CEA and NCTA have asked the Department of Energy to pause a rulemaking process on energy standards for set-top boxes and instead allow multichannel video program distributors to police themselves, the trade groups said at a joint media briefing Monday. Davis Wright attorney Paul Glist, representing NCTA, said he believes DOE proposals (CD April 10 p19) on whether set-top boxes should be regulated and how they should be tested could be finalized soon. If so, they would be a “switch point” for the cable industry, he said. If the DOE continues with the rulemaking, it will invalidate a voluntary agreement (VA) on set-top box standards that’s already being followed industry-wide, and discourage other industries from working proactively on energy efficiency, “undermining the very thing the DOE wants to encourage,” he said. DOE and the National Resources Defense Council, which backed tighter standards on set-top boxes, didn’t comment.

Comcast wants lawmakers to encourage more access to unlicensed wireless spectrum while carriers will tell them to free up more federal and broadcast spectrum for licensed wireless commercial use. That’s according to witness testimony that circulated ahead of Tuesday’s Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on the wireless market scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell. Some lawmakers previously urged the FCC to maximize the reallocation of spectrum for licensed use in the commission’s upcoming incentive auction in order to maximize revenue for the build out of FirstNet.

Speed is a defining criteria for the Internet, as well as latency and operability, said ISPs on Monday at an event on Capitol Hill sponsored by Broadband for America. Verizon FIOS speeds have expanded from 30 Mbps to 300 Mbps over the past ten years, said Sanjay Udani, director-Internet & technology policy, and next-generation Internet speeds will go to 10 Gbps or more. Comcast doubles its infrastructure every 18 months to meet demand, said Kevin McElearney, senior vice president-network engineering at Comcast Cable.

Broadcasters may be dissuaded from participating in the incentive auction unless they get answers to their widely held questions (CD April 10 p9) from the FCC, said many industry executives. Among questions most frequently discussed by respondents to our informal survey is in what markets the agency seeks to reallocate some frequencies now used by TV stations for wireless broadband. Even some economists unaligned with any industry, who think the commission has done almost all it can to provide clarity to stations, agree such IDs would help. Without such details, some stations that might otherwise sell the right to some or all of their 6 MHz allotments may sit out the first-of-its-kind auction the agency hopes to hold next year (CD May 22 p1), said broadcasters who don’t expect to participate.

The FCC released an NPRM on accessibility for user interfaces and video programming guides, implementing Sections 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (http://bit.ly/19qAKaI). As expected (CD May 1 p6), the NPRM released Friday proposed that Section 205, which governs video program guides for “navigation devices,” would apply to devices from multichannel video programming distributors, while Section 204, which governs user interfaces, would apply more broadly to other electronics that display or receive video.

Ex-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski thinks the FCC will hit the administration’s 2015 target for freeing up 300 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband, but hitting a second 500 MHz target by 2020 will take “a lot of work,” he told C-SPAN’s The Communicators (http://cs.pn/19u1Td8). He and ex-Commissioner Robert McDowell sat for a joint exit interview of sorts, which touched on the spectrum auctions, the legality of the Open Internet order, and their proudest achievements on the FCC. The program is to air this weekend.

NAB and the Florida Association of Broadcasters partnered with the Florida Division of Emergency Management to test mobile DTV devices to help first responders in the state during this year’s hurricane season. TV stations in the Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Palm Beach and Tampa markets have already signed on to participate, said FAB President Patrick Roberts in an interview. The pilot program started last week and may continue beyond hurricane season to support preparation and relief efforts during other emergency situations, like floods and tropical storms, he said.

Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell warned that rules on the repacking of stations tied to the incentive auction of broadcast-TV spectrum raises the risk that the auction could be overturned in federal court. McDowell spoke Friday, less than a month after he left the agency, as a new Hudson Institute visiting fellow. He was interviewed by former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, also associated with the institute. McDowell said it could take many months for the Senate to confirm Tom Wheeler as next FCC chairman, which could mean further delays in the auction if the agency doesn’t approve auction rules under acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn.

Last month’s appeals court decision striking down a National Labor Relations Board requirement that employers post a notification of collective bargaining rights shouldn’t help Verizon in its net neutrality challenge, the FCC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a letter filed Thursday in docket 11-1355. Verizon wrote in late May to bring the case to the D.C. Circuit’s attention. The relevance of the case, say attorneys on both sides of the issue, will depend on whether the court agrees with the FCC’s position that broadband ISPs are more akin to conduits than speakers.

The House Judiciary and Senate Judiciary committees ended May with four separate bills under consideration that would address a series of issues related to abusive patent litigation that the America Invents Act (AIA) was not able to address. A fifth bill is waiting in the wings. Officials from industry groups that have been pushing for the reforms told us the current versions of the bills offer great ideas and starting points for discussion, but also believe a definitive solution will require more work.