China’s leadership is strongly backing the rollout of IPv6, said Asia Pacific Network Information Center Director General Paul Wilson in an interview. Some sectors, such as academia and research, have “achieved a very high level of IPv6 readiness,” but local content providers and enterprises in the Asia Pacific region and China still have some way to go, he said. One sign of China’s interest in promoting the new technology is that it’s hosting its 11th summit on IPv6 this week in Beijing, he said. APNIC is one of the five regional Internet registries that allocates IP addresses. IPv6 is the latest version of the protocol that routes traffic across the Internet.

The federal government should free up some of its spectrum, former officials said during a Broadband for America panel Wednesday. Last summer’s Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report on spectrum sharing is “insane” and “bad science fiction,” said former NTIA Administrator Larry Irving.

President Barack Obama’s $3.77 trillion budget for fiscal year 2014 proposes an auction of the 1675-1680 MHz band spectrum that LightSquared hoped to get from the government for its wholesale wireless broadband network. The budget alternately suggests assigning the spectrum and charging a fee. The budget mentions spectrum repeatedly. Another theme is increased spending on cybersecurity.

Voxx International had hoped to ship its first after-market mobile DTV tuner for the automotive market in May, but “that’s going to be pushed out probably to” its Q3 that starts in September, CEO Patrick Lavelle said in an interview at the Long Island Digital Summit Tuesday. Voxx is still “waiting” for the chipset that’s being supplied by Mobile Content Venture (MCV), and it has been “delayed,” he said. MCV didn’t immediately comment.

Google appears set to launch its own experimental network in the 2524-2625 MHz band, which could be a prototype for future operations in 3.5 GHz spectrum. The FCC launched a rulemaking in December aimed at opening the 3550-3650 MHz band for shared use and use by small cells. Google had no comment, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski thinks his departure won’t affect the “continuity” of the voluntary incentive auction of TV frequencies, and that broadcasters shouldn’t view it as a “zero-sum game” between stations and carriers, he said Wednesday in a Q-and-A at the NAB Show. Just like cable -- which broadcasters initially opposed -- expanded stations’ revenue and business opportunities, so too will mobile wireless do so for stations, he said. Every stakeholder “should take this problem-solving and fact and data approach” to the auction and other issues before the FCC, just as commissioners have done, “even where we've disagreed, and we disagree fairly frequently,” Genachowski said. “We've worked to keep the focus on problem solving,” as “even where we disagree, we've been able to avoid dysfunction,” he said.

Capitol Hill’s dormant net neutrality debate boiled over Wednesday afternoon as House lawmakers sparred ahead of the markup of a bill aimed at codifying the U.S. policy against “government control” of the Internet. Republicans on the House Communications Subcommittee argued that international governments are seeking to regulate the Web through a U.N. body and U.S. lawmakers must send a strong message that it’s committed to Internet freedom. But Democrats on the panel loudly objected to the bill’s use of the term “government control,” which they said was overly broad and could have unintended consequences on U.S. and foreign policy regarding the Web. Technology groups and public interest groups said they also opposed the “government control” language in the bill and urged lawmakers to reject or amend the provision in separate statements and blog posts.

Talks on a possible treaty to protect copyrighted broadcast signals resumed Wednesday in the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). The April 10-12 “intersessional” meeting will consider a March 6 working document (http://xrl.us/bot7g8). Treaty negotiations appeared to have been blocked in 2007 by “fundamental differences over the purposes and scope” of the pact, but in recent years the U.S. Copyright Office asked for the issue to be put back on the agenda, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) Director James Love wrote April 10. WIPO is seeking a conclusion, and several countries, including South Africa, Mexico and Japan, are working actively for a new treaty, he said in blog post (http://xrl.us/bot7mr). The discussion on what KEI dubbed the “zombie agenda” appears likely to be plagued by the same controversies that stalled the treaty years ago, including whether it includes webcasting.

As the House Intelligence Committee marked up its cybersecurity information sharing bill Wednesday, GOP senators said they have not decided how to approach the issue in this Congress. Two of the leading sponsors of last year’s Republican cybersecurity legislation, the SECURE IT Act (S-2151, S-3342), said in separate interviews they have held meetings with cybersecurity stakeholders this spring but have yet to put pen to paper on a new cybersecurity bill. Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he’s meeting with Democratic cybersecurity hawks this week to develop their plan to address any gaps in President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order.

LAS VEGAS -- Chances are the FCC won’t have finished the media ownership review due in 2010 by fall, with the 2010 quadrennial review likely to outlast the tenure of departing Chairman Julius Genachowski, agreed panelists including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. “My guess is we'll still be working on it” in the fall, the fourth anniversary of a workshop that began the 2010 review, said Lake. With the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council study (CD Feb 27 p1) of the effect of cross-ownership on minority stations due to be complete in about four weeks, it’s still possible “the commission may be prepared to take a vote” then, Lake said Tuesday at NAB’s show.