The FCC must coordinate with Canada and Mexico in moving forward with the voluntary broadcast TV incentive auction, a group of 19 senators told the agency in a letter dated Friday and released this week (http://bit.ly/15qvyoF). Such international coordination will help maximize revenue and “ensure sufficient channel allotments for local broadcasters,” the letter said. It argued that this will avoid harm to television viewers near the border as well as to “avoid limits on the amount of spectrum recovered for wireless broadband in many major markets.” The letter’s signatories include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, and others from both parties.

Tw telecom is expanding its network in the Bay Area from south San Jose to San Francisco, said the company in a news release Tuesday (http://yhoo.it/16FLvlQ). The provider will give business ethernet and converged and IP VPN solutions to “thousands of enterprise headquarters, offices and data center locations in the heart of Silicon Valley,” said the company.

Several EU-U.S. agreements are under fire following revelations on massive surveillance by U.S. and U.K. intelligence services, the American National Security Agency and the British General Communications Headquarters. During a meeting of the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament Tuesday, Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said she was seeking “consultations” under the U.S. Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP), in an effort to see if there was a breach of the TFTP agreement that allows transfer of banking information of EU citizens to the U.S. Treasury Department, which is seeking leads into the funding of terrorist activities. Malmstrom said she was not satisfied with answers received from Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen, and awaited further clarification. Representatives of nearly all party groups supported a temporary suspension or even termination of the agreement. During the session, British privacy expert Caspar Bowden, former data protection officer at Microsoft, also recommended terminating the Safe Harbor Agreement, which eases the cross-border transfer of data from EU jurisdictions with stricter data protection regimes. He said such termination might put pressure on the U.S. for better data protection and privacy of non-U.S. companies. At the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners which opened in Warsaw Tuesday, civil society organizations warned against giving the U.S. a “free pass on privacy again” in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which is currently being negotiated.

Most technology and healthcare companies believe cybersecurity is a serious threat to their data and business continuity, Silicon Valley Bank said Tuesday in a report based on a survey of 216 executives from technology companies. About 33 percent of the executives said they were completely confident in their companies’ information security, the bank said. Nearly all the executives -- 98 percent -- said they are maintaining or increasing their cybersecurity resources, including 50 percent who are increasing their cyber resources, the bank said. About 46 percent of the executives said their products include cybersecurity functionality, and an additional 8 percent plan to add cybersecurity functionality to their products. “Companies in the tech sector, particularly software companies, are feeling exposed, and increasingly having to expend resources to manage cyber attacks, rather than investing in the growth of their business,” said Bob Curley, Silicon Valley Bank managing director-corporate finance, in a news release (http://bit.ly/1b9QaE9).

Mobile apps can provide new ways for viewers to become engaged on another level, said Martez Moore, BET Networks digital media executive vice president, at a CableFax TV conference in New York on Tuesday. BET’s 106 and Park app allows viewers to engage directly with app users by BET calling on one user each show to ask a music artist a question, said Moore. “We are looking at our apps on a social basis where it provides additional value for customers.” The WWE app enables viewers to get more engaged with the pro wrestling show each Monday night, said Perkins Miller, WWE executive digital media vice president. “Our fans stay more engaged with the program when we do live video on our app during commercial breaks, and voting for what happens in the second and third hour also helps our fans stay dedicated,” said Moore. Apps that focus on one show help users stay more engaged in A&E Networks’ shows, said Evan Silverman, A&E digital media senior vice president. “Fans are 20 to 30 percent more likely to watch videos on the apps than on the desktop and they are more likely to spend more time with the app than the desktop,” said Silverman. A&E apps focus more on the brand, rather than standalone efforts, said Silverman. “We need more measurement, but we are still serving ads and making money from it.” More complex content leads to repeat consumption of shows like Showtime’s Homeland, Netflix’s House of Cards and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, said Moore. “It drives the value back to the base business, and we are able to create more individualized experiences in the real world for users."

Brand marketers’ mobile ad budgets grew 142 percent between 2011 and this year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau said Tuesday in an analysis of a new study. The study, done by Ovum for IAB, surveyed 300 brand marketing executives. About 74 percent of the surveyed executives said they anticipated their companies would increase their mobile ad spending over the next two years, IAB said. The study showed 19 percent of those surveyed say their mobile ad spending will increase by more than 50 percent over the next two years, and 31 percent say their companies’ mobile ad budgets will exceed $300,000 per year. “This study establishes that marketers expect more vigorous growth to come,” said Anna Bager, IAB general manager-Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “These findings reaffirm that publishers need to make mobile a top priority in order to take advantage of strong brand marketer demand” (http://bit.ly/14DXrqA).

Chief trade negotiators for the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) participant nations made progress toward concluding talks on customs, telecom, technical barriers to trade, cross-border services and other issues during four days of meetings Sept. 18-21 in Washington, said the U.S. Trade Representative. “Chief negotiators also discussed approaches for resolving challenges on e-commerce and legal and institutional issues,” said a USTR news release Saturday (http://1.usa.gov/18nFcF9). “They met with the negotiating groups covering market access for goods and government procurement. ... The U.S. also met with a number of other countries on the issue of state-owned enterprises.” The negotiating officials will meet in Canada and Mexico over the next week in the lead-up to meetings scheduled for the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in early October.

The Food and Drug Administration will regulate mobile applications that are used as an accessory to an already-regulated medical device, and apps that transform a mobile device into an already-regulated device, it said Monday in final guidance for mobile app developers (http://1.usa.gov/16Fe2rE). Apps that for example let healthcare providers diagnose a condition by viewing a medical image from a smartphone will be regulated, it said, as will apps that turn smartphones into electrocardiography machines. Apps that diagnose abnormal heart rhythms or show ultrasound images are on the market. The FDA won’t regulate the sale of mobile devices, nor will it regulate app distributors like the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, it said. “We have worked hard to strike the right balance, reviewing only the mobile apps that have the potential to harm consumers if they do not function properly,” said Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “Our mobile medical app policy provides app developers with the clarity needed to support the continued development of these important products.” Republicans on the House Communications Subcommittee in March criticized the FDA proposal to regulate medical apps, though Democrats said the scrutiny was justified (CD March 20 p1).

A strong and sensible patent system “is essential for American innovation leadership,” said Michael Petricone, CEA senior vice president-government and regulatory affairs, in a statement on our report that several patent assertion entities (PAEs) plan to start the IP Rights Council to protect their interests in Washington amid a rising number of legislative efforts to curb patent abuses (CD Sept 24 p7). “Unfortunately, some parties are abusing the system, employing bad patents and frivolous litigation threats to force settlements from non-infringing innovators,” Petricone said. “These frivolous suits force innovators to funnel resources and focus away from R&D and other essential operations, and, at worst, force them to close their doors altogether.” If the PAEs in the IP Rights Council “wish to be seen as legitimate actors, they will join in the fight to crack down on trolls whose irresponsible litigation and extortionate behavior is harming the patent system, consumers and the U.S. economy,” Petricone said.

The co-chairs of North American Portability Management and their attorney, Todd Daubert, met with FCC officials Thursday to “provide a status update regarding the ongoing vendor selection process” for the next local number portability administrator, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1fyEytE). It said the NAPM chairs also “discussed generally the contract management and oversight process following contract award to one or more LNPAs, including timing of related decisions."