Upfront payments, the refundable down payments that applicants must make to establish bidding eligibility for the TV incentive auction, were due at the FCC Friday, said the leaders of the Incentive Auction Task Force in a blog post: “The next step in this stage is to prepare bidders for their chance to acquire the 100 MHz of licensed spectrum in the forward auction." Once the FCC validates which applicants have made payments, “we will release a list of qualified bidders in mid-July,” said Chairman Gary Epstein and Vice Chairman Howard Symons in the post. “Shortly we will release a user guide for the forward auction bidding system and an online tutorial,” they wrote Friday. Expect an “extensive bidder training program,” including the FCC’s first “practice auction” and a mock auction just before the bidding rounds begin. “After the mock auction concludes, clock bidding will begin,” they said. “Like the reverse auction, each round will offer bidders an incremental change in price for the licenses on which they’re bidding.” If the forward auction proceeds are high enough to satisfy the “final stage rule,” then “the auction can close at the current clearing target,” they said. “If not, then the auction is designed to run additional stages to match supply and demand.” The FCC is offering “the largest possible nationwide supply of low-band spectrum available to them, and this summer they will have the opportunity to bid on it,” the officials said. The commission said last week that broadcasters would get $86 billion if all their bids were accepted by wireless carriers (see 1606290081). Stations didn't drive up prices, NAB said on its blog Thursday (see 1607010050).

The FCC Technological Advisory Council will next meet Sept. 20 at the agency's HQ, said a commission public notice. “The TAC is helping the Commission to continue the momentum spurred by the National Broadband Plan to maximize the use of broadband to advance national interests and create jobs.” The meeting is to start at 12:30 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room.

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted Amtrak’s request for permanent authority to operate 66 wireless radio base stations to implement a congressionally mandated positive train control (PTC) system. Amtrak had been relying on a grant of special temporary authority to operate the base stations, which are located on the southern portion of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, the bureau said Thursday. The waiver covers stations on Amtrak’s line from New York to Washington and on a branch line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the bureau said. Amtrak is using automated maritime telecom system spectrum, the bureau said. The order requires Amtrak to protect nearby broadcast stations, using channels 10 and 13, from interference. Amtrak said in a recent report that “since it began testing its PTC base stations -- initially in July 2015 at transmitter output power levels ranging from 5 to 20 watts, and beginning in December 2015 at power levels up to 25 watts -- it has not received a single report of interference from either television viewers or broadcasters,” the bureau said. Some have said a deadly crash outside of Philadelphia could have been prevented had PTC been deployed on the section of track where the accident occurred (see 1506100037). Congress required Amtrak, and many commuter and freight railroads, to deploy interoperable PTC systems as part of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

Neustar urged the FCC to act on its show-cause motion against Telcordia despite an FBI letter saying it had no objections to Telcordia becoming local number portability administrator. Neustar, the LNPA incumbent, said the FBI letter didn't address its motion asking why Ericsson-owned Telcordia shouldn't be disqualified from serving as LNPA (see 1606020050). "Although the FBI's letter narrowly focuses on the services provided to the law enforcement community, it fails to address Ericsson's misrepresentations or misconduct," said Neustar in a Thursday filing in docket 09-109. "The facts that have been revealed indicate that Ericsson misled the Commission and violated national security requirements set forth in the Selection Order." Separately, the LNP Alliance fired back at a Telcordia (iconectiv) letter criticizing the group and New America's Open Technology Institute (see 1606230048). "The iconectiv Letter -- in the most preachy and pedantic tone -- implies that the LNP Alliance and other concerned parties are 'spooked' because they don’t understand the simplest, basic details of the LNPA Transition," said an LNP Alliance response. "In fact, the LNP Alliance’s acute concern with the LNPA Transition emanates from decades of experience with the manner in which even the most routine telecom process changes have so often become a pretext for large carriers to engage in anticompetitive and anticonsumer mischief. Whether changes to ordering, provisioning, billing or porting processes, large carriers have routinely taken advantage of process changes to shake loose hard-earned customers and increase competitive pressure on new entrants. The LNPA Transition has all the earmarks of the worst of such transitions -- poor transparency, a process controlled by nine (9) of the nation’s largest carriers, and de minimis oversight by regulatory authorities, including no state oversight role whatsoever. The iconectiv letter addresses a series of straw man issues never raised by the LNP Alliance, and neglects to address the principal issues it has raised, while unfairly maligning the integrity of the consumer groups that have duly weighed in on this issue." Telcordia didn't comment Thursday. Wednesday, North American Portability Management filed its monthly update on the LNPA transition.

TiVo had harsh words for a pay-TV set-top box proposal offered as an alternative to the FCC unlock-the-box plan, while NTCA expressed caution, in separate lobbying meetings disclosed this week in docket 16-42. The pay-TV plan would “deprive consumers” of features they already have under CableCARD and offer less choice than the FCC plan, TiVo said in a meeting Thursday with staff from the offices of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Chairman Tom Wheeler and to Chief Technologist Scott Jordan. The pay-TV plan doesn't allow third parties to offer competitive user interfaces, home recording, or in-home streaming of content, TiVo said. The proposal also would require third-party box makers to make deals with every pay-TV carrier, “a difficult if not impossible task for retail manufacturers,” TiVo said. The company said it's “not wedded” to any particular approach to creating a competitive retail set-top market. NTCA also discussed the pay-TV proposal in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly Monday, saying the compromise plan is “not a silver bullet.” Both the FCC and pay-TV plan would raise costs for small cable operators, and the agency should exempt them from any rules, NTCA said.

Citizens Against Government Waste said FCC ISP privacy rules should be harmonized with FTC privacy rules. Early reply comments are starting to hit the FCC (see 1606280075), even though the agency pushed back the due date until July 6. They were initially due Monday. “Rather than follow the proven standard set by the FTC, the NPRM would reinvent the wheel, which will create an uncertain and confusing framework,” CAGW said. “Activist groups pushing for heavy-handed, public utility-styled Internet privacy regulations cry that FTC enforcement of Internet privacy -- one which has successfully guided the Internet’s development for ISPs and edge companies these past two decades -- no longer works,” Media Freedom said. “For ISPs, that is. For companies like Google and Facebook -- the most dominant and inescapable data Hoovers on the Internet -- FTC enforcement remains OK.” Sound privacy rules depend on protecting data privacy, the International Association of Privacy Professionals IAPP commented. IAPP said training is one answer: “Many incidents warranting breach notification do not occur from third party malicious attacks, phishing schemes, or other external forces. Customer privacy and security may be violated by careless data handling practices, including accidental or inappropriate email attachments, lost devices with unencrypted personal information, products and services that needlessly gather and leak personal information, improper record retention and destruction policies, and the like.” The comments were filed in docket 16-106. The FCC has logged 208,591 comments, most very short, in the docket in the past 30 days.

FCC draft media ownership rules “have nothing to do with the evidence in the record, principled decision-making, or the law,” and would be more appropriate for “the world that existed in the 1970s,” said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a statement Wednesday as an order circulates (see 1606270083). “Last month, the FCC had no problem approving not one, but two multibillion dollar cable mergers,” Pai said. “Yet, it now gets the vapors at the prospect of a newspaper in Scranton, Pennsylvania owning a single radio station.” It's likely newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules “will outlive the print newspaper industry itself,” Pai said. An agency spokeswoman declined to comment. Also Wednesday, the Newspaper Association of America criticized the draft order. “The NAA is stunned that any policymaker in the Internet era would propose to keep a 1970s-era law that prevents broadcast stations and newspapers from being owned by the same company," said CEO David Chavern. He said he's "deeply disappointed" the draft would keep in place the 40-year-old cross-ownership rule "that is more obsolete than the eight-track tape or the mainframe computer." Investments and deals "will continue to flow to unregulated Internet businesses that compete with news publishers for advertising, but investment and collaboration will be blocked" for newspapers and radio and TV, Chavern said.

A technical advisory group of engineers and technologists kicked off a review of IoT privacy and security that's expected to produce a report by fall. The Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) said in a Tuesday news release it won't review computers, smartphones or tablets, but appliances, sensors and other devices that run on the IoT. "When combined with data analysis and machine learning, IoT devices may be able to take more proactive actions, highlight interesting information to end users, or make suggestions to end users that may affect their health, environment, finances, or other aspects of their lives," said BITAG, which counts AT&T, Comcast, Google, the Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge among its members. Some IoT security flaws also could put users at risk, resulting in a negative internet experience, BITAG said. The technical working group will analyze the issue and "describe the issue in depth, highlight technical observations, and suggest appropriate best practices," it added.

Correction: Economist Hal Singer is no longer affiliated with the Progressive Policy Institute (see 1606270078).

The EAS Test Reporting System is “operational” and ready to accept filings, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said in a public notice Monday. Emergency alert system participants have to complete Form One of ETRS by Aug. 26 and update or correct their submission by Sept. 26, the PN said. It sought comment on recommendations by the agency's Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council to update the EAS Operating Handbook with “checkboxes and 'fill-in-the-blank' operational steps." Comments on the EAS handbook will be due 15 days after the PN is published in the Federal Register.