Pushing the idea that strong net neutrality rules have wide support, dozens of companies and organizations, and thousands of websites, will display a spinning icon representing a slow-loading Internet on their sites Wednesday, said organizers of what’s being billed as “a day of action.” Some of the organizations involved in the demonstration, including Free Press, also wrote (http://bit.ly/1COGsCd) FCC commissioners Tuesday urging them to participate in at least four net neutrality town hall meetings outside of Washington in addition to the several scheduled at the commission building in the next few weeks.

An Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report (http://bit.ly/WEVrxd) Tuesday suggested a “cross-border” Internet governance framework that it says lets governments pursue Internet policies that don’t infringe on the sovereignty of other nations, nor the underlying architecture of the Web (CD Sept 3 p15). ITIF hosted a webcast panel of Internet governance experts to comment on the report, all of whom supported its framework, though some wondered about its applicability for Internet governance issues such as NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Public interest groups opposing relaxation of FCC ownership rules “rely on the myth of the media mogul boogeyman,” said NAB in replies (http://bit.ly/1opj4l5) to a 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM in docket 14-50 (CD Aug 8 p7). Broadcasters don’t have “a dominant hold on the attention of audiences” that warrants heavy regulation, NAB said. Public interest groups such as Common Cause chastised the FCC for not doing enough to increase ownership diversity. Other commenters said no evidence has been presented to justify the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, and several groups urged the FCC to regulate and require disclosure of shared service agreements (SSA).

FCC consideration of petitions to pre-empt municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee remains controversial, more so than the issue in states, said industry observers and lawmakers in interviews this week. There’s been some partisanship in the national debate over the petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina (CD July 28 p5). But lawmakers and officials see any state-level debate on pre-emption as not falling along strict party lines. They differed on what a more unified response at the state level would look like and said it’s too early to call the issue’s impact on state elections.

Price cap carriers say they're willing to offer faster broadband with Connect America Fund Phase II money, but in return they want the funding to last longer, and to have the “flexibility” of not having to serve all areas of a census tract if it’s too expensive. The FCC-proposed changes in the program are resurrecting a long-standing battle, in which cable companies and others resent that cap carriers are eligible for the funds. The American Cable Association, Competitive Carriers Association and NCTA are opposing the changes, in filings submitted before Monday’s Further NPRM replies deadline, with ACA saying the changes would be a “windfall” for the price cap carriers.

LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated during comments to the Competitive Carriers Association that the TV incentive auction might not take place as projected in mid-2015. Wheeler blamed broadcasters, interviewed on the CCA stage by the group’s president, Steve Berry, a former Wheeler lieutenant when Wheeler led CTIA. Wheeler largely repeated the warning in a keynote address to CTIA Tuesday.

LAS VEGAS -- Clearing federal incumbents from the AWS-3 band will be a relatively smooth process, predicted NTIA Senior Adviser Peter Tenhula during a panel at the Competitive Carriers Association meeting. With short-form applications due at the FCC Friday, industry officials told us there soon will be a better idea of how much interest there is in the AWS-3 auction, slated to get underway Nov. 13. Some at CCA and CTIA meanwhile worried that NAB’s lawsuit against the incentive auction might delay it. (See separate report above in this issue.)

Draft NPRMs on several items about the incentive auction will be circulated to FCC commissioners this week and as early as Tuesday, said agency and industry officials in interviews Friday and Monday, after a low-power TV (LPTV) official said he had heard the items were coming (CD Sept 8 p12). They said the draft NPRMs will concern the auction’s effect on LPTV, wireless mics, Part 15 unlicensed spectrum and aggregate interference issues affecting broadcasters. FCC staff overseeing the auction have suggested that issues such as wireless mics and LPTV would be taken up by the commission in advance, and NAB and other broadcast interests have been vocal about concerns over the FCC’s predictions for interference. “Each of these issues is thorny and complicated, so they will take time to sort out,” said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan.

ICANN’s public comment period on its accountability process won’t necessarily change its outcome, particularly if the terms of accountability aren’t clearly defined, said ICANN stakeholders in interviews Monday. The 21-day period responded to stakeholder questions at last week’s Internet Governance Forum (CD Sept 3 p15) and a letter from ICANN’s major constituencies and stakeholder groups (CD Sept 5 p15), said an ICANN news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1qA0RFZ). Stakeholders have asked whether ICANN is intent on developing an accountability process that holds the nonprofit accountable to itself or to the community it serves (CD Aug 27 p9).

RESTON, Va. -- Candidates for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat outlined some similar fundamental priorities of technology policy, despite vastly different tones, in a campaign town hall session. Both Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and former telecom lobbyist Ed Gillespie, his Republican challenger who has also operated as a party strategist, would create a privacy advocate challenge process within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, permanently extend the research and development tax credit, and seek to avoid the effects of sequestration, they said.