Correction: The Kansas City where Google Fiber began was in Kansas (CD Mar 5 p16).

The FCC’s Technological Advisory Council will meet Monday from 1-4 p.m. EDT at FCC headquarters, the FCC said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kVniQN). The main topic is “the proposed work program for the coming year,” the FCC said. TAC was formerly chaired by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. TAC last met Dec. 16, when it was addressed by Wheeler (CD Dec 17 p9).

An FCC docket on “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet” has been flooded with comments since it was opened by Chairman Tom Wheeler last month (CD Feb 20 p1). As of Tuesday, the FCC had logged 9,341, many of which appeared to have been submitted as text messages. Most offered the same one-sentence of advice: “Reclassify Internet Service Providers As Common Carriers.” Some elaborated. For example, one signed by “Harold Kelley” said, “It is NOT right for BIG TELECOM companies to be allowed to discriminate in any way whatsoever in the manner in how they carry and or transmit Internet Traffic.” (http://bit.ly/1n8lSDP)

The deadline to file comments on the FCC’s proposed methodology for predicting potential interference between broadcast TV and licensed wireless signals has been moved to March 17, said the Office of Engineering & Technology in a public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1jMGlgi). The comment deadline was Friday, the notice said. The extension was the result of a joint request (CD Feb 21 p18) from NAB, several network affiliate boards, the Association of Public Television Stations, Univision and the Public Broadcasting Service, which said they need more time to prepare comments in the wake of an FCC workshop on the channel assignment repacking process.

The FCC Wireless Bureau confirmed that Dish Network bought all 176 licenses sold in the H-block auction (http://fcc.us/1dhJjHU), which closed last week (CD Feb 28 p3). Dish paid a total of $1.564 billion, bidding through a subsidiary, American H Block Wireless. Dish paid a low of $10,000 for the American Samoa licenses and a high of $216.955 million for the license covering New York City and several adjoining areas. Dish had competition for some of the licenses, though none of the major wireless carriers were players. The most competition came from bidder CTM Spectrum, which made two separate bids for the New York license, before Dish made the final winning bid in round 24, FCC records show. CTM made a run on other major licenses as well, including those covering the Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco markets, but in each case its bid was trumped by Dish. CTM was backed by various venture capitalists firms and its primary contact is listed on an FCC form as Monish Kundra, a partner at Columbia Capital.

The FCC Media Bureau will allow broadcasters filing ex parte notices in the incentive auction proceeding to do so without disclosing their identities, the bureau said in a public notice Friday. “We recognize that broadcasters may have legitimate reasons for not wanting to disclose their potential interest in reverse auction participation,” the bureau said. Allowing anonymity “in this limited circumstance will encourage broadcasters to engage in frank discussions with Commission staff, promoting informed participation in the reverse auction and a more robust Commission decision-making process,” said the notice. However, such notices should “provide sufficient basic information to better allow the FCC and the public to understand and evaluate the positions taken during such an anonymous ex parte presentation.” That could include the market tiers the involved stations operate in and whether they are network affiliated or independent, the notice said. Broadcasters “must otherwise continue to follow the ex parte rules, including providing all data presented and arguments made during an ex parte presentation, except with respect to the provision of specific information that would reveal the filer’s identity, e.g., the call sign of its station,” the notice said.

Correction: RIAA’s position on the Songwriter Equity Act is that it’s neutral (CD Feb 27 p12).

NCTA urged the FCC to move forward with an order on the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII-1) band. Discussions between NCTA and Globalstar on access to spectrum haven’t progressed, “because the parties could not agree to important basic concepts,” NCTA said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1hX26fS). Proposals outlined by Globalstar “are unnecessary in light of the convincing evidence on the record that Globalstar will not experience harmful interference under any reasonable future Wi-Fi deployment scenario,” NCTA said. The association recounted a teleconference with staff from Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office and the Office of Engineering and Technology. If the FCC permits outdoor U-NII-1 deployments, Globalstar “favors the adoption of certain limited and simple design criteria for deployed U-NII-1 access points,” that company said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1fMPGnn). Criteria can include an antenna gain of -11 dBi at 30 degrees and higher, assuming U-NII-2A power limits, in order to lower the noise rise at its satellites, it said. “Antennas that radiate power vertically create the greatest impact on Globalstar’s constellation.” Globalstar determined that its system would be able to tolerate a noise rate of 2 dB from outdoor U-NII-1 devices, which is even higher than NCTA’s supposed “worst case” noise rise in this spectrum, it said. The filing recounts a meeting with International Bureau staff. Globalstar also joined Time Warner Cable, Comcast, NCTA, Cox and other media companies this week in a meeting with staff from the International Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss Wi-Fi duty cycles, power levels for indoor and outdoor access points and other issues, it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1fuoyuW).

Liberation Music, an Australian record label, will pay Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig an undisclosed amount in a settlement for “harm it caused” when it sued Lessig over his use of a song by the band Phoenix, which Liberation represents, said a Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/N8BqL8). The EFF helped represent Lessig, it said. Lessig countersued on fair-use grounds, it said. “Hopefully this lawsuit and this settlement will send a message to copyright owners to adopt fair takedown practices -- or face the consequences,” said Lessig, in the release. “Liberation Music agrees that Professor Lessig’s use of the Phoenix song ‘Lisztomania’ was both fair use under US law and fair dealing under Australian law,” said the record label, in the release.

Officials of CTIA and Los Angeles TV stations KLCS and KJLA met with various FCC officials to discuss their channel-sharing pilot program, said an ex parte filing. “Alan Popkin, of KLCS discussed a number of issues related to bandwidth management, bit rate efficiency, quality of experience, virtual information, program count and engineering best practices,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/1gFGL58). “The parties noted their expectation that this testing will yield critically important data to the FCC and other parties interested in undertaking their own channel sharing efforts, by arming them with the information necessary to make informed decisions and to promote a productive channel sharing system.” CTIA and the stations proposed the project in January (CD Jan 29 p4).