FCC members encouraged schools and libraries across the country to comment on the agency’s proposed E-rate rules -- and they got their wish. More than 250 comments from school districts, associations and individuals were filed in docket 13-184 on Friday and Monday. Several school districts asked for the program cap to be expanded to $5 billion per year -- more than twice the current cap.

The federal government needs to do a “bona fide audit” of its spectrum holdings, said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Hudson Institute visiting fellow, Monday at a Hudson event. The White House and Congress need to “make it a priority to have there be a transparent -- as transparent as possible -- but meaningful audit of federal spectrum, and then move on to implement policies that would promote the auction of exclusive-use licenses,” McDowell said. The federal government’s use of its spectrum holdings in the 1755-1780 MHz band has been an ongoing debate as federal agencies seek to clear government users from swaths of the band to allow commercial use. Federal users need to be given an incentive to move off the band, but the process remains “opaque,” McDowell said. “I know a lot of federal spectrum is used for very important purposes, but I think we can all assume that not all of that spectrum is being used efficiently -- or sometimes not at all -- and that there would be a greater societal and economic benefit were it auctioned.” Troubles also lie ahead for the desired pairing of the 1755 band with the 2155-2180 MHz band in an AWS-3 spectrum auction, he said.

Two chairs of House panels that oversee the FCC don’t want the elimination of the UHF discount to “punish business” by affecting existing ownership groups or pending transactions, they said in a letter to acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1aHA9VF). “Specifically, we are concerned that elimination of the UHF discount could inequitably harm those broadcast owners with pending transactions that were initiated under the existing UHF discount rule,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore.

Arris will return the recently acquired Motorola Home set-top box and gateway business to its former luster within the next year, regaining market share lost as the company struggled under ownership and management changes, Arris CEO Robert Stanzione told us at a recent Citigroup investor conference in New York.

Although presumed incoming Chairman Tom Wheeler could be in place by the Oct. 22 FCC Open Meeting (CD Sept 13 p1), Chairwoman Mignon “Clyburn’s in charge,” FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach told an FCBA audience Friday. “All of the bureaus are continuing to press forward on her priorities, and coordinating all of our matters through her office as if we had never heard of the nominees.” Veach spoke to several dozen attorneys at a brownbag lunch at Bingham McCutchen on what the bureau has been focusing on, and where its priorities lie going forward.

The FCC Wireless Bureau scheduled an auction of the H-block for Jan. 14, closing off the possibility it will be paired with the AWS 3 M-block for a bigger auction later in the year. The move Friday came after Dish Network offered assurances that it would offer a $1.6 billion bid for the band (CD Sept 13 p13), FCC sources said. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had repeatedly urged the FCC to delay the sale, while Commissioner Ajit Pai pushed for a Jan. 14 auction to put the spectrum in play (CD Aug 19 p1). The H-block is adjacent to the PCS band and the auction is widely expected to produce significant carrier interest.

Ongoing revelations about the National Security Agency’s covert surveillance have seriously stymied the chances of passing cybersecurity legislation in this Congress, experts and issue advocates told us in interviews last week. Though the NSA’s surveillance work has little to do with protecting critical infrastructure, the controversy over the leaked information will make lawmakers reluctant to vote for increased information sharing with federal agencies, they said.

FCC and state regulators need to put protections in place to solve interconnection issues in Internet Protocol technology, said industry experts at a CompTel event Thursday. Speakers from Verizon and tw telecom said regulations could hurt technological innovation because the industry development is going much faster than regulatory procedure. “We want a public shared network where everyone has to interconnect with each other,” said Rochelle Jones, tw telecom vice president. “As we move to new technologies, we all still need to interconnect and take advantage of new technologies."

FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler is expected to arrive at the agency sometime later this year with an ambitious agenda, but the time he will have in office is limited and several issues loom which could take up much of his first year. Industry and FCC officials told us that then-Chairman Julius Genachowski did Wheeler no favors by staying into May rather than leaving after the end of Barack Obama’s first term as president. Several industry officials who have spoken with Wheeler said he has a big agenda, but is all too aware that he will have limited time as chairman.

The massive cash injection from Vodafone’s sale of its share in Verizon Wireless could have implications for spectrum and mergers and acquisitions strategies of Vodafone’s European rivals, said analysts, a telecom association and a commercial user’s group in interviews last week. Vodafone will get $130 billion, $84 billion of which it expects to return to shareholders, it said Sept. 2 (CD Sept 4 p1). It’s also starting “Project Spring” to accelerate 4G network buildout to cover 90 percent of its five main European markets by 2017, expand 3G coverage and make other enhancements, it said. This could lead to more M&A in a market that’s already seeing heightened interest in deals, more consolidation of providers to the benefit of major telecom players and better services for business customers, said experts. They said it also could hit Vodafone rivals hard.