AT&T, Verizon and CTIA raised concerns in separate filings at the agency about changes the FTC proposed to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule. In September, the FTC proposed more than two dozen changes to the COPPA rule imposing new requirements on website operators while further protecting children from online threats. USTelecom, the main wireline trade association, did not file comments, a spokeswoman said.

AT&T, Verizon and CTIA raised concerns in separate filings at the agency about changes the FTC proposed to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule. In September, the FTC proposed more than two dozen changes to the COPPA rule imposing new requirements on website operators while further protecting children from online threats (WID Dec 23 p1). USTelecom, the main wireline trade association, did not file comments, a spokeswoman said.

The FCC approved AT&T’s buy of Qualcomm spectrum 3-1 over a dissent by Commissioner Michael Copps. The vote was a positive development for AT&T, which last week dropped its move to buy T-Mobile after the FCC and Department of Justice both lambasted that deal as bad for competition. The buy gives AT&T six MHz of unpaired 700 MHz spectrum nationwide and another six MHz in five major metropolitan markets. The order imposes two sets of conditions, addressing data roaming and interference.

Though lawmakers won’t resume their markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act until 2012, opponents of the legislation continue voicing their objections to the bill, and particularly its provision to allow domain name system (DNS) blocking. So far, more than 40 major technology companies have announced their opposition to SOPA, and even the Future of Music Coalition, a content industry group, said it’s “fundamentally concerned” with security implications of the legislation.

Though lawmakers won’t resume their markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act until 2012, opponents of the legislation continue voicing their objections to the bill, and particularly its provision to allow domain name system (DNS) blocking. So far, more than 40 major technology companies have announced their opposition to SOPA, and even the Future of Music Coalition, a content industry group, said it’s “fundamentally concerned” with security implications of the legislation.

The Court of International Trade has ruled, due to untimely claims, it cannot grant relief to two companies that sought refunds of EU beef hormone dispute duties assessed on merchandise entered after the duties were retroactively terminated. According to the CIT, the companies' complaints were filed more than two years after the action that triggered accrual of their claims -- which was the date CBP liquidated the entries and not the date of the CAFC's 2010 ruling that the retaliatory duties were terminated by operation of law in 2007.

Verizon Wireless asked the FCC to approve its buy of 122 AWS licenses from cable consortium SpectrumCo, a $3.6 billion deal unveiled Dec. 2 (CD Dec 5 p5). Verizon’s filing makes a case for why approval would be in the public interest. But some critics have emerged who hope the FCC will block the deal as a step away from a competitive wireless market.

Proposed requirements for TV stations to post online their political files and information about sponsors of issue ads raise “significant first amendment concerns,” the National Religious Broadcasters group said in comments filed with the FCC. Additionally, it would open such advocates up to personal attacks, the NRB said. “The startling acts of harassment, retaliation and violence perpetrated against supporters of traditional marriage under a similar Internet-posting rule in California during the ‘Proposition 8’ process shows the problems with this approach,” NRB said. “The general government interest articulated by the Commission in support of this measure, namely, that the public should have ‘access’ to information about how television stations are serving their communities, is insufficient to overcome the potential extreme, burdensome ‘chilling effect’ that will be visited on politically-involved members of the public.” Meanwhile, the NAB is still canvassing members to get their views on the proposed rules, but many broadcasters have raised their own concerns that “any plan to put the public file online should carefully weigh the costs and benefits of an online system,” NAB lawyers told FCC officials, an ex parte notice shows.

The FCC may certify Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white spaces database with permission to start commercial operations in the U.S., industry and agency officials told us last week. That could lead to deployment of the first commercially available white spaces technology as early as Q1. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology earlier this year completed a 45-day public trial of the Spectrum Bridge database and this month began a 45-day trial of rival database provider Telcordia Technologies, making those the first two of the 10 commission-designated database operators to be ready for trials. White spaces devices, including one produced by Spectrum Bridge’s partner KTS, are being tested in the OET lab, and could soon be certified for commercial use as well, said industry executives. Wireless providers and equipment makers see FCC approval of white spaces databases and radios that connect with the databases as potentially opening a market with $5 billion to $7 billion in annual sales. They say the market would be initially for broadband from fixed locations in rural areas, and eventually if the technology is proven to work for portable, unlicensed devices capable of getting broadband service. “This technology could be a very good opportunity to introduce cost-effective high-speed broadband into some underserved or unserved rural communities,” said John Malyar, Telcordia’s chief architect of interconnection solutions. “There’s a large opportunity here for looking at other applications of this, with the personal portables or even the machine-to-machine communications, both here and in other parts of the world. Showing that a database can support dynamic spectrum access has broader applications than just the TV bands frequencies.” Hardware producer Carlson Wireless expects to submit its second-generation white spaces device to the FCC for testing in January, CEO Jim Carlson said. “It’s a real chicken and egg situation.” Until the database and the equipment are both certified, companies are only able to do field tests under experimental licenses from the commission. Ultimately, the databases must all be able to interoperate with each other, once they've all passed FCC muster. Carlson has been testing rural broadband and hot spots on Native American tribal lands. “Our passion in this is to get the rural users of this country, including the Native Americans and businesses and farms, to be connected so we can be economically more viable,” he said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment. Companies are waiting for the FCC to act on petitions for reconsideration, as well as objections raised by NAB and requests from the equipment makers for flexibility in the fixed transmitter height requirements and a relaxed adjacent channel spectrum mask, to allow greater throughput. NAB’s comments were largely logistical and broadcasters primarily want assurance that the FCC will continue to monitor implementation and guard against interference, said Victor Tawil, the association’s senior vice president of technology. Ultimately, the commercial space could contain multiple possible databases and radios so that

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, postponed the markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) after considering less than half of the proposed amendments to the bill Thursday and Friday. Opponents repeatedly decried the legislation’s lack of technical analysis at the Thursday markup, particularly with respect to its proposed DNS blocking provision (CED Dec 16 p1). Smith said Friday he would consider, but did not agree to, holding a subsequent hearing with security experts to determine what effects the bill could have on the security of the Internet.