The FTC needs to commit more resources to understand rapidly evolving technologies, despite the trend of heightened fiscal scrutiny, said former Commissioner Bill Kovacic in an exit interview Wednesday. His term, a Republican slot, ended Sept. 25 after five years on the commission, including a year as chairman from March 2008 to March 2009. Kovacic returns to his former job as a law professor at the George Washington University Law School in Washington.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The government’s handling of personal information will be the subject of a House Commerce Committee privacy bill, which also will have provisions on business practices, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told us Wednesday. She didn’t elaborate, including about when the measure will be introduced, and a committee spokeswoman didn’t get back to us right away. Blackburn is a member of the Communications Subcommittee.

NAIROBI -- NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling sent a strong warning at the Internet Governance Forum Tuesday: “The future of the Internet is at risk. The multi-stakeholder model is being challenged.” Strickling pointed to “more and more instances of restrictions on the free flow of information, disputes between standards bodies and even appeals from incumbent carriers for government intervention on the terms and conditions for exchanging Internet traffic."

AT&T made its “first big tactical mistake” in seeking to keep Sprint Nextel from joining the Department of Justice’s case against the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, said Allen Grunes of Brownstein Hyatt, a former DOJ Antitrust Division attorney, during an American Bar Association panel Tuesday. Antitrust lawyers on the panel agreed that the efficiencies produced by the merger will be the critical question if DOJ and AT&T don’t settle and ultimately try the case before Judge Ellen Huvelle.

Increased government efforts to shut so-called pirate radio have put a dent in the prevalence of unlicensed FM stations, industry executives and FCC officials told us. The agency has shut down 97 such stations in 2011, commission officials said. That number surprised both foes and proponents of such operations, who said the actual number of stations that have ceased all operations seems smaller. They nonetheless agree that enforcement activity has been vigorous, but still not enough to end all unauthorized radio transmissions in the U.S.

The FCC should formulate its position on closing down the public-switched telecommunications network “really quickly,” said Wireless Network Communications Research Center Vice-Provost Dennis Roberson Tuesday. “The firestorm is already really now. The conferences are all now really homing in on this point,” he said at an FCC Technology Advisory Council meeting. “We've really got to be crisp, really quickly. We're going to need a position from the FCC really quickly. This is spinning up really fast.”

The FCC ought to examine content access hurdles faced by multichannel video programming distributors big and small, or the deals’ effect on the availability of pay-TV service and prices, said two major MVPDs and five groups representing rural telcos. If the agency is concerned about carriage of regional sports networks, it should look to all types of “must-have” sports programs, Time Warner Cable said. An agency report is due in January on access to RSNs under the 2006 commission order approving the purchase of Adelphia by Comcast and Time Warner Cable. TWC and the rural telco groups’ first-time comments on the RSN proceeding were posted to docket 11-128 Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmenqf).

The FCC delayed the October meeting until Oct. 27 largely at the urging of staff working on universal service/intercarrier compensation, so they'd have more time to work out the details on a final order, agency officials said. Officials said they would prefer not to let a vote slip until Nov. 30, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, state members of the Federal/State USF Joint Board are not expected to make any additional recommendations before the October meeting date and have many continuing concerns about proposals now before the agency, especially the America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan.

Sezmi is shutting down its consumer hybrid over-the-air/personal TV service, after struggling to gain retail distribution. Sezmi sold the service and one terabyte DMR-1000 DVR with indoor antenna ($299) through Best Buy in select markets and through Amazon, but didn’t gain the agreements it sought with other top-tier retailers and regional telcos (CED July 1/10 p2). On Monday, Amazon listed having three used Sezmi DVRs available at $100, and Best Buy was promoting the hardware at $149. Best Buy officials weren’t available for comment.

The FCC Media Bureau is keeping low-power TV stations in mind as the commission continues seeking congressional authority to voluntarily auction TV spectrum and share proceeds with licensees, bureau officials said during a Q-and-A Monday. Some current proposals would let the commission hold an auction of the spectrum of full-power stations and Class A outlets, but not LPTV stations, an official noted at an FCBA event. The bureau’s proceedings on retransmission consent and the quadrennial review of media ownership rules, last week’s program access order against Cablevision and Madison Square Garden LP and the annual survey of cable rates were other subjects industry lawyers asked about. Few definitive answers on pending proceedings were given.