Oppositions to Boeing’s petition for changes to a rulemaking notice on earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA) are due June 24, the FCC said in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1149AjI). Replies are due July 2, it said. Boeing urged the commission to make changes to its ESAA rulemaking in docket 12-376 (CD June 7 p20).

Arianespace and Mitsubishi signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on commercial space rocket launches. Under the MOU, the companies will “collectively probe the creation of innovative new launch services and standardization of satellite preparation tasks at launch sites as a follow-up to their cooperative achievements to date,” Arianespace said in a press release (http://bit.ly/113Umer). This agreement will further develop the commercial launch market and sustained enhancement of the companies’ related services, it said.

*June 11 Privacy event organized by The Washington Post, 8:30 a.m., 1150 15th St. NW -- http://wapo.st/11KnK8x

The FCC is expected to vote on a report and order on licensing, service, and technical rules for the H block, said a tentative agenda for the meeting announced by Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Thursday. The H block is potentially controversial because of the proximity of the bands (1915-1920 MHz and 1995-2000 MHz) to some PCS band spectrum. Also on the tentative agenda is a report and order on improving and streamlining the collection of broadband data (see related story above in this issue) and a declaratory ruling protecting customer proprietary network information on mobile devices. The CPNI item had been expected (CD June 6 p1). The commission is also slated to get updates on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum and on the status of USF reform.

A circulating order proposes FCC collection of broadband deployment data, according to senior agency officials. The data would be used to populate the National Broadband Map beginning in FY 2015. Currently, Form 477 asks telecom companies to provide subscriber numbers for voice and broadband services; the order would add broadband deployment data because NTIA’s collection of the same data is set to expire at the end of FY 2014, officials said. The FCC plans to make some changes to improve data quality and reduce burdens on providers that have to file, officials said: Large providers in multiple states will no longer have to submit their data in different formats to satisfy several different state requirements. Providers will have to provide some new information, such as contact information for public safety disaster purposes. On the mobile side, in addition to providing speed data, providers will be asked to provide information on air interface technologies and spectrum bands used, officials said. NTIA filed comments in WC docket 11-10 Wednesday to give the commission “guidance” on how best to collect and manage the data. The commission should “provide technical assistance to smaller broadband service providers,” and “incorporate state data verification methods and practices,” NTIA said. The commission should also develop processes to receive community feedback, NTIA said. The commission will still have to get the Office of Management and Budget’s Paperwork Reduction Act approval for the information collection, FCC officials said. There could be one overlap with NTIA, where both the FCC and NTIA are collecting data at the same time. That would be a good thing, FCC officials said, as it would give the commission an opportunity to check its data against what NTIA has collected. The order is expected to be adopted at the June open meeting, FCC officials said.

More Americans are adopting broadband, NTIA said in a Thursday blog post (http://1.usa.gov/13est4I). “As of October 2012, 72.4 percent of American households (88 million households) have high-speed Internet at home -- a 3.8 percentage point (5.5 percent) increase over the July 2011 figure.” NTIA emphasized the priority of broadband adoption and referred to its $4 billion broadband stimulus efforts and $250 million in grants for digital literacy and to provide discounted computers. It also highlighted its Broadband Adoption Toolkit. The data come jointly from NTIA and the Economics and Statistics Administration. “We will soon release the newest edition of the Digital Nation series of reports on broadband adoption and Internet use in America,” NTIA said. “The new report -- Exploring the Digital Nation: America’s Emerging Online Experience -- presents results based on a July 2011 data collection that, for the first time in eight years, gathered extensive information on what Americans actually do online. Later this year, we plan to publish more detailed results of the October 2012 data collection."

The House Communications Subcommittee scheduled a hearing to examine the reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. Witnesses weren’t announced. The hearing will be the subcommittee’s second hearing this year to discuss the December 2014 expiration of the law. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., have each said they would prefer a “clean” reauthorization of the law. (See separate report above in this issue.)

The FCC appears to be moving toward scoring stations for the incentive auction based on interference and the amount of spectrum that would be cleared rather than on coverage area, said Preston Padden, president of The Expanding Opportunities For Broadcasters Coalition, in an interview Thursday. He said the coalition has grown to 70 auction-eligible stations, “heavily weighted toward the largest markets,” and that the EOBC is now “bullish” about the possibility of the FCC holding a successful spectrum auction by the end of 2014. “We have had concerns, but we believe the commission is listening to those concerns,” he said. Padden said the EOBC’s stance on the auction has shifted after conversations with FCC commissioners and staff showed their apparent stance on scoring and “an openness” to the EOBC’s concerns. As with auction scoring, the EOBC has filed numerous ex parte letters asking the commission to relax the requirements for stations to channel-share after the auction. Padden now believes the agency is open to loosening the sharing rules, he said. “While we will continue to watch closely, we are more optimistic than we were previously.”

"Red flags” are “aflutter” after the FCC sought more information from the two companies on AT&T’s proposed buy of rural wireless assets from Atlantic Tele-Network (CD June 6 p11), Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva said Thursday in a research note. “The agency request could foreshadow close regulatory scrutiny on a larger companion transaction involving AT&T’s $1.9 billion purchase of 700 MHz spectrum from Verizon. Both transactions are being reviewed amid a broader wireless policy assessment with material implications for AT&T and Verizon relative to their ability to participate in the incentive auction and to pursue wireless acquisitions going forward,” Silva said.

Mediacom asked the FCC to put a stop to “contractual arrangements to skirt the commission’s local broadcast television ownership rules” as the commission looks at changes to the ownership rules, according to an ex parte letter filed in docket 09-182 by Mediacom (http://bit.ly/14jH8hK). The company also asked the FCC to publicly announce that “new arrangements entered into while the Commission was considering changes in its local broadcast multiple ownership rules would not necessarily be grandfathered."