The Obama administration is committing $100 million to spectrum sharing and pushing cooperation between federal agencies and industry, almost a year after the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) recommended the White House shift its focus from exclusive-use spectrum to sharing (CD July 23 p1). Until now, the White House had been generally supportive of sharing, but hadn’t released a presidential memorandum in reaction to the PCAST report. The White House also issued a paper making the argument that the administration is making progress on broadband deployment (http://1.usa.gov/11NlwJI).

Pandora’s effort to reduce its publishing royalty rates by buying a terrestrial radio station sparked an outcry among record label and songwriters’ groups. But some advocacy groups said the move could broaden the royalty debate in Washington past the controversial but limited Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA), introduced in the House during the previous Congress.

The LEAD Commission said their plan is more affordable now than it would have been five years ago because digital learning devices and cloud-based software could be used through the plummeting cost of Wi-Fi. “In the 90s, we talked about wiring into the information superhighway. Now, industry is able to do what we have always envisioned,” said SETDA Executive Director Douglas Levin. The plan elaborates on models already used in different states and expands their initiatives to the rest of the country, said Levin. “In Mooresville, N.C., we were able to use manageable integrated technology with good results. It has economic value and we need to implement it across the board,” said Margaret Spellings, LEAD commissioner and former Secretary of Education.

Gannett and Belo may have to get FCC waivers to get approval for their deal (CD June 14 p7), said several communications attorneys in interviews Friday. The companies have market overlaps in five cities, their executives said on a conference call with investors Thursday. In Louisville, Ky., and Phoenix, Gannett would be acquiring Belo TV stations in markets where it already owns newspapers, which would put the merger squarely afoul of FCC cross-ownership rules, noted lawyers who both back consolidation generally and those opposed to it. “They're taking a very aggressive approach that is very likely to spark a challenge,” said public interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman, who has represented Free Press in the FCC’s media-ownership review.

The FCC’s 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order faced attacks on all fronts Wednesday, as ILECs, CLECs, VoIP providers and state regulators filed hundreds of pages of reply comments responding to the commission’s defense of its rules. With heated rhetoric, the challengers accused the FCC of statutory overreach, failing to follow the Administrative Procedures Act, and making straw man arguments in its briefs to the court.

Gannett’s agreement to buy Belo Corp. for $1.5 billion likely will be approved by the FCC, said analysts we asked about prospects for the deal disclosed Thursday. It will give Gannett control over 43 TV stations. CEO Grace Martore said in a conference call with investors that the deal will make the “super-group” the “largest player in the top-25 broadcast markets.” Though Gannett and Belo said there are potential overlaps in five markets, the companies said the ownership of those stations would be restructured to comply with those rules. Wells Fargo’s Marci Ryvikker said in an email to investors that the restructuring would take the form of shared service agreements (SSA).

Privacy legislation is a possibility if stakeholder efforts falter in the development of online data collection and use standards, said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz during a Thursday event hosted by National Journal and Allstate to announce results of a survey to gauge American perspectives on online privacy. The survey (http://bit.ly/196eD8H) -- which was conducted before recent reports about government surveillance programs -- said “a solid majority of Americans” think their data are being collected and used without their knowledge, and 88 percent support “a federal law that would require companies that operate online to permanently delete any personal information or activity if requested by an individual.”

Several House lawmakers condemned the government’s monitoring of telephone and online communications and asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to justify the NSA’s broad surveillance techniques, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday. Their comments came a week after the release of classified documents by former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor Edward Snowden that revealed how the National Security Agency is secretly collecting phone metadata and user data from online services (CD June 10 p5). Mueller testified that the government’s surveillance programs are necessary to thwart terrorist attacks against the U.S. and could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

With a second derecho wind storm in a year threatening Washington, the FCC Technological Advisory Council took up communications resiliency Thursday. Russ Gyurek of Cisco, chairman of TAC’s Resiliency Working Group, said the group will look at ways to improve network resiliency during both disaster and cyberattacks, with a report to be ready by December.

The outlook on whether the upcoming incentive auction of broadcast-TV spectrum will be a success or a bust remains in doubt, depending on large part on the rules the FCC writes for the auction, said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Both said Wednesday at a Brookings Institution event that whether broadcasters will sell their spectrum in major markets is the big question. Some broadcasters have said there is much uncertainty among them about the auction (CD June 4 p4).