The consumer groups said they tested a variety of online videos, full-length online TV shows and video clips using multiple Web browsers and different devices. The report said 10 percent of full-length video viewed for the study lacked captions, but that the numbers went up significantly for shorter chunks of online video. The FCC order said IP video clips aren’t required to be captioned, but longer video segments, or multiple segments that together constitute the bulk of a full-length program are required to have captions. The consumer groups said that telling the difference between a video clip and a segment was extremely difficult, but 76 percent of video segments they viewed were uncaptioned, including 70 percent of news segments and 93 percent of non-news segments. Video clips, not required to sport captions, lacked them 87 percent of the time, said the report. “This is a big issue,” said Associate Professor Christian Vogler of Gallaudet University and director of its Technology Access Program. “During the Boston bombing, there were lots of news clips out there and they weren’t accessible to us. We have limited access to news, because everything has gone video."

With FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski set to leave the agency Friday, the Wireless Bureau is expected to release a public notice that explores various band plans for the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. Genachowski also circulated this week, among other items, an order approving Progeny’s proposal to launch its E-911 location service in 902-928 MHz spectrum, and a public notice asking questions about the next wireless competition report. Agency staff said they have been flooded with calls at the same time as their desks were flooded with items circulated by the chairman.

"The decision today is a novel, interim approach to an unusual set of circumstances resulting from Superstorm Sandy, urged on by the need to have telephone service in place by the summer,” said PSC Chairman Garry Brown in a statement. “The Commission will exercise its regulatory authority over this service to ensure consumers on Fire Island are protected with requirements relating to customer protection, customer complaints, service quality, safety and reliability, and we will continue to explore what are the best options for permanent repair."

In what might be a first for a major national conference, next week’s CTIA show in Las Vegas will not be attended by any key FCC staff beyond the three commissioners and their aides. With the sequester putting more pressure on federal spending, top FCC officials who usually go won’t this year. FCBA isn’t as lucky. None of the FCC staff will be attending its annual seminar this weekend in Hershey, Pa., because of timing issues and budget cutbacks, we are told.

Top minority members of the House Commerce Committee objected, in a letter sent to FCC commissioners Thursday, to a recent Republican letter urging the FCC to reject the Justice Department’s advice to implement spectrum aggregation rules or caps. Democrats said (http://1.usa.gov/16CnoJ1) the GOP letter is another example of Republicans seeking to “advance a one-sided re-interpretation of the goals and meaning” of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act in an “attempt to spin the legislative history in a way that inaccurately reflects the intent of Congress in adopting these provisions.” Top Republican members of the House Commerce Committee had previously told FCC commissioners that the Justice filing wasn’t consistent with the Spectrum Act and could lead to a failed auction (CD April 23 p1).

How the world navigates the IPv4 “exhaustion mess” will “set the direction of the next few decades of the Internet,” said Geoff Huston, chief scientist for Asia Pacific regional Internet registry APNIC. This is a “major pivot point” for the ongoing tension between carriage and content in communications, he told us. So far, the Internet has “bred massive content industries at the expense of the fortunes of the carrier folk,” but if Internet companies persist in using IPv4, carriers may find themselves in a new role -- brokering Internet Protocol addresses between content providers and users, he said.

As FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn begins her tenure as acting chair after Chairman Julius Genachowksi steps down Friday, she should do what she can to move the ball forward on an incentive of broadcast TV spectrum, said panelists at a New America Foundation event Wednesday (http://bit.ly/11FrOxT). Ensuring sufficient spectrum to meet consumer demand will be crucial, panelists said, though there was some dispute over whether licensed or unlicensed spectrum could best meet that need. Most panelists said Wi-Fi offloading would be key to forestalling a spectrum crunch.

The FCC’s upcoming incentive auctions will continue to be one of the Office of Engineering and Technology’s top priorities during the agency’s leadership transition, said OET Chief Julius Knapp Wednesday during a National Spectrum Management Association (NSMA) conference. The FCC would work on the incentive auctions “no matter who the chairman is” because the auction preparatory process involves statutory requirements, he said. The FCC and OET will remain as dedicated as ever to making more spectrum available for use, and there is “every reason to expect” that will continue under new leadership, Knapp said. The Obama administration is also hoping to make additional spectrum available by freeing up a total of 500 MHz of federal spectrum by 2020.

Members of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council sharply criticized the FCC’s Dec. 31, 2016, 700 MHz narrowbanding deadline, as NPSTC works toward developing a formal position. The NPSTC board, holding the second day of its meeting in Washington, discussed several issues Wednesday, but narrowbanding proved the most contentious. In April, the FCC sought comment on whether it should extend or eliminate the deadline requiring 700 MHz public safety narrowband licensees to change over from a 12.5 kilohertz voice efficiency standard to a 6.25 kilohertz standard (CD April 2 p4).

Aereo filed a motion for summary judgment in the case against it by several major broadcast networks over its online TV service. Aereo said Tuesday that all of the issues in the case were already decided in the company’s favor during failed preliminary attempts by broadcasters to get an injunction in lower court and again in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Both courts ruled that Aereo’s system of tiny, individualized antennas doesn’t infringe on broadcasters’ copyrights. “Because that reasoning applies with equal force at this stage, Aereo is entitled to summary judgment,” said the motion.