All companies and groups commenting backed a broadcast coalition’s clarification request (http://bit.ly/11eis79) (CD Feb 27 p14) for the FCC to allow on a case-by-case basis foreign investments in U.S. broadcasters exceeding 25 percent. Some individuals opposed the change. Many of the initial comments posted this week in docket 13-50 (http://bit.ly/10bzk2S) cited competition from new and other media not subject to the same rules. The commission hasn’t waived the 25 percent threshold for radio and TV-station ownership, though it has such procedures for telecom investments, said Nexstar (http://bit.ly/YQFt2C) and others. Cybersecurity and other concerns that may face wireless and wireline investments held by those outside the U.S. don’t apply to stations, said NAB (http://bit.ly/11nLv98).

The FCC did not act within its discretion when it determined InterCall’s services were “telecommunications” service and required the company to pay into the USF, Arent Fox attorney Ross Buntrock argued for The Conference Group. The agency also did not act properly in issuing the order through adjudication, rather than through the notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures it must follow under the Administrative Procedure Act, Buntrock said.

Dish Network’s $25.5 billion bid to buy Sprint Nextel, proposed Monday, offers $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. The FCC would seemingly have no more reason to reject that than a Softbank bid, agency and industry officials said Monday. However, they said that unlike SoftBank, Dish holds spectrum in U.S. markets, so that will require a competitive analysis not triggered by the SoftBank deal. FCC officials said they had expected an order approving the SoftBank/Sprint transaction to circulate as early as this week.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Facebook and 19 attorneys general have teamed up to create a new online safety campaign, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said during the annual National Association of Attorneys General Presidential Initiative Summit. Gansler leads NAAG. The summit included panels featuring former and current FTC officials, consumer privacy advocates and members of the online consumer data industry.

There were failures among many types of emergency alert system participants and at many levels in the so-called daisy chain distributing EAS warnings, the FCC said sixteen months after the first nationwide simulation. There’s a “Need for Additional Rulemakings” and other steps by the commission and Federal Emergency Management Agency before another test is held, said one subsection heading of the Public Safety Bureau report. The study sought a “re-examination” of FCC state EAS plan rules, with some plans not providing enough details about alert propagation, said the report. EAS stakeholders we spoke with said they generally backed its recommendations and found it a useful document even so long after the Nov. 9, 2011, test. Members of Congress were among those who had scrutinized the results and sought such an autopsy (CD Nov 18/11 p1).

Efforts to head off an FCC vote in favor of giving Vonage direct access to numbers in a few pilot markets appear to have fallen flat despite a big push last week by NARUC, consumer and public interest groups (CD April 15 p1). FCC and industry officials said Monday that Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to have lined up at least three votes for the Vonage trials, with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel ready to vote yes.

A week after CBS and Fox talked about moving to a subscription model if retransmission-consent fees are threatened by a victory in court for online-TV service Aereo, some in the industry are divided over whether such a huge shift could really happen. “We're going to use all of our legal options to protect this business model that has sustained our industry,” said an NAB spokesman, echoing Fox Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, who raised the spectre of a move to subscription at the NAB Show last week (CD April 9 p14). Several industry observers said Carey’s comments were posturing aimed at influencing legislators or investors, because removing content from broadcast would be very disruptive to network affiliates.

The proposed pilot program under which Vonage would have access to numbering resources in a few trial markets could be in trouble after NARUC and consumer and public interest groups announced their opposition in a letter to the commission. The pilot program and an NPRM on number resources is set for a vote Thursday at the commission. It’s unclear whether the letter will cause commissioners to rethink the draft order, industry officials said Friday. Vonage is rebutting arguments made by the NARUC-led coalition.

Critics of Progeny’s proposed rollout of its E-911 location service told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that the agency should carefully consider the impact the service would have on fellow users of the 900 MHz Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service band before greenlighting it. The members of the Part 15 Coalition, a group of unlicensed Part 15 device users which occupy the 902-928 MHz band, said they're concerned the FCC was moving too quickly toward a decision on the Progeny 911 location service, which they said has the potential to cause “unacceptable levels” of interference. Coalition members and Progeny officials each said told us Friday that the other side was attempting to draw attention away from the technical record. The service would help locate wireless callers to 911.

Despite criticisms that the two don’t work well together, the Justice Department and FTC have a good relationship, DOJ Antitrust Division Chief William Baer and FTC Chairman Edith Ramirez agreed during an American Bar Association antitrust meeting panel on Friday. “The relationship between the two agencies is at a very good point,” Ramirez said. “I only expect our ties to deepen.”