Sprint Nextel’s conduct in awarding contracts for its wireless backhaul business “conclusively disproves” its claims that there are no alternatives to traditional ILEC special access services, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) argued in a letter to the FCC Wednesday. The data, which Verizon determined by using the latitude and longitude of each cell site, should guide the commission as it prepares its upcoming mandatory data request on the special access market, Verizon said. Special access purchasers criticized Verizon’s data as “backwards looking,” and questioned whether Verizon took into account “competitors” who are merely reselling Verizon circuits.

The “app economy” is growing and creating jobs, witnesses told the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade at a hearing Wednesday. They said there are policy initiatives the government can take to encourage that growth and job creation can continue. Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the app economy “is one of the most exciting areas of technology, with tremendous growth in recent years -- growth that experts agree we can expect to continue."

California’s VoIP bill has become wrapped up in the larger deregulation push of U.S. telcos. Several industry statements have increasingly worried consumer advocates in recent months. But an AT&T senior vice president argued the transition away from copper is a natural extension of federal policy and promotes deeper conversation on how to develop new, appropriate regulations. The state bill would cause “irreparable harm” if passed into law, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) wrote Gov. Jerry Brown. SB-1161 would prohibit the California Public Utilities Commission from regulating VoIP unless allowed by state or federal statute.

The Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) approved a report on Domain Name System (DNS) best practices, which summarizes what industry has found to be the best solutions on how to protect the DNS from hacking, insider attacks, account takeovers and other attacks. The report also looks at protecting domain names from hijacking or misconfiguration and how to ensure the resiliency of DNS architecture as a critical infrastructure. The report, described at the CSRIC meeting at the FCC Wednesday, was not immediately available.

Wireless carriers plan to tell lawmakers that their first priority should be to clear more federal spectrum rather than embrace spectrum sharing scenarios, according to prepared remarks that circulated in advance of Thursday’s House Communications Subcommittee spectrum hearing. Representatives from NTIA and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) plan to emphasize the difficulty and cost of clearing federal spectrum and defend reports that call for greater spectrum sharing scenarios.

Opting out of any first-ever ITU Internet regulation may cause as many problems as proposals for Internet Protocol traffic’s cost to be borne by sending parties -- an idea some countries are pursuing at the World Conference on International Telecom, U.S. and industry officials said Wednesday. They discussed a scenario of nations or private parties sitting out International Telecom Regulations to be discussed in December when the update to the 1988 ITR is considered at a WCIT meeting in Dubai. The practical effect of what could amount to a boycott by some players, on the Internet and devices connected to Web networks, would be similar to the negative effect the regulations some developing and European countries are seeking could have on such systems. That’s according to speakers at a Media Institute event in Washington. A scenario where debate on a new ITR sees some countries escape the treaty entirely would “lead to fragmentation,” said Sally Wentworth of the Internet Society, an ITU “sector member."

Verizon’s FiOS remains a fierce competitor for pay-TV subscribers, even though its corporate sibling has cut a marketing deal with some of the largest cable operators and it has seemingly changed its promotional marketing strategy, cable executives said during a Bank of America conference Wednesday. FiOS is one of “the tougher competitors we have out there,” said Irene Esteves, Time Warner Cable (TWC) Chief Financial Officer. The co-marketing agreements TWC has with Verizon Wireless will give TWC an edge if customers decide they want to bundle cellphone service in with broadband and pay-TV, she said. “But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s very, very competitive on the FiOS side of the house,” she said.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced the Mobile Device Privacy Act on Wednesday, aimed at bringing greater transparency to third-party tracking of consumer devices (http://xrl.us/bnpg4t). The legislation follows last year’s revelation that diagnostic analysis providers like Carrier IQ used software to collect certain user data from cellphones, including dialed phone numbers and visited URLs. Privacy groups lauded the bill while carriers and some cellphone manufacturers declined to comment.

An FCC forthcoming order that would alter rules for use of mobile satellite services spectrum in the 2 GHz band may circulate in October, commission officials said. An order in docket 12-70 would allow Dish to use the MSS spectrum for a terrestrial network, they said. The Wireless Bureau may have been aiming for an October date to circulate a waiver order, though it’s unclear if next month will see a draft decision circulate and be voted on by FCC members, an agency official said.

The FCC offers a strong economic defense for its net neutrality rules in a filing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, made late Monday, countering Verizon and MetroPCS’s legal challenges to the December 2010 rules (CD Sept 11 p1). The FCC’s economic argument is that rather than discourage investment, the rules have had a stimulative effect. The commission also argues that Section 706 of the Communications Act, which directs the FCC to “encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans,” gives the commission authority to pass net neutrality rules. That, along with an order that explicitly tied its authority to specific statutes, make this more than simply a “rerun of Comcast,” the pleading said.