The Seattle Citizens’ Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB) is moving ahead with its review of the feasibility of municipal broadband in concert with the city government’s moves to figure out the best path forward after its partnership with the University of Washington and the now-defunct Gigabit Squared failed earlier this year. Seattle announced plans in December 2012 to launch a fiber network in 12 neighborhoods (CD Dec 14/12 p10), but Mayor Ed Murray said in January that the partnership was dead due to persistent funding and debt issues with Gigabit Squared (http://bit.ly/1vON5PL).

Modified confidentiality rules for sensitive documents filed in the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger proceedings strike a good balance between protecting information and preserving public access, broadcast attorneys, cable industry officials and a public interest lawyer told us Wednesday. The modified version of the FCC’s usual protective orders was issued Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1ndec7A) in response to requests from broadcasters and programmers not to have valuable contract data in the public record (CD Oct 2 p10).

Congress is likely to address several public performance royalty issues in 2015, said House members and music licensing experts in interviews this week. A September ruling requiring pre-1972 public performance royalties against SiriusXM in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles could strengthen the argument for the full federalization of such royalties for all broadcasters, including terrestrial, said the experts. Several House members and music industry attorneys hailed the court decision and urged the passage of the Respecting Senior Performers as Essential Cultural Treasures (Respect) Act (CD Sept 24 p7), which would force digital broadcasters to pay public performance royalties on pre-1972 sound recordings.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler signaled the start of a new joint FTC/FCC enforcement era on Wednesday as the agencies and all 51 state attorneys general disclosed a $105 million settlement with AT&T over mobile cramming allegations. Not only is the agreement the largest mobile cramming settlement, it’s the biggest FCC enforcement action, Wheeler said during a Wednesday news conference. It starts a new type of enforcement action, he said, where there’s “no daylight” between the FCC and FTC.

The European net neutrality debate, which died down this summer as the European Parliament and Commission prepared for new terms, has re-started before a Nov. 27 meeting by EU telecom ministers on the EC telecom reform package. The fate of EU efforts to deal with the issue is unclear, said industry lawyers in interviews. With the FCC also embroiled in the issue of whether and how to regulate net neutrality, questions of whether the different approaches can ever mesh, and whether ISP interconnection arrangements may also affect net neutrality, remain open, they said.

Access to broadband Internet is critical to “full and fair participation” in society and the economy, and not having access to it is comparable to not having access to broadcast TV in the 1960s, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in the United Church of Christ’s 32nd Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1twSQyM). The lecture is named for the UCC Office of Communication founder, who successfully battled with the FCC to increase access to the broadcasting industry for African Americans.

A recent data breach at AT&T is statistically smaller than other recent incidents, but still highlights security implications for the telecom sector, said industry participants in interviews Tuesday. AT&T has begun to notify about 1,600 customers whose information may have been compromised in August during an internal data breach. A now-former AT&T employee apparently violated the telco’s privacy rules and accessed customer information that could include Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, along with customer proprietary network information (CPNI), the company said in a form letter posted online by the office of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell.

Panelists at the final FCC net neutrality roundtable agreed Tuesday that litigation is all but certain as the FCC pushes forward with net neutrality rules. The sixth and final session focused on the open Internet and the law, with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet asking most of the questions.

As demand for wireless data and capacity grows, industry and government must work together to let service providers innovate and deploy infrastructure to meet that demand, said government officials and wireless executives Tuesday at an FCBA event. An order that will be taken up by the FCC at its meeting this month will be a critical step, they said.

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- American Cable Association CEO Matthew Polka pressed at the Comptel convention for net neutrality rules to apply to content providers as well as ISPs. But Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Matthew DelNero said the rulemaking the FCC is considering, as well as those preceding it, have focused on ISPs. The goal, DelNero said, was preserving the ability of “innovators and consumers” to determine the success of applications and content on the Internet without the “permission or consent” of ISPs. But DelNero again said “all options are on the table."