Telco and cable ISPs are unlikely to change broadband data policies because of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling last week (CD Jan 15 p1) that struck down most FCC net neutrality rules, said industry officials and observers in interviews. They said large telco and cable ISPs have been vocal about not changing customer-facing policies following the ruling, and aren’t likely to change other policies at least in the near term because of uncertainty about how the FCC will respond to the ruling. Small and mid-sized ISPs aren’t likely to change data policies for broadband customers or OK preferential traffic arrangements with websites because of the ruling, said their associations.

As Pandora’s lawsuit against the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to reduce the company’s royalty rates began Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York, an ally of artists told us he continues to seek “increased pay for musicians.” Since performers and record labels already garner a large portion of Pandora’s revenue, it makes sense that songwriters would want increased royalties, said Future of Music Coalition interim Executive Director Casey Rae. “We want the market to grow.”

CTIA appears to be narrowing its search to a few candidates to replace Steve Largent as president when he leaves the association later this year. The search is being led by executive headhunter firm Korn Ferry, said industry officials. They said the firm has been interviewing stakeholders and preparing documents on the qualities needed in a new president, which has already been presented to a search committee of CTIA members, chaired by Dan Mead, CEO of Verizon Wireless. Largent said in October he was stepping down and wouldn’t seek an extension of his current contract that expires at year’s end (CD Oct 28 p5) (http://bit.ly/1aIVjxN).

Major carriers and telcos opposed a petition by Public Knowledge (CD Dec 12 p13) and several other public interest groups to declare that under Section 222 of the Communications Act, phone companies may not share customers’ call records with third parties, even after removing customers’ names. Although some other public interest groups filed in support of the petition -- and Public Knowledge filed a petition with 7,500 signatures -- other organizations implied their fears might be overblown, given the difficulty of successfully re-identifying information that’s been properly anonymized.

AT&T strongly urged the FCC not to impose requirements, proposed in November, that wireless carriers submit information for public disclosure on cell site operational status during and immediately after major disasters. The FCC agreed to seek comment in September over the dissent of Commissioner Ajit Pai, on a 2-1 vote while Mignon Clyburn was still acting chairwoman (CD Sept 27 p3). Under the proposal, the FCC would release data on the percentage of towers still up and running for each county in a disaster area whenever the commission’s Disaster Information Reporting System is fully or partially activated.

Sinclair offered to rearrange portions of its proposed deal to buy Allbritton’s TV stations for about $985 million to keep some sharing arrangements flagged by the FCC Media Bureau from losing grandfathering protection, said an ex parte letter posted online Friday (http://bit.ly/1mhVzM3). Though Sinclair had initially argued that the rearrangements were unnecessary (CD Dec 12 p5), the company said it now “believes that waiting for resolution of its concerns may result in undue delay in the processing of the pending applications.” The proposed rearrangements are “a good-faith effort to comply with the rules as they've been explained to us,” said Sinclair General Counsel Barry Faber in an interview. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said recently that he wants to look differently at what some call “shell corporations” that evade local TV ownership rules (CD Jan 13 p1).

Advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing community urged the FCC to take a targeted approach to help the hearing population understand the importance of video relay service and IP relay service. They also suggested the use of social media to inform individuals in the deaf and hard of hearing community of advancements in services, they said Friday during a meeting to establish an Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Service National Outreach Program (iTRS-NOP). Participants said they intend the NOP to help reduce the number of telephone hang-ups experienced by people making relay calls.

USTelecom and the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance jointly asked the FCC to revise its Nov. 8 rural call completion order to drop a data collection requirement on intraLATA interexchange/toll calls carried entirely over the originating LEC’s network or handed off by the originating LEC directly to the terminating LEC. The associations questioned whether requiring LECs to tabulate and report this data is consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). NARUC and several other parties also commented on a further NPRM released with the order. The FCC, under acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, unanimously approved rules in late October, limiting data retention obligations to calls destined only to rural ILECs (CD Oct 29 p2).

Net neutrality advocates said the best way for the FCC to reinstate a nondiscrimination rule for broadband ISPs -- akin to the rule the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit just struck down -- was to reclassify broadband Internet as a Title II service. Reclassification is one of several options the FCC could take to regroup on net neutrality following the D.C. Circuit’s Tuesday ruling (WID Jan 15 p1), though other non-prescriptive measures could also work, the advocates and other industry experts said Friday during a Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee event.

Congress will still need to act on government surveillance, several members said Friday after President Barack Obama’s policy speech at the Department of Justice. They pointed to hearings and bills on the horizon, as observers offered mixed reactions to the president’s set of proposals. In his 45-minute talk, Obama initiated several changes to the programs and expressed longer-term goals. He did not immediately end the bulk collection of phone metadata, currently authorized by Patriot Act Section 215, nor did he immediately shift the storage of such metadata to phone companies or a third party, as his independent review group recommended last month.