Though time is quickly running out for the 111th Congress, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told us Tuesday he intends to push forward with a proposal to examine whether the Telecom Act needs to be rewritten. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., conceded in a separate interview that time is short.

Though time is quickly running out for the 111th Congress, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told us Tuesday he intends to push forward with a proposal to examine whether the Telecom Act needs to be rewritten. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., conceded in a separate interview that time is short.

The following are highlights of the trade-related provisions of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213, aka the Tax Extenders Act), as summarized by the House Ways and Means Committee. H.R. 4213 may be voted on by the House as early as May 25, 2010.

AT&T will raise its early termination fees to $325 from $175 on contracts signed for smartphones, as well as cellular-connected netbooks, an AT&T spokesman confirmed. But for contracts on feature or messaging phones, AT&T will drop the fee by $25 to $150, he said. According to an adviser, this development has raised the eyebrows of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who has expressed concern about the rationales used for the ETFs set by certain wireless providers. The fee changes, which don’t apply to current customers, take effect for new and renewing customers on June 1. Although the increase comes ahead of an expected June launch of a new version of the iPhone, the timing of the move wasn’t related to any devices, the AT&T spokesman said. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called the move “an excessive strike against competition and consumers.” It is time for Congress and the FCC to act to ensure competition and consumer protection in the cell phone marketplace, said the member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee. “AT&T is forcing its customers to pay a price to get their freedom, and that’s not right,” said Klobuchar. “Too often consumers find out after committing to a multi-year contract that their wireless service doesn’t meet their needs, and changing your wireless provider shouldn’t break the bank. Once again wireless providers have shown that they would rather use arbitrary fees than network and service quality to keep customers,” she said.

Personal users of Google Docs and Gmail may be simply annoyed when they learn law enforcement has been able to read through their materials without a judge’s approval, but potential business customers are deciding cloud-based systems are too risky, a Google lawyer told a Cato Institute event Friday on Capitol Hill. That’s one reason it’s so important to revise the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the aim of a coalition that includes Google, Microsoft, AT&T, Salesforce, Loopt and advocacy groups across the spectrum, said Will DeVries, Google policy counsel. The Digital Due Process coalition has met with several agencies and the White House, and next week will make its case to the intelligence community, said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, which is leading the effort.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third way” regulation of broadband is already having a “dampening effect” on investment in telecommunications equipment, former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said Friday during a webinar sponsored by TIA. The FCC is expected to vote on a notice of inquiry and notice of proposed forbearance on the reclassification proposal at its June 17 meeting.

FCC Republicans objected strongly Thursday to an order approving the agency’s latest version of its annual wireless competition report, which unlike previous reports does not find that the U.S. wireless market is competitive. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker “concurred” with the order, rather than approving it without reservations. The report reflects the state of the industry based on 2008 data.

Cloud computing is so hot that too many groups are trying to develop standards for the technology, imperiling broader adoption, industry representatives said Thursday at a National Institute of Standards and Technology workshop in Washington. But the proper role of NIST is to aid the “de facto efforts around standards” among these groups, including by coordinating, not writing its own rules, said Tim Mather, a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance and a former executive at RSA and Symantec. The government must be careful not to “squelch” innovation in taking new approaches to cloud computing, said Stephen Schmidt, Amazon Web Services chief information security officer and a former FBI section chief.

Online marketing of alcohol products delivers more bang for the buck, and more potential risk to youth, than better-regulated marketing in other media, said a report released Tuesday. The FTC and state attorneys general should investigate alcohol brands’ data collection, online profiling and targeting, including “social media data-mining technologies,” said the report. It was written by Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, American University Professor Kathryn Montgomery, who helped write the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and Lori Dorfman, director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group, a public-health organization.

AT&T stands ready to build consensus for net neutrality legislation, said Tim McKone, executive vice president. The carrier Friday accepted an invitation to industry (CD May 14 p2) by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. AT&T hopes all broadband providers will work with Congress to dispel uncertainty raised by the prospect of Internet regulation, McKone said. “While we've said that we don’t feel that the Communications Act of 1934 is the right vehicle to regulate dynamic 21st century technologies like the Internet, we do feel there are other more effective alternatives to fill the perceived void left by the court decision,” McKone said. “That’s why we would be supportive of the narrowly-tailored legislative approach outlined by Chairman Boucher and Ranking Member Cliff Stearns,” the Republican from Florida.