The FCC will take up a report and order providing a “limited expansion” of the class of wireless microphone users eligible for a license under FCC rules, the commission said Thursday. As expected, the agency is also set to vote on a net neutrality NPRM, services rules for the TV incentive auction and spectrum aggregation rules in what is shaping up to be a massive meeting for the agency.

Many broadcasters still have a very negative view of the planned TV incentive auction, Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said at a Mobile Future forum Thursday. (See related story in this issue.) “The only way I believe the FCC is going to punch through the negativity that’s out there is by signaling a financial guidance to the broadcasters as to what kind of starting prices they can expect to see in this auction and they need to do that now,” he said. “They can’t wait.” Padden said the auction offers big opportunities for broadcasters. “If you're lucky enough to own a station in a market, the few markets where the FCC will be looking to buy spectrum, and the commission comes in and offers you 10 or nine or eight times what your station is worth as a television station, the only sensible thing to do is sell,” he said. “If you want to stay in the industry go out and buy yourself … stations to replace the one you sold or move up in markets, you don’t have to leave the business.” Padden said members of his group raised concerns with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a meeting last week (CD April 21 p1). “The chairman was very open and direct,” Padden said. “I think of the five issues we raised he said what we wanted to hear on about four and a half.” For example, members asked Wheeler about something he had reportedly said to a station broker that the FCC “could get all the stations … needed in New York for a total price that implied a completely unrealistically low payment,” Padden said. “The chairman’s response when we put that number out to him was a single word that roughly equates to bovine excrement."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler questioned Wednesday whether AT&T would really sit out the TV incentive auction if the agency impose bidding restictions, as suggested by a top official at the carrier last week (CD April 17 p1). “Anybody who has advocated so hard for additional spectrum, it would be hard to conceive of not participating” in the auction, Wheeler said during a news conference after the commission’s meeting: “They've made a really good case as to why there’s a need for more spectrum.” Wheeler was also asked if he considers the wireless industry competitive. Under Wheeler’s predecessor, Julius Genachowski, the FCC in annual wireless competition reports repeatedly declined to find that the wireless industry is effectively competitive. “That is always a question that is in flux and always a question that you want to be asking and interpreting,” he said. “What we are trying to do is to make sure that there is sufficient spectrum so that there can be sufficient competition.” AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens indicated Tuesday AT&T has not made any decisions on the auction (CD April 23 p21).

Net neutrality will be a focus of the FCC May 15 meeting, Chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed Wednesday. As expected (CD April 23 p4), Wheeler plans to circulate a NPRM on the issue Thursday, he told reporters in a Q&A session after Wednesday’s commission open meeting. (See separate reports above in this issue.) The net neutrality redux comes three months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out the agency’s 2010 rules, finding them too close to prohibited common-carriage requirements. The NPRM will be consistent with the framework Wheeler laid out in February, an FCC official said, following the “blueprint” of the court opinion. Wheeler said then (CD Feb 20 p1) that he intended to enhance the transparency rule, and ensure ISPs don’t unfairly block or discriminate against Web services. Consideration of using Title II authority remains on the table, Wheeler said then. The D.C. Circuit decision gave the agency broad authority to regulate under Communications Act Section 706, and Wheeler has frequently indicated he would accept the court’s “invitation” to regulate.

Corrections: The Joseph Group didn’t lobby on NCTA’s behalf about Comcast’s proposed buy of Time Warner Cable (CD April 23 p9), and the lobbying firm is updating a disclosure form to reflect that, an NCTA spokesman told us Wednesday. He reiterated that NCTA has no position on the deal and is not lobbying regarding it on Capitol Hill. … Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers total Q1 lobbying spending was $145,000, including paying Mehlman Vogel $75,000, Kountoupes Denham $60,000 and $10,000 on in-house lobbying, some of which accounted for the compensation of Jamie Hedlund, assistant to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, and Hedlund said he doesn’t get paid to lobby (CD April 23 p19). Total ICANN lobbying spending was $145,000 each in Q1, Q3 and Q4 2013, and $140,000 in Q2.

AT&T hasn’t given up on the FCC’s incentive TV auction, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said on a call with analysts Tuesday as the company released its results for the first quarter of 2014. “We would like to participate at the auction,” he said. “We are and have been working with the commission to establish auction rules that will promote a good result for AT&T, but will also promote a successful result for the auction.” Stephens said while AT&T is always looking for spectrum, “we feel pretty good with our spectrum position right now; we feel like we've positioned ourselves well.” AT&T Q1 wireless revenue rose 7 percent over the same quarter from last year, it said. Consolidated revenue was $32.5 billion, up 3.6 percent, AT&T said in an earnings release (http://soc.att.com/1jGjS3d). Earnings per share were a diluted 70 cents compared to 67 cents a year earlier. AT&T added 625,000 net wireless subscribers, its best quarter in five years, it said. Seventy-two percent of the adds were tablets. Post-paid churn was 1.07 percent in what Stephens termed “a noisy competitive environment.” Wireline revenue was up 4.6 percent and the carrier now has 11.3 million total U-verse subscribers, the company said. “Wireless postpaid net adds were more than twice as many as a year ago, AT&T Next sales surpassed our expectations, and we had a tremendous surge in Mobile Share plans of 10 gigs or higher,” said CEO Randall Stephenson. “We also had our best wireline consumer revenue growth since we first introduced U-verse in 2006 as our Project VIP build continues to make progress.”

Modernizing the E-Rate program is a major priority for the FCC, Chairman Tom Wheeler reiterated during a webinar for state and local government officials on Tuesday. “To say we're dedicated to the modernization of the entire program, there couldn’t be a truer statement,” Wheeler said. Addressing the pending rulemaking over cell facilities siting, he said, “It’s just really basic that if we're going to have competition that protects consumers, promotes innovation and drives lower prices, we have to have the facilities out there that will deliver the competition. Those facilities should not be impeded in their rollout.” On net neutrality, Wheeler said the January U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decision was “an invitation to act and I intend to accept that invitation.” FCC Associate General Counsel Stephanie Weiner said an NPRM (see separate report above in this issue) on net neutrality could be released in late spring or early summer. Wheeler also repeated that the FCC is seeking to preserve enduring values like universal service during the IP transition. Matthew DelNero, Wireline Bureau deputy chief, said a managerial framework laying out the order in which the FCC might handle IP transition issues could be released later this spring.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez will speak on a panel on international cooperation in merger cases at the International Competition Network (ICN) Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Friday, said an FTC press release (http://1.usa.gov/1pndwgb). The conference, which begins Wednesday, features “antitrust officials and private sector antitrust experts from around the world and representatives of intergovernmental organizations,” who will “discuss key competition issues and recent ICN work in the areas of agency effectiveness, mergers, unilateral conduct, cartels, and advocacy,” it said. The FTC and the Justice Department, along with 13 international antitrust organizations, created the ICN in October 2001, it said. The conference ends Friday, it said.

AT&T said Monday it wants to expand its U-verse with GigaPower fiber network into 21 additional metro areas, serving an additional 100 cities. The potential expansion areas are: Atlanta, Augusta, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Texas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Greensboro, N.C., Houston, Jacksonville, Fla., Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Tenn., Oakland, Calif., Orlando, Fla., San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif. The telco said Monday it has begun negotiations with local governments in the 21 markets, as it previously did in Austin, Texas, and Dallas. AT&T is already offering a 300 Mbps version of the service in Austin and plans to deploy the 1 Gbps service later this year (http://soc.att.com/1jx3TEr). AT&T said it is also continuing “advanced discussions” on deployment of the fiber network in two North Carolina markets -- Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem (CD April 11 p14). The planned network can deliver broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps and AT&T’s “most advanced TV services,” the telco said. Google has already rolled out fiber service in Kansas City, Kan., and is deploying its network in other cities in the Kansas City metro area and Austin that could overlap with AT&T’s planned network. Other potential areas where Google wants to deploy include Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham and San Jose. AT&T’s announcement “heralds a tipping point: fiber in the Americas is on fire,” said Fiber to the Home Council Americas President Heather Burnett Gold in a statement. “Around the world -- but importantly, here in the U.S. -- we are beginning to see fiber to the home treated not as a novelty, but as vital public and private infrastructure.”

Libraries are “so incredibly key to what gets done” in the country, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at an event hosted by the Institute of Library and Museum Services Thursday (http://cs.pn/1l9dXJm). “The library has always been the on-ramp to the world of information and ideas, and now that on-ramp is at gigabit speeds.” Libraries are playing an increasingly important role in American society, as students go there to get online after school, and Americans use Internet access there to apply for healthcare or a job, he said. E-rate modernization is important, Wheeler said. “Reallocations of resources are never easy, and never pleasant, but they're essential if we are to keep moving forward,” he said. The FCC is moving toward a “broadband to the person” model, focusing not just on bringing Internet to the library but to the individual inside the library, he said. “The key is not just more money -- although if more money is warranted, we will deal with that,” Wheeler said. “The key is money well-spent by encouraging consortia; by creating longer support periods so you can have longer contracts with lower rates; and by establishing a system of reference pricing so that people know what is a fair price.” Librarians aren’t expected to become telecom experts that can “haggle with telecom companies,” he said. Limited pilot programs will also test new approaches that could benefit everyone, Wheeler said. Andrew Carnegie built 2,500 libraries in a public-private partnership, defining information access for millions of people for more than a century, Wheeler said. “We stand on the precipice of being able to have the same kind of seminal impact on the flow of information and ideas in the 21st century,” he said. “That’s why reform of the E-rate program is so essential.” Parents have lost some focus on the idea that kids need to come to school prepared to learn, said Tom Power, deputy chief technology officer for telecom at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House. The school is not just an “island” where education happens, he said; the whole community needs to be focused on educating children. That’s why the role of libraries is so important, Power said. He highlighted three NTIA case studies released Thursday on the impact of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program on connecting libraries (http://1.usa.gov/1l9dVBi). In Delaware, new job centers helped 420 people obtain job offers; in Michigan, the installation of several thousand computers saved users more than 160,000 hours of wait time per year for library computers; in Texas, a nonprofit technology group worked with libraries and social service organizations to train more than a million participants on computer and Internet use. “Libraries are truly centers of lifetime learning,” Power said.