The FCC wants NAB’s petition for review of the incentive auction order expedited, the agency told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. It “would be in the public interest” to resolve NAB’s petition “as promptly as possible,” said the commission. The NAB filed an emergency motion Wednesday (CD Aug 28 p14) seeking a quick resolution. Though industry observers have told us they expect the case to be resolved through negotiations outside court (CD Aug 18 p6), it’s still in both the FCC’s and NAB’s interests to have the court proceeding go as quickly as possible, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Jazzo in an interview. He represents NAB members, but is not involved in the challenge of the auction order.

A newly formed NETmundial initiative will work to identify and offer solutions for Internet governance problems that lack formal institutions to address those issues, said initiative members at a news conference Thursday (http://bit.ly/1q0CQHR). The World Economic Forum (WEF), ICANN, government officials, civil society groups and industry groups met Thursday in Geneva to build on the multistakeholder and Internet governance principles produced at the April NETmundial conference in Sao Paulo (CD April 29 p9; April 28 p13; April 24 p7; April 23 p19).

No relief is coming to communications attorneys who say they've been working longer hours and during vacations and have had to back off on weighing in on some FCC issues because of the torrent of proceedings there. The Wireline Bureau in Thursday’s Daily Digest denied a request from TechFreedom (CD Aug 22 p10) and others for a one-month extension to comment on two petitions on pre-empting state municipal broadband laws. That day, the Media Bureau denied nonprofits’ requests to delay the comment deadline on AT&T’s plan to buy DirecTV.

Over a year after the FTC updated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule, the commission has yet to bring any enforcement actions, surprising many and leaving some in industry concerned about COPPA’s effectiveness. “It would be like shooting fish in a barrel to find somebody noncompliant,” said Denise Tayloe, president of Privacy Vaults Online (PRIVO), an FTC-certified COPPA safe harbor that tests its clients COPPA compliance. COPPA, Tayloe told us, “won’t get adopted without enforcement."

Those wanting the FCC to deny Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable are likely to be disappointed when the agency likely approves it with conditions, cable operator and programmer officials told us Wednesday. Though several powerful commenters, including Dish Network, asked the FCC to deny the transaction, many others suggested possible conditions, said an industry official. Many other influential entities, such as large content companies and NAB, didn’t weigh in for or against the deal. “It’s very dangerous to come out against this deal because of the amount of influence Comcast will have if it’s approved,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who filed comments opposing Comcast/TWC.

The FCC could wind up creating a bigger public relations problem than it solves when a series of open Internet roundtables kick off at headquarters Sept. 16, industry officials said. Groups like Free Press and Public Knowledge, which have raised concerns about net neutrality rules, said the roundtables aren’t enough and the FCC needs to take public comment across the U.S. A senior FCC official said Wednesday the agency is doing all it can to solicit comment and will not hide from critics.

The FCC will likely need to wait until LightSquared has a designated owner before taking any action on the company, observers said. With three new reorganization plans on the table in LightSquared’s bankruptcy proceeding, the company’s effort to find a solution could continue through November, a satellite industry professional said. The three options emerged this month after a previous stand-alone plan from Fortress Investment Group, Harbinger Capital Partners, JPMorgan Chase and Melody Capital Partners fell through, the professional said. A confirmation hearing is set for Oct. 20 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, the court said in an order this month.

It’s an entity that sports “Diamond,” “Platinum” and “Gold” elite membership tiers, but it’s not the Delta SkyMiles Medallion program. According to the group’s bylaws, it’s the Open Interconnect Consortium. Charter members Atmel, Broadcom, Dell, Intel, Samsung and Wind River formed it last month to promote interoperability among the billions of connected devices expected to come online by 2020 (CD July 9 p17).

The special access data gathering effort that the FCC last week (CD Aug 19 p2) said it would begin soon should produce a lot of data that may help resolve disputes, said industry lawyers in interviews this week, but they said commission staff have a lot of work ahead. It’s a “really extraordinary” amount of data about the prices and connections for every building across the nation, said Thomas Jones, a Willkie Farr attorney who has represented competitive carriers in urging some form of rate regulation for the service.

Pay-TV rivals, trade associations and public interest groups clashed with makers of consumer electronics, academics and advocacy organizations over whether Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable will have anti-competitive effects. The argument continued in many of the 75,317 comments posted online in docket 14-57 Tuesday. Dish Network, Free Press, NTCA and many others attacked Comcast’s assertion (CD Aug 26 p1) that the deal won’t limit consumer choice or provide Comcast with too much bargaining power over video and broadband.