Disney countered the Center for Digital Democracy’s filing with the FTC over Disney’s alleged noncompliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Wednesday (CD Dec 19 p15). “Contrary to any suggestion in the press release and complaint filed by the Center for Digital Democracy, we are fully mindful of our obligations under COPPA and have robust processes in place to meet them. CDD never brought their concerns to us and instead issued an inflammatory and inaccurate release,” said Disney in a statement. COPPA, , which was revised a year ago by the FTC, gives parents more control over their children’s online data (CD Dec 20/12 p19).

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, introduced telecom and broadcasting bills in the last two weeks, both referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. On Wednesday, he introduced the Rural Broadband Investment Act of 2013, S-1858. The bill proposes to end “well-documented flaws in the FCC’s 2011 Universal Service Transformation Order that caused financial burdens to small- and mid-size communications carriers operating in rural areas,” Begich’s office said, slamming the USF’s quantile regression analysis as “questionable statistical analysis.” His Thursday press release included statements of support from Greg Berberich, CEO of the Matanuska Telephone Association, and Alaska Telephone Association Executive Director Jim Rowe. Begich points to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s recent announcement that he may end the quantile regression analysis, but Rowe said the “legislation is important to rural telecommunication companies because it not only addresses the QRA, but also two other important provisions within the transformation order which are the safety net additive and waivers.” According to a summary of the bill provided to media, the legislation creates a timeline for the FCC to develop an order “to ensure USF reforms are achieved in a manner that is both consistent with the nation’s universal service objectives and fosters those objectives.” Under the bill’s proposal, quantile regression analysis would be halted, and on an interim basis, “at a level equal to the combined operating and capital expenses the carrier had for calendar year 2011 adjusted for any revisions resulting from restoration of the Safety Net Additive or FCC action on a waiver petition,” Begich’s office said. The FCC would also have to file qualitative and quantitative analyses for the Senate and House Commerce Committees within 60 days of the bill’s enactment “assessing the amount of USF necessary to meet the nation’s universal service objectives over the next ten years and a specific analysis identifying the unique circumstances and resulting high cost fund support needed to provide and maintain universal service in Alaska and on Tribal Lands,” it said. On Dec. 12, Begich introduced S-1819, which would amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act “to provide eligibility for public broadcasting facilities to receive certain disaster assistance, and for other purposes,” according to its long bill title. Neither bill has cosponsors.

National Religious Broadcasters continued to urge the FCC to take action on the rulemaking to allow noncommercial stations to raise funds on the air for other nonprofit organizations. It will serve a vital public interest “not only by facilitation of the charitable impulses of listeners and viewers, but also by aiding non-profit groups in meeting critical community needs,” NRB said in an ex parte filing in Media Bureau dockets 12-106 and 13-249 (http://bit.ly/18ZSlat). NRB also repeated its support for the effort to revitalize the AM band, it said. The filing recounted a meeting this week with Commissioner Ajit Pai.

EBay completed the $800 million acquisition of mobile device payment company Braintree, which will be a PayPal service and run by Braintree CEO Bill Ready, said eBay in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ce23Zx). Braintree handles payment for companies like Airbnb, OpenTable and Uber, and its Venmo app allows for payments by mobile devices, said eBay. It projected Braintree will have $12 billion in payment volume this year, a third “driven” by mobile payments. PayPal will handle $20 billion in transactions on mobile devices this year, eBay CEO John Donahoe has said.

"Critical mass” in the outdoor small cell market will occur slightly later than previously forecast, about “two years out from now,” Infonetics said Thursday. That will in turn affect the small cell backhaul market, which grows parallel to the outdoor small cell market, Infonetics said. “We still believe the outdoor small cell market will happen, but judging by the speed at which things moved -- or didn’t move -- in 2013, it’s just going to take a little longer to get off the runway,” said Richard Webb, Infonetics directing analyst-microwave and carrier Wi-Fi, in a news release. Outdoor small cell deployments will be driven “largely by mobile operators’ need to enhance saturated macrocellular networks in urban, high-traffic areas and improve the mobile broadband experience,” Infonetics said. Outdoor small cell backhaul connections are forecast to reach 656,000 by 2017 (http://bit.ly/1dT8LBc).

The FCC is “broken” and takes too long to respond to technological change and solve problems, said the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council in a response to the commission’s call for suggestions on how to revamp procedures (CD Dec 6 p3). MMTC’s comments propose a litany of procedural tweaks to improve the commission’s speed and responsiveness to diversity issues and tech advancements. The list includes the creation of a National Broadband Plan Advisory Committee to update the commission’s broadband plan every two years to “keep pace” with “disruptive technologies,” allowing commissioners other than the chairman to bring an item up for vote and a U.S. Supreme Court-style cert process for applications for review. MMTC also suggested commission procedure could be sped up if major decisions were each assigned a specific commissioner to shepherd them so they move “through the agency to the 8th floor expeditiously.” On diversity, MMTC suggested the Enforcement Bureau create a Civil Rights Division, that the commission hire a chief diversity officer, and that a commissioner could take responsibility “for inclusion and competitive opportunities for minority- and women-owned business enterprises.” Most of the suggested reforms could be adopted without congressional action, said MMTC. “Most of them would cost nothing and could produce savings for the Commission, as well as growth, job creation and diversity for the regulated industries."

American Public Transportation Association staff told the FCC the group’s members continue to have trouble “acquiring the radio frequency spectrum that is required to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) on publicly funded commuter railroads,” APTA said Wednesday in a filing about a conference call Dec. 12 with FCC staff. APTA members New Jersey Transit, Metro-North Railroad and Trinity Railway Express discussed their specific spectrum challenges, APTA said (http://bit.ly/1i4TXVj).

The TV White Space Database Administrators Group filed a revised version of its “Database-to-Database Synchronization Interoperability Specification” at the FCC. The document (http://bit.ly/1i4nQoW) lays out a standard for database operators to exchange information on protected entities, as required by FCC rules.

The market outcome for the license fee under the retransmission consent paradigm may not be socially efficient, the Phoenix Center said in a white paper. The paper, released Thursday, said broadcast regulation “creates a type of positive information externality,” and private transactions don’t typically account for externalities, Phoenix said in a news release (http://bit.ly/JMx7nv). That means “the market price for the retransmission fee is theoretically ’too high,’ both relative to the socially-optimal price and the market price of an otherwise-equivalent cable network,” it said. This “spread” is a consequence of a disharmony “between the historical and continuing policy of the broadcast social contract and the ‘market’ approach embodied in the retransmission consent regime.” For there to be a true market solution to retrans consent, “Congress must eliminate, or meaningfully reduce the scope of, the social contract, including the various protectionist and support mechanisms given to the broadcast industry,” the paper said (http://bit.ly/190kpKN). Revising rules for network non-duplication and syndicated programming exclusivity would allow customers of multichannel video programming distributors access to highly desired network and sports programming, it said. However, given the retransmission of distant signals is also governed by contracts between networks and affiliates, “it is unclear how much help repeal of the exclusivity rules will actually provide.” Congress could amend the retransmission consent provisions of the Communications Act to allow the FCC to authorize interim carriage of a station by an MVPD pending the conclusion of a new agreement, it said. “This solution would continue to satisfy Congress’ substantial interest in having local commercial broadcast stations appear in MVPD channel packages."

Reports that Sprint is considering a bid for T-Mobile (CD Dec 16 p15) appeared to come from a leak inside Sprint, BTIG said in a research note Thursday. BTIG said this was unusual since the risk is that reports could drive up the price of T-Mobile, working against Sprint’s interest. “Companies leak possible deals if they are interested in how shareholders would react but SoftBank owns 80 percent of Sprint,” BTIG said. “Sprint might be expecting strong Q4 results from T-Mobile and wanted to establish a benchmark for an ‘unaffected stock price’ on T-Mobile before that rise,” the firm said. The leak also could send a message to other possible buyers or even to regulators that a deal could be on the way, BTIG said.