The Virginia Department of Education is asking the state’s public schools to participate in a statewide test of Internet connection speeds in October, said VDOE in a news release Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1aCESIg). The department’s goal is for each of the state’s 1,687 public schools and all buildings housing regional and specialty educational programs to do 10 connection-speed tests, said VDOE. The department will use the data to inform efforts to further improve Internet access for students, and the data will be shared with state technology agencies to update the state’s Interactive Broadband Availability Map, said VDOE. “The information gathered through these tests will help school divisions and the department plan for increases in the use of wireless devices and in the popularity of online learning,” said Tammy McGraw, VDOE director-digital innovations. “Maintaining reliable high-bandwidth access in all schools is also critical as the commonwealth’s online assessment system focuses on problem solving and critical thinking, as well as content knowledge."

The FCC proposed a $20,000 fine for GCI Communication for multiple, “willful” violations of the commission’s lighting rules for antennas at GCI’s Fairbanks, Alaska, antenna structure, said an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/15Rxt5W). On two days in September 2012, a bureau agent noticed the antenna wasn’t lit during the day and that GCI had not informed the Federal Aviation Administration of the outage, said the NAL. GCI also hadn’t installed an alarm system to provide notice of a lighting failure, the NAL said. GCI acknowledged the violation and determined that the light outage was caused by a failing capacitor on a control board, said the NAL. Meanwhile, Word of Life Ministries asked the Media Bureau to reduce a proposed $12,000 fine for low-power TV station KADO Shreveport, La.’s failure to file timely kids’ programming reports, said a filing released Tuesday. Although it doesn’t dispute the violation, Word of Life said the proposed fine is higher than comparable ones issued around the same time, and that the high fine would be a severe burden since it’s a “not for profit entity” and KADO has “no revenues.” Word of Life also asked for an extension to pay the fine.

Clear Channel Media and Entertainment is making iHeartRadio available in-dash on select 2014 Nissan vehicles this fall, said the broadcaster in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1aCwbh7). It said iHeartRadio will be available in Nissan vehicles equipped with Nissan Connect, an in-vehicle global smartphone integration platform for Android and iPhone operating systems. Drivers will be able to control and personalize their iHeartRadio “listening experience” from the dashboard or steering wheel controls, said Clear Channel. Listeners can “seamlessly access” stations “in a way designed to minimize distraction,” said Brian Lakamp, Clear Channel president-digital. “Nissan drivers will be able to tune into radio stations from anywhere in the country and keep connected to their favorite on-air personalities without having to worry about driving out of range."

Netflix expanded its streaming service into the Netherlands, it said Wednesday. Dutch subscribers will get instant access to TV shows and movies for 7.99 euros a month ($10.64 at $1 = 0.75 euros), it said. Available content includes all episodes of the company’s own four TV series that premiered this year and had not been shown before in the Netherlands: House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, season four of Arrested Development and Orange Is the New Black, it said. The “thousands” of hours of entertainment available at launch will also include full seasons of the American shows Dexter, Homeland, Lost, Modern Family, Pretty Little Liars, Spartacus and The Vampire Diaries, it said. Also available at launch are movies including The King’s Speech and The Expendables, it said. More TV shows and movies will be added “in the coming months,” it said. The many devices that support Netflix at launch in the Netherlands include Mac and Windows computers, iOS, Android and Windows Mobile smartphones and tablets, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Yamaha Blu-ray players, TVs from LG, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Sony, and the current Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony videogame consoles, said Netflix. BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, meanwhile, downgraded Netflix shares to “neutral” from “buy” Wednesday. Netflix is “becoming an increasingly appealing consumer proposition as wired/wireless bandwidth improves and we move toward a personalized entertainment world where everyone has their own device,” he said.

A rule eliminating the UHF discount isn’t likely to be adopted until 2014, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors Wednesday. A draft NPRM on the discount is set for the agenda of the commission’s Sept. 26 open meeting (CD Sept 10 p5), and Ryvicker said it’s likely to be set for at least a 30-day comment period and a two- to three-week reply comment period before a final ruling. “It sounds like this document is a pretty thick one with a lot of over-arching questions, which means final adoption wouldn’t occur until 2014,” Ryvicker said. The way the proposed changes to the 39 percent ownership cap would treat pending deals is still uncertain, but it’s unlikely to apply to them, said the email. “The most likely scenario is for pending deals to be granted as long as the new combo comes into compliance with the final rules, and it sounds like any broadcaster over the cap would get substantial time to divest any necessary stations,” said Ryvicker. Time constraints are also likely to push the spectrum incentive auction to 2015, said the email. “A 2014 auction seems unrealistic at this point, given several outstanding issues and the fact that Commissioner [Tom] Wheeler has yet to be confirmed,” Ryvicker said. A 2015 auction is “more realistic,” she said. The commission’s media ownership proceeding is “stuck,” she said. There won’t be changes to the rules governing shared service agreements “for years to come” and ownership proposals submitted by former Chairman Julius Genachowski “seem to have been tabled,” Ryvicker said. Changes to retransmission consent regulations are also unlikely to occur soon, she said. “With the [retrans dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable] resolved, Congress does not feel compelled to get involved,” said Ryvicker, saying the conflict in Syria likely supersedes retrans and most other issues facing legislators. Proposals to reform retransmission consent put forward by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. (CD Sept 10 p6), are unlikely to pass, Ryvicker said.

Global Eagle Entertainment will jointly market its interactive video platform to airlines with TVplus, they said in a news release Wednesday (http://on.mktw.net/14LGyau). It said TVplus technology powers second screen and interactive video applications for five of the eight “largest TV network families in the United States” and Global Eagle provides content and connectivity for airlines worldwide. “A robust second-screen experience has been a growing trend within inflight entertainment and is something we're evaluating as another key feature for our customers,” said Global Eagle CEO John LaValle.

Auction budgets for Phase II of the Connect America Fund should generally be set at the state level based on support amounts determined by the FCC Connect America Model, officials from USTelecom and its member ILECs told Wireline Bureau officials Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/189CqHg). The appropriate geographic unit for bidding should be counties, the groups said. They also discussed the transition from legacy funding to CAF Phase II funding in an auction context, and incentives that telcos would likely balance in assessing the state-level commitment and potential auction proceedings.

Incoming FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler faces an “exquisite conundrum,” said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, at a Media Institute lunch Tuesday. “The FCC is a wired, analog agency operating in a wireless, IP world,” he said, according to prepared remarks (http://bit.ly/189wY7c). “And that only works with cognitive dissonance.” Though the prospect of overhauling the Communications Act is “bleak,” the commission’s mission “must be modernized to reflect the fundamental evolution in communications that IP technology and the Internet have wrought,” lest the agency “become irrelevant,” Cicconi said. He pointed to Skype, only 10 years old, with its 500 million registered users, compared with AT&T’s 21 million. “New technologies are rapidly replacing the services provided by the ‘carriers’ the Communications Act was written to cover,” he said. “It really isn’t complicated. If the FCC doesn’t modernize its mission, the pace of technology will leave it in the dust.” Cicconi encouraged the FCC to leave competition policy “to the antitrust laws and antitrust enforcers,” as the “vague ‘public interest’ standard” is no longer sensible in today’s world. “The need to have multiple agencies charged with ‘protecting competition’ has vanished.” In “protecting” competition, the commission ends up hurting some companies while ignoring realities of the marketplace, Cicconi said, such as when the FCC denied Qwest relief from wholesale pricing obligations in Phoenix “while refusing to acknowledge that wireless substitution had any competitive impact on the market.” Instead of protecting competition, the FCC should protect consumers, he said, by continuing to focus on things such as bill shock and public safety. The commission should also continue to identify spectrum for the upcoming spectrum auction, and handle secondary market transfers quickly and efficiently, he said. Cicconi also pushed for IP transition trials that would see the elimination of some legacy rules. “We have the time to do this right, but we have to use it properly,” he said. “The agency’s very long delays in agreeing to a set of trials in only two wire centers -- out of 4,700 in our footprint alone -- has frankly been disconcerting."

A judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan dismissed Harbinger Capital Partners’ adversary complaint against the Charlie Ergen-backed Sound Point Capital Management and its founder Stephen Ketchum. The Sound Point defendants filed a motion this week to have the complaint dismissed. Harbinger, the largest investor for LightSquared, filed the lawsuit against Ergen, Dish Network chairman, alleging a fraudulent scheme to become LightSquared’s biggest lender (CD Aug 26 p11). LightSquared intervened as a plaintiff against Sound Point. The lawsuit was filed within LightSquared’s bankruptcy case. LightSquared plans to sell its assets if the FCC doesn’t approve its pending license modification applications (CD Sept 4 p14). A Sept. 24 hearing is set to approve auction and sale procedures, and a Sept. 30 hearing is planned to approve disclosure materials allowing creditors to begin voting on competing plans, according to Kurtzman Carson, its restructuring consultants (http://bit.ly/JR4fDM).

Verizon New York and Verizon New Jersey objected to a request by Louis Fiore, chairman of the Alarm Industry Communications Committee, for access to confidential information filed by the telco on its application to discontinue wireline service to some areas affected by superstorm Sandy. “Under the Protective Orders as written ... there is substantial question whether Mr. Fiore is eligible for access to Verizon’s sensitive Confidential and even more sensitive Highly Confidential Information,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/1ee8oWj). “Counsel for Verizon and AICC have discussed this issue, but concerns regarding Mr. Fiore’s eligibility under the Protective Orders nonetheless remain.” AICC was surprised Verizon opposed its chairman’s access to the documents, an attorney for the group told us Tuesday. AICC earlier objected to the Verizon proposal. “As AICC has demonstrated in other proceedings, the majority of alarm customers still rely on plain old telephone service (POTS), and the underlying copper infrastructure, as their underlying communications service,” said an AICC filing (http://bit.ly/18NbxoN). “Simply put, POTS and the underlying copper infrastructure provide the high reliability communications service necessary for alarm services. Moreover, POTS continues to operate during power outages, when consumers may be most vulnerable and in need of emergency services."