Ceragon Networks received orders from the Nebraska Regional Interoperability Network, said Ceragon, a wireless backhaul specialist, in a news release Monday (http://prn.to/173pFcU). The network includes about 200 links of Ceragon’s FibeAir solutions to provide connectivity and improved capacity to first responders, said the company.

FTC commissioners should issue a policy statement on Section 5 of the FTC Act authority to act against unfair methods of competition only if the five commissioners are unanimous, Commissioner Julie Brill said during a Tuesday session at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. Benefits from a policy statement “will really only come if you get something that’s close to a unanimous statement,” she said. “We might quibble on the outskirts,” but any statement should be one “where we largely agree.” If the agency does put out a policy statement on Section 5 authority, she said, “I also think it’s important that it be a five-commissioner statement, not a four-commissioner statement.” Brill also questions “the fundamental premises of the need for a statement,” as outlined in calls for a statement from Commissioners Joshua Wright and Maureen Ohlhausen. “Never once has anyone from the business community … said to me that Section 5 has inhibited their activity,” she said. The agency’s authority over unfair methods of competition was “designed to be flexible, remedial,” she said.

Project Loon from Google X is asking for people in California’s Central Valley who are willing to have a Loon Internet antenna installed on their homes or small business buildings to test the strength of the Loon Internet connection, said Project Loon on its Google Plus page Tuesday (http://bit.ly/10m1UOK). Project Loon is an experimental technology for balloon-powered Internet access, said Google X. Ground stations connect to the local Internet infrastructure and beam signals to the balloons, which are able to communicate with each other and form a mesh network in the sky, said the company. Google X started pilot-testing the project in June in New Zealand and is testing iterations on various aspects of the technology, a Google spokeswoman told us. Google X decided to test the balloons in the Central Valley next because it’s away from dense populations and airports and the weather conditions are favorable, she said. Project Loon is looking into radio performance, parachute deployment, the solar array and the super pressure envelope, she said.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) should “set aside its inquiry of industry’s voluntary initiatives to reduce online infringement for a broader review that looks beyond data and metrics of enforcement mechanisms,” the Internet Association said Wednesday in a filing. “By moving forward with its present examination, the USPTO runs the risk of drawing conclusions about our entire copyright system based on only one piece of a complex puzzle.” PTO had requested public input as part of that inquiry, which is part of a broader administration effort to reduce online infringement of intellectual property. Comments on the inquiry were due Wednesday, but PTO had not posted the comments online by our deadline (http://1.usa.gov/1asm8Kx). A more holistic approach would help the PTO determine that the current IP landscape “involves important industry practices, marketplace realities, and consumer behavioral dynamics that all play a role in both the source of and potential solutions to online infringement,” the Internet Association said. “For instance, the introduction of legal alternatives to content in certain markets has resulted in dramatic reductions in online infringement. This phenomenon, among others, is largely under-examined."

Hearst Television endorsed TVB’s findings that Live Plus Same Day ratings are the “closest approximation in local TV measurement” to the C3 ratings used for network advertising, Hearst said in a press release Wednesday. The Live Plus Same Day time-shifted local-TV audience ratings for June show an increasingly close relationship to the C3 ratings standard used by national media buyers, it said. “Clearly our business must be given better credit for viewership in the new landscape,” said Hearst TV President Jordan Wertlieb. TVB’s analysis of Nielsen data for June shows “average-quarter-hour Live+SD ratings” were within 6 percent of C3 ratings for June, Hearst said. That’s an increase from 8 percent in June 2012 and 12 percent in June 2011, it said. “This is also the third consecutive month of such changes, with April and May each narrowing the difference between Live+SD and C3 ratings,” said Hearst. “The trends are clear,” said Wertlieb.

FirstNet completed an analysis of 54 industry responses to its April 15 request for information on wireless devices, FirstNet said Wednesday. “Completion of the device RFI analysis signals significant technology progress for FirstNet,” said Bill D'Agostino, general manager. “The current industry offerings for 700 MHz Band 14 public safety users are now well defined, and we have compiled a near-term roadmap for devices coming to market. This step forward could help jumpstart design and production of LTE devices for public safety.” FirstNet will circulate reports on responses to the RFI to the larger public safety community, it said. “We were pleasantly surprised by the large number of responses, which came from industry-leading companies in the consumer and enterprise products market segments, as well as from wireless device manufacturers,” said Craig Farrill, acting chief technology officer. “The more suppliers interested in serving FirstNet users, the greater vendor diversity becomes. That could help increase competition and lower device prices for all FirstNet users."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of internet.org, a global partnership to make Internet access available to 5 billion people, said Facebook in a Tuesday press release (http://bit.ly/18Kj748). The partnership, founded by Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung, will focus on making access more affordable, using data more efficiently and helping businesses drive access in developing countries, said Facebook. “There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy,” said Zuckerberg. “Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it.” Reducing costs and data consumption for most apps and enabling new business models will allow internet.org to make Internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected, said Facebook.

The FCC Media Bureau extended the comment deadlines for its further rulemaking on Internet Protocol Closed Captioning, the bureau said in an order Wednesday (http://bit.ly/16cIpnG). Comments had been due in September, but last week several consumer groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing asked the bureau for an extension to allow more dialog with CEA and more time for the groups’ pro-bono counsel to draft their comments (CD Aug 16 p15). Comments in docket 11-154 are now due Nov. 4, replies Dec. 4, the order said.

SageNet acquired Spacenet, a subsidiary of Gilat. The companies plan to provide customers with a deeper portfolio of products “delivered through a much more robust combination of terrestrial and satellite solutions,” SageNet said in a news release (http://bit.ly/14D4oVx). The transaction is expected to close within the next three months, it said. SageNet said it expects the combined company to continue a strong relationship with Gilat “as it relates to VSAT [very small aperture terminal] technology where satellite communications are required by customers."

Universal Space Network requested 180-day special temporary authority to assist the European Space Agency with the Proba-V satellite. USN plans to assist “with the in-orbit payload validation and commissioning testing of the science instrument on the spacecraft to start Oct. 1, 2013,” it said in its application with the FCC International Bureau(http://bit.ly/14jpRq5). Salsgiver Communications seeks to register a receive-only earth station in Natrona Heights, Pa. It will receive analog and digital carriers and it will provide programming and broadcast services to subscribers, it said (http://bit.ly/14WBW02).