CEA President Gary Shapiro offered his “two cents” on the necessary quality for the next chairman of the FCC Thursday, starting with solid experience in industry. Meanwhile, speakers at an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event said the next FCC chairman needs to establish an agenda early on and communicate what that agenda is.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said there is “plenty of blame to go around” but the current data on the program “doesn’t paint a picture of success,” in his opening remarks. He said the Lifeline fund grew 226 percent since 2008 and, in 2012, the FCC spent $2.2 billion on the program. “Specifically, it spent $2.2 billion of your money, my money -- virtually every American’s money -- since the Lifeline program and the entire Universal Service Fund is paid for through a charge on phone bills,” he said. “We are spending large sums of money and probably squandering much of it.”

Another $300 million round of Connect America Fund Phase I money is set to be doled out, as outlined in an order circulated Wednesday by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, agency officials said. The order would maintain the existing benefit of $775 per location for unserved homes available in the first round of Phase I funding last year, while extending eligibility to additional homes that have low-speed Internet such as legacy 1.5 Mbps service, officials said. Those locations will be eligible for an amount somewhat lower than $775, they said. Funding will be available exclusively in areas where no unsubsidized competitors offer service, officials said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., skewered advertisers for “dragging their feet … purposely” in developing voluntary do-not-track standards, during a committee hearing Wednesday. Rockefeller told reporters after the hearing he feels “very strongly” that legislation is needed to ensure that citizens’ privacy decisions are respected.

The House Judiciary Committee plans a “comprehensive series of hearings” to determine whether U.S. copyright laws are working in the digital age, said Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., at an event Wednesday. Goodlatte told us he didn’t have specifics on the content of the hearings, but the committee will seek advice from all interested parties and then “we will be very aggressive about it.” He believes “a wide review of our nation’s copyright laws and enforcement mechanisms is timely,” and expects a flood of input from a variety of perspectives, Goodlatte said at a Copyright Office event celebrating World Intellectual Property Day.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 powerhouse smartphone, targeted for delivery this week, is already causing market confusion before release by most carriers. Following online reports of delays in the much-hyped launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 via Sprint and T-Mobile due to supply problems, Sprint confirmed in a news release Wednesday that it will be “slightly delayed” with its full product launch of the phone due to “unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung.”

Arguing that the commission overstepped its bounds when it required eligible telecom carriers to use USF support to provide broadband service, the carriers claimed Congress didn’t delegate Title II authority to the FCC to regulate broadband. Section 254(b), which the FCC relied on for jurisdiction, is “clearly” not a jurisdiction-conferring provision, the carriers wrote. “Congress conferred no jurisdiction by its references to ‘advanced telecommunications and information services.’ It merely stated principles to guide the FCC in exercising its authority.” In its response, the FCC argued that argument was “not properly before the court because it was not first presented to the FCC.” The commission also attacked petitioners’ “unsound” argument.

NRTC objected, in earlier comments, saying many of its members hold licenses in the 220-222 MHz band, acquired on the secondary market, located close to PTC-220 operations. “NRTC supports the deployment of Positive Train Control technology but is concerned that a unilateral grant of PTC-220’s Waiver Request will unfairly undercut NRTC’s license rights and degrade its ability to expand its system in the future,” it said (http://bit.ly/17ikQxc).

Sprint Nextel lost a net 560,000 subscribers during Q1, in part because of the continued exodus of subscribers from its Nextel platform. About 1.3 million subscribers remain on the Nextel platform, which Sprint still expects to shut down June 30, said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse Wednesday during a Q1 investor earnings call. Sprint added 12,000 subscribers to its own platform, well below analyst estimates of 110,000 to 275,000 additions. Sprint Chief Financial Officer Joseph Eutenauer attributed the losses partially to exiting business clients on the Nextel network who chose to also cancel related subscriptions on the Sprint platform. The carrier will remain focused on recapturing as many of the remaining 1.3 million subscribers on the Nextel platform as it can, though Eutenauer said earlier the carrier still expects it will only be able to recapture about 40 percent of those subscribers. Costs related to the shutdown will reach $500 million to $600 million during Q2, Sprint said.

Free-market and minority groups turned up the heat on President Barack Obama to nominate FCC and FTC commissioners who can best represent their perspectives on telecom and Internet regulatory matters. The pleas came in separate letters sent to the White House on Tuesday. Obama has not yet said who he plans to nominate as Democratic FCC chairman, Republican FCC commissioner and Democratic FTC commissioner. The White House did not comment on the letters.