FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn has yet to lay out a clear agenda for what she will do in what could be an extended period leading the agency. More will be known next week, when Clyburn releases the preliminary agenda for her first meeting as chair, scheduled for June 27.

The FCC should require all carriers to certify their systems meet “a core set of 911 resiliency practices,” which would be developed by public safety and other stakeholders, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in reply comments. The comments responded to a March NPRM (http://bit.ly/YtIwc5) from the commission, reacting to last year’s derecho wind storm. It led to outages that affected 77 public safety answering points across Ohio, the central Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic states, with 17 PSAPs losing service completely (CD March 21 p4).

California may change how it subsidizes broadband deployment and adoption in several ways, under legislation on the table this session. Senate Bill 740 and Assembly Bill 1299 seek to expand how California grants broadband subsidies -- one focusing on expanding how hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money is spent in building out the state’s broadband infrastructure, the other on connecting public housing. Some stakeholders worry about changes hurting the fund and limiting funds to the bigger players as the bills evolve.

A week after being sued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., online TV service FilmOn.com will stop streaming major broadcasters in D.C. and eventually all over the country, said an open letter sent to U.S. broadcasters by CEO Alki David. Doing business until now as Aereokiller, David’s company continues to call itself FilmOn.com after a recent legal settlement with competing company Aereo. David said FilmOn will replace the local network affiliates, the content of which it’s been streaming online, with independent stations, with which his company will negotiate residual fees. “This model will set a standard by which companies like Aereo will have a tougher time establishing the precedent of not paying broadcasters for the content that they own,” wrote David. Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC didn’t comment.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and members of the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee heard arguments for and against the interoperability of EU and U.S. privacy and intellectual property standards, during a Wednesday hearing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Industry groups said TTIP should find the commonalities between U.S. and EU privacy and copyright policies to promote the free flow of data across borders, while consumer and privacy advocates said TTIP should not impose the restrictions of U.S. copyright policies on other countries or weaken EU privacy standards.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) approved Japan-based SoftBank’s bid to buy 70 percent ownership of Sprint Nextel, the two carriers confirmed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/117byQ5). The multi-agency committee decided there were no unresolved national security issues related to the deal, despite recent concerns voiced by lawmakers and another company competing for control of Sprint. The FCC’s review is the deal’s remaining regulatory barrier -- which Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeffrey Silva predicted will be removed “within days."

In March 2011, the Enforcement Bureau began asking Sorenson about its compliance with rules requiring registration and verification of Video Relay Service IP Relay users assigned special ten-digit relay numbers, the bureau’s order said (http://bit.ly/ZcvdAu). The bureau was investigating whether the company billed the fund for calls made by “unregistered, unverified, or ineligible individuals,” as well as for “calls that were made by or on behalf of the provider itself,” according to an FCC statement. That refers to calls made by Sorenson employees but billed to the fund, an FCC spokesman said. The commission confirmed in a declaratory ruling in 2010 that such calls are not compensable, he said.

"As you and other Commissioners have recognized, the Commission is charged with not only safeguarding, but advancing the public interest through its role in approving transactions involving Commission licensees,” said the letter, signed by MMTC President David Honig. “This means that it is not sufficient to put forth minimum qualifications and cite to ephemeral benefits. The applicants must make a positive showing of how the transaction will produce concrete benefits for consumers, including historically underserved and underrepresented groups. ... SoftBank’s record, and its forward looking commitments to these diversity issues, are especially critical to the Commission’s public interest determination because SoftBank is a new entrant to the U.S. market, and the Commission has not yet had an opportunity pass on SoftBank’s qualifications to hold Commission licenses."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the FCC can’t force Comcast to carry the Tennis Channel on the same tier as the operator’s own Golf Channel and NBC Sports, in a 3-0 ruling Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/12gefp0). In an opinion that communications attorneys said could affect other FCC carriage conflicts, the judges said the agency failed to show unlawful discrimination, or present evidence to refute “Comcast’s contention that its rejection of Tennis’s proposal was simply ‘a straight up financial analysis.'” Judges were skeptical of the FCC’s case during oral argument, with some courtroom observers predicting the cable operator would win the case (CD Feb 26 p1). The channel said it will appeal, while FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai cheered the ruling, as did Robert McDowell, who left the commission earlier this month and had voted against the agency’s order siding with the programmer over Comcast.

The FCC, having contracted for $208,799 of preliminary research on barriers to entering businesses it oversees like owning radio and TV stations, may spend as much as $917,823 for studies acquiring new data including on new media. That’s according to documents the agency released to Communications Daily’s publisher under Freedom of Information Act requests. As the commission prepares to receive a new privately funded study on media ownership for which a vote on new rules was paused in February (CD Feb 27 p1), it’s embarking on what officials inside and outside the agency called the next phase of barriers-to-entry research.