Netflix’s 4K foray with the second season of the House of Cards series is “a toe in the door” for a technology that could take “years” to fully establish itself, Todd Yellin, Netflix vice president-product innovation, told us at the Digital Kids conference at the International Toy Fair in New York.

The FCC under new Chairman Tom Wheeler is making cybersecurity a much bigger part of its public safety focus, said David Simpson, new chief of the Public Safety Bureau, during a Tuesday brown-bag lunch with members of the Federal Communications Bar Association. Industry should not fear that the FCC wants to be a cybersecurity cop, Simpson said.

Little talk of outright opposition to Comcast’s plan to buy Time Warner Cable has come from Capitol Hill so far, less than a week from when the deal was announced. Heads of the House Judiciary Committee and Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee have pledged hearings, and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., wrote a letter to the FCC, Justice Department and FTC asking for quick and detailed review (CD Feb 14 p3). But lawmakers stressed the importance of scrutiny and emphasized competition and the possibility of consumer harm. Observers critical of the deal told us that concern is politically one-sided -- Democrats are the ones issuing statements, by and large, not Republicans.

The Department of Defense plans to roll out its revised spectrum strategy Thursday, which will articulate a more “proactive” approach to DOD’s future handling of spectrum issues, said Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, deputy chief information officer-command, control, communications and computers. DOD reached an agreement with NAB in November that allowed the department to move ahead with plans to partially vacate the 1755-1780 MHz band and move those operations to the 2025-2110 MHz band, where it will share spectrum with broadcasters (CD Nov 26 p1). That deal is a “very good marriage of industry needs and DOD and federal users’ needs,” which is “the right plan at this particular time,” Wheeler said Tuesday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. DOD has been too reactive in its past spectrum strategic efforts and must “think about how to do this better next time,” he said.

TiVo is wrong about whether a rule requiring interactive HD set-top boxes to include Internet Protocol outputs still applies, but correct to ask that the rule’s enforcement deadline be extended, said NCTA (http://bit.ly/1jDF5eJ) and Verizon (http://bit.ly/1m6Sz44) in comments filed Friday in response to a January FCC Media Bureau public notice. TiVo had asked the bureau to clarify whether the interoperability requirement still exists in the wake of the EchoStar decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and if it does exist, to extend the June deadline for compliance to make up for a delayed release of industry standards by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). Though Verizon and NCTA disagreed with TiVo about whether the rule survived EchoStar, they joined with CEA in support of pushing back the deadline for compliance, and requesting a clarification from the bureau. Whatever their position on the rule, all parties “need to know whether the FCC believes compliance is required, and if so by what date,” said CEA.

Revamping the telecom relay service for an all-IP world will require the participation of users, researchers and companies, as the FCC moves toward its vision of a “neutral” communications platform that allows universal interoperability, said agency and industry officials Tuesday at an FCC workshop. As part of its IP transition order (CD Jan 31 p1), the agency is looking to fund and develop research IP-based technologies for people with disabilities. Tuesday’s workshop was to gather input on how to improve the functional equivalency during the transition.

CTIA members support use of mobile devices on commercial flights, but question whether the FCC has studies in hand to show there is no danger from the use of these devices in-flight, CTIA said in comments filed at the FCC. CTIA and other commenters responded to a December notice on rules that would permit airlines to choose whether to allow voice calls and other mobile communications in-flight. CEA said the FCC “correctly notes” that the airlines, working with the Federal Aviation Administration, “are the appropriate entities to decide whether or not to permit in-flight voice communication in addition to broadband data access."

Iridium is on track to launch the first two payloads next year as part of its forthcoming satellite air traffic navigation system. Iridium teamed with Nav Canada, an air traffic management company, and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration and other entities to establish Aireon, a global, satellite-based surveillance capability for air navigation service providers, said Don Thoma, CEO of Aireon, developer of the Aireon system. Iridium and Nav Canada closed on the first $50 million investment from air navigation service providers, Iridium said Monday. That investment is part of a $120 million investment agreed to by providers in Denmark, Ireland and Italy (CD Dec 23 p16). With Nav Canada’s $150 million investment and the providers’ commitment, Iridium has all the capital it needs to build, deploy and operate the system, Thoma said.

Raising fears it would pave the way for AT&T to eliminate landlines in three years, a controversial bill is expected to come to a vote in the Michigan House any day, said advocates involved in the debates, in interviews Tuesday. SB-636 (http://1.usa.gov/1feaIv2), which passed the Michigan Senate 32-3 in December, would allow ILECs including AT&T to stop providing landline service as of Jan. 1, 2017, without necessarily getting approval from the Public Service Commission.

Creating merger conditions to address the effects on programmers of Comcast’s proposed $45.2 billion buy of Time Warner Cable would likely be difficult for regulators, said several cable attorneys and analysts Friday. The leverage the merger would give the new cable giant in programming negotiations is likely to be an important front in the antitrust debate over the transaction (CD Feb 14 p1), they said.