Recent controversy on net neutrality created anxiety and questions for top lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week, they said in interviews at the Capitol Tuesday. Last week, the FCC announced next steps to create net neutrality rules that would create what some call “Internet fast lanes,” with allowance for what the agency is terming “commercially reasonable agreements” between Internet service providers and online content distributors. That notion, during last week’s congressional recess, set off a firestorm of statements and opposition from both Democrats, who worry these proposed new rules are far too weak, and Republicans, who oppose any net neutrality rules.

The White House big data report -- expected Wednesday or Thursday -- will suggest updates to decades-old privacy laws and guidelines, highlight the discriminatory potential of big data, and launch a yearlong research initiative backed by the National Science Foundation, according to interviews with stakeholders involved in the 90-day review.

The FCC plans to explore “how best to eliminate anti-competitive state bans and other barriers to broadband competition,” and Chairman Tom Wheeler will announce an approach for challenging bans on community broadband by mid-May, an agency spokesman told us. Wheeler “believes that communities should decide for themselves about whether to build community broadband networks for their residents,” the spokesman said Monday. A draft rulemaking on net neutrality rules (see separate report in this issue) doesn’t ask about the FCC preempting state and local laws barring publicly funded broadband network buildouts (CD April 28 p2).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler could face an uphill fight just to get three votes for the net neutrality rulemaking notice he circulated Thursday for a vote at the FCC’s May 15 meeting, industry officials said. The proposed rules faced significant backlash after they were unveiled last week, with public interest groups raising concerns that the commission was offering a watered-down version of the 2010 rules (CD April 25 p1). The big sticking point has been that the draft rules would allow fast lane deals between ISPs and content providers as long as their agreement is deemed reasonable by the FCC (CD April 28 p2).

Stakeholders across the spectrum on the patent revamp legislation debate were waiting at our deadline Monday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to release the final language of a long-awaited compromise on the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720). Stakeholders had widely anticipated the committee would release the compromise, contained in a manager’s amendment, when the Senate returned from recess Monday. The timing of the compromise’s release could signal whether the committee would be able to mark up S-1720 this week, stakeholders told us. Several said last week that they were optimistic that Senate Judiciary would finally move on S-1720 following positive negotiations over the two-week recess, which followed multiple postponements of the markup. Those negotiations yielded a draft compromise from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that included language for several controversial provisions not in the original S-1720 (CD April 28 p10).

Scholars and lawmakers were divided over the political implications of NETmundial, last week’s conference on Internet governance in Sao Paulo, Brazil (CD April 23 p19; April 24 p7; April 28 p13). NETmundial could generate interest among some Republicans in NTIA’s proposed transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, since some regimes, like Russia, expressed skepticism over the conference’s final outcome document (http://bit.ly/1nt0rA6), said Paul Rosenzweig, visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and founder of Red Branch Consulting, which focuses on homeland security.

AT&T wants Congress to consider turning the Spectrum Relocation Fund into a general fund, it said in comments to the House Communications Subcommittee. “Under current law, these funds will eventually disappear from the SRF,” the carrier said, suggesting a change wherein the auction fund revenue that remains be “available for agencies to explore whether other spectrum bands could be made available for commercial use.” Both AT&T and Verizon advocated for spectrum auctions free of limits and other tweaks to congressional spectrum law.

Comcast and Charter Communications reached an agreement that would result in Comcast’s divestiture of 3.9 million subscribers if its approximately $45 billion buy of Time Warner Cable is approved. It involves selling 1.4 million TWC subscribers to Charter for about $7.3 billion and creating a publicly traded spin-off company with 2.5 million customers. The transaction would increase Charter’s customer count from 4.4 million to 5.7 million, Comcast executives said Monday during a conference call. The plan upholds Comcast’s offer to divest about 3 million subscribers if its Time Warner Cable takeover is approved (CD Feb 14 p1). Early critics of the Comcast/TWC deal remained skeptical of the divestiture plan with Charter and concerned that the acquisition would hurt consumer choice.

The FCC will propose a “totality of the circumstances” test to determine whether agreements between ISPs and edge providers are “commercially reasonable” under its net neutrality rewrite, agency officials told us. Public interest groups have expressed outrage over Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft NPRM that would let ISPs offer commercial arrangements for higher speeds as long as those arrangements are “reasonable.” Determining what exactly constitutes reasonableness could be difficult, industry and agency officials said in interviews Friday. The rulemaking is tentatively set for a May 15 commissioner meeting vote (CD April 25 p1).

The FCC will seek comment on the proper market-by-market “trigger point” for the TV incentive auction, after which the FCC will limit bidding by carriers that already have lots of low-band spectrum, an FCC senior official said Friday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft of the rules Thursday for a vote at the FCC’s May 15 meeting, the official confirmed, saying the only issue on which the agency plans to seek further comment is the trigger point.