DENVER -- FCC reforms have both complicated and benefited the deployment of broadband, speakers said Tuesday at the NARUC meeting. As telcos have transitioned to focus on offering broadband service as well as voice, the reforms promise a shift in purpose and support but also have created uncertainty, stakeholders said.

DENVER -- Phone numbers will have a place for the next 20 years or more, FCC Chief Technology Officer Henning Schulzrinne predicted on a panel at NARUC’s meeting. He participated by phone: “Travel money is tight around here,” he explained. Phone numbers will remain important, if less visible to consumers and fraught with new problems of security and inefficiency. Schulzrinne emphasized that there are still numbers available but there will be new certification needs to avoid the ID spoofing and robocall problems that have emerged. There is a danger of phone abuse becoming worse than email spam due to changing technologies, he said.

Security and liberty should not be mutually exclusive and laws that are not kept secret by the government are needed to protect these rights, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., at a Center for American Progress (CAP) event Tuesday. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s (FISC) interpretation of the Patriot Act is what the government relies on, yet it’s kept secret from the public, said Wyden. “If Americans are not able to learn how their government interprets and executes the law, then we will have limited a fundamental core of our democracy,” said Wyden: “Without public laws and public court rulings that interpret those laws, we cannot have an informed public debate.” Wyden demanded checks and balances on the court in order to stop the “omnipresent surveillance state."

Few details emerged Tuesday as lawmakers pressed Gary Epstein, chair of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force, for information on the commission’s work to structure the spectrum incentive auctions authorized by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. Epstein told lawmakers during a House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing that the commission has made “no final determinations” and has sought to engage “with all interested parties in an open and transparent process.” Epstein said he couldn’t confirm whether the auction would take place in 2014, but said “we will do everything we can in the commission to make that happen."

Though Netflix shares took it on the chin Tuesday from what financial observers said was the company’s failure to hit its most optimistic subscriber growth targets, the company’s executives “are feeling quite good about the business,” said CEO Reed Hastings in an unusual video Q-and-A session on Q2 results. Netflix shares closed 4.5 percent lower Tuesday at $250.26.

Consumers are using TVs that can receive digital video, using DVRs and watching online video on their sets in increasing numbers, said the FCC’s 15th Annual Video Competition Report, the full text of which was released Monday. As expected (CD July 22 p12), the report showed some shifts in consumer behavior toward alternative methods of viewing content, though it also shows the number of broadcast TV viewers remaining the same since the last report. Some cable attorneys told us Monday that little in the video competition report was surprising or unexpected, in keeping with what the draft document reportedly said (CD July 18 p1).

Commenters were generally bullish on the FCC’s proposal to make direct access to numbers available generally to interconnected VoIP providers, in comments posted Monday. Several offered tweaks on how the rules could better accommodate VoIP providers. And some questioned whether it was wise to do so without “holistic” reform.

The Department of Defense proposed a solution that would open the 1755-1780 MHz band for quick sale by the FCC for wireless broadband. DOD also laid down some aggressive spectrum markers. Under the proposal, the department would be allowed to continue operations as before in the 1780-1850 MHz band and would have shared access to the 2025-2110 MHz band, spectrum now set aside for the broadcast auxiliary service. Carriers had proposed giving up on the rest of the band for 10 years, in return for 1755-1780 MHz spectrum today (CD June 19 p11).

The hotly contested debate over spectrum aggregation and unlicensed spectrum rules will likely continue at Tuesday’s House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing on the FCC’s spectrum auction, according to advance testimony that circulated Monday. Representatives from T-Mobile and AT&T will offer opposing arguments for why the implementation or lack of a spectrum cap for larger carriers will reduce the amount of revenue from the auction. Meanwhile, broadcasters plan to lay out their top concerns about participation incentives, spectrum repacking proposals and interference issues, among other issues, according to prepared testimony. The hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn, and the following witnesses are set to testify: FCC Senior Advisor and Co-Lead, Incentive Auction Task Force, Gary Epstein; Harold Feld, senior vice president, Public Knowledge; Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile vice president-federal regulatory affairs; Rick Kaplan, NAB executive vice president-strategic planning; Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory affairs; and Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition.

Working Group 3 is one of four CSMAC working groups looking at different federal operations in the 1755-1850 MHz band. FCC commissioners have before them an NPRM asking about the future use of the 1695-1710, 1755-1780 and 2155-2180 MHz bands (CD July 16 p4). Last week, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers reintroduced legislation to require the FCC auction the 1755-1780 MHz band paired with the 2155-2180 MHz band (CD July 19 p4).