A BroadbandUS.TV webcast on the future of net neutrality Friday quickly became a debate over whether the FCC needs to reclassify broadband as a Title II service in order to further net neutrality principles struck down last month by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (CD Jan 16 p1). That sort of debate is unnecessary, said AT&T Senior Vice President-Regulatory Bob Quinn, because ISPs have no desire to limit consumers’ Internet experiences.

The proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger could have an impact on retransmission consent negotiation deals if approved, some cable experts said. After divesting 3 million subscribers, leaving a combined Comcast-TWC entity with about 30 million subscribers, Comcast could have leverage in deals with national cable networks, a cable attorney said. Small and mid-sized multichannel video programming distributors may face higher retrans consent fees, if Comcast ends up paying a smaller fee to broadcasters, a cable executive said. Comcast proposed acquiring the cable company last week (CD Feb 14 p1).

A Comcast buy of Time Warner Cable could raise net neutrality concerns, in spite of Comcast’s assurance that the terms and conditions of its 2011 NBC Universal buy would automatically extend to any new acquisitions, public interest officials told us. Free market groups said net neutrality defenders should be happy that the extended conditions would keep alive protections otherwise struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (CD Jan 16 p1).

Comcast’s proposed $45.2 billion dollar deal to buy Time Warner Cable is likely to face serious regulatory hurdles but could still be approved, said analysts and attorneys Thursday. “There will be those who fear the sky is falling,” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen Thursday in a media conference call on the regulatory implications of the proposed deal. Cohen said Comcast and TWC’s businesses don’t overlap, and the deal isn’t substantially different from other cable transactions. “This merger is pro consumer and pro competition,” Cohen said.

Comcast, Google, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable, the Consumer Electronics Association and other industry stakeholders said they formed WifiForward, a coalition to urge the FCC and Congress to increase the amount of unlicensed spectrum so it’s available for Wi-Fi use. Wi-Fi use is growing 68 percent a year, meaning policymakers will need to open up additional spectrum for unlicensed use in order to avoid a crunch greater than the current congestion being caused “by a deluge of data from more devices, applications and services,” the coalition said Thursday. Analysts said the coalition is likely to have some effect on the policymaking debate around unlicensed spectrum, but immediate change is unlikely.

Expect at least two Capitol Hill hearings on Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable (see separate story in this issue), members of Congress said Thursday less than 24 hours after the merger was announced. Lobbyists and observers predict lawmakers will exert their influence and provide an important source of debate, even though real action will come at the agencies and in the administration. Comcast, however, is seen to have strong Washington muscle it doesn’t hesitate to flex.

As state regulators fret over their role during the IP transition, representatives from Sprint and Time Warner Cable said this week there’s a need for the bodies to police IP interconnection agreements just as they did with old time-division multiplexing connections. Speaking on a panel Wednesday on IP interconnection at NARUC’s Winter Committee Meetings, Charles McKee, Sprint vice president-government affairs, federal and state regulatory, said “incumbents have an incentive and the ability to suppress” new competitors. They may not refuse to interconnect, he said, but they could set prices exorbitantly high without a requirement to negotiate in good faith. IP promises improvements to customers, including HD Voice, he said. “But both sides need to have access to it,” he said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Office is working on a new draft of the proposed critical information needs (CIN) study criticized in a recent op-ed by Commissioner Ajit Pai (CD Feb 12 p15), an agency official told us Wednesday. Wheeler’s office has been reviewing the draft since late 2013, the official said.

The White House marked the one-year anniversary Wednesday of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order (CD Feb 14/13 p1), showcasing the release of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) final “Version 1.0” of the Cybersecurity Framework. The White House also touted the start of the Department of Homeland Security’s voluntary Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community (C3) program to encourage industry adoption of the framework. The Version 1.0 framework drew praise from Capitol Hill and several industry stakeholders.

FCC rules on sponsorship identification are mostly clear, but can get complicated in some areas, said broadcast attorneys in interviews this week. The commission’s latest enforcement action, a $44,000 fine to Cumulus Media for the sponsorship identification violation at WLS(AM) Chicago (CD Feb 11 p17), is an indication of the commission’s concern, they said.