When it is built, FirstNet must take advantage of commercial infrastructure and “public/private partnerships,” the Association for Public-Safety Communications Officials said in a filing at the NTIA, dated Thursday, which has not yet been posted by the agency. But APCO gave a thumbs down to any proposal built around a partnership with a single national wireless carrier. PCIA - The Wireless Infrastructure Association, meanwhile, stressed the role commercial infrastructure must play in support of the national public safety network.

An FCC order that would let Tribune emerge from bankruptcy is expected to circulate after the election, possibly as early as the end of the week and probably before Thanksgiving, industry officials said. Commission approval, as Tribune attorneys and executives have repeatedly reminded commission officials in ex parte discussions, is the remaining holdup to the company’s more than three-year bankruptcy proceeding. CEO Eddy Hartenstein spoke with aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Oct. 26 to press this point, a notice of the ex parte conversation said (http://xrl.us/bnxm4u).

Laws should be updated based on the current state of technology, not the other way around, said Marietje Schaake, Dutch member of the European Parliament and governor of the European Internet Foundation, at a discussion Friday hosted by the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus in Washington. “We must, as lawmakers … think about our responsibility to update the laws” to match the evolving development and use of technologies, she said. On Tuesday, the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs will vote on Schaake’s report on a digital freedom strategy, she said, and she’s hoping it will be adopted by the Parliament. “For the very first time, the EU will have a strategy for digital freedom in its external actions,” she said.

The Department of Energy will issue a rulemaking notice on set-top box energy efficiency standards, a spokeswoman said Friday. That’s now that talks lasting for most of this year for some multichannel video programming distributors to agree on voluntary guidelines broke down (CD Nov 2 p8). Stakeholders each blamed the other side for why the negotiations ended Oct. 26 at the request of advocates.

Companies that buy special access data services from incumbent telcos made an expansive proposal about how the FCC can regulate transactions for access to lines carrying high-speed data as the industry moves from circuit-switched to Internet Protocol technology. ILECs that sell special access services to these CLECs and other telecom companies have said the market, not the commission, is the place to set norms of behavior for the transition. The CLECs’ proposal encourages a “technology-neutral” approach, and opposes AT&T’s August filing giving the agency a “checklist” of ways to encourage the move to an all-IP telecom infrastructure while minimizing regulation.

Draft resolutions from state regulators charge the FCC the with federal overreach, one hammering home points in a resolution adopted during the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ summer meeting and another weighing in on a case before the Supreme Court. The new drafts, including three on telecom, were released Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnxft5) and are likely to undergo much debate at NARUC’s fall conference, beginning Nov. 11 in Baltimore. They will have to pass through the organization’s subcommittees and committees and can be “substantially modified” before adoption as NARUC policy, the document cautioned.

Negotiations for energy-saving commitments by cable companies for set-top boxes ended, advocates for energy efficiency who had sought rules and the cable and consumer electronics industries that had opposed them told us. They said talks ended last Friday with CEA and NCTA on one side and groups including the Appliance Standards Awareness Project and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on the other. The continuing talks had prompted the Department of Energy (DOE) to delay issuing a rulemaking on such standards until at least Oct. 1 (CD July 6 p4). The notice has not been issued, and a DOE spokeswoman had no comment.

CTIA, CEA and other industry groups -- which asked the FAA to drop requirements that all personal electronic devices (PEDs) be powered off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights -- got key support from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), an advocacy group for the aviation industry. But a second major association, Airlines for America (A4A), expressed some doubts about whether a rule change is warranted. Both made filings this week in FAA docket 2012-0752 that address the desire of many travelers to use their iPads, computers and Kindles below 10,000 feet.

There will be a new House Judiciary Committee chairman next session, and Beltway insiders say that could be Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. The 10-term congressman has a steady hand on technical telecom issues, is respected by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle and brings a cautious and inclusive approach to legislation, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. When asked about the possibility of leading the committee, Goodlatte said it would be an “honor to serve as Chairman.” His “primary focus” now “is on the current election and maintaining the Republican majority in the House,” he said in a written statement.

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials told the FCC that public safety hasn’t given up the 4.9 GHz band. APCO asked that the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council or a committee designated by the commission be tapped to devise a national plan for the band. In June, the FCC approved a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on ways it could push more widespread use of the band, set aside for public safety a decade ago (CD June 14 p 2). One possibility would be allowing use of the 4.9 band by utilities and other critical infrastructure providers and possibly other companies as well, the agency suggested.