Friday’s FCC workshop on GPS protection and receiver performance opens with remarks by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and features keynote remarks by Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, deputy chief information officer at the Department of Defense, said the schedule released Friday (http://bit.ly/STQKhw). Panels will take on the importance of GPS to critical infrastructure and public safety and GPS/Global Navigation Satellite System receiver performance, among other topics. The session is to start at 9 a.m. at FCC headquarters and end with remarks by FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp at 5 p.m.

The popular John Oliver segment on net neutrality was “creative” and “funny,” but “satire is not C-SPAN,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters after the meeting Friday. Oliver’s 13-minute attack on the proposed net neutrality rules, featured June 1 on HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, was apparently enough to crash the agency’s comment filing system (CD June 3 p5). The segment, which Wheeler watched twice, “represents the high level of interest that exists in the topic in the country, and that’s good,” Wheeler said. After a brief pause, Wheeler added: “I would like to state for the record that I'm not a dingo. I had to go look it up. It’s a feral, wild animal in Australia.” Oliver had said having a former cable lobbyist in charge of passing net neutrality rules was akin to asking the dingo to watch your baby.

Verizon CEO Dan Mead met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler this week in part to discuss the TV incentive auction, industry officials told us. Wheeler made clear to Mead that the FCC expected Verizon to play an active role in the auction, industry sources said. No filing on the meeting had been posted by the FCC Thursday afternoon. Wheeler met with both Mead and new CTIA President Meredith Baker, a former FCC commissioner. Verizon has signaled concerns that the FCC imposed limits that will restrict the company’s bidding in the auction. Verizon Senior Vice President Craig Silliman said in a recent interview on C-SPAN the carrier has concerns “about putting any sort of restrictions in auctions,” (CD May 30 p5). By most accounts Verizon and AT&T scored a victory May 15 when the commission approved auction rules (CD May 16 p5).

The FCC is adjusting the Form 477 broadband deployment data filing window, which it extended by about a month, said the agency in a public notice in docket 11-10 Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1v434ts). The window typically runs July 1-Sept. 1 for data through June 30; the window for that data now is July 31-Oct. 1, the agency said. The changed timeline is due to “ongoing development and testing” of the Form 477 interface for collecting large volumes of fixed and mobile broadband deployment data previously collected by NTIA, the agency said. NTIA shifted control over broadband mapping to the FCC.

Arent Fox began a blog (http://bit.ly/1hRPJSS) focusing on telecom and technology, said the law firm in a news release Thursday. It said Deadlines & Headlines “aims to provide clients with updates from lawyers at the firm on the legal issues that are impacting the telecommunications, mobile, and technology sectors."

The American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, University of Nebraska College of Law and the FCC plan a workshop Sept. 10-12 on “Regulating the Evolving Broadband Ecosystem,” AEI said in a news release. Attendance is by invitation only for the conference at FCC headquarters. AEI asked those who are interested in taking part to submit abstracts of papers to be discussed at the workshop (http://bit.ly/Uua1aA). Among the topics are whether the FCC’s “light touch” approach to Internet regulation is working.

Ten entities are founding partners in the R2 Leader e-waste program, said the Sustainable Electronics Recycling Initiative (SERI), which runs R2 certifications. They include DirecTV, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony America and Xerox. R2 Leaders have committed “to support R2 certified electronics refurbishment and recycling, as well as consider R2 certification when choosing a recycling partner,” SERI said. “R2 Leaders also take a leadership role in a project to advance responsible reuse and/or recycling around the world, such as funding pilot projects for responsible recycling in developing countries, or creating new programs for electronics collection, refurbishment or recycling.” The R2 e-waste recycling standard was created six years ago to promote “best practices” in worker health and safety, environmental protection, chain-of-custody reporting, data security and other areas, SERI said. More than 540 e-waste facilities in 17 countries are R2-certified, SERI said. Not all are on board with R2, including the green group Basel Action Network (BAN), which runs the e-Stewards recycling certification program. Though it hails recent improvements in R2, including a new “code of practice,” BAN thinks the standard has “fundamental flaws” that “unfortunately facilitate socially and environmentally irresponsible behavior” in the e-waste industry, it said. Not only does R2 not conform to international hazardous waste laws that have been ratified by 180 countries under the Basel Convention, but its standard also allows a recycler to claim certification without actually certifying all facilities under its control, BAN said.

It’s in the “best interests of consumers and competition that the FCC exercises its power to preempt state laws that ban or restrict competition from community broadband,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1oKfEfA). “Given the opportunity, we will do so.” Competitions works “when it is allowed to,” Wheeler said. “Throughout the country where we have seen competitive broadband providers come in to a market, prices have gone down and broadband speeds have gone up. No wonder incumbent broadband providers want to legislate rather than innovate,” Wheeler said. Removing restrictions on community broadband “can expand high-speed Internet access in underserved areas, spurring economic growth and improvements in government services, while enhancing competition,” Wheeler said. Wheeler met Monday with Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke to examine that community’s broadband network. An investment by Chattanooga in community broadband has helped ensure all its citizens have Internet access, and made the city “a hub for the high-tech jobs people usually associate with Silicon Valley,” Wheeler said. The network was built “out of necessity” as local phone and cable companies “chose to delay improvements and broadband service to the Chattanooga area market,” Wheeler said. Adjoining communities have asked the Chattanooga mayor to join the network but they can’t because of Tennessee state law restricting the city from expanding its network’s footprint, Wheeler said. “Community broadband there hasn’t always been a success,” Wheeler said. “But a review of the record shows far more successes than failures. If the people, acting through their elected local governments, want to pursue competitive community broadband, they shouldn’t be stopped by state laws promoted by cable and telephone companies that don’t want that competition.” An FCC spokesman told us in late April it would announce an approach for challenging bans on community broadband by mid-May (CD April 29 p3).

The FCC seeks comment on the North American Numbering Council’s recommendation that Ericsson subsidiary Telcordia, doing business as iconectiv, be the next local number portability administrator (LPNA). That was as expected (CD June 10 p2). Comments in docket 09-109 are due July 10, replies July 25. NANC members unanimously recommended Telcordia as the next administrator, with one abstention, in its closed March 26 meeting, the FCC said in its public notice (http://bit.ly/1l4PgMh). NANC’s recommendation addressed how the LNPA should be selected, including the methodology and criteria that should be used; the cost differential among vendor national proposals; and transition costs and risks, the notice said. NANC also forwarded “investigative reports” in response a Wireline Bureau request that NANC respond to allegations of unfairness. NANC’s recommendation and accompanying reports were submitted confidentially, as were vendor submissions on technical, pricing and other proprietary information. A Telcordia spokesman said it looks forward to a “prompt” decision once the comment period ends. “A broad cross-section of carriers agrees that the selection ... needs to be finalized so that both consumers and providers can realize the benefits, including material cost savings,” he said. A spokeswoman for current LNPA Neustar declined to comment.

The administration should move quickly to name the U.S. ambassador to next year’s World Radiocommunication Conference, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Monday on the agency’s blog. Even if not officially appointed until later, the ambassador “should be identified as soon as practicable,” O'Rielly said (http://fcc.us/TACgno). “Doing so will allow that person to begin the complex task of working with all stakeholders to develop concrete positions.” An early decision is also important because the U.S. needs to coordinate its positions with other nations, he said. FCC commissioners also should play a larger role in WRC preparation, he said. Retired cable executive Decker Anstrom was U.S. ambassador to the 2012 conference, the last WRC and other only one during the Obama administration. The WRC runs Nov 2-27, 2015.