The FCC is “totally in and invested” in efforts to prevent distracted driving caused by the use of personal electronic devices (PEDs) like smartphones, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday at a National Organizations for Youth Safety-led rally for the “It Can Wait” anti-texting campaign. The National Safety Council said 100,000 car crashes are caused by distracted driving. That’s an “epidemic” that results in completely preventable deaths and injuries that can be prevented by education and advocacy efforts, Rosenworcel said. The FCC has led its own anti-texting education efforts directed at elementary, middle and high school students, along with sponsoring a distracted-driving technology event in April (CD April 22 p10), she said. Rosenworcel said she’s also invested in preventing distracted-driving deaths as the mother of two small children. “I never want to see them at risk because someone behind the wheel thinks that paying attention to a text is more important to paying attention to the road,” she said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau released its mandatory special access data order Wednesday. The bureau used its delegated authority to “clarify the scope of the collection to reduce burden” to respondents, it said (http://bit.ly/1dpM6gu). After the Office of Management and Budget gives Paperwork Reduction Act approval, the bureau will announce the deadlines for data submission, it said. Commissioner Ajit Pai released a statement criticizing the bureau for overstepping its authority when it approved the collection of potential competition data on a less granular basis than the commission requested.

The FCC should “let the market, rather than government fiat,” guide how the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction is structured, said Commissioner Ajit Pai said Wednesday at a Mobile Future event. A market-based approach includes “letting all companies participate” in the auction by not adopting overly restrictive rules that limit participation by top wireless carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T, he said. Pai has long advocated for the agency to follow industry’s advice in developing the rules for the incentive auction. The auction rules must also be fair to all stakeholders, Pai said, saying broadcasters and carriers have collaborated well during the process. “That’s something we should embrace,” he said. The FCC must also stay within statutory bounds allowing the agency to hold the auction and complete the rulemaking process within a reasonable time frame, Pai said. Uncertainty about the timeline doesn’t serve anyone well, he said. If the ultimate goal of the auction is to provide funding for programs like FirstNet, the FCC must “impose little or no restrictions” on the auction to make it successful, said Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner in a related panel discussion. “The more you're imposing restrictions, the less money you'll get."

Creating new CableCARD and encoding rules that would apply only to cable operators would “hamstring” their ability to compete in the current video marketplace, said NCTA in comments responding to a TiVo petition (http://bit.ly/12VRaS) asking the FCC to reinstate the portions of the rules knocked down by the EchoStar decision (http://bit.ly/10nMM3E). CEA, Public Knowledge and the All-Vid Tech Company Alliance voiced support for the petition, while Verizon, cable providers and broadcasters opposed TiVo’s proposal, along with NCTA. “In such a dynamic and vibrant marketplace, there is no place for decade-old plug-and-play regulations premised on an entirely different competitive landscape” said NCTA.

Mike O'Rielly, Republican nominee to the FCC, pledged to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to work on improving the E-rate program. Focused on connecting schools and libraries, it faces many changes as both President Barack Obama and the FCC have pledged to alter the program to accommodate faster broadband connections. These processes have been called both ConnectED and E-rate 2.0. The committee questioned O'Rielly, policy adviser to Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, and FTC nominee Terrell McSweeny in a hearing Wednesday.

Voluntary intellectual property agreements let the private sector be more flexible in policing its own industries than IP legislation does, testified several stakeholders at a House Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing Wednesday. “We've seen what happens in legislation,” said RIAA CEO Cary Sherman. He and others testified that the flexibility of a voluntary agreement was the reason the Copyright Alert System (CAS), an ISP-based consumer warning system for alleged piracy, had succeeded where the Stop Online Piracy Act failed. Legislation carves in stone certain expectations, making everyone on each side of the debate nervous, and complicating the ability to get things done, Sherman said. Voluntary agreements, instead, are a “great way to begin closing the gap between the business side and the content side of the Internet,” he said.

The House Cybersecurity Subcommittee voted Wednesday to send two cybersecurity bills to the full Homeland Security Committee. The subcommittee approved the bills -- the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act (HR-2952) and the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act (HR-3107) -- on a unanimous voice vote with amendments. Both bills have bipartisan support, said subcommittee Chairman Patrick Meehan, R-Pa.

LAS VEGAS -- Most smaller carriers are unlikely to participate in discussions aimed at facilitating sharing between the federal government and carriers, a key focus of the Obama administration, CEOs of small carriers agreed Wednesday during a panel discussion at the Competitive Carriers Association annual meeting. T-Mobile, widely seen as the most active carrier of all did not participate on the panel.

There’s really only one screen, said panelists in a session on content for the second screen at the Future of Television conference in New York Wednesday. Web browsing time has already surpassed the amount of time people spend watching TV, and this year app usage will jump past the amount of time consumers spend watching TV, said Craig Palmer, CEO of Wikia, a network of collaboratively published content. “So the only way you're going to create a really compelling second-screen content experience is make the second screen the first” and integrate content of the two screens from the start, he said.

Nearly six weeks after the FCC voted 2-1 to reduce interstate prison calling rates (CD Aug 12 p1), the text of the order hasn’t been released. A decade after a Washington, D.C., grandmother asked the commission to lower rates to prisons, the industry continues to wait. Prison phone providers and prisoners’ rights groups say they can do little but speculate -- and worry. Prisoners and their families worry about continued injustices as they decide between talking to a loved one and paying the rent. Prisoners’ rights attorneys are waiting for federal leadership to help guide state commissions on their own intrastate ratemaking. And the nation’s No. 2 U.S. inmate calling service provider carries on uneasily, fearing federal overreach and preparing to file a lawsuit against the commission.