West Virginia University has tapped TV white spaces spectrum to create a strong Wi-Fi network at its campus, it said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/14G2x4v). “The university has partnered with AIR.U, the Advanced Internet Regions consortium, to transform the ‘TV white spaces’ frequencies left empty when television stations moved to digital broadcasting into much-needed connectivity for students and the surrounding community,” said the university in a news release. The university will initially provide Wi-Fi at the public rapid transit platforms. AIR.U anticipates more campus and rural broadband deployments, the university said. “Innovative deployment of TV white spaces presents an exciting opportunity for underserved rural and low-income urban communities across the country,” said acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn in a separate written statement. She praised the project leaders for “launching a unique pilot program that provides campus-wide Wi-Fi services using TV white space devices” that “will not only demonstrate how TV white space technologies can help bridge the digital divide, but also could offer valuable insights into how best to structure future deployments.” The consortium of AIR.U includes the United Negro College Fund, New England Board of Higher Education, Corp. for Education Network Initiatives in California, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education and Gig.U. Founding partners include Microsoft, Google and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is “excited” by the announcement, he said in a written statement. “The lessons learned from this pilot project will be important as Congress continues to look for ways to expand broadband access and advance smart spectrum policy."

Illinois telecom stakeholders are intended to come together as part of a new website Broadband Illinois launched Monday. The website breaks down information for all of the state’s 102 counties and includes broadband maps and other data. “Online discussion forums will be added soon, allowing communities, stakeholders and providers of broadband to collaborate and discuss needs, assets and opportunities,” Broadband Illinois said in its press release (http://bit.ly/13zvVfR).

Companies have a First Amendment right to describe their role in the government’s surveillance of the Internet, the First Amendment Coalition said in an amicus brief filed Monday before the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court(http://bit.ly/12jHqp3). The brief, also signed by TechFreedom, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, supports Google and Microsoft’s requests for court orders that would free them to publish aggregate information about the extent of surveillance. “Google and Microsoft each seeks to engage in speech that addresses governmental affairs in the most profound way that any citizen can,” the brief said. TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said in a statement (http://bit.ly/12jGO2I): “Gagging such disclosures won’t help national security, but it has already stifled vital public debate and reduced the incentive for the companies we trust with our data to stand up for us against government overreach."

KCETLink, licensee of KCET-TV Los Angeles, partnered with NHK World TV to broadcast Asian news and lifestyle programming. The English-language news channel produced by the Japanese broadcaster will launch Aug. 5, via digital broadcast in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, KCETLink said in a press release (http://bit.ly/11z5G7V). KCETLink will continue providing NHK content on its main channel, it said. NHK also will broadcast digitally to subscribers of Bright House, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and Verizon FiOS, it said.

The European Space Agency selected the baseline configuration of the Ariane 6 launch vehicle. The “Multi P linear” concept of the configuration is based on a lower composite of four motors, “each loaded with around 135 tonnes [135,000 kilograms] of solid propellant, providing also synergies with the Vega evolution perspectives,” ESA said in a press release (http://bit.ly/185yHLp). The payload fairing will be able to accommodate the same volume of satellites as the Ariane 5, it said. ESA also said it plans to consult with the industry to gather ideas on key work packages of the new launch system.

T-Mobile fired back at a Phoenix Center paper from May, which said the FCC should ignore a Department of Justice filing (http://bit.ly/16S6zag) on spectrum aggregation and competition, as the agency develops rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum (CD May 14 p11). “The Phoenix Report model ... rules out the realistic possibility, highlighted by DOJ, that larger firms could protect prices from eroding by foreclosing smaller firms from access to new spectrum,” T-Mobile said in a paper filed at the FCC (http://bit.ly/1aWh013) by American University law professor Jonathan Baker. “By effectively ignoring the substantial competitive threat that smaller firms could pose, the Phoenix Report also fails to account for the benefits to consumers that would be lost if large incumbents foreclosed smaller ones from access to additional spectrum, through an unreasonable assumption relating production efficiency to market share.” T-Mobile said the Phoenix Center report’s second conclusion “that incremental spectrum should be awarded to the largest firms -- flows from the same suspect claim that competition offers no consumer benefits, after adding another suspect assumption: that smaller firms cannot lower costs or improve service quality as much as larger firms through a given spectrum block acquisition.” Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford is “flattered that T-Mobile believed it necessary to hire an expert witness and a major law firm to respond to a paper and blog that were simply posted on our webpage and never filed with the commission,” he said Tuesday. “Clearly, our work is being read and influencing policy.” The T-Mobile paper was filed at the FCC by Mintz Levin.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on a waiver request by Maine to use Public Safety Pool frequency 157.450 MHz at the state’s Huntoon Hill site as part of its VHF statewide public safety radio system. Normally, the frequency is set aside for one-way paging. “Maine is in the process of implementing a new narrowband (12.5 kHz channel bandwidth) VHF Project 25 trunked radio system,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1723vYY). “In its ongoing effort to achieve statewide operability and interoperability on this system, Maine states that it ‘conducted a thorough search of Public Safety Pool frequencies for a site located at Huntoon Hill, which is needed to fill in system coverage along a portion of the Maine coastline,’ and concluded that 157.450 MHz is the only Public Safety Pool frequency available at this location.” Comments are due July 19, replies July 26.

The European Commission will unveil legislation to create a single European telecom market “first thing in September,” said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Tuesday in a discussion with the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee. The package will boost the “connected continent in three ways,” she said. Truly European networks need a single authorization system for an operator to operate anywhere in Europe, under the supervision of its EU member home country, she said. That will let the EC ensure more consistent competition remedies with less red tape, cost and hassle, she said. The second change will involve more evenhanded ways to access fixed networks such as via “virtual bitstream” products, interconnection services that guarantee quality and better spectrum rules for wireless, she said. The third arm of the reform is fairer rights for citizens, including the right to net neutrality, she said. Kroes promised to “guarantee net neutrality” by making contracts more transparent and making it easier to switch ISPs. She also vowed to end anticompetitive blocking and throttling for every citizen, on every network and on every device. A fair deal also requires better prices, she said. European calls shouldn’t count as pricey international calls within a true single market, she said. Any difference in price across borders must be objectively justified by additional costs, she said. There will also be an end to mobile roaming charges, she said. But Kroes told ITRE members, who approved a resolution Tuesday saying for roaming fees for phoning, texting and downloading data should end by 2015, that banning roaming charges won’t create the single market. To the contrary, Kroes said it’s by creating the single market that such surcharges will end. The fragmented cross-border market has “real consequences,” she said. One example is spectrum, where countries are failing to follow their obligations to assign spectrum or are doing it differently so it’s harder for operators to bid, plan and offer services across borders, she said. That makes it difficult for gadget makers to optimize their devices across Europe, and for businesses to take advantage of economies of scale, she said. Operators’ uncertainties and costs are passed on to consumers, leading to higher prices and worse service, she said. Kroes said she isn’t just looking at one sector, but at the entire European telecom and information and communication technology ecosystem. The boost from a competitive single telecom market could be 110 billion euros ($141 billion) per year, she said. Kroes called her approach “pragmatic,” saying she doesn’t intend to dig up existing networks, tear up rulebooks and start from scratch. It’s about adapting what exists, unblocking bottlenecks and bringing down barriers, she said. ITRE members are discussing a longer term comprehensive review of the entire ecosystem, but such a review would take five years, she said: “Lost time means lost opportunity.” The ITRE resolution on roaming fees will be voted on at the Sept. 9-12 plenary session, the committee said.

Global mobile ad revenue grew 83 percent last year to $8.9 billion, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1864uff). It said the U.S. IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB Europe and industry research firm IHS found strong growth across mobile ads formats including 89 percent in search, 87 percent in display and 40 percent in messaging. The Asia-Pacific, North America and Western Europe regions dominated the global figure of $8.9 billion, said IAB. Growth last year was also strong, especially in North America at 111 percent and at 91 percent in Western Europe, said the IAB.

Mobile developers are far more likely to support near field communications (NFC) in their mobile apps than any other device features, said Evans Data Tuesday. Over 31 percent of mobile developers support NFC in their mobile apps, and 45 percent more plan to support this technology in the next 12 months, said the online opt-in survey of over 500 mobile app developers done in May. The drivers for NFC support are security, access, social networking, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi connectivity and commerce, said Evans Data.