House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, both California Democrats, expressed their concern that the FTC is preparing to expand its powers to regulate antitrust violations. The issue was raised in a letter made public Monday (http://xrl.us/bn2jqt). Eshoo and Lofgren, who represent districts in or around Silicon Valley, urged the FTC to reconsider expanding its jurisdiction under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to include antitrust actions. The commission, in coordination with the Department of Justice, is currently investigating Google for alleged antitrust violations. Eshoo and Lofgren said expanding Section 5, which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices, “could lead to overbroad authority that amplifies uncertainty and stifles growth. These effects may be most acutely felt among online services, a crucial engine of job creation, where technological advancement and small business innovation are rapid,” they said. The FTC had no comment.

The U.S.’s looming fiscal cliff and recession-crippled economy pose serious stakes for local governments and the feasibility of countless municipal projects, local government advocates said. They spoke Monday as part of a National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) panel on what to expect politically after the elections. Challenges are enormous, all panelists said, pointing to the drastic consequences associated with a weak economy and pending budget cuts. The financial crush will likely affect such anticipated projects as FirstNet as well as the need to raise money through other means, such as controversial taxation against wireless customers and Internet-based sales, they said.

All eyes are on Walmart this week as various Black Friday issues loom for the world’s largest retailer. From the retail side, Walmart’s incursion into Thanksgiving evening for Black Friday sales will be scrutinized, and its guaranteed availability of selected doorbusters mark a new spin on Black Friday specials.

A request for the FCC to let AM stations buy FM translators farther away from their main transmitter to rebroadcast their programming within the market raises important issues on AMs’ future, though the agency seems unlikely to approve the waiver, industry officials said. The owner of a few dozen radio stations wants the commission to let broadcasters buy FM translators from as far as 100 miles from their AM transmitter, without waiting for a filing window to seek such opportunities. The waiver points out that the radio industry wants FCC help to make changes such as these without needing to wait for a filing window to present such an opportunity, and other regulatory flexibility, said a lawyer and an engineer who reviewed the waiver at our request.

Law professors, engineers, computer scientists, Internet company reps, state regulators, public interest groups and former FCC commissioners told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday that Verizon was way off the mark when it claimed First Amendment rights trumped the commission’s December 2010 net neutrality order, which mandated nondiscriminatory treatment of Internet traffic across ISPs’ networks. The groups also argued that Section 706 of the Telecom Act gave the commission the authority needed to pass its Open Internet order. “As leading Internet content, applications and network companies, legal scholars and investors, and former FCC commissioners have confirmed, the Commission’s order preserves the Internet as the most powerful platform in human history for innovation, investment and free expression,” a commission spokesman said.

Sky Angel alleged that C-SPAN has illegally withheld its programming from the online video distributor, in an antitrust complaint filed Tuesday. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court, Washington, D.C., marks the latest attempt of Sky Angel to litigate whether it has rights to programming controlled by incumbent pay-TV distributors. Sky Angel, which sells a package of family-friendly programming under the FaveTV brand to subscribers who use a set-top box to obtain the programming over the Internet, lost a bid this summer to force the FCC to weigh in on a similar question (CD July 17 p7). It wanted a federal appeals court to compel the commission to act on a pending program access complaint against Discovery Communications, but the court gave the agency more time.

CBP’s interpretation of the law governing time limits for protest decisions “turns that statute upside down,” said Hitachi in its final brief before the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case. The government’s interpretation that the two-year time limit in 19 USC 1515(a) is not mandatory, as well as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s decision affirming that view in Hitachi v. United States, nullifies the law by allowing CBP to forever refuse to allow or deny protests, it said in its reply to the Nov. 2 government brief. The Supreme Court is likely to announce its decision Dec. 3, an industry lawyer said.

Sky Angel alleged that C-SPAN has illegally withheld its programming from the online video distributor, in an antitrust complaint filed Tuesday. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court, Washington, D.C., marks the latest attempt of Sky Angel to litigate whether it has rights to programming controlled by incumbent pay-TV distributors. Sky Angel, which sells a package of family-friendly programming under the FaveTV brand to subscribers who use a set-top box to obtain the programming over the Internet, lost a bid this summer to force the FCC to weigh in on a similar question. It wanted a federal appeals court to compel the commission to act on a pending program access complaint against Discovery Communications, but the court gave the agency more time.

Doubt about the proposed FirstNet architecture’s reliability is widespread, the final round of comments to NTIA show. The agency had requested information about a September proposal of the architecture, with comments due Friday. Several state entities expressed concerns about appropriate hardening and requested the early deployment of pilots. The last round of comments also reveal concern about the FirstNet devices, the FirstNet law’s constitutionality and the question of who should access the eventual network.

The FCC gave ILECs a “five year competitive head start” when it gave them an exclusive five-year right to Phase I Connect America Fund funds for broadband deployment, and an exclusive right of first refusal to obtain CAF funds in Phase II, CLECs and other challengers argued in briefs filed last week. They're challenging the FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation order in the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The commission’s “disparate treatment” of ILECs and CLECs in distribution of USF support violates its own “competitive neutrality” principle that support mechanisms “neither unfairly advantage nor disadvantage one provider over another,” they said.