The FCC urged the Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the city and against T-Mobile in a case headed for review -- T-Mobile South v. Roswell, Ga. The case looks at whether under the Telecom Act local governments must provide detailed written explanations when they deny carriers’ applications to build new cell towers in their jurisdictions. “The 1996 Act imposes both substantive and procedural limitations on the authority of state and local governments to regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities,” the FCC noted. The city did not offer in a timely manner a written statement of the reasons for its denial T-Mobile’s permit application, the FCC said. “Although respondent sent petitioner a letter stating that the City Council had denied petitioner’s application, that letter contained no reasons for the decision, and the meeting minutes referenced in the letter were not available to petitioner at substantially the same time.” The FCC said either “detailed minutes” or a transcript “created and approved” by the city would have been sufficient as justification for denial of the permit provided either had been made available “at substantially the same time as the decision denying” the tower application. The case makes clear that while the Telecom Act “does not require a zoning authority to provide a statement of reasons in the decision denying a request for permission to construct a cell tower, a local zoning board would be well-advised to provide such a statement,” the FCC said. The commission posted the filing (http://bit.ly/1sjvVuR) after it was filed in Supreme Court docket 13-975.

The Copyright Office wants more comment, by Aug. 14 at http://1.usa.gov/1skSnUq, on its study of digital-age making-available and communication-to-the-public rights, in light of last month’s Supreme Court ruling against Aereo (CD June 26 p1). Noting Aereo came after the office held a May 5 roundtable on its study that includes examining applying U.S. Code Title 17, the Copyright Office said “a critical aspect of the Court’s decision was its interpretation of Title 17’s ‘Transmit Clause.'” That clause allows public performance rights for copyright holders, said the office in a notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1sZPwOp). “To what extent does the Supreme Court’s construction of the right of public performance in Aereo affect the scope” of U.S. implementation of making-available and communication rights, asked the office. “How should courts consider the requirement of volitional conduct when assessing direct liability in the context of interactive transmissions of content over the Internet, especially in the wake of Aereo?” The company may not get much help from the FCC as it seeks to refashion itself after the high-court loss, an analyst predicted. (See separate report below in this issue.)

The FCC is creating a Universal Service Fund Strike Force in the Enforcement Bureau, charged with combating waste, fraud and abuse in agency funding programs, said Chairman Tom Wheeler in a news release (http://fcc.us/1qACHZl) Monday. The strike force will be led by Loyaan Egal, who joins the FCC after being a senior assistant U.S. attorney in the Fraud and Public Corruption Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The strike force will expand commission efforts, including those of the FCC Office of Inspector General, “to protect the integrity of the Universal Service Fund and ensure that the American people’s money is wisely spent,” Wheeler said. The Strike Force will investigate violations of the Communications Act, commission rules and other laws involving USF programs and contributions, said the FCC.

Qualcomm told the FCC that it’s more equitable and efficient to create two 250 MHz blocks for a proposed air-to-ground (ATG) broadband system, rather than creating four 125 MHz blocks. Doing so would allow each licensee in affected areas to have sufficient bandwidth despite the impairments, it said in a letter posted Friday in docket 13-114 (http://bit.ly/1seUSaN). A 250 MHz-wide spectrum block is needed to support bandwidth-intensive applications to all aircraft passengers flying above the continental U.S., such as full-motion video, it said. A single 125 MHz-wide license wouldn’t be able “to provide full broadband connectivity to each passenger, and thus offer the kind of user experience that we're all used to having on the ground,” it said. Qualcomm opposed Gogo’s claim that Qualcomm’s proposed regulations aren’t technology neutral. Qualcomm said it has always urged the commission to adopt technology neutral rules.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said at the NARUC meeting Monday that engagement and efforts to improve a utility’s resilience are just as critical to recovering from a disaster as efforts to improve critical infrastructure components, improve networks and promote cybersecurity. She noted that in communities affected by Superstorm Sandy, competitors collaborated to recover from the storm and made their networks more secure in the process. Clyburn and NARUC President Colette Honorable said the interests of the energy and telecom sectors are increasingly converging, with energy companies expressing an interest in spectrum that Honorable said she would not have contemplated in the past. Engagement will also be important as the FCC and other regulators conduct workforce recruitment, Clyburn said, saying regulators will have to approach younger workers differently because they are “wired differently.” Training will need to be different, and “we're going to have to put on a happier face,” she said.

CTIA President Meredith Baker made her first big personnel move and the group is expected to announce Tuesday that Brad Gillen is leaving Wilkinson Barker to become CTIA chief of staff, industry officials said Monday. Gillen was an aide to Baker when she was an FCC commissioner. He also is a former special counsel to the Wireline Bureau and formerly worked for Dish Network.

"Take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in” by ending politically driven “suppression” of news and information about federal agencies, a few dozen news associations and other media interests wrote President Barack Obama (http://bit.ly/1nl7iuW). While reporters used to walk “the halls of agencies and called staff people at will,” the past two administrations have “tightened” control of media access, said the letter dated Tuesday and released by the Society of Professional Journalists. The SPJ-led letter said public affairs officers now speak about routine matters without being identified in news articles, and agencies hold “on-background press conferences” with officials speaking on a not-for-attribution basis. “Meanwhile, agency personnel are free speak to others -- lobbyists, special-interest representatives, people with money -- without these controls and without public oversight,” said the letter. Signers included Radio Television Digital News Association Executive Director Mike Cavender, SPJ President David Cuillier, Center for Media and Democracy Executive Director Lisa Graves, Online News Association Executive Director Jane McDonnell and National Newspaper Association President Robert Williams. The White House didn’t comment Friday and the FCC declined to comment. Many federal agencies must work to make good on administration goals of being forthcoming in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests and being transparent with the public and media, though the FCC does better than some at making experts available and responding to FOIA requests, stakeholders have told us (CD Oct 18 p6).

LTE interference can affect DirecTV’s ability to decode and re-encode digital broadcast signals, said (http://bit.ly/1oqZcgC) the company in response to an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology public notice on LTE to DTV interference. “This could take the form of increased pixilation or artifacts in the signal,” said the DBS provider. “If the interference is severe enough, there might be no picture or sound at all.” Though the OET PN was asking about consumer TV receivers, DirecTV is seeing the interference at its local receive facilities, where “off-air” DTV signals are collected to be retransmitted to DBS subscribers, said the filing posted Friday in docket 14-14. While most larger broadcasters send their signals to DirecTV by fiber, many “smaller, noncommercial, and religious stations” rely on digital off-air signals, DirecTV said. Since the problem affects the DBS company’s ability to decode signals rather than the signals themselves, “a station might deliver DirecTV a ‘good quality’ signal, and DirecTV might be required to carry it, but DirecTV’s subscribers would not be able to actually view it,” said the filing. The severity of the problem depends on how close LTE base stations are to DirecTV receive facilities, and if DirecTV’s antenna are pointed toward the LTE stations, the filing said, saying DirecTV has begun studying the issue: “Once those measurements are complete, DirecTV will be prepared to discuss whether and how the Commission should account for this increased interference, whether in the incentive auction or otherwise.” FCC testing of LTE interference with DTV is a “fine first step,” but doesn’t do enough to address possible interference problems between wireless and broadcast signals after the incentive auction, NAB said in a comment (http://bit.ly/1mSLRT0). The FCC “must move forward in a transparent process with proposing and seeking comment specific rules for inter-service interference protection,” NAB said. The association has “grave concerns” that the FCC is more focused on finding out which markets could be impaired from the perspective of wireless bidders than addressing broadcast issues or not planning to do further research on preventing inter-service interference, it said. “An approach based on separation distances is far simpler and more appropriate in keeping with the FCC’s desire to move forward expeditiously with the incentive auction."

Lost in the net neutrality debate “is the lack of a demonstrable need" for open Internet rules “as validated by a rigorous and factually sound cost-benefit analysis,” wrote FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in an op-ed in the National Review Online Thursday (http://bit.ly/1mCyGUp). “Consumers can already access whatever Internet content, applications, and services they desire. When traffic is treated differently, such as prioritizing a voice call or video stream over an e-mail, it is part of sensible network management. And if you talk to broadband providers, they'll tell you that this isn’t going to change. The Internet has flourished because of the government’s hands-off approach."

Correction: NARUC’s FCC reply filing on HD voice is at http://bit.ly/VLFXaJ (CD July 10 p5).