AT&T requested a rulemaking to amend FCC rules for the C and D blocks of the Wireless Communications Services (WCS) in the 2.3 GHz band. Mobile and portable stations should not be permitted to transmit in the 2315-2320 MHz and 2345-2350 MHz bands, “except that avionics stations may transmit in the 2315-2320 MHz band,” it said in a petition posted Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1sDuvMr). It suggested many other amendments on out-of-band-emissions limits, avionics stations and “specific requirements for coordination with Sirius XM,” it said. The amendments will allow AT&T to use its C and D blocks of spectrum for the air-to-ground component of its planned LTE-based in-flight connectivity service for airlines and passengers, it said. Adopting the proposals will put the WCS C and D blocks to use “in support of an innovative service and without causing harmful interference to adjacent bands,” it said.

Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and Free Press CEO Craig Aaron formally sought a meeting with President Barack Obama to raise concerns about the FCC’s net neutrality proposal. The proposal, approved by the FCC May 15, will “undermine Net Neutrality and imperil the future of the open Internet,” their Wednesday letter to Obama said (http://bit.ly/1mJMLwm). “The proposal would permit Internet service providers to bifurcate the network into fast lanes for the few who can pay and slow lanes for the rest of us.” Giving gatekeepers control over how information is accessed “makes a mockery of the dynamic nature of the Internet, stifles innovation, and jeopardizes our civic dialogue,” they said. The two said they're well aware the president is busy and they did not take lightly the step of seeking a meeting. “Our nation’s Internet future is on the line, and a wrong decision now will inflict irreparable damage to a platform that is central to our economic and social progress,” they said. “We request a meeting to discuss how to solidify open Internet protections.” Copps, a Democrat and member of the FCC from 2001 to 2011, heads the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause and is a member of the Free Press board. He was interim chair of the FCC at the beginning of the Obama administration.

Granting a Mozilla petition to classify remote delivery services as Title II telecom services might not allow the FCC to ban access fees, said Stanford Law’s Barbara van Schewick in a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1oIDQQz). Van Schewick is the faculty director of Stanford Law’s Center for Internet and Society. Because telecom services are defined as being offered for a fee, classifying services offered to edge providers as requested by Mozilla would leave edge providers that don’t charge fees vulnerable to blocking and discrimination by ISPs, van Schewick said. It would be “arbitrary and capricious” to use Title II as a “backstop” for net neutrality rules based on Section 706 of the Communications Act, van Schewick said. “The definitions of telecommunications service and information service are mutually exclusive,” said the filing.

Telecommunications Law Professionals has moved and its new address is 1025 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1011, in Washington, the law firm said Tuesday.

The government doesn’t have to disclose Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rulings about the telephone metadata collection program authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, ruled Monday. The Electronic Frontier Foundation had sued the Department of Justice, seeking the names of the phone companies helping the government collect call records, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said the release of such specifics could compromise national security. “Official confirmation of the existence of or general information about an intelligence program does not eliminate the dangers to national security of compelling disclosure of the program’s details,” Rogers said.

Officials from the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute urged the FCC to reclassify broadband as a Title II service, in a meeting with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet, said a filing posted by the FCC Tuesday. A “bounded, narrow approach under Title II would offer greater certainty and clarity for all stakeholders, and provides the soundest legal basis for strong open Internet protections,” said the filing (http://bit.ly/1AbuRL1) in docket 14-28. OTI also noted the international implications for U.S. publishers and edge providers if the FCC doesn’t clamp down on paid prioritization. “If the US codifies paid prioritization, almost certainly near-monopoly last-mile providers in other countries will quickly seek to extract additional fees from US companies,” the group said.

A five-year program dedicated to paying for internal E-rate connect requests from schools should enable coverage of 10.5 million students in funding year 2015, compared with 3.8 million students without the multiyear program, said an FCC staff report released Tuesday. The FCC approved its E-rate modernization at its July open meeting (CD July 14 p1). The order will provide $1 billion annually for the next five years for Wi-Fi connections within schools and libraries. The report was authored by staff of the Wireline Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis (http://bit.ly/1uoRcod). The FCC asked interested parties to comment on the data in the report as part of broader comments in docket 13-184 on a Further NPRM on the E-rate program (http://bit.ly/1kcJUAy).

Paid prioritization would hinder innovation in e-government, online voter registration, and online civic engagement, Common Cause representatives including Program Director Todd O'Boyle, Legal Fellow Allison Venuti, and Media and Democracy Fellow Michelle Forelle told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Monday, said an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/1ss3x6K) posted in docket 14-28 Thursday. Non-prioritized Web services would suffer from decreased traffic and utilization, creating a choice for local governments and non-profits of either facing curtailed traffic or paying access charges, the group’s representatives said. Access charges paid by local governments would ultimately be borne by local taxpayers, Common Cause said, while nonprofits may be excluded from the online marketplace of ideas. Communications Act Title II reclassification would offer voters and consumers safeguards, while relying on Section 706 to pass open Internet rules “would leave too much room for negotiation, leading to unacceptable fast lanes,” Common Cause said.

Correction: NATOA’s most recent monthly webinar, on FirstNet, was Aug. 4 (CD Aug 4 p21)

In an apparent first for the FCC, all three legal aides to an FCC commissioner live tweeted numerous times during Friday’s open meeting. Matthew Berry, Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) and Nick Degani (@NickDeganiFCC), aides to Commissioner Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC), all tweeted during the meeting, as did their boss, mostly about the text-to-911 item (see related story), which was the subject of a Pai dissent.