The African Telecommunications Union’s meeting to prepare for the World Conference on International Telecommunications produced a mixed set of opinions on the U.S.’s position and on a proposal the U.S. opposes as allowing Internet regulation, said Terry Kramer, the head of the America’s WCIT delegation. The U.S. has opposed a proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) that would establish a “sender-party-pays” principle for Internet traffic compensation that could require the sender of any Internet content to pay for its transmission. Kramer made the case for the U.S.’s position on the possible revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) during the ATU’s meeting in Accra, Ghana, which ran Tuesday and Wednesday of last week (CD Sept 24 p5).

IBiquity Digital continues to “push forward” in its efforts to land HD Radio functionality in smartphones and tablets, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Jury told us. “We're talking to carriers, we're talking to handset manufacturers,” Jury said. But “beyond that, I don’t have anything more specific to say in terms of an actual device launch, but we continue to push for some launches this year,” he said.

NEW ORLEANS -- The U.S. needs to embrace new measures of broadband and renewed focus on expanding the technology to more Americans, said officials from the FCC, Google and the National Association of Telecommunications Officials and Advisors Thursday on a panel at NATOA’s annual meeting.

Telcos and carriers expressed strong support for a USTelecom petition for reconsideration of an FCC public notice that imposed various obligations on eligible telecommunications carriers that deal with tribal groups. The rules violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and the First Amendment, groups say. But tribal groups that commented strongly objected to the petition, calling it “misguided” and “deeply disappointing.” The public notice (http://xrl.us/bnro5r) offered “further guidance” on the tribal government engagement obligation provisions in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, and USTelecom took issue with its calls for “culturally sensitive” marketing and in-person meetings between telecom executives and tribal leaders.

Current and former National Security Agency officials stressed the importance of a collaborative public/private effort to secure the nation’s critical assets from cyberattack. Chris Inglis, NSA deputy director, and Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA and NSA, both advocated such an approach Thursday at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit.

AMSTERDAM -- The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association proposal for International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) was the target of Internet network operators during the meeting of RIPE, the Internet address manager for Europe and the Middle East. Maria Hall, deputy director for the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications in Sweden, and co-chair of the RIPE Cooperation Working Group, said “there might be a problem in a certain area, but do we really want to put that into the ITR[s]? In many cases the answer is ‘no.'"

JACKSON, Miss. -- Dish Network was looking for lightning to strike a third time by holding the launch event for its new dishNET satellite-based broadband service at the Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City flagship store on Thursday, Dish CEO Joseph Clayton told reporters. The service will launch nationwide in the U.S. Monday, but the Mississippi retail chain was selected for the launch, in part because it previously played a key role in the launch of DirecTV and Sirius Satellite Radio.

The FCC will likely act this year on rules for sending text messages to 911 call centers, Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth said Thursday during an FCC state and local government webinar. He also acknowledged there is strong concern in the bureau about the number of UHF and VHF licensees that will not meet the commission’s Jan. 1 narrowbanding deadline.

Budget constraints, the threat of spending sequestration and better efficiency are driving the need for expanded deployment of hosted payloads for government use, satellite industry officials said Thursday at the Hosted Payload Summit in Washington. The U.S. and foreign governments are realizing that hosted payload capabilities can meet their requirements for different missions, they said. Challenges, like export restrictions and spectrum approvals, are still impacting progress, they said.

Conventional wisdom about the planned FCC voluntary incentive spectrum auction holds that only the weakest broadcasters will participate. The thinking goes that stations with strong local news operations and a major network affiliation will avoid the auction while weaker full-power and Class A stations -- independents, home-shopping and religious stations -- will attempt to cash out (CD Sept 18 p1). But that overlooks two groups of TV stations that may have good reasons to consider selling their spectrum licenses at auction: Stations in actual or virtual duopolies, and the stations owned by the major broadcast networks, often referred to as owned and operated stations, or O&Os. The commission is set to approve a notice of proposed rulemaking Friday to begin setting up the auction.