The FCC is reviewing submissions from broadcasters whose captioning waivers were rescinded in October (CD Oct 6 p5) due to a flawed process for granting the waivers years ago, an agency official said. The FCC has sent notices to the nearly 300 entities whose exemptions were reversed, although a few are still being tracked down and may not exist anymore.

Small carriers who have long asked the FCC to mandate that handsets developed for use in the 700 MHz band work across lower 700 MHz, could be headed for victory next year. The FCC agreed to launch a notice of proposed rulemaking last week as part of an order approving AT&T’s buy of 700 MHz licenses from Qualcomm (CD Dec 27 p1). The NPRM, slated for the first quarter, would tee up the issue for what could be a key early decision of the newly reconstituted FCC, following the expected confirmation of Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai as commissioners as early as February.

AT&T, Verizon and CTIA raised concerns in separate filings at the agency about changes the FTC proposed to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule. In September, the FTC proposed more than two dozen changes to the COPPA rule imposing new requirements on website operators while further protecting children from online threats. USTelecom, the main wireline trade association, did not file comments, a spokeswoman said.

Staff at the FCC Wireline and International Bureaus recommended trimming some data gathering requirements from the FCC’s rulebook, but officials at the Wireless Bureau have dug in and are urging the commission to stick to the books, according to a public notice dated late Friday and circulated Tuesday. Under Section 11(a) of the 1996 Telecom Act, the FCC is required to determine whether rules should be repealed or amended “as the result of meaningful economic competition between providers of” telecom service. “Although the staff reviewed all rules within the scope of Section 11, they paid special attention in the 2010 biennial review to rules relating to data gathering,” the FCC said in Friday’s notice (http://xrl.us/bmm2j4). “That special focus on data collections was undertaken as part of the Commission’s reform agenda to improve data quality and processes, identify areas where additional data collection is needed, and eliminate unnecessary collections.”

Investors could be lured back to financing independent pay-TV programming following an FCC administrative law judge’s ruling that Comcast has discriminated against the Tennis Channel (CD Dec 21 p11), Tennis Channel CEO Ken Solomon told us last week. Today, “you can’t raise money for independent networks. It’s very, very hard,” he said. That’s an odd case for a business that’s so lucrative for the major media companies, he said. The health of cable programming networks is part of what lured Comcast to buy NBCUniversal and is frequently touted by media executives from Rupert Murdoch to Bob Iger, he said: “Isn’t it counter intuitive that that all this private equity money that knows how valuable it is, are not willing to invest,” he said. “It’s because it’s a closed market and the distributors are not allowing new players in."

Industry and non-industry members of the FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee are ending the year locked in dispute. Consumer and other non-industry members of the group filed a statement at the FCC Friday expressing “disappointment” with comments by members of the panel representing the telecom industry. The EAAC was created as part of the Twenty-First Century Communication and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA), which required the group to prepare a report on a tight timetable. The EAAC’s draft report was quietly released as part of a filing at the FCC earlier this month (CD Dec 15 p1).

The FCC approved AT&T’s buy of Qualcomm spectrum 3-1 over a dissent by Commissioner Michael Copps. The vote was a positive development for AT&T, which last week dropped its move to buy T-Mobile after the FCC and Department of Justice both lambasted that deal as bad for competition. The buy gives AT&T six MHz of unpaired 700 MHz spectrum nationwide and another six MHz in five major metropolitan markets. The order imposes two sets of conditions, addressing data roaming and interference.

Putting up-to-date records of political ad sales in a broadcaster’s online public file could get very expensive, the NAB and broadcasters said in comments to the FCC last week. The comments came in response to a further rulemaking about updating stations’ disclosure obligations that would set up a centralized FCC database of public files. Broadcasters offered several suggestions for studying and testing the system before implementing it. Public interest groups praised the FCC for taking the step and told the agency it should require stations to include most of the major components that currently make up their public files when submitting information to the FCC’s proposed new system. Meanwhile, the American Cable Association told the commission it should require stations to disclose their shared services and local marketing agreements with other nearby broadcasters “that facilitate coordinated retransmission consent negotiations."

The FCC agreed to put off imposing rules that would subject local wireless-wireline exchanges to bill-and-keep rates, the commission said in a reconsideration order issued Friday. The commission had been expected to issue a reconsideration notice sua sponte, on its own (CD Dec 23 p3). Under the reconsideration, local wireless-to-wireline exchanges won’t be subject to bill-and-keep until July 1. Bill-and-keep would have taken effect Thursday under the original order (CD Oct 28 p1).

Efforts to standardize carrier ID in satellite broadcast uplinks are moving forward quickly, though there’s some disagreement among satellite operators about the timing, said industry executives. There are two standards being considered for the service, one that is more likely for use in the immediate future and another that’s in development.