FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was named “December Porker of the Month,” by Citizens Against Government Waste, a Thursday news release said. The organization cited the commission’s $1.5 billion increase of the E-rate spending cap earlier this month (see 1412110049) as a “high-tech holiday spending spree.” The increase “does not include any reforms of the program’s burdensome administrative procedures and lengthy application process, nor does it reduce wasteful spending,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said in the release. The FCC had no comment.

The FCC World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (WAC) met for the seventh time Wednesday at FCC headquarters to receive updates from its working groups before the WRC slated for next November. There was no discussion or debate and the meeting was over in about 20 minutes. WAC Chairman Scott Harris, chairman of Harris Wiltshire, said all of the working groups had made “extraordinary” progress. “This has been about the smoothest WRC preparatory process I can recall and we are in the final stages of our work,” he said. The WAC represents commercial interests as the administration prepares unified U.S. positions before next year’s WRC. WAC documents are posted online.

President Barack Obama signed the $1.1 trillion appropriations act (HR-83) Tuesday, guaranteeing funding for agencies like the FCC and FTC in FY2015. The FCC will receive $340 million, the same level of funding as FY2014, despite requesting tens of millions more. Centurylink Vice President-Federal Legislative Affairs David Bartlett lauded the omnibus package for its one-year extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, saying in a statement: “Permanent extension of the ITFA would help create the kind of marketplace certainty that encourages broadband adoption and network investment.” The package included other telecom riders on call completion problems and broadcaster joint sales agreements (see 1412100041). The appropriations package will prevent NTIA from using its $38.2 million in FY2015 on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition process, spurring debate over how the process will unfold in the months ahead (see 1412100054). The House and Senate had recently approved the package in contested votes.

Comments on the FCC’s auction comment public notice are due Jan. 30, and replies Feb. 27, the commission said in the notice released Wednesday. Along with details of the methodologies for calculating opening bids, identifying impairments and the progression of the auction, the PN contains technical appendices on auction mechanics and a rough flow chart on the remaining steps leading to its start. “We intend to begin accepting applications to participate in the broadcast television spectrum incentive auction in the fall of 2015, and to start the bidding process in early 2016,” the PN said. Specific dates will be finalized in the upcoming Auction Procedures PN, and the FCC “will endeavor to give several months’ notice” before the application filing deadline for auction participation, Wednesday’s PN said. “Parties who may be interested in participating in the reverse or forward auction should regularly monitor the LEARN website,” the FCC said. “The Comment PN is filled with complicated schemes to hold down payments to the broadcasters the FCC needs to attract for a successful auction,” Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden said in an email Wednesday. “Our Coalition will provide the FCC with data driven alternatives and hope they are serious about having an open mind."

Acknowledging the inherent “risks” in transforming the FCC's IT system, the agency is planning multiphased changes, said Chief Information Officer David Bray in a blog post. The agency will first stabilize its “aging IT infrastructure,” Bray said in the post Monday. It will identify in what order to shift applications to cloud-based platforms “to support more efficient work processes,” he wrote. The agency then plans to “rewrite IT systems to employ a reusable 'service catalog' of modular components across the entire FCC, with open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and built upon a common data platform. ... All too often it is easier for folks to say the status quo is good enough, the challenges are too high to overcome, or there's no way to complete a project in time.” While multiple perspectives should be considered, Bray wrote, the agency has “a diverse team with backgrounds spanning former military veterans, former Silicon Valley startup entrepreneurs, PhD candidates at prestigious universities” able to see the blind spots in the changes. There's also “the risk of doing nothing. At a certain point, the status quo no longer will be good enough. Technology becomes obsolete, further patches on discontinued software will be unavailable, and the total cost of maintaining outdated systems will far exceed moving to something new.” The agency had told us it's working on changes to the Electronic Comments Filing System's search function separate from the rest of the system so it doesn't slow down the rest of ECFS (see 1410310028).

AT&T needs to submit additional information by Monday on its proposed buy of DirecTV, including verifying that the population and density calculations for the one-square-mile areas that the telco submitted Oct. 7 are accurate, the FCC said Monday. AT&T’s Oct. 7 calculations don’t “correlate appropriately when the geographic unit of the grid is fixed at one-square mile,” the FCC said. AT&T also needs to clarify the accuracy of other data it submitted, including data on fixed wireless local loop (FWLL) coverage “in areas where no cell site is identified and cell sites where no FWLL coverage is identified,” the FCC said. The telco should provide further data explanations of several other aspects of its FWLL deployment, including its plans for sharing mobile spectrum with any spectrum proposed for the FWLL deployment and identify possible spectrum bands for the FWLL deployment, the FCC said. AT&T also needs to provide a definition of “cell edge” that includes signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio and link budget, the FCC said. AT&T is "collecting the data requested and will respond shortly," a spokesman said.

The proposed USF contribution factor for Q1 2015 will be 16.8 percent, said the FCC Office of the Managing Director in a public notice Monday. It said the contribution factor will be deemed approved unless the commission takes action within 14 days after the release of Monday’s notice, and the Universal Service Administrative Co. will calculate USF contributions based on the contribution factor.

That talks at the World Trade Organization on expanding and updating the 17-year-old Information Technology Agreement failed to reach a consensus over "product coverage" issues is "to be sure ... a disappointment," said Sage Chandler, CEA vice president-international trade, in a statement sourced from Geneva. CEA said Chandler attended "the entirety of the talks." The ITA "hasn’t been updated since it was created 17 years ago," she said. "By expanding the ITA, we could remove tariffs on an estimated additional $800 billion in information and communication technology trade globally. Including modern technology products in an updated ITA is critical to making sure the agreement’s many benefits will extend to consumers around the world." Members of the National Association of Manufacturers also "are greatly disappointed by the failure to move forward an expanded ITA," said Linda Dempsey, NAM vice president-international economic affairs, in a separate statement. "The original 17-year old ITA has been hugely important in driving innovation and productivity for the broad range of manufacturing industries in the United States and globally. Manufacturers urge negotiators to come back to the table as early as possible in the new year to agree to a strong product list in order to unlock much needed growth opportunities for manufacturers and their workers."

“Net equality” is needed as much as net neutrality, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council President Kim Keenan said in a blog post. Keenan said MMTC, NAACP, the National Urban League and Rainbow PUSH oppose reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. “Section 706 offers the best opportunity for innovation, investment, and universal broadband adoption,” Keenan said. The use of Section 706 would also “encourage investment, job creation, deployment, and adoption of broadband,” she said. The FCC also should consider adopting consumer-friendly protections in connection with Section 706, including compliance mechanisms imported from Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Keenan said.

The FCC is seeking applicants for a two-year term on its Consumer Advisory Committee, which was recently re-chartered. Applications and nominations are due at the FCC Jan. 19, the FCC said in a public notice. The CAC dates back to 2000 and it has been renewed eight times, the agency said. Board membership for the most recent term formally expired in October. The FCC is also seeking applicants for its new Disability Advisory Committee, said a notice in the Federal Register. Applications are due by Jan. 15.