The FCC unanimously passed call completion rules Monday in an order that affects all providers that make the initial choice of how to route a call and have at least 100,000 lines. Rural associations have long complained that calls to rural areas frequently fail to connect. Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said fixing rural completion has been a “personal priority.” The reported data will help isolate problems, drive improvements by providers, and “arm the FCC with powerful tools for enforcement,” she said.

Wireless carriers appear poised to back away from arguments the FCC should take 15 MHz of Broadcast Auxiliary Service spectrum band at 2095-2110 MHz and pair it with 1695-1710 MHz spectrum for an auction, industry lawyers told us. Filings were due at the end of the day Monday. NAB submitted its reply comments, but CTIA comments, expected to lay out a revised wireless industry position, weren’t available by our deadline.

Congress should “proceed with caution” as it considers a second round of changes to the U.S. patent system, former Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Director David Kappos is expected to tell the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Kappos, now a partner at Cravath Swaine, is to testify at a 10 a.m. hearing to get industry input on the Innovation Act (HR-3309). The bill, introduced last week by committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., attempts to curb abusive patent litigation by making changes to court rules governing patent cases, as well as through changes to PTO programs (CD Oct 24 p12).

NARUC will discuss resolutions on federalism and slamming at its meeting next month, NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman John Burke told us last week. The full membership is expected to accept a draft of a white paper on federalism and telecommunications released in August (http://bit.ly/17d1bBZ), a discussion that started last November at NARUC’s annual meeting in Baltimore (CD Nov 14/12 p5). A resolution on slamming will be re-introduced in the telecom committee for debate, but it’s unclear whether the resolution will be voted on by the full membership at the meeting, Indiana Utility Regulatory Commissioner Larry Landis, who is re-introducing the legislation, told us. The slamming item was introduced at NARUC’s summer meeting in Denver, but it was tabled to November due to criticism (CD July 23 p19).

The FCC approved by a 3-0 vote Monday technical rules for the 700 MHz broadband spectrum licensed to FirstNet, with an eye on prompting equipment makers to start seeking certification for devices first responders will use on the network. The FCC also approved an industry agreement on 700 MHz interoperability through an electronic vote Friday, taking the item off the agenda for the commission’s October meeting Monday.

Industry stakeholders must remain engaged in development and implementation of the Cybersecurity Framework as the National Institute of Standards and Technology moves into the process of creating a final version of the framework for release in February, said NIST Director Patrick Gallagher. NIST released a preliminary version of the framework Tuesday to collect public input (CD Oct 23 p1). That input will include a fifth framework development workshop Nov. 14-15 at North Carolina State University’s Centennial campus in Raleigh. In addition to seeking input on specific parts of the framework, NIST will discuss possible structures for an independent, industry-led body to take charge of further revisions to the framework, Gallagher said during a USTelecom event Friday.

The widely expected surveillance overhaul called the USA Freedom Act will be introduced Tuesday, a spokesman for Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., told us Friday. The bill would end the government’s bulk collection of phone metadata authorized in Patriot Act Section 215, amend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and update the FISA Court’s transparency, among other things. Privacy advocates have emphasized for months the package’s substantive and comprehensive nature and greatly anticipate seeing the bill text itself. They describe it as a marriage of earlier efforts.

A draft FCC declaratory ruling that could lead to increased foreign ownership of broadcasters has support from all three commissioners and is likely to arrive for a vote at the Nov. 14 open meeting without alterations to its basic thrust, said an FCC official and several broadcast attorneys in interviews Friday. The declaratory ruling would clarify the commission’s rules that transactions that would result in foreign ownership of more than 25 percent of a broadcaster would be approved on a case-by-case basis. Though this was always the case under the Communications Act, industry officials told us it’s been long understood that such waivers would not be granted (CD Oct 25 p5), and the proposed ruling would explicitly reverse that. The ruling “is really a matter of the FCC exercising the authority they already have,” said Davis Wright broadcast attorney David Silverman, who represents Alaskan broadcasters who support the clarification.

Patent litigation revamp legislation that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is set to introduce within the next few weeks is likely to reflect the spirit of the Innovation Act (HR-3309), which House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced Wednesday -- but it’s unlikely to be a direct analog, patent debate participants told us in interviews last week. Goodlatte and Leahy have been closely coordinating the development of their separate bills, with Leahy saying soon after the Innovation Act’s introduction that he and Goodlatte “share a common goal” to curb abusive patent litigation and would continue to work on it going forward (CD Oct 24 p12).

Longtime CTIA President Steve Largent will leave the group after his contract expires at the end of next year, the association said Friday. Largent’s future and whether he would re-up for another contract had been a topic of discussion when CTIA’s board met in San Jose, Calif., last week, industry sources said.