The publishing, telecom and other sectors oppose new top-level domains (TLDs) that are generic but not brands, they said in comments that were still being filed Tuesday in an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers consultation that ended March 7 (http://xrl.us/bon3i4). Requests by Amazon and Google for generic names such as .book, .music and .cloud generated significant opposition. Other comments said ICANN should stay out of determining what a “closed generic” TLD is, and let antitrust regulators resolve any competition problems that might arise and refrain from stymieing innovation.

Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to “quickly distribute incremental support from the first phase of the Connect America Fund (CAF) while it debates the next phase” of the program. In his March 7 letter, Rockefeller said releasing the support as soon as possible “will further our shared goals of promoting broadband deployment and bringing the benefits of broadband to the millions of Americans who currently do not have service.” Also this week, CenturyLink encouraged the FCC to adopt the “modest and easily-implemented” CAF Phase I proposal filed jointly by the ABC Coalition, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance and USTelecom, in meetings with aides to several commissioners Tuesday (http://bit.ly/ZxsfEf). That proposal (http://bit.ly/ZxsyPj) broadens the areas that would be eligible for Phase I support, making it available to all census blocks that lack 4 Mbps downstream/1 Mbps upstream service. It also proposes a specific challenge process the groups said would ensure that funding goes only to areas where it is needed. “Moving quickly to distribute the available funds with the revised rules would produce significant broadband deployment in unserved areas, starting this year,” CenturyLink said. Using the funding now “would facilitate rather than distract from the transition to [CAF] Phase II support by maintaining the momentum of broadband deployment in rural America,” it said.

USTelecom, Verizon and the Fiber-to-the-Home Council (FTTH) criticized CLEC proposals (CD March 6 p6) to make it harder for ILECs to retire copper loops, and make it easier for CLECs to get access to last-mile copper facilities. The dramatic changes to FCC policies would require “virtually all copper network plant to be left in place indefinitely,” said USTelecom, urging the commission to “summarily reject this request as fundamentally at odds with long-standing Commission policy favoring the deployment of robust, facilities-based broadband service to all Americans” (http://bit.ly/YYTFCN). Telcos need flexibility to choose the technology they will use to serve customers, and although copper is still often used, “it ultimately will not make economic sense for a given provider to retain redundant parallel network facilities in some areas,” Verizon and Verizon Wireless said (http://bit.ly/YYTY0C). The commission should encourage TelePacific and other companies that need access to ILEC copper loops “to engage constructively with wireline carriers to develop feasible wholesale solutions” or “take this opportunity to invest in their own network facilities,” Verizon said. FTTH said the proposal would unnecessarily slow the process ILECs use to retire copper plant (http://bit.ly/YYUNq9). Chairman Julius Genachowski’s vision for gigabit networks in each community (CD Jan 22 p1) will be harder to achieve if ILECs face the financial difficulty of maintaining their existing copper plant, FTTH said. “Any request to amend the current rules to impose greater burdens on retiring copper facilities would be contrary to the public interest and should be rejected,” it said. But CLECs and communications equipment makers supported the proposal. Trade association TexAlTel argued copper continues to be an important piece of the “ever evolving” national telecom infrastructure (http://bit.ly/YYVDmA). Protecting copper from premature retirement will actually promote affordable broadband, said the Midwest Association of Competitive Communications, as it would lead to more providers and would promote competition in the telecom market (http://bit.ly/YYW3JM). Ethernet over copper is a “significant, widely deployed and growing next generation technology that is critical to the Commission’s National Broadband Plan and the migration from legacy to Ethernet/IP services,” said Ethernet manufacturer Overture Networks (http://bit.ly/YYXisr). Ethernet over copper “is a means to deliver IP, and not a legacy TDM technology,” it said. Copper loop technology has “advanced greatly since the initial implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996,” said communications equipment manufacturer Adtran (http://bit.ly/YYWxzB). “Copper is far from obsolete."

AT&T opposed a proposal at the FCC by several CLECs to adopt rules making it harder for ILECs to retire copper loops, and making it easier for CLECs to get access to last-mile copper facilities. The telco said granting the petition by TelePacific, Mpower, Level 3 and others could delay the transition to all-Internet Protocol networks and drain ILEC bank accounts. CLECs and state regulators supported the petition, saying ILEC opposition is driven not by a desire to further the public interest but to maintain their own dominance.

Ultra HD still faces some challenges ahead of its launch, but there are many positive signs, said Greg DePriest, an ex-NBCUniversal executive who just started his own technology consultancy, in a USTelecom-sponsored webinar Thursday. “I think real 4K receiver availability is going to be next year, not this year,” although a limited number will ship in 2013, he said. DePriest declined to predict when pricing on Ultra HD TVs will be low enough for sales to become significant in the U.S. But he expressed confidence that CE manufacturers will know when the time is right to lower pricing and add features to spur demand. As in transitions in the past, CE manufacturers will need content to stimulate sales of 4K displays, but content companies will “need a reason to produce” it, he said. But “of all the players, I think distribution is the key” to 4K’s success because if you can distribute 4K content, you can better test the market for demand, he said. We'll know if Ultra HD is moving forward in the U.S. if we start seeing more public demonstrations of the technology and if 4K and 8K promotion groups are created, he said. Next year’s World Cup will spur demand for Ultra HD, he predicted. “The events that are likely to drive” the launches of 4K broadcast services in 2014 and 8K services in 2019 or 2020 will include the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018 and the 2020 Summer Olympics, he said. “This is an aggressive schedule” for the rollout of the services, but we still “need additional standards” and “more equipment development,” he said. Some device makers will be unwilling to wait for 8K and it’s not clear if 4K and 8K can “co-exist,” he said. Content creators looking to purchase equipment will be left trying to decide whether to support 4K or 8K, he said. Ultra HD broadcast trial activity remains “centered” in Japan and South Korea for now, he said. There have been 4K trials in South Korea since September 2012 and that’s continuing there this year, he said. “The Korean community” has expressed a lot of interest in 4K and 8K adoption, and “it’s clear that Korea is on a path forward,” he said. In Japan, manufacturers are focused on 4K, he said. NHK targeted an experimental broadcast 8K service launch for 2020 in Japan, but that may happen sooner, he said. In Europe “there is increasing momentum in the 4K camp,” with satellite trials by Eutelsat and SES, he said. Spain telecom operator Abertis recently demonstrated the first terrestrial 4K service, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on Sharp’s 84-inch TV, he said. In the U.S., “it’s somewhat difficult to tell what the status” of 4K and 8K broadcast tests are, he said. NBCUniversal teamed with the BBC and other companies overseas for 8K demonstrations of the London Olympic Games, he said. Netflix also teamed with Samsung at CES for a 4K demonstration, he said. But there’s no “open advocate” yet in the U.S. for 4K or 8K among broadcasters, he said. CBS had been a strong proponent of HD, he said. DePriest was vice president of technology at NBCUniversal, where he led its Washington demonstration of 8K technology during the London Olympic Games in cooperation with NHK and the BBC.

The FCC’s interim measures to prevent misuse of the IP Captioned Telephone Service (CTS) saw universal support from commenters, who generally urged that most or all of the interim changes become permanent. The commission adopted the measures in a January order. However, some commenters cautioned that further study is needed before making permanent a default “off” position of IP CTS devices and software to prevent inadvertent use, warning of harm to the hard-of-hearing community.

The FCC 2011 pole attachment order was upheld unanimously by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/XAuJD3). The FCC had found that ILECs were included in the protections of Section 224 of the Communications Act, which gives advantages to some companies that seek to attach cables and network equipment to utility poles. Even though the order in some places “reverses decades-old Commission policy,” the commission met the required “modest demands for changing its policy,” Senior Judge Stephen Williams wrote for himself and Judges David Tatel and David Sentelle. “Upholding its decision follows ineluctably."

AT&T fleshed out several details of its proposed wire center deregulatory trials at an FCBA event Wednesday night, characterizing the petition as a relatively modest request. “We didn’t ask for any particular relief,” said Hank Hultquist, vice president-regulatory affairs. “We didn’t ask to end the world as we know it.” In its upcoming reply comments, AT&T will try to clear up perceptions that it’s asking for pre-emption, or “to end competitors’ rates to UNEs [unbundled network elements], or interconnection, or anything else,” Hultquist said. “We're asking for a fairly narrow trial.” Representatives from various sectors of the telecom industry supported the trials, but said the FCC must ensure that public safety and consumer protections continue to apply no matter what technology is ultimately used.

Commenters generally supported a process proposed by the FCC Wireline Bureau to let parties challenge census blocks misidentified by the National Broadband Map (NBM). The process would let parties challenge census blocks identified as eligible to receive Connect America Fund Phase II support, when the parties argue they're actually unserved by an unsubsidized competitor. Cable and wireless ISPs offered some tweaks to the process. USTelecom and several rural associations offered alternative proposals that would involve recommendations by state authorities.

As USTelecom waits for the FCC to act on the more controversial elements of its petition for forbearance from legacy dominant carrier regulations, the industry has been engaging in soul-searching about which 20th-century regulations should be brought into a modern world. A USTelecom event Thursday morning (http://bit.ly/WrdL8I) set out to determine “the point” of voice regulation. Panelists agreed the government has a role in ensuring 911 calls go through, but differed on how far the government should go in mandating reliability in general.