCA Director-Legal Affairs Jill Canfield in an interview. The proposal might be a way to bring more participants to the auction by encouraging smaller carriers, and could be attractive to larger carriers by allowing them to avoid spectrum caps, said Telecommunications Industry Association Director-Regulatory & Government Affairs Mark Uncapher.