In large part the order echoes what industry insiders said they were expecting (CD April 8 p6). It requires broadcasters, MVPDs, and “any other distributor of video programming for residential reception that delivers such programming directly to the home and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission” to put an aural description on a secondary audio stream of any emergency information that is available visually. There’s a two-year deadline for compliance with the new order, with a waiver for The Weather Channel and Direct TV, and commercial video equipment and display-only monitors don’t fall under the rules.

Bridging the rural communications gap has been complicated by uncertainty created by some FCC policies, said stakeholders at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The hearing was the first of the subcommittee’s investigation into the state of the nation’s communications policy, and the first held by it’s new Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Subcommittee staffers said the panel will also seek to investigate the state of wireless communications and the state of video in future hearings.

"Under the NTTAA, DOE, as a federal department, is required to use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standard bodies unless these standards are inconsistent with applicable law,” wrote Doug Johnson, CEA vice president-technology policy. DOE has acknowledged that their proposed rules are based largely on the CEA-2043 VA, the test standard used in the industry consensus, but CEA and other industry commenters said the DOE should have to show that the VA is impractical under the law before developing it’s own standards. “U.S. law and good public policy favors simply relying on the standard rather than borrowing from, modifying or reinventing it,” wrote Johnson.

As the FCC moves forward on a draft order approving trials that would allow VoIP providers direct access to numbers in a few markets, the commission released a report Monday on number utilization. However, key data in the report are almost three years old.

LAS VEGAS -- Broadcaster uncertainty about the voluntary incentive auction was evident this week at NAB events, and in our interviews with station executives and lawyers. Class A station owners asked more questions than Media Bureau staffers working on the auction had answers for at a standing-room-only bureau event Monday evening. The next day, participants told us they're happy the bureau held the event and that staff will continue to engage with them, but questions still pervade. They have queries about the nature of the auction itself and about what a public notice Friday freezing processing of some broadcaster applications means (CD April 8 p5) as well as some comments by bureau staff that indicate some Class A’s may be ineligible to sell all or some of their channels.

The framework will need to take into account how government and industry typically view critical infrastructure cybersecurity, Microsoft said. The government “tends to look at critical infrastructure as a monolithic collection of systems and services,” while industry “looks at core elements within its direct control or its contractual obligations to deliver services,” Microsoft said. If the government focuses too much on high-impact -- but low probability -- threat scenarios, the framework could include “requirements and compliance obligations that may not necessarily improve cybersecurity for critical infrastructure or private sector enterprises,” Microsoft said. The framework should be based on six foundational principles, Microsoft said -- risk-based, outcome-focused, prioritized, practicable, “respectful of privacy and civil liberties” and globally relevant. It should also include a cohesive risk assessment and risk management structure, Microsoft said.

Questions continue to surround the pending nominations to replace outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell, as lawmakers refused to say who, if anyone, had percolated to the top of the list. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., continued to stump for FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to replace outgoing Chairman Julius Genachowski as the top Democrat on the commission. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, again declined to say whether he had endorsed his congressional aide, Michael O'Rielly, to replace outgoing Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell.

Broadcasters led by the NAB traded shots with CEA and CTIA in reply comments on an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology notice on updating the FCC’s DTV interference software for calculating interference between stations after the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. The sides disputed what should happen next in the earlier comment round as well (CD March 25 p9). The notice sought comment on new software designed to do interference analyses using the methodology described in Bulletin No. 69 (OET-69) (http://bit.ly/Z5Y3SE).

Google Fiber is coming to Austin, Texas, next year, officials said Tuesday. Officials from the tech company joined city and state leaders on stage at Brazos Hall in Austin to announce it'll be the second major city after the municipalities of Kansas City to receive the gigabit-capable network. In the Kansas City area, Google Fiber has begun installing service for customers in 10 “fiberhoods” and construction is under way in 40 percent of fiberhoods, a process that started last year, a spokesman said. AT&T also announced a desire to build an equally fast network in Austin if it gets the same deal from the municipality.

LAS VEGAS -- TV stations’ statutory signal protections are stronger than the top-two U.S. carriers’ advantages of size, said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. “So why do you guys need protecting now,” he asked NAB CEO Gordon Smith at the association’s show Tuesday. “For people who say AT&T and Verizon dominate wireless, I'd like to be” in a broadcaster’s position when it comes to signal exclusivity within an affiliate’s market, McAdam said in a one-on-one where Smith asked the questions. “I think we actually partner pretty well with NAB,” and Verizon’s desire to reduce the size of cable channel bundles “isn’t a cause célèbre for us” but rather an early warning of the need to move toward a la carte, McAdam said later in the Q-and-A.