An attempt by Verizon to raise its special access rates ahead of an expected reform of the special access pricing flexibility rules is drawing criticism as several CLECs accuse the telco of “an attempt to game the system.” Verizon’s proposed new rates for special access -- dedicated circuits often used by businesses, and as backhaul for wireless sites -- increase the monthly recurring charges for most of its customers by about 6 to 8 percent, opponents say. That’s on top of a rate hike last year, bringing the total increase to about 12 percent in some areas. That’s too pricy for members of the Broadband Coalition, who said the telco is upping prices to offset the cuts that the FCC might make this year, if it reduces or caps special access rates. The Broadband Coalition includes XO, tw telecom, Earthlink, Cbeyond, Megapath, Lumos, Integra and CompTel. A Verizon spokesman defended the move, citing an increase in the cost of materials and labor to provide the service.

Netflix made a rare visit to the FCC to lobby against three top ISPs’ exclusion of some video transmitted by Internet Protocol from broadband data caps. The company said the exclusion is a net neutrality issue and doesn’t necessarily fall under statutory exemptions on preferential treatment of cable programming. The online video streamer took aim at AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, during executives’ first visit to lobby the FCC in two years.

Netflix made a rare visit to the FCC to lobby against three top ISPs’ exclusion of some video transmitted by Internet Protocol from broadband data caps. The company said the exclusion is a net neutrality issue and doesn’t necessarily fall under statutory exemptions on preferential treatment of cable programming. The online video streamer took aim at AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, during executives’ first visit to lobby the FCC in two years.

Netflix made a rare visit to the FCC to lobby against three top ISPs’ exclusion of some video transmitted by Internet Protocol from broadband data caps. The company said the exclusion is a net neutrality issue and doesn’t necessarily fall under statutory exemptions on preferential treatment of cable programming. The online video streamer took aim at AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, during executives’ first visit to lobby the FCC in two years.

The NTIA will review the applicants for the new generic top-level domains (gTLD) once ICANN closes the application process, and there then will be “an opportunity … to raise objections to certain names if they exist,” said Victoria Espinel, U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator. She was responding to questions by lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday about what the U.S. is doing to ensure that the new TLDs don’t become breeding grounds for rogue sites.

ICANN has yet to provide a “full and careful analysis” of its reasons for dismissing proposals for a “Do Not Sell” registry of brands that would be off-limits as new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), the Association of National Advertisers told ICANN in a letter made public late Monday. ICANN’s April 10 notice that its newly formed gTLD committee had rejected Do Not Sell-like proposals, saying that commenters were focused on second-level defensive registration and not top-level registration, apparently ignored the concerns raised by ANA and others about top-level as well as second-level problems, Dan Jaffe, ANA executive vice president for government relations, told ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom (http://xrl.us/bm6qhm). Current protections for IP owners are insufficient because of “potential string confusion problems,” meaning that string confusion could only be challenged by filing a gTLD application -- an expensive proposition, Jaffe said. “Unlike other entities which receive, analyze and publish the basis for their decisions grounded in the proceeding record, it does not appear that ICANN assumes any obligation to provide stakeholders with any detailed, meaningful explanation for its actions, which would be in accordance with the proceeding record developed,” he said: “Failure to act quickly in this area will, in effect, create a definitive decision in regard to the defensive registration issues at the top level through inertia and inaction.” Jaffe also wrote NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling, saying that ANA and the Coalition for Responsible Domain Name Oversight, which jointly proposed Do Not Sell, have told ICANN on “numerous occasions” that their only other recourse would be applying to run a registry they have no interest in. Jaffe asked Strickling (http://xrl.us/bm6qhj) to have NTIA “seek further, detailed clarification from ICANN regarding the basis of its rejection of concerns about defensive registrations and either share that information directly with stakeholders, or prompt ICANN to make such disclosure."

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told us during an interview Tuesday after the Senate caucus luncheons he’s “confident” that the Cybersecurity Act, S-2105, will get more than 60 votes when it is put to a floor vote. Lieberman said a floor vote on the bill “may not be this work period but maybe in June. I spoke to [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,] this morning and he said he'd like to get the cybersecurity bill up this month but there’s a queue. I'm pushing him on it because we have enough votes and the only way … the coalition can get together is if [the bill] gets to the floor. We'll have this argument and maybe we will work it out about whether [the Department of Homeland Security] can mandate requirements. I'm confident that once this bill gets to the floor it will get more than 60 votes. It may be different -- I hope it’s not too different but there is a very broad feeling that we've got to do something to raise our cyberdefenses.” Lieberman said he is continuing to work with Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain, R-Ariz., to reach a compromise on the need to protect critical infrastructure from cybersecurity attacks. “I can’t say that rascal [McCain] has changed very much. But I'm willing to work on it. It’s like water on a rock. People get set and stubborn and the only way to get legislation passed is to compromise and this legislation has to pass for our national defense,” he said. Separately, McCain told us that at the moment there is no middle ground from which to negotiate a deal. “I haven’t heard a thing. Everybody wants to lead on the compromise. We have our bill … it’s up to them. Ask Harry Reid.”

Porn companies suing alleged BitTorrent downloaders in a single lawsuit are not only stiffing courts on filing fees, but employing “abusive litigation tactics” to extract settlements and using a questionable legal theory known as “swarm joinder,” said a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Judge Gary Brown last week ordered (http://xrl.us/bm6n3y) that only the first defendant in three of the four pending suits be subject to limited discovery, and recommended to the judges overseeing the four cases in the Eastern District of New York that complaints be dismissed against the other 80 defendants.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked the FCC and Justice Department to investigate Comcast for alleged anticompetitive conduct and violations of its merger agreements made in connection with buying control of NBCUniversal. His request came in a letter sent to the agencies Monday (http://xrl.us/bm6i7y). Franken, a vocal critic of the deal and member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, said that complaints against Comcast’s compliance with the terms of the commission’s order have “languished” before the FCC “for extended periods of time.” Franken said he’s “disappointed” it took the FCC 10 months to issue an order to resolve a carriage dispute between Comcast and the Bloomberg financial news channel. Franken also alleged that Comcast was using delay tactics to prevent Project Concord, an online video distributor (OVD), from negotiating programming deals. He alleged Comcast was requiring Project Concord to provide a full, unredacted copy of the underlying peer agreement for content with another company before Comcast can provide its programming. Such a dispute has “far-reaching implications for the entire OVD market,” Franken said. He urged Justice and the FCC to act quickly to resolve the issue; otherwise “it will dissuade other OVDs from seeking Comcast’s programming under the terms of the order, and it will send a message to Comcast that it may set unreasonable requirements on OVDs as a condition of receiving its content.” Franken urged the agencies to probe Comcast’s announcement that it will exempt its VOD services for the Xbox 360 from its customers’ broadband data caps. The practice (CD May 7 p5) “raises serious questions about how Comcast will favor its own content and services to the detriment of its competitors,” Franken said. Comcast is “fully complying with (indeed exceeding) the transaction orders as detailed in our recently filed Annual Compliance Report,” a company spokeswoman said by email. The Xfinity app for the Xbox does not stream content over the open Internet and “is not subject to the FCC’s open Internet rules,” she said. Comcast’s Xfinity service is “indisputably part of our Title VI cable service which is not subject to the FCC’s Open Internet Rules,” she said. Franken acknowledged in his letter that Comcast’s video content is being delivered over its private Internet Protocol network, rather than the Internet, saying he was “not yet prepared” to call it a technical violation of the commission’s merger order.

The Obama Administration voiced concern with H.R. 5326, the 2013 Commerce, Justice, and Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for reducing funding levels for several agencies, some of which are trade-related. If the President were presented with H.R. 5326, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill, a press release said.