The FCC net neutrality rulemaking and recent policies are designed to provide certainty on what the commission will allow, while leaving room for case-by-case flexibility, said General Counsel Jonathan Sallet at an FCBA Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program Monday. Such rules are required to allow the commission to regulate “in a time of rapid innovation,” he said. Along with the thinking behind recent FCC rules, the event included a rundown on FCC court cases of the past year, especially the Verizon v. FCC net neutrality case and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order.

The nation’s mayors urged Congress, President Barack Obama and the FCC to preserve a “free and open internet,” but backed off Monday from an initial proposal that also backed reclassifying broadband as a telecom service. Under the resolution approved at its annual meeting in Dallas the U.S. Conference of Mayors said it “supports comprehensive nondiscrimination as a key principle for any FCC rulemaking” and it backs “securing a commitment to transparency and the free flow of information over the internet, including no blocking of lawful websites and no unreasonable discrimination of lawful network traffic.” The resolution (http://bit.ly/UBM8xv)asks the White House and Congress to support those principles, and, “if necessary, use their lawmaking power to enshrine access to a free and open Internet and give the FCC a clear mandate.” The resolution passed unanimously, said a news release (http://bit.ly/1m6Upzd) from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.

AT&T and DirecTV plan to try to convince Capitol Hill lawmakers Tuesday that regulators should let AT&T acquire the satellite service provider. Top executives from both companies will testify in favor of the deal before the House in the morning and then the Senate in the afternoon, as other witnesses caution about other factors. The Justice Department and FCC must approve the deal.

ICANN stakeholders needs to move beyond the debate over the proposal process for the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and begin engaging the more pressing questions of IANA’s future oversight and stewardship, said ICANN officials at the ICANN 50 conference (http://bit.ly/Tp4IIq) in London Monday. Before the conference, parties told us they expected ICANN 50 to deal more with Internet governance than domain name issues (CD June 23 p10). The U.K. government “strongly” supports the transition, said U.K. Communications Minister Ed Vaizey in opening remarks. London is the largest conference in ICANN history, with 3,343 individual registrations, said ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade.

The FCC has at least some legal authority to justify its expanded focus on cybersecurity risk management in the communications sector, which parallels other agencies’ efforts to implement President Barack Obama’s 2013 executive order on the topic (CD Feb 14/13 p1), former FCC officials and industry observers told us. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has strongly advocated industry leadership of work to improve the sector’s cybersecurity, saying in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) earlier this month that he’s seeking private sector participation but the FCC is prepared to regulate the issue if that fails (CD June 13 p1).

Expect privacy advocates to push back against a biometric industry group’s best practices at Tuesday’s NTIA-facilitated facial recognition code of conduct multistakeholder meeting. The International Biometrics and Identification Association (IBIA) submitted its proposed privacy best practices to the NTIA last week (http://bit.ly/1lkceiP). Stakeholders received an email with the document Friday and privacy advocates took issue with it. An agenda distributed Monday blocked out the first 80 minutes of the meeting for discussion about the document.

CHICAGO - Audio quality continues to be a key differentiator for Sprint, which announced Monday nationwide availability of its HD Voice service, following last week’s announcement of a high-res music sampler offer from music download company HDTracks. At a news conference at the Museum of Broadcast Communications to promote its Framily Plan and Spark enhanced LTE service, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse called HD Voice “the greatest improvement in the history of wireless voice.”

The wireless and engineering industry put protective measures in place to shield the GPS band from interference, wireless industry and engineering executives said Friday during a GPS receiver workshop at the FCC. The FCC Wireless Bureau gets “very few GPS interference complaints and the few we get have to do with intentional jamming,” said Chris Helzer, bureau chief engineer.

A draft E-rate order attempts to tackle the “Wi-Fi gap” in schools and libraries, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Friday (http://fcc.us/1w7OuSm). He said he circulated the order Friday, for a vote at the July 11 FCC meeting, as expected (CD June 12 p1). The plan commits $1 billion toward Wi-Fi in 2015, with which the agency expects to connect more than 10 million students across the country, officials said. Another $1 billion will go toward Wi-Fi in 2016, with “predictable” support in future years, a senior official told reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity Friday. That money, in addition to the current $2.4 billion E-rate budget, comes from $2 billion recently found unspent (CD Feb 4 p7).

Facing a recently raised regulatory hurdle in New York, Comcast last week made a pitch at three Public Service Commission hearings that approval of its Times Warner Cable acquisition would be in the public interest by bringing a host of improvements -- from faster Internet speeds to more shows on cable. Arguing against the combine were consumer groups like Consumers Union, which warned the deal would leave Comcast with “enormous power and unprecedented dominance” and higher rates for consumers. Consumers Union highlighted a poll by Consumer Reports saying most Americans oppose the merger and fear it would worsen service. Consumers Union is the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.