Aereo v. ABC remains too close to call (CD April 21 p3) after oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, said several communications attorneys who attended the hearing in follow-up interviews. They said a decision, which may be 5-4, seems likely to hinge on what’s safest for the cloud computing industry.

How fast does the Internet connection to schools and libraries really need to be? That question was a major focus of a Broadband US TV panel webcast Tuesday. Panelists disagreed on the need for further research into proper broadband speeds to schools, as some argued the FCC has to act fast, lest students continue to fall behind their international counterparts. As the FCC works on reforms to its E-rate program, the role of commercial networks -- and the agency’s ability to use E-rate funds for infrastructure buildout -- was also up for debate. At some point, the FCC will have to tackle contribution reform if it wants to continue pouring money into upgrades, panelists said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is considering adding net neutrality to the agenda for the May 15 FCC meeting, creating what could be a truly epic open meeting, industry and FCC officials told us. The FCC is already poised to vote then on service rules for the incentive auction as well as revised spectrum aggregation rules (CD April 21 p1). The next steps on net neutrality for the FCC are likely a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on revised rules, consistent with U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s Jan. 14 decision in Verizon v. FCC.

Political group spending disclosure would vastly expand, often being posted on radio and TV station websites, under a new proposal from the FCC chairman and the general counsel during the administration of President John F. Kennedy. Targeting FCC and not Federal Election Commission rules, ex-FCC Chairman Newt Minow and then-General Counsel Henry Geller would have U.S. stations make such disclosure, by way of sponsorship identification. The proposal likely will be backed by nonprofit groups supporting such disclosure, and opposed by political advocacy groups and associations that don’t now have to share such information publicly, said those on all sides of the issue in interviews Tuesday.

A Senate companion to the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624) remains stalled in the Senate Intelligence Committee, as had been expected at the beginning of the year (CD Jan 6 p2). Industry observers told us they continue to see limited prospects for any information sharing bill to emerge from Senate Intelligence and pass the full Senate by the end of the current Congress. At the same time, agencies’ sharing efforts have begun to coalesce in a way that makes legislation less necessary in the near term, some experts say.

Comcast executives said they're confident about the potential synergies from the company’s proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable. “We see significant benefits for consumers,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Tuesday during a first quarter earnings call. The company plans to divest subscribers in the most tax-efficient way possible if the acquisition is approved, said Michael Angelakis, chief financial officer. The company agreed to divest 3 million cable subscribers as part of the takeover (CD Feb 14 p1). Comcast also released a response to remarks by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who opposed the deal. (See separate report in this issue.)

Capitol Hill lobbying spending on video marketplace issues largely rose in the latest quarter, as it did in the fourth quarter of 2013 (CD Jan 23 p7). Various factors propelled spending spikes, largely involving the possibility of overhauling retransmission consent rules, the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process, and the brewing debate over the Comcast purchase of Time Warner Cable.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she hopes to see active designated entity participation particularly in the TV incentive auction expected to take place next year. Clyburn appeared Monday on SiriusXM’s “The Digital Show,” hosted by former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. “I am definitely hopeful and am working behind the scenes, you probably have heard, to really ensure that the rules are in place in time enough for the auction,” Clyburn said of revised DE rules.

Broadcom and GE Healthcare disagree on the extent to which TV Channel 37 can be safely used for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed devices, since the channel is already dedicated in part to medical sensors and the wireless medical telemetry service (WMTS), GEHC said in a filing at the FCC. The frequency also is used for radioastronomy.

The Internet governance meeting NETmundial is expected to shape the transition process of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions and other Internet governance-related issues, said stakeholders planning to attend or follow the conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil (http://bit.ly/1lcUzai). Organized by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee and /1Net, an international multistakeholder forum, the event is Wednesday and Thursday. Few stakeholders we spoke with expect the conference to produce concrete results. The White House and other executive-branch agencies jointly said Monday that they hope conference attendees will stick to a transparent process in considering the IANA transition.