An appeals court gave its nod to a 2011 FCC attempt to curb “traffic pumping” schemes, approving Friday an FCC decision forbidding a CLEC from imposing access charges on long-distance providers for calls to non-paying customers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld 3-0 the commission’s ruling that a Northern Valley tariff violated the FCC’s 2004 Access Charge Reform order. Industry officials downplayed the long-term significance of the court decision, as it dealt with an FCC action that took place before the 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order set the industry on a glide path toward bill-and-keep. Still, some traffic pumping cases are pending before the commission under the old rules.

Cable executives visiting Washington this week, with programming prices a key concern, generally support the House-passed approach to cybersecurity and ongoing voluntary efforts at privacy standards, they and their lawyers said in interviews Friday. Three days before NCTA’s annual show opens Monday, an FCC Media Bureau report said average monthly prices for expanded-basic cable rose 4.8 percent in 2011 to $61.63 on Jan. 1, 2012. Among operators’ top worries is the prices their companies pay for broadcast and cable programming, said industry officials.

Privacy advocates are calling for policy changes on surveillance and privacy after news reports last week that the National Security Agency (NSA) has operated a program since 2007, named Prism, that allows the agency access to user data controlled by major online service providers, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple. The program is operated under the FISA Amendment Act (FAA), which passed last year and updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to April documents cited in the news reports. Thursday’s reports on the program from The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/14ClB0z) and The Guardian (http://bit.ly/1baaUGj) came after Wednesday’s reports that the NSA compels Verizon to release to the agency data on customers’ call logs (CD June 7 p1).

With the comment cycle now complete, FCC staff members appear to be pushing forward on an order addressing new rules in the aftermath of the 911 outages reported during last June’s derecho storm, said commission and public safety officials. The National Emergency Number Association and AT&T both reported last week on follow-up meetings with Public Safety Bureau staff to explain the comments they filed last month (CD May 30 p6).

TiVo agreed to a $490 million settlement of patent infringement suits it filed against Cisco, Motorola Mobility and Time Warner Cable, an amount that is below some analysts’ forecasts but averts an expensive legal battle before trial.

The FCC released an order Thursday approving Progeny’s controversial E-911 locator service for commercial use in the 902-928 MHz band. Commissioner Ajit Pai voted in favor of the order earlier this week, making commission approval unanimous, as expected (CD June 6 p9).

President Barack Obama urged the FCC Thursday to make high-speed Internet available to enough schools and libraries to connect 99 percent of American students. Obama wants the commission to meet that goal within five years, which will require modernization of its existing E-rate program, the White House said. “We are living in a digital age, and to help our students get ahead, we must make sure they have access to cutting-edge technology,” Obama said, calling this a “challenge” that businesses, schools and governments can rally around.

U.S. government collection of phone data from millions of Americans re-emerged as a national issue Thursday after the publication of an order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court giving the National Security Agency authority to collect data from Verizon. While a recurring concern of public interest groups and some conservatives alike, the publication marks the first time such an order has been made public, after it was reported by the Guardian newspaper (http://bit.ly/123rSXk).

A Texas bill that’s one step away from law may disrupt a proceeding on rate rebalancing, officials said. The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 583 on May 25, which will change the course of a key telecom proceeding, many companies have argued. The law would reduce the PUC’s role in setting rates for certain companies. Both the PUC proceeding and the bill have implications for the Texas USF and its small and rural ILEC universal service plan, and stakeholders are attempting to reconcile changes that may be on the way. Earlier this spring, a multitude of parties sought to halt the rate proceeding, begun in January and carrying out a 2011 law, due to a variety of different bills proposed that would affect the state USF (CD March 13 p13).

As big-name players begin to stake out positions in the fledgling retail home automation market, work is under way to clarify the branding the various players and platforms use. IControl Networks is the software platform behind home automation offerings from cable companies such as Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable -- and for ADT Pulse. It’s working with cable providers on multiple-layer “seals” that will identify the cable provider brand along with an “umbrella mark” that indicates compatibility with the overall platform, Jason Domangue, vice president of ecosystem development at iControl, told Consumer Electronics Daily.