The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) said the FCC’s failure to place in the record and provide interested parties internally generated technical studies on BPL, to allow a chance to comment, is among issues it will raise in its court challenge to the FCC’s BPL rules. In a filing in the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ARRL said it would also raise the issue of whether the FCC acted contrary to its decades-old interpretation of the Communications Act by excusing unlicenced users of a technology that it acknowledged causes harmful interference to licensed spectrum users from “any obligation to eliminate that interference or cease operations until the interference is addressed.” Meanwhile, the United Telecom Council filed to intervene in support of the FCC.

The Senate Commerce Committee -- left largely intact by the midterm elections and with a history of bipartisan negotiation -- is expected to pass a data security bill that will win congressional approval in 2007, Hill watchers said last week. It’s one of the few Internet issues expected to get anywhere. Some “jurisdictional battles” that held up privacy-related legislation this Congress are expected to wane, speakers said in a teleconference by the International Assn. of Privacy Professionals. But lame-duck action is highly unlikely. “West Coast politicians” with eyes on the 2008 race may push privacy as a campaign issue, an industry expert told us separately.

STANFORD, Cal. -- Asked if the U.S. should have had a broadband-promotion policy as some E. Asian countries devised, Microsoft Chmn. Bill Gates said “our broadband penetration is sort of middle of pack.” But much regulation -- including Telecom Act facilities-sharing requirements -- “actually holds us back,” he said Wed. in an interview with Charlie Rose at TechNet’s Innovation Summit here. As the Internet continues to absorb TV and landline voice, broadband penetration will improve, Gates said.

Congress should require Internet companies in China to protect user information short of “formal legal action” by authorities and report all handovers to the U.S., a congressional commission said Thurs. The annual report by the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission also urged Congress to press Bush Administration officials to raise media and Internet freedom issues with Chinese counterparts and discourage the govt.’s jailing journalists. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should quickly file a case against China at the WTO for intellectual property rights (IPR) violations, the report said. USTR told us a case was “very likely” if there isn’t “significant action” by China, but it hedged on the timing for making the call.

STANFORD, Cal. -- Asked if the U.S. should have had a broadband-promotion policy as some E. Asian countries devised, Microsoft Chmn. Bill Gates said “our broadband penetration is sort of middle of pack.” But much regulation -- including Telecom Act facilities-sharing requirements -- “actually holds us back,” he said Wed. in an interview with Charlie Rose at TechNet’s Innovation Summit here. As the Internet continues to absorb TV and landline voice, broadband penetration will improve, Gates said.

The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has issued a proposed rule and held a public meeting on October 30, 2006 to amend the energy conservation standards under 10 CFR Part 430 for residential furnaces and boilers.

Letting cable operators offer sports programming like the NFL Network on a premium sports tier doesn’t amount to full-blown a la carte, Senate Judiciary Committee Chmn. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said at a hearing Tues.: “We're not talking about going a la carte all the way. We're talking about 2 tiers.” Specter brought officials from the NFL, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable, plus a Stanford U. economist, to discuss whether Congress needs to intervene as the NFL Network and similar sources charge more for sports programming. Specter asked why the NFL Network insists on expanded-basic carriage in its negotiations with cable operators and why DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket has never been open to competitive bidding.

FCC Chmn. Martin hesitates to act on the AT&T-BellSouth merger until he meets with key Democratic members on the Hill to get their views, regulatory sources said Mon. No meeting has occurred, but FCC staff members reportedly made informal contact last week with staffers for incoming House Commerce Committee Chmn. Dingell (D-Mich.) and were assured Dingell isn’t calling for a delay on the merger vote.

Funding came heavily and down to the end for candidates of both parties in races with import for telecom, mirroring a national trend toward more geographically diverse support. High profile candidates with strong telecom ties got expected significant aid from industry and industry PACs for 2006. The list of givers offered few surprises, with the most entrenched Beltway riders generally donating the most.

With the window closing on campaigning, Democrats are growing excited about their prospects for a full takeover of Congress. Pollsters are predicting a gain from 20-35 seats in the House and possibly 6 seats in the Senate -- a sweep that would give the Democrats a solid though slender win in the Senate. Only 6 incumbent Democratic seats are considered close races -- in contrast to the more than 37 GOP seats that pollsters consider “tossups.”