Verizon and Vodafone said Monday they reached a deal under which Verizon will buy the U.K.-based carrier’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion (http://vz.to/17je3As). The deal had been long rumored, and talks were confirmed last week by the seller (CD Aug 30 p11). The deal would put Verizon on an equal footing with AT&T, which has owned its wireless operations since the AT&T/BellSouth deal consolidated AT&T’s control of what had been Cingular. Analysts and public-interest officials don’t expect major regulatory hurdles for the transaction, they told us in the hours after the deal was disclosed.

State public service commissions can survive in the post-deregulation era if they can identify ways to best serve the industry while ensuring that customers continue receiving reliable services, said Florida Public Service Commission Chairman Ronald Brise in his August newsletter published Friday (http://bit.ly/15cEaJR). As the nation transitions from traditional wireline networks to “largely unregulated IP-enabled services,” wireless and other forms of communication, NARUC’s Federalism Task Force will continue focusing on protecting consumers, ensuring public safety, ensuring networks remain ubiquitous and interconnected and ensuring consumers benefit from voice and broadband services, said Brise. He is on the task force, which released its final draft of its report Aug. 26. It had called for more cooperation between the FCC and the state PSCs (CD Aug 28 p10).

It’s unclear whether FirstNet is going to insist on having a strong security interest in the towers included in its nationwide public safety network, said PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein Friday during a BroadbandUS.TV webcast. After the NTIA entity ended negotiations with Broadband Technology Opportunities Program recipients in Charlotte, N.C., and Adams County, Colo., to bring their LTE public safety networks into the FirstNet network (CD Aug 14 p2), some media reports said it was because FirstNet was unwilling to waive its security interest in the projects’ infrastructure.

Recently promised disclosures by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about U.S. government surveillance programs don’t go far enough, said technology companies and privacy advocates on Friday. DNI’s push for transparency followed another leak from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden Thursday, which included apparent classified intelligence agency budget information. The documents, posted by The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/15cy7Vn), disclose a Corporate Partner Access Project, expected to cost $278 million in FY 2013 and reimbursing telecom companies for surveillance activities.

Mignon Clyburn has been acting chairwoman of the FCC since May 20 and has had what most observers see as an active chairmanship. On Aug. 9, the commission approved on a 2-1 vote what Clyburn had made clear was a top priority -- an order addressing high rates for prison calling (CD Aug 12 p1), though the order has yet to be released three weeks later. The big question many FCC observers were asking last week is how much more Clyburn will try to take on, especially since it’s unclear how much longer she has as interim chair. Will her tenure be over shortly after the commission’s Sept. 26 meeting, or will she still be acting chairwoman in November? The scenarios require different approaches, FCC and industry officials agree.

Lagging adoption and awareness of IPv6 could leave some users open to redirect attacks, researchers at Neophasis Security Systems told us. Networks that aren’t expecting IPv6 activity may not have IPv6 defenses, creating potential vulnerabilities, they said. But John Brzozowski, chief IPv6 architect for Comcast, said in most cases IPv6 vulnerabilities parallel those in IPv4. He said the minimal security risks don’t outweigh the benefits of moving toward IPv6 as quickly as possible.

Mobile privacy stakeholders expressed concerns about NTIA-facilitated discussions that spanned the last year and sought to develop a code of conduct on how app developers inform users of their privacy policies, during a Thursday meeting convened by the agency. Administrator Larry Strickling praised the process and its outcome, saying he “couldn’t be happier with the results” and described the group’s work as “a learning experience for all of us.” John Morris, NTIA director-Internet policy, described the process as an “extremely constructive and productive conversation."

The forthcoming Cybersecurity Framework being developed by critical infrastructure industries and the National Institute of Standards and Technology “complements, and does not replace, an organization’s existing business or cybersecurity risk management process and cybersecurity program,” said a discussion draft of the framework NIST released Wednesday night. The framework is instead meant to help an organization leverage its existing cybersecurity processes and identify areas to improve risk management, although organizations that lack a cybersecurity program can use the framework as a “reference when establishing one,” NIST said in the draft (http://1.usa.gov/154Zjp9).

While the FCC has expressed its concern for consumers affected by the blackout in the Time Warner Cable and CBS retransmission dispute, it’s unclear to what degree the commission will step in or whether it will address the blocking of online content, said consumer groups, analysts and cable industry experts in interviews this week. The FCC is engaged “at the highest levels with the respective parties and working to bring the impasse to an end for consumers and viewers in the affected markets,” said a spokesman. “We urge all parties to resolve this matter as quickly as possible so consumers can access the programming they rely on and are paying for.” The blackout is in its fourth week and the parties declined to say whether they're closer to reaching a deal.

Cognitive Networks confirmed that its real-time data service is the automatic content recognition (ACR) technology adopted by LG for its smart TV platform (CD Aug 16 p9). LG is the first to adopt Cognitive’s solution, based on the cloud-based Engage service that provides real-time event triggers to application providers. The technology operates in the background of a program, such as Showtime’s Homeland, and provides intelligent synchronization between the “graphics plane and the video plane,” said Cognitive CEO Michael Collette, on a media tour in New York.