Online privacy stakeholders questioned the legitimacy of the Do Not Track discussions being facilitated by the World Wide Web Consortium, in emails to W3C’s DNT group and interviews with us. During last week’s teleconference (CD July 25 p15), the group wasn’t given a chance to vote on whether stakeholders see value in continuing on a path laid out last month by the co-chairs, when the co-chairs decided to reject a proposal from the online advertising industry and move forward with the group’s current draft. That draft includes 23 change proposals (CD July 17 p9). Though the group was scheduled to produce a “Last Call” document outlining a DNT mechanism by Wednesday, last week’s call didn’t produce consensus on the draft, and the group isn’t scheduled to talk again until September (CD July 31 p13).

The House Commerce Committee approved the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-2844), which would combine eight congressionally mandated reports on the communications industry into one biennial report. The bill, which passed by a voice vote Wednesday, included a bipartisan amendment to address two specific concerns from FCC officials on the timing of the report and a provision to ensure the bill does not impact the FCC’s ability to prepare other reports.

Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Tuesday she plans to introduce legislation to address “competition issues in the patent world.” Witnesses at a subcommittee hearing Tuesday had made it evident that some standard-setting organizations (SSOs) are taking antitrust concerns related to standard-essential patents (SEPs) “seriously” by voluntarily adopting best practices and updating their intellectual property rights policies, Klobuchar said. However, it may now be time for Congress to get involved or “we need to up the role of enforcement agencies and have that complementary to the work of the SSOs,” she said. Klobuchar said she’s considering legislation that would “clarify” the standards for issuing injunctions and U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) exclusion orders related to SEPs, along with legislation to address the FTC’s role in the “patent troll” debate and its impact on competition and consumers. Klobuchar told us after the hearing that she plans to introduce that legislation in the fall.

Response to Verizon’s petition to discontinue copper service on Fire Island, N.Y., highlighted a longstanding divide between incumbents and competitive providers. ILECs unanimously supported the request, which they said was a reasonable and cost-effective way to replace an obsolete technology damaged by Superstorm Sandy. CLECs worried that if the FCC grants the request, it could prejudge issues involved in the overall IP transition and put the competitive providers at a disadvantage. State public utility commissions and consumer advocates raised questions about the suitability of Verizon’s planned Voice Link fixed wireless service as a replacement for its traditional copper landline.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved Tom Wheeler to be FCC chairman, in a voice vote and as expected (CD July 30 p3) . The committee sent his nomination to the Senate floor Tuesday. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, voted to approve but warned he may oppose the nomination in the future if Wheeler fails to adequately respond to his questions about regulating political speech. It was unclear Tuesday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to schedule a final vote on Wheeler’s nomination, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., clarified that Republicans “absolutely” intend to pair Wheeler’s nomination with the still-pending Republican FCC nominee.

Sprint is hoping for a better second half of the year, following the June 30 shutdown of its Nextel network, but it still faces issues related to that closure “that will impact the second half of the year,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said Tuesday during a conference call. Sprint lost a net 2 million subscribers during Q2, which it said was mainly due to the Nextel shutdown; the carrier lost a net 560,000 subscribers during Q1. More than 1.3 million customers were still on the Nextel network at the beginning of Q2 -- 465,000 joined Sprint’s network before the Nextel shutdown, Sprint said. The carrier had 53.4 million subscribers at the end of the quarter. Sprint expects to see fewer gross subscriber additions during Q3 than during the same period last year due to deployment of its Network Vision network upgrade program, Hesse said.

Two judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted to deny an en banc rehearing of the circuit’s 2-1 decision that Boston police needed a warrant to search the cellphone of a man arrested in 2007 for suspected drug dealing. But they said the Supreme Court should hear the case. The decision put the 1st Circuit at odds with other federal appeals courts, and the Justice Department had asked the court to hear the case “en banc.” Meanwhile, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a decision released Tuesday that court orders authorized by the Stored Communications Act to compel carriers to provide historic cell site information of their subscribers don’t violate 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Small cells are becoming increasingly important with the limited amount of newly licensed or little-used spectrum available and rising amount of traffic on networks, said small cell experts on a panel led by the PCIA Monday. The FCC also needs to create separate regulations for small cells, panelists said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group will use shared service agreements and joint sales agreements to comply with FCC ownership rules in its $985 million buy of seven Allbritton TV stations, Sinclair said Monday. Along with seven ABC affiliates covering 4.9 percent of U.S. households, Sinclair will acquire Allbritton’s D.C.-area 24-hour local news cable channel, NewsChannel 8. The transaction will create “synergies,” Sinclair said. Free Press attacked Sinclair’s “rapid expansion.” “The FCC needs to scrutinize these proposed deals and stop allowing covert consolidation through shared services agreements that allow Sinclair to run two or even three stations in a single market,” said Free Press President Craig Aaron in a press release Monday.

Tom Wheeler’s nomination as FCC chairman is expected to be OK'ed by the Senate Commerce Committee at its planned vote at Tuesday’s markup, industry officials predicted Monday. They told us they expect Wheeler won’t face opposition from lawmakers on the panel and his nomination will pass by a voice vote. The markup, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell, will consider nearly two dozen bills along with the nomination of Wheeler, whose past leadership of CTIA and NCTA had previously drawn the scrutiny of public interest groups and some senators, including two who expect to vote for him.