The first week of online political file requirements applying to all TV stations is going smoothly, with close to 2,000 uploads of political advertising buyer information, said public interest officials and an FCC spokesman in interviews last week. Although top-50 market TV stations have had to post political ad data online for two years, smaller broadcasters have only been required to do since Monday (CD April 8 p5). Contested primaries in states such as Alaska and Arkansas seem to have driven most of the early filings, said Sunlight Foundation Managing Editor Kathy Kiely. The real test of broadcaster response to the new filing requirement will come in the fall, as political ads will arrive with higher frequency, said Kiely and several broadcast attorneys with clients that are obligated under the new rules.

The FTC lawsuit against T-Mobile for wireless cramming (CD July 2p5) was the most assertive step the commission has taken into an area normally under FCC purview, state officials and consumer advocates said in interviews last week. While the FCC has set rules and enforced fines for wireline cramming, it has only proposed rules for wireless cramming (CD April 30 p7). State attorneys general and a consumer advocate told us they were happy the FTC used its Section 5 authority in an area where the FCC has been dragging its feet.

The term of Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly expired June 30 (CD July 3 p8), which will slowly set in motion gears of the presidential nomination process, several observers said in interviews Thursday. O'Rielly was sworn in last November to finish the term of Robert McDowell, who stepped down and joined the Hudson Institute as a visiting fellow. O'Rielly is widely expected to have full FCC commissioner authority for the next year and a half, in accordance with statutes that allow commissioners to serve until the end of the subsequent session of Congress once their terms expire. Some observers suggest the possibility of pending re-nomination may instill caution in O'Rielly.

The slowdown experienced by some Internet networks over the last few weeks is likely a result of businesses that don’t accommodate the large demand for streaming World Cup matches during business hours, some technology analysts said in interviews last week. An Ipswitch survey found that information technology administrators were experiencing network management and bandwidth drain due to employees watching World Cup matches, like the June 26 match between the U.S. and Germany (CD June 27 p11). Remedies, like adding more bandwidth for yearly sporting events, may not be a cost-effective option for businesses, some analysts said.

IBiquity Digital wants the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, to declare invalid three patents that two firms have used as the basis to bring dozens of infringement lawsuits against HD Radio-licensed broadcasters and car makers, the HD Radio licensor said in a complaint.

The government’s surveillance of foreigners outside the U.S. is legal, valuable, subject to oversight and is not a bulk collection program, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) decided unanimously in a report released Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1pJz0EA). Although the board did identify several privacy concerns about the program’s use and collection of American citizens’ private information, suggesting various reforms in the process, board member Elisebeth Collins Cook, a Wilmer Hale lawyer, said the concerns were “not driven by a concern that U.S. persons’ rights are being violated.” PCLOB voted to make the report official Wednesday.

An upcoming FCC order requiring closed captions (CD June 18 p10) for online video clips will likely apply to all video clips of material that previously aired on TV, on websites owned by video programming distributors no matter the clip length, said FCC and industry officials in interviews Wednesday. The order is still being finalized, but would also give VPDs a 12-hour grace period to caption “time-sensitive” or live clips, defer the issue of responsibility for third-party clips to a further rulemaking and sets deadlines for compliance starting in 2016, they said. “We are really thrilled the commission is taking steps to address this issue,” said attorney Blake Reid of the University of Colorado, who represents consumer group Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Democratic commissioners are all seen as supporting the order (CD Feb 21 p5), which is on the preliminary agenda for the July 11 FCC meeting.

Plaintiffs who unsuccessfully contested the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://1.usa.gov/1r18uaa) (CD May 27 p1) before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were hurt by the sheer number of interests in the case, said attorneys involved in the case. Plaintiffs also were hindered by the court’s questionable decisions and the case’s complexity, they said Tuesday night at an FCBA continuing legal education seminar.

Conclusions on talks on an updated treaty to protect broadcasting signals won’t be firmed up until Friday or later, though discussions this week at the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) have led to a decision that pure webcasting signals won’t be part of the treaty’s scope, broadcast officials said in an interview Wednesday. That, and the move toward creating a single, broad right protecting simultaneous and near simultaneous transmissions, could relieve some concerns of nongovernmental organizations and pave the way for a diplomatic conference, they said. Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), however, said they still believe those seeking the broadcasting treaty haven’t proved they need it.

T-Mobile deceptively earned millions of dollars -- perhaps hundreds of millions -- from hidden and misleading charges on consumers cellphone bills, the FTC alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Seattle (http://1.usa.gov/1iRZbpS). Since at least 2009, the mobile carrier has taken “a hefty cut” -- 35 to 40 percent -- of unwanted, recurring, third-party charges for text-message services on consumers’ bills, said FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich on a conference call with reporters Tuesday.