Furloughs remain on the table at the FCC, though the agency’s Managing Director David Robbins is trying to avoid staff cuts, FCC officials told us as briefings continue at the agency. For FY 2013, the sequester would mean trimming the $341.9 million budget by about 5 percent, or $17 million, to $324.8 million. Questions about the sequester are expected to come up at the March 12 FCC oversight hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee, officials said.

Cybersecurity measures are needed from government agencies originating emergency alert system messages in a newer Web format, and from all participants in the EAS system, after last month’s unauthorized access sparked fake warnings, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said. Manny Centeno from FEMA’s integrated public alert and warning system office showed participants in the agency’s webinar on IPAWS and that new format, Common Alerting Protocol, the FCC’s Feb. 13 “urgent advisory” to EAS participants. That warning on CAP was issued privately by commission staffers to associations that distributed them to EAS participants -- which include all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors (CD Feb 14 p8) . State and other officials involved in CAP recommended counterparts in other states start testing that format, and said shorter wireless emergency alerts on mobile devices won’t supplant EAS but complement it.

Progeny LMS CEO Gary Parsons said this week he is confident the FCC will be able to wade through objections to rolling out the company’s proposed 911 location service in the 900 MHz Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service band, but he is not certain when a decision might come from the agency. The proposal continues to be a lightning rod for criticism.

Margin pressures on set-top boxes, and the ability of cable customers to choose their own cable decoder boxes, could drive a new model for set-top distribution in homes, said Keith Kocho, Cisco director-strategy and business development, on a panel at Media Summit New York Tuesday. Within 12 months, Kocho said, the industry will see “something that resembles the handset subsidy model you see in mobility happen in the living room."

Several House and Senate lawmakers are introducing legislation aimed at permitting cellphone users to unlock their phones so they can be used on different networks, they said this week. Momentum to amend U.S. copyright law on cellphone unlocking surged after top telecom officials in the administration advocated this week for legislative fixes to give consumers greater control over their devices (CD March 5 p1).

Aventure Communications is an unlawful telecom scourge, telcos told Iowa state regulators this week in multiple filings. The company has faced scrutiny from the Iowa Utilities Board in the past, and now its opponents insist it’s violating past terms of the board’s orders and creating an ongoing problem. They point specifically to the need for appropriate intrastate high-volume access service rates and traffic pumping allegations, which Aventure attempted to downplay. Several stakeholders had failed to successfully negotiate a rate for what Aventure’s high-volume traffic should cost in 2011, prompting Aventure to initially complain to the board and inspiring several strong counterclaims. Stakeholders still debate what this rate should be. Aventure has operated since the fall of 2005 and is based in Sioux City, Iowa, according to its website.

Sky Angel opened another front this year in its carriage dispute with Discovery Communications. In January, the online video provider, which sells a video service under the FAVE-TV brand, sued Discovery in a federal court over breach of contract allegations. The same contract has been the subject of a nearly three-year program access proceeding at the FCC’s Media Bureau (CD July 16 p7). Sky Angel alleged that Discovery improperly terminated its carriage agreement with Sky Angel in January 2010, a move that Sky Angel claims has cost it more than $500,000 in lost subscriber revenue. It sued for more than $1 million in damages and “specific performance of the affiliation agreement” in U.S. District Court, Greenbelt, Md.

Internet stakeholders will need to participate in the debate over this Congress’s Internet policies if they want to win on issues like e-commerce sales taxes and cybersecurity, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Tuesday at an Internet Association event. Grassroots opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) was a turning point in the dialogue on Capitol Hill over Internet-related issues, Wyden said. “For the first time, the technology sector had beaten the middle man,” he said. “We've got to find a way to build on that, and that’s why your work is so incredibly important today.” Regulators and other lawmakers also outlined how upcoming policy discussions would involve the Internet community.

AT&T opposed a proposal at the FCC by several CLECs to adopt rules making it harder for ILECs to retire copper loops, and making it easier for CLECs to get access to last-mile copper facilities. The telco said granting the petition by TelePacific, Mpower, Level 3 and others could delay the transition to all-Internet Protocol networks and drain ILEC bank accounts. CLECs and state regulators supported the petition, saying ILEC opposition is driven not by a desire to further the public interest but to maintain their own dominance.

The Senate’s most senior statesmen pledged to protect the nation’s broadcasters from any FCC effort that would force them to relinquish spectrum for the incentive auctions, Tuesday at the NAB state leadership conference. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and former Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, touted the importance of broadcasters in communicating lifesaving information to local communities during emergencies and put a spotlight on the importance of retrans consent. The Judiciary Committee will attempt to pass a reauthorization bill this session to extend the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), which expires Dec. 31, 2014 (CD Jan 17 p1). On a separate panel, FCC commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel discussed their decision-making processes on media issues.