The Department of Energy hasn’t drawn any “hard conclusions” on whether utilities should build their own communications networks or rely on commercial networks for smart grid applications, following two smart grid proceedings, DOE General Counsel Scott Harris said Tuesday. The department is leaning toward the position that the utilities should be able to decide on what type of networks they need for smart grid, he told the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. Harris briefed the center on the department’s conclusions in proceedings on smart grid communications needs of utilities and data access and privacy issues related to smart meters.

Marketing and media trade associations’ creation of an icon to give consumers control over the collection and use of their data is a step in the right direction but may not be enough to improve consumer trust, some privacy advocates said. The Direct Marketing Association, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and other groups are educating their members about the Advertising Option Icon, a feature that can be displayed near online ads and on Web pages where data is collected and used for behavioral advertising. The icon leads consumers to disclosure statements regarding a company’s advertising data collection and features an opt-out mechanism.

Verizon Wireless overcharged more than 15 million Americans tens of millions of dollars in unwarranted fees for data use, the FCC Enforcement Bureau found in an investigation, Bureau Chief Michele Ellison said in a statement. The carrier said it will repay subscribers money they don’t owe, but Ellison sharply criticized the company for having responded slowly when complaints emerged last year.

The FCC appears likely to extend an emergency alerting deadline for cable systems and radio and TV stations to start using a newly released warning standard made public last week by FEMA (CD Oct 1 p12) after several delays of its own, commission and industry officials predicted. Under current FCC rules, broadcasters and cable operators must certify compliance with Common Alerting Protocol 180 days after the standard was released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency last Thursday. The regulator seems poised to delay that deadline, perhaps for several months and either for all who would be subject to CAP compliance or for those licensees who say they can’t meet the deadline, FCC and industry officials said.

The FCC should “peel away” some of the least contentious problems in a Universal Service Fund overhaul “instead of trying to boil the ocean,” Frontier Chairman Maggie Wilderotter told us Monday. Wilderotter was in town for an unrelated conference but met Monday morning with Chairman Julius Genachowski’s chief of staff, Eddie Lazarus. She said the commission could more easily tackle problems like phantom traffic. “That’s a big area they could clear up,” she said. “They have the authority to do that tomorrow” by subjecting all calls, even Internet voice, to USF charges and by changing the formula so it reflects the actual costs of service.

Harbinger Capital Partners will sell a large chunk of its stake in Inmarsat and is no longer interested in acquiring the company, the private investment firm said Monday. Harbinger sought to buy in 2008 but pulled back after regulatory hurdles proved too high. The firm, which owns 28 percent of Inmarsat, didn’t give a reason for the sell-off. Harbinger’s LightSquared separately said it would accelerate plans to use Inmarsat spectrum for its wholesale terrestrial wireless network based on early demand.

The role managed services already play on broadband networks has gotten muddled in the net neutrality debate, panelists said Friday at a discussion hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Forum. Speakers said competition is thriving but quality of service (QoS) issues will continue to get significant attention as the net neutrality debate continues in Congress and at the FCC.

Dish Network subscribers lost access to a variety of regional sports networks (RSN) last week as the direct broadcast satellite operator failed to sign new contracts with Fox Sports and Madison Square Garden networks. It asked the FCC to step into the latter dispute and preserve its carriage of MSG’s networks while the agency considers its program access complaint. The programmers, meanwhile, are urging subscribers to switch providers. Dish’s contract to carry 19 Fox Sports RSNs, FX and the National Geographic Channel expired Sept. 30, and it’s advertising online and in print to call viewers to action. Fox is telling Dish subscribers they may also lose access to Fox-owned Fox and MyNetworkTV stations Nov. 1 if a new deal isn’t reached. Dish continues to negotiate with both Fox and MSG, a spokeswoman said.

The FCC’s Diversity Federal Advisory Committee is expected to take up a new “overcoming disadvantages” category for designated entities at an Oct. 14 meeting. The proposal comes as the agency takes a wider look at its DE rules after an August decision by the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which sent part of the rules back to the commission for further consideration. David Honig, executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, said in an interview that members of the advisory committee have spent many hours looking at ways to make the DE rules work better.

The FCC is studying a revised radio deal between the Educational Media Foundation, which owns several hundred translators, and the Prometheus Radio Project, representing low-power FM (LPFM) stations, commission and industry officials said Friday. A memorandum of understanding between Prometheus and EMF seeks to sort out a long-pending pile of applications for FM translators and to give some rights to low-power stations looking to spectrum that full-service broadcasters had sought. Commissioners’ offices and career FCC staffers are considering the deal, as are radio industry bodies that haven’t signed on as the staffers had sought, commission and industry officials said.