EBay completed the $800 million acquisition of mobile device payment company Braintree, which will be a PayPal service and run by Braintree CEO Bill Ready, said eBay in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ce23Zx). Braintree handles payment for companies like Airbnb, OpenTable and Uber, and its Venmo app allows for payments by mobile devices, said eBay. It projected Braintree will have $12 billion in payment volume this year, a third “driven” by mobile payments. PayPal will handle $20 billion in transactions on mobile devices this year, eBay CEO John Donahoe has said.

American Public Transportation Association staff told the FCC the group’s members continue to have trouble “acquiring the radio frequency spectrum that is required to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) on publicly funded commuter railroads,” APTA said Wednesday in a filing about a conference call Dec. 12 with FCC staff. APTA members New Jersey Transit, Metro-North Railroad and Trinity Railway Express discussed their specific spectrum challenges, APTA said (http://bit.ly/1i4TXVj).

Americans, not Europeans, are leading the way on wireless and the use of data, CTIA President Steve Largent said in a Thursday blog post. “There is a troublesome trend occurring where some people are suggesting that the mobile environment in Europe is better for consumers than the U.S.,” Largent said (http://bit.ly/1i4TO4n). “This is bothersome and unfortunate since these individuals fundamentally fail to understand reality, or selectively choose facts to support their beliefs. Around the world, it is understood that the United States is leading the mobile revolution.”

The market outcome for the license fee under the retransmission consent paradigm may not be socially efficient, the Phoenix Center said in a white paper. The paper, released Thursday, said broadcast regulation “creates a type of positive information externality,” and private transactions don’t typically account for externalities, Phoenix said in a news release (http://bit.ly/JMx7nv). That means “the market price for the retransmission fee is theoretically ’too high,’ both relative to the socially-optimal price and the market price of an otherwise-equivalent cable network,” it said. This “spread” is a consequence of a disharmony “between the historical and continuing policy of the broadcast social contract and the ‘market’ approach embodied in the retransmission consent regime.” For there to be a true market solution to retrans consent, “Congress must eliminate, or meaningfully reduce the scope of, the social contract, including the various protectionist and support mechanisms given to the broadcast industry,” the paper said (http://bit.ly/190kpKN). Revising rules for network non-duplication and syndicated programming exclusivity would allow customers of multichannel video programming distributors access to highly desired network and sports programming, it said. However, given the retransmission of distant signals is also governed by contracts between networks and affiliates, “it is unclear how much help repeal of the exclusivity rules will actually provide.” Congress could amend the retransmission consent provisions of the Communications Act to allow the FCC to authorize interim carriage of a station by an MVPD pending the conclusion of a new agreement, it said. “This solution would continue to satisfy Congress’ substantial interest in having local commercial broadcast stations appear in MVPD channel packages."

Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary, Windy City Cellular, met with an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Monday to ask the commission to grant its petition for waiver of the per-line monthly caps on high-cost universal service support, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1jmUWlk). “The companies have embodied the very purpose of universal service by working hard and reinvesting USF support to maintain essential services -- including the only reliable 911 service, the only broadband service, the only wireline service, and the most comprehensive wireless service -- for residents, government agencies, business, and workers on Adak Island -- one of the most remote areas of the United States,” said the Alaskan carriers. The Wireline and Wireless bureaus’ rejection of the waiver request makes no sense “from a legal, policy, or fiscal perspective,” they said. “AEE and WCC are hopeful that the Chairman will promptly correct course before their interim relief expires in two weeks and the companies are forced into bankruptcy."

The TV White Space Database Administrators Group filed a revised version of its “Database-to-Database Synchronization Interoperability Specification” at the FCC. The document (http://bit.ly/1i4nQoW) lays out a standard for database operators to exchange information on protected entities, as required by FCC rules.

It’s important to implement Phase II of the Connect America Fund “promptly and thoughtfully,” Frontier, Windstream and USTelecom told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1jmUunl). The groups, representing the ABC Coalition, told the aide that many challengers of Round 2 of CAF Phase I incremental support “have not borne their burden” of demonstrating the challenged census blocks are “in fact served” by fixed Internet service of at least 3 Mbps down/768 kbps up.

Intelsat requested 30-day special temporary authority beginning Jan. 23 for its Nuevo, Calif., C-band earth station. Intelsat intends to use the earth station, call sign E040125, “to provide launch and early orbit phase services for the ABS-2 satellite that is expected to be launched” Jan. 23, it said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/1ce0ZEX).

The FCC is “broken” and takes too long to respond to technological change and solve problems, said the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council in a response to the commission’s call for suggestions on how to revamp procedures (CD Dec 6 p3). MMTC’s comments propose a litany of procedural tweaks to improve the commission’s speed and responsiveness to diversity issues and tech advancements. The list includes the creation of a National Broadband Plan Advisory Committee to update the commission’s broadband plan every two years to “keep pace” with “disruptive technologies,” allowing commissioners other than the chairman to bring an item up for vote and a U.S. Supreme Court-style cert process for applications for review. MMTC also suggested commission procedure could be sped up if major decisions were each assigned a specific commissioner to shepherd them so they move “through the agency to the 8th floor expeditiously.” On diversity, MMTC suggested the Enforcement Bureau create a Civil Rights Division, that the commission hire a chief diversity officer, and that a commissioner could take responsibility “for inclusion and competitive opportunities for minority- and women-owned business enterprises.” Most of the suggested reforms could be adopted without congressional action, said MMTC. “Most of them would cost nothing and could produce savings for the Commission, as well as growth, job creation and diversity for the regulated industries."

T-Mobile filed at the FCC a list of counties, or parts of counties, it serves in which it can’t use triangulation to locate callers to 911. All made the list “because of insufficient quantity, density, and/or geometry of cell sites in those areas to support network-based triangulation,” T-Mobile said. The nine-page list (http://bit.ly/1beRGhZ) adds 62 counties to the previous list from 2011. The FCC’s 911 location-accuracy rules require carriers to identify callers with a defined level of accuracy on a county-by-county basis, but provide exceptions where dense forestation or the lack of triangulation mean those levels can’t be reached.