The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will meet Aug. 28, 1-4 p.m. EDT, at the Commerce Department to take up three spectrum-sharing reports (http://1.usa.gov/19fBjDB) that the group couldn’t approve at its July 24 meeting. The reports that have yet to be finalized examine different systems in the 1755-1850 MHz band, from the Satellite Control Links and Electronic Warfare, Fixed Point-to-Point and Tactical Radio Relay and Airborne Operations working groups.

Imposing limits on how much spectrum any carrier can buy in the incentive auction could depress revenue and discourage broadcasters from offering their spectrum for sale, Free State Foundation Visiting Fellow Gregory Vogt said Tuesday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/14Tobh). “The need to allocate more spectrum for mobile broadband has achieved rare, near unanimity in Washington,” Vogt wrote. “As the FCC implements the 600 MHz band incentive auction, however, there is a lot of chatter concerning limiting eligibility to bid on the voluntarily contributed broadcast spectrum. Achieving a ‘yes’ on the incentive auction bargain must include rejecting such limitations because they are antithetical to the reverse auction bargain and violate free market principles."

Europeans increasingly want more mobile bandwidth but are worried about the cost, the European Commission said Tuesday. Its latest e-communications household survey (http://bit.ly/13gURIK) polled nearly 27,000 people across the then 27 EU countries and Croatia face-to-face at home in March. It found that while mobile phones are everywhere, only half are smartphones due to fears about high charges. The subscription rate of smartphones in Sweden, Denmark, the U.K., Finland, France and the Netherlands was 55 percent compared to below 35 percent in Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal, it said. More than half of citizens limit calls to national and international numbers from their mobiles, it said. Broadband access at home, however, is a reality for almost 73 percent of households, up from 67.3 percent in 2011, it said. The survey also found that the line between phone and Internet is blurring fast, with 34 percent of respondents now making VoIP calls. Ensuring that consumer expectations can be met at an affordable price is one of the goals of the “connected continent” package the EC will unveil in September, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

Jane Holl Lute will head the new Council on Cybersecurity, a nonprofit aimed at prioritizing and implementing industry-accepted standards for cybersecurity, said Maurice Uenuma, chief operating officer for the council, in an interview. Lute, former deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, will serve as president and CEO of the council, said Uenuma. “There are many entities that engage in cybersecurity work, from policymakers and government to technologists, to product and service providers, to academics,” he said. “But what was needed was a place and a group of experts in the field that could speak on how to turn all of that into practice.” The group is a continuation of its predecessor, the National Board of Information Security Examiners, which focused on recruiting cybersecurity professionals, Uenuma said. The council will also help encourage industry adoption of critical security controls developed by the SANS Institute, he said, and it will “take stewardship” of those goals and continue to improve them. Its advisory board will include Vint Cerf, Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist; Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab; Nicole Seligman, Sony executive vice president; and Mike McConnell, Booz Allen Hamilton vice chairman. Former National Security Agency official Tony Sager will serve as the director of programs for the council, Uenuma said. The council’s website started Monday morning (http://bit.ly/16GExxI).

Evolution of 3GPP technologies in coming years will be driven by enhancements to HSPA+ and LTE-Advanced, and the expansion of connectivity into machine-to-machine and other vertical industries, said 4G Americas in an executive summary Monday of the “essential features” standardized in its 3GPP Release 11 standards document. The 3GPP standards in Release 11 for HSPA+ and LTE-Advanced were “functionally frozen” in December, the month core network protocols were stable, and radio access network (RAN) protocols were stable in March, 4G Americas said. New capabilities in Release 11 include 8-carrier downlink operation for HSDPA, downlink (DL) 4-branch Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antennas, DL Multi-Flow Transmission, uplink (UL) dual antennas beamforming, UL MIMO with 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation and several CELL_FACH state enhancements for smartphone traffic and non-contiguous HSDPA carrier aggregation (http://bit.ly/14HPC5G).

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a waiver allowing Marine Rescue Technologies (MRT) to sell its Sea Marshall AU9 Maritime Survivor Locating Device (MSLD) using Automatic Identification System (AIS) spectrum at 500 mW effective radiated power. MRT got an earlier waiver to use the 121.5 MHz band at a lower power limit. The devices are worn by maritime workers and others who could fall into the water around a dock or marine installation, so they can be quickly located, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/19ZGISf). The waiver comes pending an FCC decision on proposed new rules for MSLDs by the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services, which includes new requirements for devices transmitting on AIS frequencies.

Less Government President Seton Motley criticized Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., in a RedState blog post Monday for claiming the ongoing retransmission consent dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable (TWC) violates the FCC’s 2005 policy statement on net neutrality (http://bit.ly/16FWTiw). McDermott sent a letter to acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn last week urging the FCC to ensure “free and open Internet access” in light of the dispute (http://1.usa.gov/147EdoD). The 2005 statement says “consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.” McDermott wants the government to force CBS to “give away its content,” Motley said. “The Congressman is saying that under Net Neutrality CBS has no right to its own product. ... Thank you, Congressman, for again pointing out that Net Neutrality is also an incredible violation of personal property rights. Not just of those who spend trillions of dollars building the Internet -- but of everyone who produces content for it.” McDermott’s office did not immediately comment.

Dish Network reached an agreement with Raycom to carry Raycom TV stations, ending a nine-day blackout of stations in 36 markets. Dish customers in Cleveland, Tucson and other markets lost access Aug. 1 (CD Aug 2 p6). Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed in a Dish news release (http://bit.ly/16LB82E).

The Connect Appalachia Broadband Initiative (CABI) Task Force received more funding from Intel and Chesapeake Energy to connect 7,500 customers to computers over the next year, Connect Ohio Executive Director Stu Johnson told us. Chesapeake Energy needs to use broadband for oil and gas exploration in Appalachia, which makes it a “perfect fit” for the project, said Johnson. Intel is providing computers and digital literacy training, said Johnson. CABI is giving households access to the Internet in an area where one in three households currently use it, and the program is already seeing success with 20,000 households connected in 2012, he said. “The CABI fund is to purchase computers and provide training for low-income Appalachian Ohioans,” said Johnson. “We are working with state agencies to identify those folks as well as community action organizations.”

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded AT&T a $31 million contract to provide managed virtual private network (VPN) service to 93 HUD sites, the telco said Monday. AT&T said it will also provide HUD with Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Service, which will enable the agency to securely connect to the Internet. The contract “is an important step in HUD’s network modernization effort and reflects a transition the agency is making away from a frame relay network toward managed VPN as a means of supporting HUD employees and operations nationwide,” AT&T said (http://soc.att.com/13ePFoF).