Correction: The local number portability administrator contract iconectiv is negotiating is what LNP Alliance consultant Jerry James was referring to when he said there are questions about whether IP-to-IP porting would be covered (see 1510300060).

The FCC extended the deadlines for comments and replies in the special access rulemaking to Jan. 6 and Feb. 5, respectively, said a Wireline Bureau order posted Monday in docket 05-25.

CEA and LonMark said two standards -- ANSI/CEA-709.5, Control Networking Protocol Specification Part 5: Implementation-Application-Layer-Guidelines, and ANSI/CEA 709.6, Control Networking Protocol Specification Part 6: Application Elements -- were approved as American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards for home and building automation. The standards focus on IoT device interoperability and provide a “complete model” for implementing device-to-device and device-to application communication, the organizations said Monday. “As the IoT marketplace expands, having device-level interoperability that is protocol- and platform-independent is an important piece of the puzzle,” said Dave Wilson, CEA vice president-technology & standards. The two new ANSI/CEA standards will help drive “a new level of interoperability into the home and building automation sector with applicability to many other sectors including smart outdoor lighting, smart cities and the smart grid,” Wilson said.

The FCC Media Bureau released the final version of its reimbursement form for broadcasters after the incentive auction and adopted a final catalog of expenses, the bureau said in a public notice Friday. The form and catalog are the means by which broadcasters will make use of the $1.75 billion TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund. The bureau added some categories of expense to the form and catalog in response to comments on the draft versions, but said in the PN that the catalog isn't intended to be “exhaustive.” The form has a “catch-all” category that should allow “sufficient flexibility,” the PN said. All broadcaster and pay-TV companies affected by the repacking will receive an initial allocation of money based on estimated costs, which will be held by the U.S. Treasury and available for draw-down as entities need it. Broadcasters will have to submit information on the reimbursement form each time they make a withdrawal, not only at the beginning and end of the reimbursement period, the PN said. “Actual cost documentation showing the entity incurred an expense associated with channel reassignment must accompany every reimbursement request.” Though it had originally been planned for the reimbursement process to be administered through the Treasury Department’s Automated Standard Application for Payments system, it will be done though the FCC's internal vendor payment system instead, the PN said. The in-house system is more efficient, cheaper to implement and “will provide the Commission with more oversight over the establishment of accounts, further enhancing our ability to prevent waste, fraud and abuse,” the PN said. The bureau will make publicly available in its License Management System the amount of reimbursement requested by each broadcaster and the amount disbursed for equipment or services, but not the invoice or identifying information of the vendor, the PN said. The form's final version has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for Paperwork Reduction Act approval, the PN said.

Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta unveiled the list of groups invited to participate in the Transportation Department and FAA’s recently announced Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force Thursday. In a news release, the FAA said the “Task Force membership represents a range of stakeholder viewpoints, interests and knowledge of the objectives and scope.” Members include representatives from: Amazon Prime Air; Amazon Retail; Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International; Best Buy; CEA; GoogleX; GoPro; PrecisionHawk; Small UAV Coalition; departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior and State; the Office of Management and Budget; and NASA. “The group will meet formally from Nov. 3-5 before developing recommendations on a streamlined registration process and minimum requirement on which unmanned aircraft should be registered,” the FAA said. Absent from the task force are privacy and civil liberties groups. “Interested parties who are not members of the Task Force may submit comments to the public docket,” FAA said. CEA Vice President-Technology Policy Doug Johnson said in a news release Thursday that CEA is honored to join the task force, saying a 63 percent increase in drone sales is expected this year alone. “UAS technology -- if allowed by government to thrive -- will be key to U.S. global technology leadership,” he said.

Global Tel*Link officials have been personally threatened "in apparent response" to FCC statements on its recent action inmate calling service (ICS) charges, GTL CEO Brian Oliver said in a letter posted in docket 12-375 Wednesday. He said law enforcement is investigating the threats, which are similar to those made against Securus executives (see 1510270065) after the agency capped ICS rates and limited fees (see 1510220059). “It appears these threats are being driven by press reports” of the FCC action “and the press releases issued by the FCC describing that action,” including state-specific releases, Oliver said. The agency’s Virginia release “contained inaccurate information, which was later corrected by the Virginia Department of Corrections,” he said, adding that GTL has worked to reduce ICS charges, introduce new calling and messaging technology, and provide streamlined payment options for users. “GTL’s proposals have been tailored to meet the needs of all stakeholders -- inmates and their families, correctional institutions, ICS providers, and the safety of the general public,” he said. “In an effort to ensure the safety of its executives and its employees, GTL urges the FCC to take all necessary steps to address any incendiary and erroneous press statements issued or planned." An FCC spokesman had no comment.

NTIA introduced a portal to make computer and Internet usage data readily available -- "an easy-to-use source for locating statistics and charting trends," an NTIA release said. NTIA Data Central is intended to speed dissemination and facilitate analysis of U.S. computer and Internet usage data periodically gathered by the Census Bureau on behalf of the Department of Commerce agency, said John Morris, associate administrator of NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development, on a Thursday press call. He said current data from the last survey show, for instance, that the number of Americans using a mobile phone to go online rose from 27.3 percent in July 2011 to 45.1 percent in July 2013. “We all intuitively know that just walking down the street,” but it’s useful to quantify, he said. NTIA has been publishing reports on the data, which come from Census Bureau surveys of 50,000 people and have been collected since 1994, Morris said, but the new portal will allow the agency to make the data available faster and in ways that are more user-friendly. He said he believes NTIA will receive the raw data from a July 2015 survey by year-end and it will try “mightily” to get the data on the website as soon as possible thereafter. NTIA expects to accelerate the data releases by about a year compared with the previous process, he said. Rafi Goldberg, an NTIA policy analyst, said the website provides data and analysis in different forms to accommodate the needs of different people: casual users, people who want to survey and break down data quickly, and serious researchers who want to plow through voluminous underlying data. The site features a Digital Nation Blog that will include periodic analysis, a Data Explorer page for quick looks at usage trends in chart form, and a Research Center with detailed data sets for deeper dives. Data Explorer allows users to chart granular trends by slicing and dicing data in many different ways through pulldown tabs, without having to manipulate the raw data themselves, Goldberg said. Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America research director, was impressed with the Data Explorer function at first glance. “This is really cool,” he told us. “The test will be, can you think of five interesting questions that you can answer in a couple minutes,” he said.

President Barack Obama signed into law Thursday HR-3819, a short-term transportation funding bill that will extend the Dec. 31 positive train control implementation deadline by three years. Many railroads have said they wouldn't have been able to meet the original deadline, citing problems in acquiring necessary spectrum and in past challenges of FCC siting approvals. The House and Senate unanimously signed off on the measure earlier this week. "Americans who depend on freight and commuter railroads for their livelihoods and critical deliveries can breathe a sigh of relief," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said in a statement. "This legislation prevents rail service disruptions that would have occurred had Congress not acted, while still ensuring that this critical safety technology is implemented as quickly as possible."

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation. The groups asked the 2nd Circuit to bar the government from collecting call records under the phone metadata program, to require the government to quarantine call records already collected under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and to prohibit the government from querying metadata obtained through the program using any phone number or other identifier associated with them. The opinion said that the “appellants’ claims are not moot at this time, we decline to disturb the decision by Congress to provide for a 180-day transition period to put an orderly end to the telephone metadata program.” The court remanded the case, ACLU v. Clapper to district court. Congress’ Nov. 29 shut-off deadline “should be respected” since it “balanced privacy and national security by providing for a 180-day transition period” in the USA Freedom Act, said Judge Gerard Lynch in the 2nd Circuit’s ruling. “Its intent in passing the Freedom Act was clear.”

There's broad support for finding more spectrum for mobile broadband, including in the UHF band, as the World Radiocommunication Conference gets ready to start next week in Geneva, the GSM Association said Thursday. “The GSMA is particularly encouraged by the importance that many governments have placed on ensuring flexibility for the UHF (sub-700 MHz) band, which has historically been used for TV broadcasting and is increasingly critical for meeting rapidly growing demand for mobile broadband from citizens and businesses around the world,” said John Giusti, GSMA chief regulatory officer. “The way we view video content is changing and mobile broadband is playing an ever more significant role in providing consumers with video when and where they want it.” New digital broadcasting technologies mean some TV spectrum can be freed up for broadband, said Giusti, former acting chief of the FCC International Bureau. Giusti said GSMA sees movement on the UHF band in the U.S., as well as Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. “By planning ahead now, countries that identify mobile allocations at WRC-15 will ensure they have the flexibility to satisfy future mobile data demand of their citizens,” Giusti said. “The more countries that support a band, the greater the possibility for global harmonisation, offering substantial economies of scale, reducing interference along country borders and delivering cost benefits for consumers.” NAB fired back. “GSMA’s talking points are tired and simply don't reflect any facts on the ground," an NAB spokesman said. "If the GSMA is looking for underused spectrum, it should look at its own bands."