In nearly half of all designated market areas in which DirecTV carries local signals, DirecTV “must negotiate with a party controlling multiple Big Four affiliates, often through arrangements that circumvent the commission’s ownership rules,” DirecTV said in an ex parte filing in docket 10-71, which included an analysis of DMAs (http://bit.ly/18wXczt). The analysis focused on DMAs where broadcasters are able to negotiate for two or more Big Four affiliated stations, it said. The filing recounted a meeting with FCC commissioners Ajit Pai, Michael O'Rielly and Mignon Clyburn and staff from Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office. DirecTV representatives also stressed “the spiraling fees being demanded by broadcasters for retransmission consent,” it said.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., planned to have introduced legislation Monday to stop people from talking on their cellphones on airplanes, he said, delivering on a threat other lawmakers have made in recent weeks. Shuster calls his bill the Prohibiting In-Flight Voice Communications on Mobile Wireless Devices Act and posted online a bill copy (http://1.usa.gov/19wPeDy). The legislation focuses on domestic commercial flights and forbids any phone conversation when the plane is in flight. Shuster’s office cited the FCC draft NPRM to review whether, from a technical perspective, such phone conversations should be allowed. “For passengers, being able to use their phones and tablets to get online or send text messages is a useful in-flight option,” Shuster said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/1ktm4uo). “But if passengers are going to be forced to listen to the gossip in the aisle seat, it’s going to make for a very long flight,” he said. “For those few hours in the air with 150 other people, it’s just common sense that we all keep our personal lives to ourselves and stay off the phone.” The bill doesn’t mention the FCC or the Federal Aviation Administration, and directs the secretary of transportation to issue rules banning inflight conversations.

Global patent filings in 2012 increased at their highest rate in 18 years, said a World Intellectual Property Organization news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1krVXnn). Patent filings increased by 9.2 percent last year to 2.35 million, while those for trademarks rose 6 percent, a lower growth rate than in recent years. China’s State Intellectual Property Office was primarily responsible for the growth in patent filings, with that office’s filings up 24 percent in 2012, said WIPO. It said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had a 7.8 percent filing increase.

The Inmarsat-5 satellite sent initial signals from orbit, Boeing said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1breLhh). “After reaching final orbit, it will complete several additional maneuvers and tests before officially beginning service for Inmarsat.” The Boeing-built satellite launched Sunday from Kazakhstan on an International Launch Services rocket, it said. The satellite is the first to launch for Inmarsat’s forthcoming Ka-band network (CD Dec 4 p16).

EU lawmakers and governments should make it easier for telecom companies to operate across borders, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Monday. She’s pushing for action on key proposals in the European Commission’s “connected continent” telecom overhaul package, one of which is the creation of a one-stop shop for authorizing e-communications services. The proposed regulation eases telecom service expansion in several ways, the EC said. It replaces 28 different registration requirements with one single point of authorization and notification in the EU, lowering entry barriers for new companies and costs for service provision. The rule also ensures that multi-territory telecom companies get more consistent treatment from regulators, and makes it easier for smaller players to cross borders by ensuring that operators below a certain size don’t have to pay regulatory administrative costs or pay into universal service funds, it said. The European Parliament is about to begin discussion on possible amendments to the draft package.

Verizon FiOS, Bright House Networks and Verizon DSL had slight increases in Netflix speeds in November, said the online video distributor’s monthly speed index (http://nflx.it/1fdy6Ya). The OVD said Google Fiber, Cablevision Optimum, Cox Communications, Suddenlink and Charter Communications remained at the top of the list, followed by Verizon FiOS at 2.2 Mbps. Time Warner Cable and Comcast had slight decreases at 2.07 Mbps and 1.82 Mbps respectively, it said. Bright House had an increases to 1.91 Mbps and Verizon DSL to 1.23 Mbps, said Netflix. AT&T DSL slipped to 1.2 Mbps, said the speed index. It’s based on data from more than 40 million Netflix subscribers who watch more than 1 billion hours of TV shows and movies streaming from the OVD each month.

Dish Network urged the FCC to prohibit coordinated negotiations among non-commonly owned stations, adopt a carriage dispute resolution mechanism and permit interim carriage to avoid blackouts during impasses. The commission has “broad statutory authority to implement such reforms to protect consumers and better reflect market conditions,” it said in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-225, 13-185 and 10-71 (http://bit.ly/1bSaLMU). Dish also supported auctions of 600 MHz spectrum and AWS-3 spectrum, it said. Consumers benefit from a competitive wireless landscape, and in order to preserve those benefits, “the commission must ensure that the two dominant wireless incumbents are not permitted to lock competitive carriers out of acquiring low-band spectrum,” it said.

The FCC should make additional spectrum available to wireless carriers through the upcoming incentive auction and the ongoing work to free up the AWS-3 band, T-Mobile US executives told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel, Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly in separate meetings Tuesday and Wednesday. T-Mobile executives told the commissioners it’s important the wireless carrier have “an opportunity to obtain low-band spectrum to promote a competitive mobile marketplace,” T-Mobile said in an ex parte filing Friday. The carrier also “advocated for reasonable limits” on Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which together control 80 percent of the U.S.’s low-band frequencies (http://bit.ly/1iHO0iA).

The Satellite Industry Association urged the FCC not to allocate the entire allotment of 1 percent rise-over-thermal to a secondary Aeronautical Mobile Service allocation if it decides to proceed with such as allocation. Doing so would be inconsistent with an International Telecommunication Union recommendation, “which makes it clear that the 1 percent allotment is for all non-primary sources interference and not any single interfering service,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-114 (http://bit.ly/IPF8qH). The filing recounts a meeting with members of the International and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology on Qualcomm’s proposal to implement a new secondary AMS allocation in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, it said. Since there are already other secondary services in various parts of the band, “and there is a realistic possibility of at least one future secondary service ... the proposed AMS should be allotted only a third of the 1% budget,” it said. SIA stressed the need for technical rules for any potential AMS service using realistic antenna gain-to-noise-temperature values for existing current and future fixed satellite services satellites, “and deriving actual and enforceable power limits on any new secondary service that are sufficient to keep the interference caused by this system below 0.33%,” it said.

Time Warner Cable began carrying Al Jazeera America Friday, said the channel in a news release (http://alj.am/18dOYyk). It said with that carriage, the channel reaches almost 55 million households.