Modernizing the Communications Act should take a flexible approach that will allow content providers to innovate and fairly compensate content creators and investors, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., Wednesday at a retransmission consent event at the Hudson Institute in Washington. He also cautioned against relying solely on reauthorizing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) to update communications laws. He announced Tuesday that the subcommittee and the full House Commerce Committee plan to take steps toward rewriting the Communications Act in 2015 (CD Dec 4 p1). Meanwhile, industry and lawmakers expressed doubts about any quick overhaul. (See separate report in this issue.)

FCC staff approval for Verizon’s foreign ownership to exceed 25 percent -- granted as other staff gave a pro forma OK to the company’s buying from Vodafone the rest of Verizon Wireless it doesn’t own already -- came just under three months after the acquirer requested it. It was the first telecom deal the agency approved involving stakes of non-U.S. investors exceeding that threshold since April (http://bit.ly/1bhlChJ) when the FCC streamlined such rules, said the acquirer and agency separately Wednesday. Since control of Verizon Wireless isn’t shifting with the soon-to-be parent paying $130 billion to buy Vodafone’s 45 percent stake, the deal’s pro forma nature likely paved the way for such swift approval, said communications mergers and acquisitions backers and foes in interviews.

The House Rules Committee voted Tuesday to move forward eight of 26 submitted amendments to the Innovation Act (HR-3309) for full House consideration, in a bid to streamline consideration of the bill. Proponents say the measure would address abusive patent litigation. The cleared amendments included a bill manager’s amendment from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., which would make technical changes to the wording of the bill passed out of House Judiciary last month (CD Nov 22 p13). House Rules also cleared a “Democratic substitute” version of HR-3309, contained in an amendment by House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., and Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Mel Watt, D-N.C. Industry stakeholders told us they believe HR-3309 has a very good chance of passing the House, though the level of support it might receive from each party remained unclear Wednesday.

More collaboration is needed to achieve the broadband speeds of 10 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream across Minnesota by 2015, as mandated by a 2010 state statute, said those at a Connect Minnesota conference Wednesday. Officials of state telecom associations, state legislators and members of Gov. Mark Dayton’s task force on broadband debated the progress of broadband adoption in the state and the next steps to further its development. In taped video address, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said he will continue to ensure that any changes to the federal USF don’t harm small rural providers in the state, and will “protect the programs that provide broadband to all of Minnesota."

The Telecommunications Act doesn’t need to be rewritten, said the CEOs of four major CLECs at a New America Foundation panel Wednesday (http://bit.ly/IsL0Gr). The 1996 law’s language was technology-agnostic, said the heads of Windstream, XO, EarthLink and tw telecom. But the FCC needs to enforce the rules on the books, they said.

Representatives of content providers and technology companies provided a mixed take on the importance of Internet-connected smart TVs, during a panel on TV apps and second-screen engagement at Mediabistro’s Inside Mobile Apps conference in New York Wednesday.

Cheerleading for a Communications Act rewrite began to be tempered with more muted consideration among industry stakeholders and observers Wednesday. They questioned current congressional tensions, timing and the choice of legislative vehicle for communications updates. On Tuesday, House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said they plan hearings and white papers in 2014 to reevaluate the 1996 Telecommunications Act and then legislation to change it in 2015 (CD Dec 4 p1). Speaking Wednesday at a Hudson Institute event on retransmission consent (see separate report below in this issue), Walden reiterated his desires for a flexible rewrite and cooperation with the Judiciary Committee on changing the compulsory licensing system.

The NTIA-convened facial recognition technology multistakeholder discussions (CD Dec 4 p10) might be the first of several concurrent NTIA talks on key privacy issues, App Developers Alliance Vice President-Law Policy and Government Affairs Tim Sparapani told us after the agency’s announcement Tuesday. Several who took part in the NTIA’s first round of privacy discussions -- which produced a mobile app transparency code of conduct -- told us lessons learned from that process will streamline the coming discussions that commence in February. “I suspect NTIA will be doing more than one of these at a time in short order,” Sparapani said. But “any speculation on a timetable would be foolish,” when it comes to the facial recognition talks, Sparapani said.

Privacy and data security were key issues during a wide-ranging House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the FTC’s changing jurisdiction. Though praising the FTC’s work, lawmakers questioned -- and at times sparred with -- the commission’s four members over the agency’s expanding role in ensuring privacy in new technologies: How the FTC’s Section 5 authority relates to data security; the commission’s role in regulating the Internet of Things; whether the FTC should have authority to enforce a potential federal data breach notification law; whether promoting net neutrality should fall to the FTC; what the FTC’s role should be in regulating commercial drone use; and how the FTC should deal with European Union concerns about trans-Atlantic data security.

The FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler should give the public context for its decisions, base rulings on market data and limit the effects of legacy regulations on industry, said panelists at a Phoenix Center event Tuesday. The commission should act as an expert agency, focused on providing information and technical policy, rather than on fuzzier “aspirational goals,” said former FCC National Broadband Plan Director Blair Levin in a panel on the role of the FCC. “It’s not the job of FCC to state aspirations."