In an effort to remotely identify and track "rogue" drones, the Federal Aviation Administration established a diverse rulemaking committee to create standards, said a Wednesday news release. The FAA said there aren't currently any "requirements or voluntary standards for electrically broadcasting information to identify an unmanned aircraft while it’s in the air." The agency said the Aviation Rulemaking Committee, made up of representatives from 74 public and private organizations, is meeting this week to develop recommendations. Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International President Brian Wynne said in a statement that developing standards for remotely identifying drone operators and owners builds on earlier drone registration efforts.

The FCC certified administrators for its deaf-blind equipment distribution program in eight more states and the District of Columbia. A Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau public notice in docket 10-210 Tuesday said the parties were "for Alabama, the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind; for Alaska, Assistive Technology of Alaska; for California, the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired; for Delaware, the University of Delaware-Center for Disabilities Studies; for the District of Columbia, the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind; for Illinois, The Chicago Lighthouse Serving the Blind, Visually Impaired, Disabled and Veteran Communities; for Missouri, Missouri Assistive Technology; for Nebraska, the Nebraska Assistive Technology Partnership; and, for Pennsylvania, the Institute on Disabilities-Temple University." Other state administrators were announced in early June and late May (see 1706060032 and 1705220043).

Rural groups urged the FCC to nail down a Connect America Fund Phase II auction "with all due speed" after five years of preparatory work. "Further delay now to rewrite the rules in a manner that may tilt the playing field toward lesser quality networks will not serve the needs of our rural communities and the consumers we serve," said a filing Tuesday in docket 10-90 by 33 groups calling themselves Concerned Rural Stakeholders. Hughes Network Systems and Pennsylvania government entities asked the FCC to reconsider decisions in a February order that set bidding weights for the reverse auction of broadband subsidies (see 1704210016 and 1705190044). NTCA, one of the rural stakeholders, separately cited "the negative effects of insufficient" USF support "and the ensuing unpredictable nature of the budget control mechanism on investments" by rural telcos and the rates paid by their consumers. The group urged the FCC "to act upon its pending petition for reconsideration to address such concerns so that the purported goals of USF reform and the mandates of federal law may be achieved," said a filing Monday on the association's meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.

The American Technology Council's inaugural meeting Monday “is an opportunity” for President Donald Trump's administration and tech sector leaders “to work constructively on shared policy goals that will move our nation forward on job creation, modernizing government technology, and workforce development,” said TechNet President Linda Moore in a Friday statement. “Tax reform and trade will have a major impact on job creation for the American people, and we remain committed to working with the administration and Congress to achieve meaningful results on each of these issues.” The ATC meeting is set to include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Oracle CEO Safra Catz and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty are also said to be attending the meeting, lobbyists said. A separate Thursday White House Office of Science and Technology Policy-led meeting on 5G wireless and emerging technologies reportedly will include FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, two sources told us. The FCC referred us to the White House, which didn't comment.

Verizon expects to record severance, acquisition and integration-related expenses of about $500 million pretax in Q2 because of its Yahoo buy, Verizon said in a filing at the SEC. But Verizon said it also expects to see more than $1 billion in “cumulative operating expense synergies from the transaction through 2020.” Verizon Wednesday completed its $4.5 billion buy of Yahoo’s operating business (see 1706130048).

The North American Numbering Council will meet June 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the FCC, said a commission notice in Tuesday's Federal Register, with a proposed agenda.

Verizon competed a $4.5 billion buy of Yahoo’s operating business, the carrier said Tuesday. Verizon combined Yahoo and AOL assets to create new subsidiary Oath, Verizon said. Oath brands include AOL.com, HuffPost, Tumblr and various Yahoo services. It's "a critical step in growing the global scale needed for our digital media company,” said Verizon Media and Telematics President Marni Walden. The deal originally was valued at $4.83 billion, lowered after the companies agreed to share liability from data breaches (see 1702210024).

Cisco’s global IP traffic forecast shows the wisdom of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s bid to increase the agency’s use of data and economic analyses, American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy Visiting Scholar Daniel Lyons blogged Monday. Pai proposed in April to launch an FCC Office of Economics and Data (see 1701310062 and 1704050047). Cisco forecast rising use of content delivery networks, smartphones and video streaming as drivers of IP traffic (see 1706080021), which shows “network congestion, which has largely disappeared from the public debate with the 4G revolution, may reemerge as a policy issue,” Lyons said. Pai is “correct to seek more data-driven policy recommendations" within the FCC, and the agency “should seek similar input from the engineers who actually run the networks and understand these trends in real time,” he said.

Digital Realty will buy DuPont Fabros in a $7.6 billion data center deal, the companies said in a Friday news release. The all-stock transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to customary conditions including shareholder and regulatory approvals, they said. The deal enhances the companies’ ability to serve top metropolitan areas, expands the companies’ products and provides cost efficiencies, they said. “The addition of [DuPont] should enhance [Digital Realty’s] growth prospects, as it's acquiring an asset that's growing at +10% per year, with recent momentum including a 28.8 MW lease signed by who we believe to be [Apple],” Wells Fargo analysts wrote investors Friday. “Our sense is this customer relationship will only grow.”

High-quality broadband, satellite communications and various devices play roles in e-health, early replies in FCC docket 16-46 showed Thursday. Comments were due later that day. "Reliable, secure, high-speed, high-bandwidth, low-latency broadband access is critical to enabling access to care and modern healthcare technologies," said Baxter. "As healthcare organizations transition from wired to wireless, and as data moves from within an organization’s private network to the broadband network, the cybersecurity, privacy, legal, and other risks grow. ... Guidance, tools, and policies" can help, it said: "Broadband-enabled services are used in all healthcare settings." Initial comments show such solutions "always depend upon a reliable and secure broadband connection of sufficient speed and capacity," wrote the Satellite Industry Association. SIA touted satellite broadband as a telehealth solution. Nokia said medical research shows health "benefits of self-monitoring in the areas of activity, weight and blood pressure and sleep." Initial comments on a public notice urged the FCC to hike rural healthcare funding; the USF healthcare connect fund has $400 million yearly (see 1705250035).