Sprint Nextel’s successful bid to buy full ownership of Clearwire is unlikely to face a tough time winning regulatory approval, industry legal experts told us. Sprint, which already owned 51 percent of Clearwire, said Monday that Clearwire’s other shareholders had unanimously agreed to sell Sprint their 49 percent stake for $2.2 billion. That deal represented an improvement from the $2.1 billion Sprint offered last week (CD Dec 14 p15).

The NAACP, AFL-CIO and various other union and public interest groups expressed concerns about Deutsche Telekom’s proposed plan to combine MetroPCS with T-Mobile USA, in reply comments to the FCC. Only the Communications Workers of America raised objections when petitions to deny were due in November. DT, T-Mobile and MetroPCS meanwhile asked the FCC to proceed expeditiously to approve the transaction in light of little opposition.

Colorado capped its high-cost USF fund, plans to deregulate competitive parts of the state and wants to keep its hands off Internet Protocol services. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission adopted a rulemaking order (http://bit.ly/UMLLdB) Monday, and it’s effective Dec. 24. The deadline for any appeals for rehearing, reargument or reconsideration is Jan. 14. The order follows a series of hearings and comments throughout the fall (CD Sept 10 p5). The proceeding began in August.

Stakeholders expressed confusion and frustration over the status of a mobile app code of conduct (http://1.usa.gov/12kT9SZ) presented by the App Developer’s Alliance at last month’s discussion, during Monday’s multistakeholder meeting on mobile app privacy and transparency. Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel at the ACLU and co-author of the App Developer’s Alliance code of conduct draft, said the document “is a working draft, not a final document.” Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association, came to the meeting prepared to discuss the code of conduct, he said. “I'm either confused, or I'm pissed."

Sirius XM’s share price rose slightly Monday, nearing a 52-week high, after a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision imposed only slight music royalty increases through 2017. An analyst said the increase was less than he expected, while another said it was a good outcome for the satellite radio company. Sirius’ stock closed Monday up one cent at $2.92.

Multichannel video programming distributors remain divided on whether the FCC should adopt a standard of rebuttable presumptions against withholding from other MVPDs channels that are affiliated with cable operators, comments on a rulemaking show. NCTA and programmers and operators that own channels opposed the presumptions that program access rules are violated by exclusive contracts for cable-affiliated regional sports networks (RSN) and national sports networks. Vertically-integrated operator/programmers also opposed the notion that once a channel affiliated with an operator is found to have one unfair exclusive contact, it can’t get more. The presumptions would be rebuttable by defendants.

Parties have 60 days to appeal a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision to the FCC. But does a USAC invoice count as a “decision"? That was the question before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday, as call center software provider inContact argued the Wireline Bureau exceeded its authority in finding the clock started from the date of an invoice. The full commission acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it “rubber stamped” the bureau’s decision, said inContact attorney Jacqueline Hankins of Marashlian and Donahue. An FCC spokesman told us “the Commission’s decision was fully considered and legally sound."

Most of the eligible delegations at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) signed on to the revised International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) Friday in Dubai during a ceremony to close out the conference, but a significant number of nations outright refused to endorse the controversial treaty or were still consulting with their national governments. Of the 144 nations with signing rights in the ITU, 89 signed onto the ITRs Friday. An additional 55 “may sign later,” the ITU said, but that figure includes the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K. and others that have outright committed to not sign the document (http://xrl.us/bn6iov). The figure also includes the nations consulting with their governments, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Poland. The EU condemned the attachment of a non-binding Internet governance resolution to the ITRs (see separate item in this issue). That resolution was one of several provisions included in the revised ITRs that prompted the U.S. decision not to sign (CD Dec 14 p1).

SAN FRANCISCO -- A three-hour hearing in federal district court Friday examined questions Judge Jeffrey White still had after reading the briefs on cross-motions for summary judgment and to dismiss cases challenging the government’s alleged warrantless online surveillance program. The cases, Carolyn Jewel v. the National Security Agency (NSA) and Virginia Shubert v. George W. Bush, were brought after Mark Klein, a one-time AT&T engineer in San Francisco, raised allegations that AT&T was diverting Internet traffic to an NSA-controlled room in AT&T’s San Francisco facilities.

A company whose sole assets are two Western U.S. TV stations can move them without an auction to the top and No. 4 U.S. markets, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday. The D.C. Circuit reversed the FCC’s denial of the one-of-a-kind cross-country DTV community of license change (CD June 17/09 p6). A three-judge panel ruled the agency’s reading of a statute added to the Communications Act in a tax bill in 1982, from legislation by a New Jersey senator meant to allocate a commercial station to his state, was wrong. Judges Merrick Garland, Brett Kavanaugh and David Tatel also didn’t like the interpretation of Section 331(a) by PMCM, owner of KVNV Ely, Nev., in U.S. market No. 33 and KJWY Jackson, Wyo., in No. 162. So they interpreted the section in a way different from either litigant in PMCM v. FCC.