Five public interest groups sent a letter opposing a proposed settlement of the $8.5 million class action suit against Google for privacy violations, said Consumer Watchdog and the Electronic Privacy Information Center in a press release Thursday (http://prn.to/1aw9tGx). The letter to Justice Edward Davila said there are “three obvious deficiencies” in the proposal: “(1) it fails to require Google to make any substantive changes to its business practices; (2) it provides no monetary relief to the class; and (3) the proposed cy pres allocations do not meet the Ninth Circuit’s requirements for alignment with the interests of class members.” Cy pres awards are “next best” way of distributing settlement funds, but the recipients “should further the interests of the class,” said the companies. Only one of the organizations that would receive cy pres funds “has the protection of privacy as a mission and is aligned with the interests of class members,” the groups wrote in the letter. The suit charges that Google shared search queries with third parties without the searchers’ knowledge or getting their permission to do so, said the companies. “Bad settlements seriously undermine the effectiveness of class action suits in protecting consumers against corporate wrongdoing,” said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog director-privacy project. “They do nothing but fatten the pockets of the attorneys."

The New York Public Service Commission asked for more information from Verizon on the Voice Link certification for Fire Island (http://bit.ly/1aw6KwD). The Thursday request, filed by carrier operations analyst Mary Broderick, asks for the number of working retail DSL lines in nine communities in the western portion of Fire Island prior to Hurricane Sandy and the total number of working DSL line counts in western Fire Island from 2009 to 2013. The PSC wants an itemized list of forms of aid, funds or other compensation from Hurricane Sandy with the source, a description, dollar amounts and when it was received or expected to be received by Verizon. The PSC wants a response from Verizon within 10 days with answers or statement when the response will be forthcoming. The PSC has a public hearing on Verizon’s Voice Link service Saturday in Ocean Beach, N.Y.

The FCC Media Bureau granted Centennial Licensing a transfer of the assignment of the license of WLNI(FM), Lynchburg, Va., to Mel Wheeler. The bureau also denied a petition from 3 Daughters Media opposing the transfer, it said in an order (http://bit.ly/17NNTIo). Applicants said the transaction would result in Wheeler having “cognizable interests in five FM and 2 AM stations in the Roanoke Metro,” the bureau said. 3 Daughters argued that the transaction violates the local radio ownership rule and that BIA/Kelsey incorrectly includes WWZW(FM), Buena Vista, Va., WODI(AM), Brookneal, Va., and WOWZ(AM), Appomattox, Va., in that area’s station count, it said. The bureau agreed to count WWZW(FM) and WODI(AM) in the station count for the Roanoke metro area, but it excluded WOWZ(AM), it said. 3 Daughters argued that WOWZ should be excluded because it has “been off more than it has been on in the last three years,” it said. “At this time, WOWZ(AM) has been silent for more than six months,” the bureau said: It’s “not a viable competitor.”

The Iowa Utilities Board scheduled a Sept. 10 workshop for industry and interested parties to discuss outdated provisions in existing regulatory statues, the IUB said in an order Tuesday (http://bit.ly/13JjBJS). Based on public comments in July (CD July 3 p7), the IUB said it decided to reevaluate the need for the existing system of intrastate telecommunications regulation. The IUB provided a list of possible topics to discuss at the workshop including VoIP, carrier of last resort, necessity of tariffs for local exchange carriers and discontinuance of service and intercarrier disputes. To determine if VoIP should be deregulated, the IUB wants to hear about the extent the technology is used in retail and wholesale services, if the use of IP technology could affect the reliability of emergency service calls and any implications of the deregulation of interconnected VoIP. The IUB said it wants to hear comments on eliminating the carriers of last resort in terms of availability of phone service in all areas of Iowa, voice quality, public safety, broadband expansion and federal Lifeline requirements. Local exchange carriers want the IUB to discontinue the service of interexchangeable carriers that “engage in self-help by withholding access charge payments,” and the board wants comments on the magnitude of the non-payment issue and whether IXCs are disputing access charges pursuant to the provisions of access tariffs. The IUB wants to know if all VoIP providers would be required to support intrastate Telecommunications Relay Service and the Iowa Equipment and Distribution Program, as well what mechanisms would be used to assess the types of VoIP providers for these programs. The workshop is scheduled for Sept. 10 at 9 a.m., with written comments due Sept. 18 to Docket NOI-2013-0001.

Globalstar closed its amended and restated facility agreement with the French export credit agency COFACE. The agreement waives all existing defaults under the existing facility, postpones the first principal payment date to December 2014 and defers $235.4 million in principal payments through December 2019, Globalstar said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1d8jmuQ). It also revises the financial covenants to correspond to Globalstar’s new business plan “reflecting the delay in delivery of its second-generation satellites,” the release said. The mobile satellite service company settled an arbitration dispute with Thales Alenia last year over a delay in the manufacture and delivery of the satellites (CD June 26/12 p18).

The FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force presented additional details on channel repacking software, a key part of the upcoming auction, during a webinar Thursday. The discussion was highly technical. The webinar built on data already released by the FCC (http://fcc.us/14HM2Td), though industry officials tell us there’s widespread confusion and many questions at this point from both carriers and broadcasters. The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology Monday released an updated version of the TVStudy software proposed to be used for checking interference during the incentive auction (http://fcc.us/16sHm6U). The revised version allows studies of potential interference between U.S. stations and stations in Canada and Mexico. “Once we have the pair-wise output files from TVStudy ... we can use that information, along with data about other incumbents in the band to create a set of constraint files that can be used for the repacking process of the incentive auction,” said Brett Tarnutzer, assistant chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau. “It allows us to assess the feasibility of assigning channels to stations that need them in a manner that doesn’t violate the technical restraints represented by the constraint files.” The “assumption” going into the auction is the FCC won’t require any broadcaster to change its antenna pattern, said Robert Weller, chief of OET’s Technical Analysis Branch. “In fact, we're obligated by statute to preserve the coverage area and population that existed as [of] Feb. 22, 2012. ... It’s certainly possible after the auction for a station to propose some different facility.” The officials got a question via email about the status of negotiations with Canada. “We're continuing to work with Canada,” Tarnutzer said. “Certainly we'll announce any developments in that area when it’s time.” The FCC plans to put the entire presentation on its website within the next few days. More webinars on the incentive auction are expected, Weller said. “TVStudy software is already available, with the most recent version released earlier this week,” an FCC official said in response to an e-mail. “The July 22 [public notice] referenced making additional information about repacking available, but did not provide any concrete dates or specify exactly what would be made available.”

InterDigital said Thursday it expects its Q3 revenue will be $55 million-$56 million, including up to $44 million in current revenue and about $12 million it received from Pegatron as part of an arbitration award. The company said it received an additional award through arbitration involving one of its technology licensing agreements. The arbitration panel found InterDigital was entitled to royalties based on an agreed-upon rate. The licensee, which InterDigital did not disclose, had a deferred revenue balance of $52.6 million as of June 30. InterDigital said it’s still reviewing the award and discussing it with its auditors (http://bit.ly/1dwHFBg).

Digital Realty Trust is expanding its data center solutions to North America with the Digital Open Internet Exchange, the company said in a press release Thursday (http://bit.ly/17Nu7gb). The initiative will be an open-interconnect peering environment to accommodate the “Internet community’s demand for more independent and cost-effective exchange options,” said Digital Realty. The initial rollout for the program will start in the New York metro area and northern Virginia and will deploy in other U.S. markets, said the company. This program enables the Internet community to develop “truly neutral and member-governed Internet exchanges” for data center infrastructure that supports global initiatives, said the company. “By creating a truly open Internet exchange environment, we are supporting the community’s desire for neutral exchanges that are more efficient and cost-effective than those available today,” said Digital Realty CEO Michael Foust. “The end result for our customers will be immediate access to enhanced interconnectivity and Internet peering capabilities across the more than 30 markets in our global portfolio."<?p>

The American Cable Association urged the FCC to adopt a rule mandating that broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors continue offering a broadcast station’s signal to consumers after a retransmission consent agreement expires. Under the proposed rule, the existing retransmission agreement “would automatically be extended past its expiration date, and an MVPD would continue to pay the broadcaster for retransmission consent rights per such contract,” ACA said in an ex parte letter to acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/16iyj4I). When a new agreement is signed, the prices and terms of the new agreement would retroactively apply “to begin immediately after the previous agreement’s expiration date and any required true-up of prices would be applied,” it said. The proposal focuses “on the narrow need to ensure consumers have continued access to broadcast stations while parties continue to negotiate,” ACA said. The association bemoaned the ongoing blackout of CBS channels for Time Warner Cable subscribers (CD Aug 6 p2). For many pay-TV subscribers, “the inconvenience of the blackout will substantially increase if TWC and CBS cannot reach agreement before the first Sunday of the NFL season."

CBS and Verizon reached a three-year deal to continue retransmitting CBS-owned stations over FiOS and expand the distribution of CBS Sports over the fiber network, the companies said in a release Thursday. The 3.5 million FiOS subscribers living in markets where CBS owns TV stations will also continue to have free access to CBS content though Verizon’s video-on-demand service under the deal, said the release. The CBS Sports Network will also “dramatically increase its distribution” through FiOS as part of the agreement, it said. “This deal was reached in a short period of time, and CBS has once again achieved fair value for our over-the-air rights,” said CBS President-Television Networks Distribution Ray Hopkins in the release.