The FCC should ignore any calls that the agency allow cell jamming as a means of combating contraband cellphones in prison, CTIA said in reply comments filed at the FCC. A May NPRM asked a battery of questions about what the administration sees as a growing problem for corrections officials (CD May 1 p1). CellAntenna, which manufactures jamming equipment, said jamming has a role and the FCC should permit various technologies because use of contraband cellphones poses a danger to the public and to corrections officers. The American Correctional Association (ACA) said the FCC should allow various technologies, including jamming.

The FCC is taking rural call completion problems “very seriously,” acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn told Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in a letter the FCC released Friday (http://bit.ly/1dADKU4). The letter was dated Aug. 1 and replied to concerns Leahy raised in an April 25 letter to former Chairman Julius Genachowski, which the FCC posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/154184S). “The Commission is committed to ensuring reliable telephone service for consumers and businesses in rural America,” Clyburn wrote, describing “multiple fronts” of approach. She attached a letter from the FCC Wireline Bureau chief as well as a recent enforcement advisory. Completion problems in Vermont were increasing, Leahy had warned Genachowski. “Call completion problems harm Vermont businesses, and, generally, the quality of life of all rural Americans,” Leahy wrote. “They also harm rural telephone companies, which are often erroneously blamed by consumers for these problems.” He commended FCC action on the issue and urged it to “act swiftly” against any companies breaking the rules.

As the fight continues over Verizon’s plan to rebuild its network on Fire Island destroyed during Superstorm Sandy using wireless infrastructure, one big question that arises is what’s wrong with wireless anyway as an alternative to the plain old telephone service. With small carriers across the U.S. deploying wireless-only systems and larger carriers making wireless a big part of their IP transition plans, some industry observers are asking if the FCC needs to change its regulatory worldview of wireless substitution. Last week, the FCC Wireline Bureau opted not to “automatically” grant Verizon’s Communications Act Section 214 petition (CD Aug 15 p1) to discontinue domestic phone services, but to instead request additional data from Verizon.

After spending nearly two decades in the pipeline, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued its regulation establishing the Unified Registration System (URS). The final rule, which is set for publication in the Aug. 23 Federal Register, fulfills the government’s long-held goal of combining several existing information systems into a single system, FMCSA said. Once it comes into effect in October 2015, the URS “will streamline the registration process and serve as a clearinghouse and depository of information, and identification of, motor carriers, freight forwarders, [intermodal equipment providers], [hazardous materials safety permit] applicants, and cargo tank facilities required to register with FMCSA,” the agency said.

The FCC should deny Local TV’s request to transfer control of three TV stations to Dreamcatcher Broadcasting under shared service agreements (SSAs) as part of Local’s proposed $2.73 billion sale of 19 TV stations to Tribune (CD July 2 p2), said Free Press and Put People First in a petition to deny filed Monday (http://bit.ly/13Pfmaf). The stations are in Hampton Roads, Va., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., areas that have market overlaps with Tribune newspapers and thus a conflict with FCC cross-ownership rules, said the petition. Tribune “seeks to evade” the cross-ownership rules by using Dreamcatcher as a “shell corporation” to own the stations while Tribune provides them with services under SSAs, said the petition. Former Tribune President Ed Wilson owns Dreamcatcher, and the company was created shortly after the proposed merger was announced, the groups said. “For all intents and purposes, Tribune would control the Dreamcatcher stations and daily newspapers that serve the same communities as these stations, thereby violating” the commission’s cross-ownership rules, said the petition. Tribune disagreed with the groups’ characterization, and told us it’s preparing a response to their petition. “The transactions have been structured in compliance with FCC rules and precedent,” a Tribune spokesman told us in an email. “A transaction can be legal and still not be in the public interest,” responded Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Put People First in the petition and has opposed media consolidation for many years with the Media Access Project. “Any transaction that has the same result as a violation of the Commission’s local ownership rules is necessarily contrary to the public interest,” said the petition. If the commission does grant Local’s request to transfer the stations to Dreamcatcher, it should make the approval conditional on the outcome of any rulemaking related to the FCC’s 39 percent national television ownership cap, the groups said. The FCC is circulating a draft NPRM seeking comment on possible elimination of the UHF discount (CD Aug 14 p1). The Tribune/Local merger would put Tribune’s nationwide coverage at 44 percent if the discount didn’t exist, the groups said. “Absent the UHF discount, the proposed assignment of all Local TV stations including these three licenses to Tribune would violate the national television multiple ownership rule,” said the petition. The commission should also address the Local TV request as a full panel rather than through the delegated authority of its bureaus, said the petition. The matter merits the attention of the full commission because “the use of SSAs to evade the Commission’s ownership rules is an unresolved question,” the groups said, referring to a pending application for review in the Media Council Hawai'i ownership case (CD June 21 p20). Delaying a full commission ruling on SSAs and the ownership rules could lead to “additional litigation” or “harm parties to such SSAs because they will face the problem of unwinding them” if the commission grants the Media Council of Hawai'i Application for Review, the groups said. “These transactions raise novel questions of law, fact, and policy, and thus must be acted upon by the full Commission rather than the Media Bureau,” said the petition.

A host of tech industry groups gave the Obama administration a set of recommendations to address privacy and civil liberties concerns while “fostering technology innovation and economic growth,” in a letter sent to the White House and members of Congress Tuesday. The letter followed up on a set of meetings earlier this month with the administration in which the president asked for further recommendations, the groups said. Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris said the letter was “an important first step,” most notably for the industry’s united push for reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

A host of tech industry groups gave the Obama administration a set of recommendations to address privacy and civil liberties concerns while “fostering technology innovation and economic growth,” in a letter sent to the White House and members of Congress Tuesday. The letter followed up on a set of meetings earlier this month with the administration in which the president asked for further recommendations, the groups said. Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris said the letter was “an important first step,” most notably for the industry’s united push for reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The Federal Maritime Commission’s (FMC) proposed changes to ocean transport intermediary (OTI) rules fall outside the agency's regulatory duties, the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) said in comments responding to the proposed rulemaking. Those changes are “not truly relevant to the Commission’s oversight responsibilities” and should not go forward, the association said. The agency released the proposal earlier this year, saying it would lessen regulatory burdens and improve processing (see 13053031).

The FCC appears divided, as does industry, on when an H-block auction should occur and whether it should take place in January or be pushed into the fall. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is counseling the commission to wait until later in 2014, while Commissioner Ajit Pai urges a January auction, FCC sources said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration will soon begin its secure supply chain pilot program for pharmaceuticals, it said in a Federal Register notice set for publication Aug. 20. The pilot, originally announced in 2009 (see 09011620), will allow expedited entry for finished drug products and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from participating importers. FDA said it will accept applications beginning Sept. 16 until Dec. 31, and will begin the pilot in February 2014. The agency intends to run the pilot for two years, until February 2016, it said.