The FCC Wireless Bureau released a public notice exploring possible changes to the band plan for 600 MHz after an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, over the “serious concerns” of Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai. Comments are due June 14, replies June 28, said the Friday notice.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld FCC authority to impose in 2009 a shot clock on cell tower zoning decisions, rejecting the arguments of cities, led by Arlington, Texas. When the case was argued in January (CD Jan 17 p1), the main question was whether the high court would add to already complicated case law on the Chevron doctrine, in a case examining whether federal agencies should receive deference in interpreting their own jurisdiction. In January 2012, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the order, which set up a showdown before the Supreme Court. The court’s conservatives split on the decision Monday. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, while Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, joined by justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Patent owners should have to identify themselves and any parties with material interest in the patents, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said Friday, when he announced that he was introducing the End Anonymous Patents Act, HR-2024 (http://1.usa.gov/112hFnn). “The process of uncovering the ultimate owner of a patent can be truly burdensome,” Deutch said in a statement. “Patent trolls go to great lengths to conceal the relevant ownership and interests involved. This total lack of transparency by people seeking to game the system unfairly disadvantages businesses honestly seeking to license patents and those targeted in frivolous lawsuits brought by trolls."

Cisco is hopeful the FCC’s Wireline Bureau will decide “quickly and properly” that the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) was incorrect in determining that audio communication portions of Cisco’s WebEx conferencing service should be considered a telecommunications service, Jeffrey Campbell, Cisco’s vice president-government affairs, told us.

T-Mobile voluntary withdrew Friday its appeal of the FCC’s 2010 net neutrality rules, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Verizon’s challenge continues. T-Mobile recently wrapped up its buy of MetroPCS, which had filed a separate challenge in 2011. The two cases had been joined before the D.C. Circuit.

ViaSat’s new $625 million ViaSat-2 satellite will “substantially” strengthen its broadband hand in competing against DSL and cable by more than doubling throughput capacity for its Exede service, CEO Mark Dankberg said on an earnings call.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said work on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum is moving forward as well as could be expected. Genachowski is pleased the agency has launched a critical debate headed into an auction that could start as early as next year, he said in an interview Friday as he prepared to leave the commission. Genachowski, a friend of President Barack Obama, chaired the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, and has been on the job since June 2009.

President Barack Obama’s nominee for FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, said last week he plans to sell his shares in AT&T and Verizon valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if confirmed, according to documents filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Wheeler said he also plans to divest his interests in nearly 80 technology, media and telecom companies within 90 days of his confirmation and recuse himself from any matters that may pose a potential conflict of interest if informed by FCC ethics officials. Wheeler, who was formerly president of CTIA and NCTA, has been attacked by some lawmakers and public interest groups for his extensive relationships and investments in companies he would likely regulate if confirmed as FCC chairman. The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing for Wheeler and a committee spokesman had no comment Friday as to when the hearing would take place.

The Copyright Principles Project should be a model for a copyright reform process, members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property said during a hearing on the CPP Thursday. CPP participants testified, including the UC-Berkeley Law and Information Management professor that convened the project, Pamela Samuelson. Members said the subcommittee should examine the stakeholder discussions that led to the report, rather than focus solely on the policy suggestions in the report. Full committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. -- who said last month that Judiciary would hold hearings to reevaluate copyright law in light of changing technologies (CD April 25 p9) -- said he hopes to hear “from everyone interested in copyright law ... before we begin to look at more specific issues.”

​Delegates to the World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum (WTPF) Thursday adopted by consensus a non-binding report by ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré and six opinions from the ITU-initiated Informal Experts Group (IEG) on Internet-related issues. That ended the conference after extensive debate on governments’ role in Internet governance. Delegates chose not to act during the conference on a seventh opinion, introduced by Brazil but also containing controversial Internet governance language from an earlier Russian Federation contribution, because they couldn’t reach a consensus in the allotted time. Touré told delegates at the end of the conference that he would send that opinion to the ITU Council Working Group on international Internet-related public policy issues (CWG-Internet), which will decide on the best forum for continuing the debate.