AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi is among five industry officials set to testify Wednesday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the future of wireline communications. TelNet Worldwide President Mark Iannuzzi, Vermont Public Service Board member John Burke, Free State Foundation President Randolph May and Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld are also expected to testify, the subcommittee said Monday. The hearing is to focus on the transition to IP and fiber, how it affects consumers and whether current telecom laws are appropriate in an “IP-enabled world,” House Commerce Committee Republicans said in a briefing memo (http://1.usa.gov/HaJyIr).

All four Swiss versions of the German RTL TV channels will be available on the SES Astra satellite. SES added the RTL CH and RTL II CH channels to its contract with RTL, it said in a news release (http://bit.ly/16ndf4a). The channels will be broadcast from Astra’s orbital position at 19.2 degrees east beginning next year, it said.

A rumored Netflix app for cable set-top boxes probably won’t happen, said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in a blog post Friday (http://bit.ly/1exp8UZ). Cable operators would likely want a cut of Netflix’s profit to allow the service on their set-top boxes, but it’s unlikely that cut would match the profit cable operators get from HBO, he said. Moffett said Netflix is positioning itself as a competitor to HBO, so if the availability of Netflix on set-top boxes starts to cut into HBO subscription revenue, it would represent lost funds for operators. “If there is any cannibalization of HBO whatsoever, that’s a bad trade,” said Moffett. A Netflix deal would also threaten HBO’s and Showtime’s relationships with cable operators, he said. “Would not HBO (and Showtime) then be forced to at least consider going direct-to-consumer themselves, cutting out the cable operator entirely in response to cable’s traitorous Netflix deal?” A Netflix deal would also likely affect the sale of on-demand video, and the profit of content producers in turn, Moffett said. On the regulatory side, it’s not clear how Netflix’s traffic would count against data caps or for usage-based pricing, and granting Netflix preferred status could affect the net neutrality debate, said Moffett. “Even something as simple as putting a Netflix app on a set top box is fraught with complexity.” Another analyst wrote last week that a Netflix/cable deal could help operators avoid new broadband-pricing regulation (CD Oct 16 p17).

The Internet of Things represents “another chapter” in the FTC’s work that it must approach “with a dose of regulatory humility,” said Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1gRKSgF). “I am very inspired by the transformative potential of the Internet of Things but am also sensitive to the fact that the ability to collect large amounts of information and, in some cases, to act on that information also raises important consumer privacy and data security issues,” she said at the Chamber of Commerce. Ohlhausen conceded the FTC needs to consider the “best approach” for the agency to take with the IoT, which she defined as “sensors and other types of telemetry ... embedded in physical objects that are linked through wired and wireless networks using the same Internet Protocol that connects the Internet generally.” The IoT hits a number of rapidly evolving issues, she said: Data security, mobility privacy, data collection and net neutrality. Some of these areas are best handled through federal legislation, while others should be left to the free market, she said. The best way to ensure data security is through “a single standard” that “would let companies know what to do and consumers know what to expect when a breach occurs,” she said. “Federal data security and breach notification legislation would also be beneficial to industry and consumers.” Similarly, with mobile devices, “prudence suggests that such technologies should include some way to notify users and obtain their permission” to gather personal information, she said. The free market should self regulate net neutrality, Ohlhausen said. “We do not need another layer of regulations here,” she said. “Forcing network owners to treat all users essentially alike ... in the face of a dynamic and robust online environment would contradict my understanding of good government and could impede development of the Internet, including the Internet of Things. The free market should decide how to distribute network resources, just as in any other industry.” Ohlhausen invited Chamber employees to attend the FTC’s Nov. 19 workshop on the IoT (http://1.usa.gov/17SlHm4) to discuss the issues further.

"Fiber in the ground does not a reliable broadband service make,” said Hank Hultquist, AT&T vice president-regulatory affairs, in a blog post Friday contemplating the FCC’s E-rate expansion (http://bit.ly/1bGa8T9). Dark fiber may look promising, but it’s not as cost-effective as it may first appear, he said. Who would set up and manage the ongoing operation of a sophisticated fiber network? he asked. “Asking a school to become a telecom provider makes about as much sense as asking a telecom provider to open an elementary school.” Schools and libraries that build and operate a high-capacity network with dark fiber “risk becoming islands of connectivity in a sea of inadequate broadband,” he said. “If E-rate is to be used to deploy networks, then it will only be cost effective for the country if the funds are used by telecom providers to build publicly available networks in communities that lack adequate broadband today. ... Let’s make sure we do not modernize E-rate in a vacuum.”

Google Fiber’s new terms of service show how the company has the ability to price-discriminate between residential and commercial customers, and “kudos” to that, said NetCompetition.org Chairman Scott Cleland in a blog post Friday (http://bit.ly/1gRtGYz). Google Fiber’s terms of service allow “normal consumer broadband usage” with a server that enables such consumer applications as home security, multiplayer gaming and video conferencing, but prohibits commercial use of servers on a consumer contract, he said. These terms make Google Fiber “profitably offering,” so it can continue to be offered, and offered in more places, said Cleland. This price discrimination allows Google Fiber to “reasonably manage the network” and to ensure that those who “most need and value” the broadband will pay more than light users who value it less, said Cleland. Google Fiber knows that most people don’t use more than 15-25 Mbps, but the company’s “grand plan” is to push the nation to gigabit speeds because Google’s “business and data center infrastructure needs it,” said Cleland. Members of Cleland’s group, which has opposed net neutrality rules while Google has supported them, include cable operators and wireless carriers (http://bit.ly/19fesZ9). Google had no comment right away.

Who needs the FCC? Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald asks on the law firm’s blog. “Suppose the FCC closed for good. Would anybody notice?” he asked. Lazarus concludes that the FCC still fills a key role in three areas: wireless licensing, technical rules for transmitters and digital devices and in negotiating international treaties. “If everybody transmits at once, no one can be heard,” Lazarus said (http://bit.ly/19X10vT). “The FCC’s licensing authority, and its back-up enforcement powers, limit who can transmit on what frequency so as keep everyone intelligible. To be sure, some argue that wireless carriers perform a similar function among their own subscribers, without governmental authority. But that is possible only because the FCC’s licensing regime keeps third-party interlopers out of the carriers’ frequency bands."

Low-power FM license applicants needing to locate translator input station and delivery method data can access such information from the Consolidated Database System (CDBS) Public Database Files website (http://bit.ly/1aWOIQP). The FCC’s sixth order on reconsideration of the creation of a low-power radio service requires LPFM applicants to rely on this data in their calculations, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice to provide guidance for LPFM applicants (http://bit.ly/16Vrz28). The sixth order was released last week (http://bit.ly/19YNkyK). The CDBS compiles information from thousands of licensees and applicants, the order said. At any given time, “there is some conflicting and missing translator data in CDBS,” it said. The order directed the bureau to issue the public notice.

The TV ratings system needs to be completely overhauled, said the Parents Television Council in a press release Friday (http://bit.ly/1bG7bSq). The organization singled out NBC’s dramas Revolution, Chicago Fire, Law & Order: SVU, The Blacklist, Ironside, Grimm, Dracula, and Hannibal as evidence that the ratings system is broken. “All of these violent dramas have been rated TV-14, which means they are deemed appropriate for children as young as 14 years old,” said the PTC release. PTC said the “ultra-violent” dramas raise “important implications for the TV ratings system, and the appropriateness of broadcast television for family viewing in general.” PTC President Tim Winter said NBC’s violent lineup should cause concern about the ratings system’s reliability. “How do scenes with a man’s body being cut in half, fungi-infested corpses, graphic torture with a knife, or severe beatings, and rated appropriate for children as young as 14 constitute being accurate?” asked Winter in the release. “The networks are financially motivated not to give their shows a TV-MA rating for fear of losing advertisers, yet the industry tells parents to rely on the ratings to make appropriate viewing choices for their families,” Winter said. The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board didn’t comment.

The FCC’s October meeting will be Oct. 28, starting at 11:30 a.m. at FCC headquarters, it said, and include the three items teed up for the originally proposed Oct. 22 meeting -- the 700 MHz interoperability agreement, an order adopting technical rules for the 700 MHz broadband spectrum licensed to FirstNet and an order and rulemaking notice on rural call completion. Since the shutdown also cut off meetings on the three items, the FCC won’t impose sunshine rules until Thursday at noon, said a public notice (http://bit.ly/1aWDhsb). An order on new filing deadlines is more complicated (http://fcc.us/19RD6fl). In general, deadlines are delayed by 16 days, with exceptions. The first filings, originally due between Oct. 1 and Oct. 6, are now due Tuesday. The order carves out exceptions in 10 other proceedings. For example, comments were supposed to be due Friday on the foreign ownership implications of Verizon’s buy of Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless. Rather than impose a 16-day delay, comments are now due Oct. 25 , replies Nov. 1. Industry officials said Verizon and Vodafone hoped there would not be a delay in FCC review of the transaction because of the shutdown (CD Oct 15 p1). Comments were due Tuesday on an NPRM on proposed rules for spectrum in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, 2020-2025 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands. They're now due Oct. 28. Reply comments were to be due Oct. 10 on Dish Network’s waiver request for flexible use of its AWS-4 spectrum. Dish had asked the FCC to hand down an order by Dec. 14, 30 days before the start of the H-block auction. Reply comments are now due Oct. 28. Network Outage Reporting System filings continued to be due during the shutdown. The FCC also rescheduled for Nov. 8 its Learn Everything About Reverse-Auctions Now Program workshop on unlicensed spectrum issues, which was delayed by the federal government shutdown (http://bit.ly/H5OluO). The commission said more details would follow.