The FCC received wide support for use of a national location code to improve the emergency alert system (EAS), in comments on proposed rule changes for EAS. NAB and broadcast engineers backed an approach that isn’t costly to broadcasters, and consumer groups, Verizon and NCTA recommended modifications to the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS). Comments were due Thursday. Replies are due Aug. 29 (CD July 16 p20).

The FCC likely will provide more information, including a possible consumer advisory, to help clarify which over-the-top text providers are considered “interconnected” and thus subject to new text-to-911 requirements under an order approved by the FCC last week (CD Aug 11 p1), a senior agency official said Thursday. The agency is not now releasing a matrix saying which text apps are interconnected and which are not, the official said.

The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) appears likely to approve Frontier Communications’ proposed acquisition of AT&T’s wireline, broadband and video assets in the state, after a recent agreement between Frontier and state officials, but that approval is unlikely to come swiftly, industry observers said in interviews Thursday. The office of Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, a Democrat, and the Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) reached an agreement with Frontier Tuesday on public interest conditions related to the deal (CD Aug 13 p13).

The FCC should reject petitions from wireless ISPs seeking looser restrictions on operations in the 5 GHz U-NII-1 and U-NII-3, Cisco said in a filing at the FCC. But Cisco’s arguments were countered by the owners of numerous WISPs concerned about the rule change.

The more than 230 comments filed by organizations and individuals to the Justice Department consent decree review continued to fall along the dividing line between those who pay for music and those who create and publish music (CD Aug 7 p9; Aug 6 p7; Aug 4 p12). Many songwriters and music publishers believe the consent decrees unfairly compensate for their works, but music service providers think the decrees ward off the potential for market control via performing rights organizations (PROs) and publishers. The comments, which were due Aug. 6, were posted Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1mNNU5Q). DOJ’s Antitrust Division is reviewing the existing consent decrees for PROs American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) (CD June 5 p9).

The FCC’s 2014 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules is unlikely to lead to substantive change in the commission’s rules, several broadcast attorneys and industry observers told us. Comments on the quadrennial rulemaking were due last week, and though many commenters asked for rule changes, some didn’t seem to think such changes were likely. The review is mandated by Congress.

Telcordia Technologies, which hopes to replace Neustar as the Local Number Portability Administrator, accused Neustar of delaying tactics. In a letter filed at the FCC (http://bit.ly/1utwCmH), Telcordia said the final 14 pages of recent comments filed by Neustar were completely redacted, with the company “unilaterally asserting national security concerns."

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) is moving closer to a decision in its review of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal, with industry observers telling us they believe recently filed recommendations from the Department of Public Service (DPS) staff signal the PSC could approve the merger, though with significant concessions. Public interest groups opposed to Comcast/TWC said they continue to support full denial at the state level rather than extracting concessions. New York raised the state regulatory requirements earlier this year for cable franchise deals like Comcast/TWC, with the law now requiring applicants to show a deal would be in the public interest rather than requiring the PSC to approve deals unless it could prove harm to the public interest (CD March 21 p15). The PSC will factor the DPS staff comments and other filings into its decision, which it expects to announce at its Oct. 2 meeting, a spokesman said.

Dish Network would most likely benefit more from keeping its spectrum and partnering with a wireless company to operate it than it would from selling the spectrum, some analysts said in interviews. During a conference call last week, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said he would consider selling the spectrum by itself to be a personal failure, but it’s possible. He also said a number of partnerships are open to the company that would allow it to enhance the spectrum. But partnering with Dish to build out a network using AWS-4 spectrum would be very difficult for a wireless company because it isn’t a standard band, some analysts said.

CableLabs launched 4K.CableLabs.com as a dedicated website “to demonstrate the latest in video content evolution and technology,” and give budding 4K content creators a chance at global exposure, said the cable research and development consortium Wednesday. CableLabs representatives didn’t immediately comment on how 4KCableLabs.com came together, whether CableLabs thinks the site can help alleviate the lack of available native 4K content, and how much capacity the site has to accommodate the many 4K-resolution content submissions that may be uploaded.