Google Fiber sees a future profit, but many options should be on the table for local officials, a company executive told community stakeholders last week. The Fiber to the Home Council Americas attracted more than 400 people to its meeting on advanced broadband networks in Kansas City, Mo., it said (http://bit.ly/13qTP8o). The council emphasized ways municipalities can welcome such advanced network services and how its behavior can influence that timeline, a process highlighted in the council’s community toolkit (CD Jan 25 p9). Google is pioneering one of the many options for faster broadband that stakeholders discussed at that meeting, with an emphasis on the role of municipalities.

The FCC will make information on the incentive auction repacking available for “meaningful comment” this summer, said Assistant Wireless Bureau Chief Brett Tarnutzer. At an FCBA panel Thursday, he discussed several issues associated with the auction, including the recent public notice on the 600 MHz band plan and the commission’s reliance on TVStudy software to run the auction. Despite the complications inherent in the auction, the commission still believes it’s on track to release a report and order on it this year, and hold the auction in 2014, said Tarnutzer. “I believe we can do this."

Cablevision used a court ruling from January to attempt to undermine the authority of the National Labor Relations Board and complaints to the NLRB from its New York workers. The cable company sought a petition for a writ of mandamus and a motion for a stay in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stop the NLRB from pursuing labor relations cases that it called “baseless,” in a news release Thursday (http://yhoo.it/13qsS4K). A former chairman of the board said the court ruling that led to Cablevision’s writ of mandamus was unprecedented, and the union that’s organized opposition to the company criticized the request.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Thursday tapped agency veteran and Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison as her chief of staff. Clyburn had looked for someone who was considered to have “gravitas” and long FCC experience to serve in that position, industry lawyers said Thursday. Ellison worked with Clyburn behind the scenes when she was preparing for her original confirmation in 2009. Dave Grimaldi will stay on as chief counsel. Grimaldi, previously Clyburn’s top advisor, likely didn’t get the nod because he’s a relative newcomer at the FCC and Clyburn wanted someone more experienced, industry officials told us. Ellison was acting general counsel in 2009 and deputy general counsel from 1997 to 2009.

The FCC overstepped its bounds when it preempted state authority to set intrastate rates for access and local service, several telcos and state public utility commissions told the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a brief posted Thursday in docket 11-1355. “The Order illegally requires interstate costs to be recovered through local service rates over which Respondent has no jurisdiction,” the telcos and state commissions said of the FCC. An FCC spokesman said the USF/intercarrier compensation order was “legally sound,” and the agency looks forward to defending it in court.

The automotive industry asked the FCC to drop a proposal to make spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band available for unlicensed use on a secondary basis. The opposition wasn’t a surprise because the automotive industry raised concerns in January, after former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced at the CES an initiative to free up 195 MHz of spectrum for Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band (CD Jan 16 p1). The automotive industry plans to use part of the spectrum targeted by Genachowski, the 5850-5925 MHz band, for a vehicle-to-vehicle warning system, which is already being tested.

Media cross-ownership has a “negligible” impact on minority and women broadcast ownership, said a Minority and Media Telecommunications Council Study submitted to the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/178iVhE). The commission delayed a vote on media ownership rules in February (CD Feb 27 p1) anticipation of the study’s completion. Several communications attorneys told us Thursday that even with the study done, it’s unlikely a vote will occur with a depleted commission and an acting chairwoman. Although MMTC President David Honig said the study satisfies a directive from 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to study the effects of cross-ownership rules, Free Press attacked the study for not being quantitative enough.

The FCC should focus on crafting rules for the upcoming spectrum auction that ensure more competition in the wireless marketplace, said a pair of economists and a consumer advocate during a Capitol Hill event Thursday. The panel, hosted by the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), came ahead of the Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on the wireless marketplace scheduled for June 4. Witnesses at the hearing will be: CTIA President Steve Largent; Doug Webster, Cisco vice president-service provider routing, mobility and video marketing; CCA President Steve Berry; Consumers Union Policy Counsel Delara Derakhshani; Thomas Nagel, Comcast senior vice president-business development and strategy; and Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford.

Questions about how to finance the next World Radiocommunication Conference and Radiocommunication Assembly have prompted discussion about the possibility of delaying the meetings from 2015 to 2016, according to officials and documents we obtained. The ITU Council had agreed on the dates last year. The council will further discuss the matter in June.

The amount of choice consumers have in video content is “overwhelming and chaotic,” TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said Thursday at the Sanford Bernstein investor conference in New York. Citing the addition of subscription VOD, traditional VOD and content from aggregators including Netflix and Vudu to linear TV channels, Rogers said the “march of ongoing choice” is the overall theme of the media landscape. TiVo wants to “provide order” to the chaos and help consumers get to what matters to them, Rogers said. The company also desperately wants a bigger chunk of the set-top business as cable operators evolve from quadrature amplitude modulation to Internet Protocol TV world.