The FCC extended comment deadlines on CTIA's petition for reconsideration of the commission's June Lifeline order, the Wireline Bureau said in an order Wednesday in docket 11-42. Responding to public-interest groups seeking more time, the bureau moved the due date for oppositions to Oct. 8 and for replies to Oct. 19, from Sept. 17 and Sept. 28, respectively. The groups had sought an extension of a month (see 1509100077).

Verizon expects its first LTE-U products -- small cells for enterprise indoor uses -- to roll out next year, said Patrick Welsh, assistant vice president-federal regulatory affairs. Field tests this fall will use different LTE-U configurations alongside existing Wi-Fi in a pair of office buildings, Welsh said. LTE-U has become an increasingly heated battleground between wireless carriers and Wi-Fi advocates such as the cable industry over concerns of LTE-U interference with Wi-Fi (see 1509100035). At the CTIA conference this month in Las Vegas, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged the industries to jointly create their own interference standards. "We expected folks to have questions about new technology," Welsh said Wednesday at a Verizon briefing and demo for reporters on LTE-U. The pushback "is part of the process," he said. But Welsh said he was surprised by the level of opposition in the face of test data and LTE-U specifications. Cable companies "are asking ... to be essentially the gatekeepers of unlicensed spectrum," Welsh said. Some LTE-U interference criticism has involved lack of "listen before talk" access features such as in Europe and Japan. There's nothing stopping Qualcomm and Verizon from adding "listen before talk" to its LTE-U, except that it would delay rollout, said Tamer Kadous, Qualcomm director-engineering. "It's wrong to think LTE-U is inferior to Wi-Fi because it doesn't have 'listen before talk,'" Welsh said, saying the European and Japanese standard exists because of government radar installations, not Wi-Fi. "We don't have those government radar systems here, so we don't have those government regulations," Welsh said. Qualcomm and Verizon demonstrated their LTE-U/Wi-Fi interoperability testing, with a Qualcomm test room lined with multiple Wi-Fi access points and an LTE-U access point that was switched on as the company measured throughput -- which remained unchanged. "This is a very extreme case, a harsh interference environment," said Dean Brenner, Qualcomm senior vice president-government affairs. In the second part of the testing, an array of smartphones all streamed YouTube video, while one conducted a Skype call, in the same room. "What matters is not paper specifications -- what matters is the consumer experience," Brenner said.

Cable companies losing video customers isn't as dire an issue as it seems, with broadband revenue per user picking up the slack, New Street Research said Wednesday in an analysis of 2015 cable trends. Despite the dropping video numbers, "We are bullish on U.S. cable because we believe investors are underestimating long-term broadband penetration, the broadband repricing opportunity, the enterprise opportunity and the wireless opportunity," the firm said in the 60-page report, saying those factors will drive cable companies' free cash flows. It also called concerns about regulation and over-the-top competition "overblown." In the most recent quarter, 1.8 million households dropped pay-TV services in favor of OTT -- or nothing -- meaning about 17.6 percent of total households are without a pay-TV service, New Street said. Multichannel video programing distributors have lost roughly 4.6 million customers over the past six years, a trend that's picking up speed, New Street said, but when those customers drop pay TV, the $10-per-customer each represented in free cash flow is replaced by the roughly same amount their broadband bills typically go up, New Street said. In fact, households that opt for OTT service "are more likely to take a cable service than a competing telco offering (given faster speeds), and they are more likely to opt for a higher speed tier," New Street said. Meanwhile, worries that the FCC will use its Communications Act Title II authority to regulate broadband prices are incorrect because the agency doesn't have "either the desire or the ability" to do so, the firm said, noting the agency passed on any price regulation in the AT&T/DirecTV merger. The FCC also likely won't respond as Comcast goes further into testing usage-based pricing, it said. Pay-TV penetration should "stabilize and even grow, despite OTT pressures" because of its growing broadband business, New Street said.

Twenty-four of the 26 federal agencies participating in Office of Management and Budget IT reform initiatives reported achieving an estimated total of $3.6 billion in cost savings and avoidances between FY 2011 and 2014, a GAO report released Tuesday said. More than half of the savings, about $2 billion, were from data center consolidation and optimization efforts, it said. Almost 70 percent of the savings, $2.5 billion, were savings and avoidances from the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Treasury and the Social Security Administration, it said. The goal of the report was to determine how savings from OMB’s IT reform efforts were being invested, but most agencies didn’t fully meet OMB requirements to submit reinvestment plan information for varied reasons, the report said. GAO recommended agencies complete their IT savings reinvestment plans and improve tracking, and that OMB clearly “define targets for agency reinvestment and require that agencies complete their plans and track actual reinvestment performance.” OMB and 12 agencies agreed with the GAO recommendations, one agency didn't say whether it agreed or disagreed, three agencies had no comments, and one agency partially agreed.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked computer scientists and network engineers to sign a statement supporting Internet openness and neutrality that the group intends to attach to its amicus brief defending the FCC's net neutrality order against legal challenges. In addition to explaining the technical underpinnings of the Internet, "We want the court to understand that there is a wide consensus among network engineers, protocol developers, and Internet-based service providers that openness and neutrality are key to the proper functioning of the Internet -- and striking down the FCC’s Open Internet Order could put that proper function in danger," the EFF said Monday in a web post.

The Obama administration launched a smart cities initiative that includes a $160 million investment in federal research for more than 25 technology collaborations, a White House news release said Monday. Researchers will use the new funding to create test beds for IoT applications and to develop multisector collaborative models for the technology, it said. The initiative also will focus on intercity collaborations and harnessing information technology to tackle local problems, as well as building off of sensor networks, cybersecurity and broadband infrastructure research, it said. The National Science Foundation will invest more than $35 million in smart city research and grants, including a $3 million award for the University of Chicago to create the array of things -- a network infrastructure to support the development of and deployment of sensors, embedded systems and communications systems, it said. The Department of Homeland Security plans to invest $50 million through five years to develop emergency response systems and technologies for smart cities, the White House said. DHS joins the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Census Bureau in smart cities investment. To coincide with the launch of the initiative, the White House hosted a Smart Cities Forum Monday, where representatives of government agencies and the private sector discussed the impact smart cities could have on urban life and touted various programs currently in the works.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed amicus briefs with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Saboonchi. The ACLU and EFF will urge the 4th Circuit to rule government agents must obtain a warrant before searching cellphones, computers and other personal electronic devices at the border. In the case, an Iranian-American U.S. citizen returning from vacation at Niagara Falls, Ontario, had his cellphones and a flash drive taken by law enforcement and searched. Law enforcement charged Saboonchi with violating export control laws after reviewing information on his devices. But the groups argued law enforcement should never have had access to that information. “Because forensic and forensic-like searches of smartphones, laptops, and other mobile electronic devices seized at the border infringe deeply on privacy interests, such searches should only be permitted pursuant to a warrant, or at a minimum upon a determination of probable cause or reasonable suspicion,” the ACLU of Maryland said in its amicus brief. “Information stored on these devices can be deeply sensitive and private, including personal correspondence, family photos, medical records, intimate relationship details, proprietary business information, and more.” The 4th Circuit should “clarify the Fourth Amendment standards governing such searches in order to provide guidance to the government and the traveling public,” the group said. EFF Staff Attorney Sophia Cope said that many individuals traveling either back into or to the U.S. for vacation or business trips can have their emails, texts, photos, videos and voicemails “rifled through and retained, without a warrant or any suspicion that a crime has been committed.” Pointing to the Supreme Court’s decision in Riley v. California last year, which found that police need a warrant to search devices they find on people they arrest, Cope said the “same standard should apply when border agents want to search devices we carry with us while traveling.” There is an exception to Fourth Amendment protections at the border to allow for U.S. border patrol agents to enforce immigration and customs laws, EFF said. Agents can check a traveler’s passport and immigration documents, and search luggage for physical contraband like drugs or other items subject to import duties, EFF said. But the border search exception shouldn't be used as a loophole by law enforcement to “obtain troves of personal information without a warrant,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury.

Corrections: Deere attorney Kenneth Schacter of Morgan Lewis said in court that a pact between the agriculture company and LightSquared is not imminent (see 1509090013) ... It was the Phoenix Center that held a teleforum featuring lawyers criticizing the FCC net neutrality order (see 1509100070).

The FCC renewed the charter of the North American Numbering Council (NANC) through Sept. 18, 2017, the commission said in a public notice released Friday. Applications for membership must be submitted by Sept. 25, the FCC said. Members will be appointed as representatives of the telecommunications industry or as telecommunications consumer representatives, and not as "special government employees," the commission said.

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee meets Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, an agency public notice said Thursday. The committee will receive reports and recommendations from various subcommittees.