FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said consumers and providers are embracing the IP transition and it's time for the commission to get with the program. Pai said Thursday he had just visited communities where advanced communications were being deployed, including Carbon Hill, Alabama, where AT&T is conducting an IP transition trial. "I saw firsthand the age of the brittle copper wires and the vast distances those thin wires needed to travel to connect everyone in the community," he said in a statement. "I saw the central office building where an enormous switch still stands to power the old copper network, even as most Americans carry more computing power around with them in their pocket. And I saw firsthand the improved reliability and quality of service that new technologies offer." He said community leaders were excited about the IP services but also noted the need for digital outreach and education. Pai said he also visited communities in Mississippi served by MaxxSouth Broadband: Carthage, where fiber-to-the-home service was deployed, and college-town Starkville, where gigabit speed service is being offered. He said he is also visiting Cox Communications in Atlanta and hoped to hear about its planned national gigabit rollout. "The one refrain I have repeatedly heard from these operators is the need for regulatory certainty if they are going to continue investing in their networks," Pai said. "It’s no secret that the broadband providers substantially reduced their capital expenditures once it was clear that broadband would be subject to 20th-century utility regulation. And I saw on this trip even more evidence of how old rules are deterring new investments, and how regulatory uncertainty is deterring private enterprise from taking on new risks. I hope the FCC will soon learn what the American people already know: That innovation is not a threat, but an opportunity for a better tomorrow." FCC Democrats have said the February net neutrality and broadband reclassification order and August IP transition order will facilitate innovation and investment while protecting an open Internet, consumers and competition.

The FCC is now slated to take up an order on interservice interference and an order on "when operations commence" following the TV incentive auction, according to the sunshine notice for the Oct. 22 meeting, released Thursday. The FCC also will take up an order relaxing channel-sharing rules for broadcasters participating in the incentive auction and giving them more time to “transition to shared facilities” after the auction. The items are some of the few remaining ones still to be addressed by the FCC as the agency moves toward the incentive auction, slated to start March 29.

The incentive auction procedures public notice was published in the Federal Register Wednesday (see 1508110071).

Clarification: The petition from NAB on Charter Communications' planned buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable was for the FCC to hold in abeyance review of the deals (see 1510130061).

The FCC should adopt the proposed rule changes in its NPRM on designating some online video services as multichannel video programming distributors, said FilmOn X CEO Alki David in meetings last week with Commissioner Ajit Pai, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler, aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, and staff from the bureau and Office of General Counsel. That is according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. Adopting the rulemaking, and employing a “light regulatory touch” could combine with recent court rulings favorable to online video services receiving compulsory copyright licenses to “remove barriers to entry” for online video distributors, FilmOn said. Designating OVDs as MVPDs would “spur investment and innovation,” FilmOn said.

Former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., called cyberwarfare the U.S.'s “greatest day-to-day threat,” during Tuesday night's Democratic presidential primary debate in response to a question about national security threats against the U.S. Webb noted the cyberthreat against the country as an example of strains in the U.S.-China relationship, noting recent incidents attributed to China like the Office of Personnel Management data breach. China doesn't “have the right to conduct cyberwarfare against tens of millions of American citizens,” Webb said. “In a Webb administration, we will do something about that.” Webb was the only candidate among those participating in the Democratic debate to mention cyberthreats as a top U.S. national security concern, while multiple candidates for the Republican nomination have called out China for its cyber tactics. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is also a candidate for the Democratic nod, and other Democratic contenders also debated NSA surveillance powers. “I'd shut down what exists right now … that virtually every telephone call in this country ends up in a file at the NSA,” Sanders said. “That is unacceptable.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended her earlier support for the Patriot Act but noted that she began opposing warrantless surveillance tactics after President George W. Bush's administration “began to chip away” at privacy and civil liberties protections. Both Clinton and Sanders said they believed former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about NSA surveillance violated U.S. law but disagreed about how federal law enforcement should handle prosecuting Snowden.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) Wednesday released a software patch for the final version of the incentive auction TVStudy repacking software, said a public notice. Since the release of the TVStudy version 1.3.2, OET has “both experienced and received reports” of “minor issues related to software performance and behavior as relates to XML scenario imports and switch settings,” the PN said. The patch will correct those issues and doesn’t affect any of the baseline results released by OET in June, the PN said. “All users of TVStudy are strongly encouraged to apply this patch,” the PN said. The patched version of TVStudy is available on the commission’s Learn website in the Repacking Section.

Inmate calling service (ICS) provider Network Communications International Corp. backed the Alabama Public Service Commission's argument that the FCC shouldn't further sanction the APSC or one of its officials for their roles in the improper release of confidential data and their responses to that breach (see 1510080015). The release was an "inadvertent violation" of a protective order in the ICS rulemaking, said an NCIC filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 12-375. NCIC noted its cost information was among the confidential data included in a public filing by APSC official Darrell Baker that aggregated the data, but it said Baker never disclosed the detailed cost support that it and other ICS providers submitted. NCIC concluded it wasn't harmed by Baker's posting, nor does it believe other providers were harmed, including Global Tel*Link, which has called for additional FCC sanctions of both the APSC and Baker (see 1510050034). "The APSC has taken a lead role and significantly influenced ICS reforms in Alabama and nationally. Therefore, it is not surprising that some ICS providers resent his contribution and the APSC’s participation in this proceeding," NCIC said. The firm said it concurred with the APSC's remedial actions to prevent future violations and it also recommended Baker be allowed to again participate in the ICS proceeding after he was barred by the FCC from doing so.

Edward Smith will return to the FCC, after an unsuccessful campaign for attorney general of Washington, D.C., to serve as wireless adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler, including on the TV incentive auction, Wheeler said Tuesday in a news release. Acting wireless aide Jessica Almond will move over to oversee media, enforcement and public safety issues for the chairman. Wheeler aides Renee Gregory and Maria Kirby are leaving the agency. Gregory, who has been on maternity leave, was the wireless adviser to both Wheeler and former Chairman Julius Genachowski. Kirby, who had been at the FCC since 2012, also joined Wheeler’s staff when he became chairman.

The FCC plans to switch to its updated FCC.gov website later this fall, agency Chief Information Officer David Bray said in an agency blog Friday. The FCC announced plans in April for an updated site (see 1504210011), and the beta version of the modernized site is Drupal-based and responsive so as to feature different displays depending on the device being used to navigate it, Bray said. The FCC also set up a new taxonomy for classifying Web content to allow easier searches and automate lists of content, he said. The beta site also connects to the Electronic Comment Filing System and EDOCS (Electronic Document Management System) database through an application programming interface that allows real-time updates to show up in "Headlines" and "Most Active Proceedings" areas of the site, Bray said, saying applications will increasingly be cloud-based, much like the Consumer Help Desk. Everything on the current FCC.gov site is also on the beta site, though the agency continues to integrate it "into new information architecture" for improved accessibility, he said.