VoIP deregulation took another step forward at Wednesday hearing when the California Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 16-1 to approve SB-1161. The bill bans the California Public Utilities Commission from regulating VoIP service for the next eight years unless state statute permits it. It will now be considered by the full Assembly, after receiving Senate approval in late May and, in amended form, Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce approval in late June.

FTC commissioners failed to reach unanimity in approving a settlement with Google for alleged privacy violations concerning its placement of cookies on Apple’s Safari browser, used on both its desktop and mobile devices. They voted 4-1 -- a rare occurrence at the agency -- to approve the $22.5 million settlement with Google, with Commissioner Thomas Rosch arguing in a dissent that the pact wasn’t in the “public interest” if Google continued to deny liability. Free-market advocates carpet-bombed the FTC’s Twitter feed in an agency Q-and-A, accusing it of barebones analysis in the settlement and discouraging companies from better explaining their privacy policies.

An audit of the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) has stirred up local officials. Critics fear a waste of hundreds of millions of dollars invested over the last 10 years in the government-run 11-city fiber project. UTOPIA Executive Director Todd Marriott said the political influence of CenturyLink and Comcast is distorting everything, from a newspaper’s editorial board to the vocal state taxpayers association to the audit itself. The audit is “more than biased,” he told us.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A review of the first wireless mobile DTV service affiliated with the Dyle group of TV stations found it was easy to set up the Samsung phone getting MetroPCS service, though there were some reception issues. The prepaid carrier Friday began selling the new Samsung smartphone, the first on the market equipped with a mobile DTV receiver capable of picking up TV station signals using the Advanced Television Systems Committee M/H standard (CD Aug 6 p17). A handful of stations in major U.S. markets are broadcasting in that format and Communications Daily purchased a phone Friday to test the service around the San Francisco-Oakland market.

As the FCC’s Broadband Measurement Group met Wednesday to plan the production of their next annual broadband speed measurement report, the commission made clear the group will produce the next report under the same data collection process that was used the first two times. “We have some disputes, some issues, between the people here in terms of the process and the policies,” said Walter Johnston, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology’s Electromagnetic Compatibility Division. “We're not going to let that get in the way of the next report,” he said.

With a decision by federal regulators expected over the next few weeks, Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox has faced an onslaught of “grassroots” filings in recent days, most a sentence or two in length. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless and its partners in various proposed spectrum transactions fired back at the Rural Telecommunications Group, which last week asked for a timeout on the FCC’s review of the various deals (CD Aug 6 p1). Several critics of the deal told us Wednesday FCC staff signaled recently that with a decision on the transactions near, they should get any filings with proposed transaction conditions into the record.

The president could issue an executive order on cybersecurity, an aide said Wednesday. Also that day, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked President Barack Obama to issue an order to secure the electrical power system from cyberattacks. John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, suggested that the White House was considering such an option. The Senate last week failed to vote on the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414). Republicans filibustered against it on GOP and business concerns it would give the federal government too much control through the Department of Homeland Security over what companies could do to protect computers and networks (CD Aug 2 p4).

The AllVid Tech Company Alliance urged the FCC to begin a rulemaking that would set up a nationally portable common IP-based interface between multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) services and consumer electronics devices. The alliance made the request following a back-and-forth in the basic tier encryption proceeding between large cable operators and Boxee over how to put in place interim and long-term solutions for getting CE devices direct access to the basic service tier should cable operators be allowed to encrypt it.

Liberty Media’s plans for spinning off Starz as a separate publicly traded company could clear the way for Liberty merging with Sirius XM, analysts said.

Chairman Charles Ergen said Dish Network is well-positioned to survive any ruling on a broadcaster lawsuit and any FCC order on the DBS company’s plans to use wireless 2 GHz spectrum for a terrestrial service. The agency’s decisions on Dish’s application to operate a terrestrial wireless service and Verizon Wireless’s deal for spectrum licenses from Spectrum Co. will provide clarity for the marketplace, Ergen said in a teleconference Wednesday to discuss Q2 results. President Barack Obama and the FCC indicated they want to free up spectrum and see more entrants in the market besides Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Ergen said. “It’s unclear to consumers whether there’s a third or fourth option out there” of a carrier with as many subscribers as the two biggest, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, for wireless broadband service, he said.