FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC has made significant progress on addressing the spectrum “crunch” during his watch as chairman. His comments came in remarks Thursday at the University Of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. There has not been a major spectrum auction since Genachowski became chairman and none have been formally scheduled, but he told the Wharton students that auctions are on the way. Genachowski includes in his calculations spectrum that won’t be cleared out right away but must be shared with federal government users, regarded by many as a tough task. (See related story, this issue.)

Industry, working with government, should focus on specific bands and specific solutions, rather than trying to develop broader rules for sharing, or high-level sharing principles, said NTIA Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia at the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting Thursday. Nebbia said sharing in one band alone, 1755-1850 MHz, has shown the unique problems that emerge. CSMAC is working through the hundreds of issues that arise over the sharing of spectrum at 1755 MHz and in the 1695-1710 MHz band.

The public broadcasting community pushed back against statements made in the Presidential debate by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney very publicly re-confirming his plans to zero out PBS funding if elected. Romney reiterated this plan Wednesday during the first debate of the 2012 election cycle. The comment during the debate, moderated by PBS NewsHour Executive Editor Jim Lehrer, echoed the former Massachusetts governor’s statements made in August (CD Aug 27 p5). PBS receives its subsidy through the $444 million appropriation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking on the incentive spectrum auction has raised even more questions among broadcasters, some of whom worry their concerns may be getting less attention at the agency than those of the wireless industry, broadcast industry officials said. Though attorneys and executives we spoke to this week said they were still parsing the item, the release of the NRPM has done little to quell broadcaster questions about how the reverse auction and repacking of the TV band will proceed. “We have more question than we had before,” said Mark Aitken, who is on the board of the Advanced TV Broadcasting Alliance and is vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair.

The Justice Department hopes standard-setting organizations promulgate policies limiting the ambiguity of some standard-essential patents (SEPs), as thinking on SEPs and related issues increasingly overlaps with antitrust law in the minds of some regulators, jurists and companies. Attention revolves around the role of patents licensed on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) or reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) terms, speakers said at an event at the Silicon Flatirons Center. Speakers from the FTC, Justice Department and high-technology and other companies involved in patent licensing said the intersection of antitrust and patent law has been a fruitful area recently. DOJ business review letters on patents are an example, speakers said.

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he’s “skeptical” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would support the administration’s proposed cybersecurity executive order. “My sense tells me that it will probably go back to the traditional regulatory mode,” said Ridge Thursday at a cybersecurity event hosted by the U.S. Chamber. Ridge, who is now chairman of the Chamber’s national security task force, said he plans to lobby Congress for legislative fixes if President Barack Obama introduces an order.

Banks, telcos, ISPs and national and local governments held an EU-wide cyberattack exercise Thursday to see how they would respond to sustained attacks on the computer systems and public websites of major European financial institutions and markets. The organizations faced more than 1,200 separate cyberincidents, including more than 30,000 emails, during a simulated distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) campaign, the European Commission said. It’s Europe’s largest-ever cybersecurity test and follows a more-limited 2010 exercise, it said. At the same time, the EU’s top foreign affairs and security official urged participants at a Budapest, Hungary, conference to agree on global cyberspace behavioral norms.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Chairman Charles Ergen said that despite some challenges, Dish Network is serious about entering the consumer wireless market, which he sees as ripe for competition. During a Wednesday address at the PCIA show, he addressed several of the problems he expected Dish to confront as it seeks FCC approval to repurpose the AWS-4 band for mobile broadband use. Ergen also recounted the similarities he sees in the current wireless market to the “stale” video market that he challenged in the 1980s and 1990s when he built the company to compete with cable operators. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski used his appearance at the show to promote the Commission’s announcement of winners for mobility funding, saying 83,000 users will see the benefits of an advanced mobile broadband network. (See separate report in this issue.)

Over 83,000 new U.S. road miles in 31 states will get access to mobile Internet within 3 years, the FCC said Wednesday as it disclosed results of its Mobility Fund “Auction 901” to allocate $300 million toward closing gaps in mobile coverage. Carriers that received funding must complete projects within three years, and must make their networks available to other providers for roaming, the commission said. The Competitive Carriers Association praised the one-time “infusion” of support, but said the agency needs to make more funding available on an annual basis if it wants to achieve its universal service goals.

T-Mobile USA’s proposed buy of MetroPCS is not expected to generate much opposition, as regulators take a deep dive at the FCC and Department of Justice, say officials from many of the groups that previously lined up to oppose AT&T’s failed attempt to buy T-Mobile last year and the Verizon Wireless/cable deals, which were approved by federal regulators this summer. T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile said Wednesday they signed an agreement to create what they say will be “the leading value carrier in the U.S. wireless marketplace."