BRUSSELS -- Revision of International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) should be a “catalyst for future development,” Malcolm Johnson, director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), told a workshop on talks to revise the treaty later this year. Most of the proposals on compensation for terminating traffic have encountered “significant skepticism” or “outright opposition,” another ITU official said. The meeting’s aim was to raise the importance of the conference in the minds of industry, Johnson said.

BRUSSELS -- Revision of International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) should be a “catalyst for future development,” Malcolm Johnson, director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), told a workshop on talks to revise the treaty later this year. Most of the proposals on compensation for terminating traffic have encountered “significant skepticism” or “outright opposition,” another ITU official said. The meeting’s aim was to raise the importance of the conference in the minds of industry, Johnson said.

Disney, Dish Network, NBCUniversal and NCTA weighed in for the first time on the FCC’s media ownership rulemaking, with replies reaching different conclusions. Disney questioned the very need for the review given the “realities of today’s market” that include the availability of new media. Dish, among those seeking changes to retransmission consent rules, wants the forthcoming order to bar separately owned stations in the same market from jointly negotiating retrans deals. Comcast’s NBCUniversal said local news sharing agreements shouldn’t be attributable under ownership rules. If required, that could bar LNS deals in some circumstances. The NCTA said a question in December’s rulemaking notice (CD Dec 23 p1) about extending carriage rights to a type of low-power TV station that must meet the same rules as regular broadcasters raised its concern.

LONDON -- “It’s irresistible” to move toward using the 700 MHz band for mobile broadband services, the head of the EU Radio Spectrum Policy Group said Wednesday at an IIR telecom regulation conference. The issue of using the spectrum for a “second digital dividend” (the 800 MHz band is now in the process of being set aside in EU members for wireless services)exploded at WRC-12 when many African and Arab countries pushed for its release. Europe was cautious at first but followed along “quite happily,” said RSPG Chairman Roberto Viola. The WRC decision to allow transition after WRC-15 was a major result, and the idea of being able to use the spectrum is heaven for device makers and consumers, he said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appointed Gary Epstein, a longtime telecom attorney with ties to LightSquared, to serve as co-leader of the commission’s Incentive Auction Task Force. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, instantly raised questions about the appointment. The move had raised some questions within the agency after it was unveiled internally last week, officials said. Epstein was originally slated to be appointed deputy chief of the Office of Strategic Planning. He ended up being named a special counsel to the chairman.

A spectrum sharing order, set for a vote April 27, will move the FCC a step closer to holding an auction of broadcast spectrum, a key component of recently enacted spectrum legislation, agency and industry officials said. Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is poised to make a high-level appointment of someone to oversee FCC follow up on the legislation, working, at least at first, with former Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman.

Apple and two publishers will fight back against the Justice Department, after it filed an antitrust lawsuit against them Wednesday. The suit filed in the U.S. District Court in New York alleges Apple, Macmillan’s Holtzbrinck and Penguin Group conspired to keep e-book prices high, which cost consumers “millions of dollars.” Antitrust settlements with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster are awaiting the court’s approval, and were filed simultaneously with suits against those companies that would be resolved by the agreements.

Apple and two publishers will fight back against the Justice Department, after it filed an antitrust lawsuit against them Wednesday. The suit filed in the U.S. District Court in New York alleges Apple, Macmillan’s Holtzbrinck and Penguin Group conspired to keep e-book prices high, which cost consumers “millions of dollars.” Antitrust settlements with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster are awaiting the court’s approval, and were filed simultaneously with suits against those companies that would be resolved by the agreements.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Internet users must be represented by multiple organizations separate from high-tech companies at discussions to frame congressional legislation against what are called rogue websites after the failure of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), said the chief U.S. copyright official. “It’s not going to be any one organization or one part of the sector,” said Maria Pallante, the register of copyrights. She was replying at a meeting of the Copyright Society’s Northern California chapter late Tuesday to a comment by Corynne McSherry, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s intellectual-property director, that the popular uprising against SOPA was much more than the mobilization orchestrated by Google that it’s sometimes called.

The FCC and major wireless carriers unveiled an agreement Tuesday aimed at curbing the number of smartphones stolen each day in the U.S. Carriers agreed to launch a database within six months allowing the quick blocking of stolen cellphones, keeping them from being used again. Just last year, the FCC took on wireless “bill shock” by pushing through a similar voluntary agreement from the carriers.