LAS VEGAS -- Dish expanded its line of DVR devices with SuperJoey, a new version of its Joey Hopper DVR extenders that lets users record up to eight programs in the same house at one time, up from the six possible previously, CEO Joe Clayton told a CES news conference Monday. The device, paired with the existing Hopper set-top box, accomplishes that by adding an extra two tuners, he said. In the process, Super Joey “virtually eliminates channel conflict in multiple TV households,” he said. The device is compatible with all models of the Hopper, Dish said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1ad9nTm).

FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen addressed a number of Internet privacy topics -- the Internet of Things (IoT), the agency’s patent troll study that she described as “ongoing,” data security and safe harbor -- during a Monday chat on Twitter. While stakeholders appreciated Ohlhausen’s outreach efforts, they said her responses seemed to betray little about the commission’s decisionmaking in pending proceedings. Her responses were “cautious and guarded,” said Ifrah Law Internet privacy lawyer Michelle Cohen. Ohlhausen seemed “to be playing her cards close,” agreed Steve Wilson, analyst for business research firm Constellation Research. Chief Technology Officer Mike O'Neill of Baycloud Systems, which develops cloud-based systems, did “not really expect an answer, I just wanted people to think about” his Do-Not-Track (DNT) question, he said. But hedging and brief answers were to be expected, given Twitter’s 140-character limitations, Cohen said. “It’s a little tricky to go in detail."

AT&T announced a new “sponsored data” plan Monday, which it said will be a win-win for customers and content providers alike. Public interest groups say the only winner is AT&T, which they say could profit twice from carrying the same content. Some say they expect to see similar sponsored data plans from other companies.

T-Mobile US is getting the lower band spectrum it has long coveted, buying Verizon Wireless’s 700 MHz A-block licenses for $3.3 billion, in a deal announced Monday. The transaction must clear the FCC and get antitrust approval from an agency that’s expected to be the Department of Justice. Most FCC watchers we asked don’t expect that to be a major hurdle. Combined with the low-band spectrum T-Mobile already has in the Boston area, the carrier said it would have low-band spectrum in 21 of the 30 top U.S. markets -- including nine of the top 10. Major markets in the new spectrum include New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The spectrum covers an area with 158 million potential subscribers, T-Mobile said.

LAS VEGAS -- Public safety’s main focus on 911 is to move emergency calling into the 21st century, said National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes during a presentation at the CES Monday. But Trey Forgety, head of government affairs at NENA, warned that public safety remains conservative and slow to change.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s decision to push the incentive auction back to 2015 doesn’t address industry concerns about how broadcasters will be affected by the repacking process, engineers, attorneys and broadcasters told us in interviews. The extra time before the auction doesn’t equate to extra preparation time for the various changes in channel assignments that repacking would be required by equipment manufacturers, broadcast stations, and engineers, because “we don’t know what to get ready for,” said Don Everist, president of broadcast engineering firm Cohen, Dippel.

The public, educational and government (PEG) channel community plans to help lawmakers better understand the importance of PEG channels, in an attempt to push through legislation aimed at restoring fees from franchise agreements with cable companies that were lost to PEG channels, they said. The Community Access Preservation Act, S-1789, introduced last month by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., called for flexible use of PEG fees and would order cable operators to provide support for PEG channels (CD Dec 11 p6). The bill, which was reintroduced and revised from previous versions, will likely meet backlash from cable operators, a cable attorney said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against publicizing a document that the FBI has used to justify certain phone surveillance practices, in a decision Friday. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has fought for the release of a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion from January 2010, which the FBI has cited when defending its activities. Attorneys argued EFF v. U.S. Department of Justice, case number 12-5363, in late November.

AT&T launched a frontal attack against its former proposed merger partner, T-Mobile US, Friday, offering subscribers up to $450 per line to switch from T-Mobile to AT&T. Stifel Nicolaus said in a research note Friday that the growing competition in the wireless market sparked by T-Mobile makes a possible Sprint/T-Mobile merger a tough deal to get past federal regulators (CD Dec 17 p1).

Dish Network stands ready to jump into Ultra HD 4K when the time is right, and not as a result of competitive pressures from DirecTV, which has said it will be active in 4K, Dish CEO Joe Clayton said in a recent briefing. “I'm going to do what the consumer tells me to do, not what DirecTV does,” Clayton said.