Nov. 5 Practising Law Institute “talk like a geek” webcast, 9 a.m. -- http://xrl.us/bnudjr

The presidential campaigns of President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney have begun efforts to select candidates for their administrations’ top communications positions, whichever candidate wins Nov. 6. Such efforts include preliminary plans for who might replace any outgoing administration officials, if Obama is reelected, and if Romney becomes president, determine who would be nominated for high-level telecom positions in the new administration. We recently interviewed former and current Democratic and Republican government officials to understand who will likely help each candidate make the necessary agency appointments if his campaign wins next Tuesday. The campaigns declined to comment, as did those said to be directly involved in the early-on planning efforts.

Oct. 29 FCBA Intellectual Property Committee brown bag lunch on Internet Radio Fairness Act, 12:15 p.m., Wilkinson Barker, 2300 N St. NW, Suite 7 -- http://xrl.us/bimfn6

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai pushed for creation of an Internet Protocol transition task force to help modernize the commission’s “anachronistic laws” and accelerate the technological changes in the communications industry. “We need to adopt a holistic approach to confronting this challenge instead of addressing issues on a piecemeal basis as they happen to pop up,” Pai said Tuesday at an event on Internet transformation hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Communications Liberty and Innovation Project (CLIP). “The work of the task force will be as daunting as it is necessary, for we simply cannot not import the broken, burdensome economic regulations of the PSTN [public switched telephone network] into an all-IP world."

Judges seemed skeptical that the FCC’s mandatory data roaming order imposed common carrier obligations on Verizon Wireless and other carriers, in oral argument Thursday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Wiley Rein attorney Helgi Walker, arguing for Verizon, said the order opened up a “vast new frontier” of Title III authority. The FCC argued it had plain authority to enact the rules under the licensing provision in Section 303(b) of the Communications Act. A divided commission approved the measure last year, requiring carriers to offer data roaming on “commercially reasonable” terms and conditions, as proposed in the National Broadband Plan (CD April 8/11 p1). Verizon quickly appealed.

Opting out of any first-ever ITU Internet regulation may cause as many problems as proposals for Internet Protocol traffic’s cost to be borne by sending parties -- an idea some countries are pursuing at the World Conference on International Telecom, U.S. and industry officials said Wednesday. They discussed a scenario of nations or private parties sitting out International Telecom Regulations to be discussed in December when the update to the 1988 ITR is considered at a WCIT meeting in Dubai. The practical effect of what could amount to a boycott by some players, on the Internet and devices connected to Web networks, would be similar to the negative effect the regulations some developing and European countries are seeking could have on such systems. That’s according to speakers at a Media Institute event in Washington. A scenario where debate on a new ITR sees some countries escape the treaty entirely would “lead to fragmentation,” said Sally Wentworth of the Internet Society, an ITU “sector member."

CTIA and carriers won a victory at the Federal Election Commission, which handed down an advisory order saying carriers are not responsible for enforcing election laws when they lease smart codes used to make contributions to a political campaign. Jan Baran, an election law expert at Wiley Rein who represented CTIA on the issue, called it a “good decision” that allows carriers to move forward on working with campaigns to process electronic contributions.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The robust Supreme Court jurisprudence on First Amendment law doesn’t seem to favor San Francisco’s case defending its law requiring retailers to provide information about potentially harmful effects of cellphone use at the point of sale, a judge hearing the case said during oral argument Thursday. CTIA and the city and county of San Francisco each appealed aspects of a U.S. District Court’s ruling on the law (CD Oct 31 p7), which CTIA says violates the industry’s First Amendment rights. The argument Thursday was over whether a preliminary injunction against the city from enforcing its new law should be lifted. “Let’s assume this case is going to go the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Consuelo Callahan, judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. “Tell me how you're going to get upheld there,” she asked a lawyer from San Francisco’s City Attorney’s office.

The FCC will use Web services, off-site backup and dedicated hardware to make sure its online political file system works well when TV stations are required to begin using it Aug. 2, Chief Data Officer Greg Elin told broadcasters Tuesday. Along the way, the commission is working to address concerns broadcasters have raised in testing of the system so far, he said. Separately, the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) wrote the commission to endorse an alternate proposal to the requirements that a group of TV station owners proposed that the commission’s majority didn’t take up in approving political file rules in April on a 2-1 vote.

*June 18 American Consumer Institute panel on “looming spectrum crunch,” noon, 2103 Rayburn building -- steve@theamericanconsumer.org