The three-judge panel selected to hear Verizon’s appeal of the 2010 FCC net neutrality order (CD June 26 p1) could be a good panel from the agency’s perspective, but there are few certainties in appellate law, said attorneys following the case closely. While Republican-appointed judges outnumber by 9-5 those appointed by Democrats at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, two Democratic appointees, David Tatel and Judith Rogers, were selected for the panel, as was Laurence Silberman, widely viewed as the intellectual leader of the conservative appellant movement.

Senate Commerce Committee leaders circulated draft cybersecurity legislation that’s meant to be a “bipartisan consensus,” a committee official told us Thursday. The bill, backed by Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to be marked up by the end of the month, said the official. The draft is the Senate’s first attempt at enacting cybersecurity legislation in the 113th Congress. The House passed a revised version of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624) in April, but industry officials have said they don’t believe it will pass the Senate, and the White House has threatened a veto.

Anomalies were detected in some of speed tests done as part of the FCC broadband measurement project, officials said at Thursday’s meeting of industry stakeholders. The problem is limited to connections between Cogent and various ISPs, officials said. Measurement Lab (M-Lab) representative Meredith Whittaker, of Google, identified the ISPs involved as Verizon and Time Warner Cable. The identification itself prompted concern from group members that the data was supposed to remain private, as FCC officials emphasized that this wasn’t necessarily a problem with the ISPs themselves, but rather with connections between M-Lab and Cogent.

House Republicans and Democrats again delved into the acrimonious topic of FCC reform Thursday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said there’s a real need to improve the transparency and accountability of the FCC and stumped for two draft bills similar to FCC reform legislation (HR-3310, HR-3309) that failed to advance last session (CD March 27/12 p1). Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., bemoaned the draft bills, which they said would slow FCC processes and subject the commission to special rules and more litigation.

Entrepreneurs need support because they are the drivers of technological innovation, said acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Ajit Pai at an access to capital conference held at the commission Thursday for small, women- and minority-owned firms. “Entrepreneurs have to think carefully … what their strategies for growing a business are going to be,” said Pai. “I hope this event creates a fruitful matching of ideas and capital, because it is the future of this industry.” Angel investors have become an increasingly important part of developing innovation, because they are more likely to invest, said J.S. Gamble, Blu Venture Investors co-founder. “One in 10 startups get funding from angel investors and one in 1,000 get money from venture capital firms.” Panelists from angel investment firms spoke about how such investors are likely to be more involved in their investments because they invest their own money and have a personal stake in their companies.

Satellite companies and manufacturers supported the Obama Administration’s draft proposals to update the satellite export control regime in comments to the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). The proposals address the transfer of satellite systems and their components from the U.S. munitions list (USML) to the Commerce Control List (CCL). Items controlled under the USML are critical to national security, while the CCL is less restrictive and includes items that are less critical. Comments were due this week and posted Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1aevu9E). SES, Intelsat, Boeing and other companies approved of the proposals but asked for clarifications to export control classification numbers (ECCN) that identify items.

Foreign nationals accounted for 70 percent of the full-time graduate students enrolled in electrical engineering programs at U.S. universities in 2010, says a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) report released Thursday to point up “the importance of international students” to the U.S. economy. In 2010, foreign nationals also accounted for 63 percent of those enrolled in graduate studies in computer science, the report said. In industrial engineering, the proportion of foreign students was 60 percent, the report said.

Many draft proposals focus on changes to technology and address potential federal changes in light of that. One NARUC draft proposed an update on slamming rules. The FCC should “update the current rules and regulations on slamming by (1) requiring third-party verification to include mandatory recording of any contact in which customers are solicited for consent to changes in services or providers, (2) by applying slamming rules uniformly to all voice services including traditional wireline, interconnected and over-the-top VoIP, and wireless; and (3) by requiring the prominent notice of the number the customer may call for assistance of the FCC and/or State agency.” Wireline, VoIP and wireless companies should report billing complaint trends as well as “spikes driven by activity of specific third-party vendors” to both state and federal entities, according to the draft.

Since that means the shareholders will still own both TV stations and newspapers, it doesn’t change status regarding FCC cross-ownership rules, said Fletcher Heald attorney Peter Tannenwald: “Unless they do something to change the ownership at the beginning it won’t make it any difference.” But Tannenwald said if the companies want to try to use the split to come into compliance with cross-ownership rules without receiving an FCC waiver, they could do so by more clearly separating the ownership of the two companies. Tribune said each of the companies will have its own board and senior management team, and “revenues in excess of $1 billion.” “This doesn’t remove the need to ask the question” about possible cross-ownership violations in the proposed Tribune/Local TV merger, said Free Press Senior Policy Director Matt Wood. He also said the spinoff doesn’t do anything to fix Free Press concerns about media consolidation. “We still see reduced journalism and reduced diversity of viewpoint,” he said.

House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., will slam Republican efforts to pursue some FCC reforms in the 113th Congress, according to an advanced copy of her remarks that circulated Wednesday. The majority’s proposed FCC process reform bills are a “backdoor way of gutting the FCC’s authority,” Eshoo’s will say in reference to recent drafts of two bills (HR-3310, HR-3309) that failed to advance last session (CD March 27/12 p1). Eshoo’s comments came ahead of Thursday’s subcommittee hearing entitled: “Improving FCC Processes” (CD July 10 p5).