The Gigabit Libraries Network selected six libraries to run usability trials on unlicensed wireless communications spectrum called Super Wi-Fi or White Space, said GLN in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1dq59d3). Library consortiums from Kansas, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Illinois, California and Colorado will deploy White Space-enabled remote Wi-Fi access points on “e-bookmobiles and other publicly accessible places in their communities,” said GLN. The national pilot project grew out of a local wireless initiative of the Kansas City K20-Librarians Consortium to upgrade bandwidth in remote library with a T1 connection. “We urge every state to consider a White Space pilot collaboration to discover how this new open spectrum wireless technology might be deployed to enhance services and/or cut costs,” said GLN coordinator Don Means.

A proposal by the Fiber to the Home Council to establish a gigabit communities race-to-the-top program (CD July 24 p7) drew mixed support from a rural Iowa CLEC, the Community Agency, in comments filed at the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/14HuJWg). The group “conceptually” backs the use of rejected Connect America Fund money to support carriers willing to provide broadband service in high-cost areas. But the commission should not overlook the “smaller, more rural towns where fiber facilities are lacking” in favor of “ultra-high-speed gigabit service” in a few “select communities,” it said. The commission should consider funding “more projects of a smaller scope,” with priority going to smaller rural towns, it said. The group also opposes the FTTH proposal that funding be available to non-eligible telecom carriers. “Without ETC designation of the carriers receiving funding, the Commission would not have any way to perform meaningful oversight of the CAF funding,” it said.

The FCC should study the impacts of the Spectrum Act on low-power TV, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1duT9I2). Congress “avoided its responsibilities” by failing to ask the Congressional Budget Office to make such a study before passing the act, said the coalition. “There is no willingness” among legislators to initiate such a study, so the responsibility for conducting one “falls to the FCC,” said the coalition. “Without such a study being done prior to any final rule making and order, the Coalition will be forced to initiate legal action,” said the filing. A preliminary analysis conducted by the coalition showed a potential $1 billion impact on LPTV and translators, said the filing. LPTV stations should be allowed to participate in the auction, to make sure that there are enough participants to make the auction viable, it said. “Until such time that a study is done to show the potential results of LPTV in or out of the auction, no one can have the facts.” The coalition also made several suggestions related to the incentive auction, including giving displacement priority to stations that carry local news and service, and finding a solution for stations that are still in the midst of the conversion to DTV that after the repacking will have to again construct new digital facilities. The FCC also doesn’t have enough staff to handle the burden of applications and processing that will occur with the incentive auction, but the coalition is willing to “support an increase in the LPTV fee structure to support more staff and resources dedicated to LPTV-related activities,” said the filing.

Comments are due Sept. 12, replies Sept. 19, on several modifications to the FCC’s Connect America Fund Phase II cost model for non-contiguous areas, said a public notice Thursday (http://bit.ly/193n5VJ). The Wireline Bureau seeks input on “the addition of the capability to model costs for undersea cable connecting non-contiguous areas to the contiguous United States, plant mix values submitted by Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc. (ACS) for Alaska, and using the default value of ‘1’ for the regional cost adjustment for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which has the effect of increasing labor costs,” it said. It also seeks comment on using, in the next version of the model, the plant mix values that were filed separately in a model previously filed by Puerto Rico Telephone Co., and plant mix values submitted by Vitelco.

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on Mobile Relay Associates’ request for a waiver so it can use spectrum on the “band edges” between Industrial/Business Pool spectrum and General Mobile Radio Service spectrum. The company wants to use the spectrum on frequency pairs 462/467.5375 and 462/467.7375 MHz in the Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas and Miami metropolitan areas (http://bit.ly/17pa9Z3). Comments are due Sept. 30, replies Oct. 15. “Commenters should address whether the public interest would be served by granting the requested waivers,” the bureau said. “Commenters should also address whether a waiver may be warranted only in part, e.g., only on certain frequencies or in certain markets. In particular, we seek comment from parties whose operations could be impacted by grant of the waiver."

The White House defended recent efforts to reform surveillance programs while deflecting concerns about a recent leak from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, during a Thursday news conference. “There’s little debate that these programs are critical to our national security,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “They have played a role in protecting the homeland and disrupting plots by those who are looking to perpetuate violent acts against the United States of America and our interests. So the president is committed to strengthening those programs.” Earnest described the surveillance review group that President Barack Obama created. Its five members were disclosed Tuesday night (CD Aug 29 p2), he said: “So the president’s following through on those promises of reform.” In response to questions, Earnest said he hadn’t seen the latest leaks from Snowden disclosing U.S. spy agencies’ classified “black budget” for FY 2013, amounting to $52.6 billion, published in The Washington Post Thursday (http://wapo.st/17p7gYs). This “budget reflects hard choices to ensure critical national security requirements are addressed in the face of a reduced budget environment,” wrote Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in the apparently leaked document. “We must be prepared to accept -- and manage -- reasonable risk.” Clapper referred to “worldwide threats that are expanding in scope and complexity.” The $52.6 billion “represents a decrease of $1.3 billion, or 2.4 percent, below the FY 2012 enacted level; and it reduces personnel by 1,241 positions, or one percent,” the document said. It showed large increases in such spending over the last several years, however. The CIA requested $14.7 billion of the overall budget, while the NSA requested $10.8 billion. Earnest declined comment on the leaked budget information. He said “strengthening public confidence in these programs is important to the success of these programs.”

Vodafone confirmed it’s in talks with Verizon Communications to sell its 45 percent ownership of Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier. Verizon Communications owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless. Media speculation has ebbed and flowed all year about a possible buyout, which Vodafone noted in a statement Thursday. Although Vodafone has previously said it was open to selling its stake in Verizon Wireless, its statement was the first official confirmation that negotiations were in progress. Vodafone said “there is no certainty that an agreement will be reached” (http://bit.ly/14H1GlC). Verizon Communications declined to comment. A successful deal to sell Verizon Communications full control of Verizon Wireless will require Verizon and Vodafone to adopt two very different outlooks on the U.S. wireless market, wrote telecom analyst Craig Moffett in an email to investors. “Verizon has to strongly be of the view that the performance of the U.S. wireless market in general, and Verizon Wireless specifically, will remain at levels at least consistent with recent history long into the future,” he said. “Vodafone, on the other hand, would have to be of the view that the U.S. wireless market is reaching an inflection point, with growth stagnating, recapitalized competitors driving down returns for others, and with Verizon Wireless unable to improve upon its already by far best-in-class performance.”

The price of broadband and the level of digital literacy significantly impact broadband adoption in Michigan, said a Connect Michigan survey released Thursday (http://bit.ly/14bLnJS). Nearly three out of ten state residents don’t subscribe to broadband service at home, representing almost 2.2 million adults in the state, the survey found. The biggest share of non-adopters (29 percent) don’t subscribe to home broadband service because they don’t see enough value in being connected or they don’t consider broadband relevant to their lives, the survey found. Connect Michigan said it surveyed 1,201 adult heads of households in 2012 and surveyed non-adopting households in 2011.

Apple’s opposition to the Justice Department’s proposed penalties stemming from its price-fixing case risks triggering further suits from e-book retailers seeking damages, claiming they lost sales when Apple barred hyperlinking from apps on iOS devices, Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis told us. Kobo filed an amicus brief in support of Justice’s proposal that Apple, as part of any penalties stemming from its conviction earlier this year for antitrust violations, be required to allow e-book retailers to link their own e-bookstores for two years without paying a commission to Apple on sales.

The Open Networking Foundation selected Beijing Internet Institute (BII) as ONF’s “first international certified conformance” testing lab in Asia, said the organizations in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1dTUNRi). BII, a provider of IPv6 and software-defined networking technology and services, will give organizations the opportunity to receive OpenFlow certification of their products in their lab, said the companies<./p>