There was a one percent decrease in the number of federal and state intercepts for wire, oral or electronic communications authorized in 2014 from 2013, said the 2014 Wiretap Report published Wednesday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which is required to report to the figures to Congress each year. The numbers don't include data on interceptions authorized and regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it said. A total 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized in 2014, with 1,279 intercepts authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges, it said. Wire surveillance on a telephone, whether by landline, cellular, cordless or mobile, accounted for 93 percent of all applications, it said. The number of wiretaps approved by federal judges decreased by 13 percent in 2014 from 2013 figures, but state judges approved 8 percent more applications, it said. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, it said. The most state judge requests -- 43 percent -- were authorized in California. The District of Arizona authorized the most federal wiretaps, at 7 percent of all applications, it said.

AOL will assume management and sales responsibility for all Microsoft display, mobile and video advertising inventory in nine markets -- the U.S., Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the U.K., said a joint news release Tuesday. AOL will represent Microsoft’s online brands like the MSN homepage, Outlook mail, Skype, Xbox and ads in apps, they said. The success of AOL’s One, the first cross-screen programmatic advertising platform with integrated multitouch attribution optimizing campaigns from Web to TV, which launched in April, let AOL take on additional demand and inventory, they said. Under the agreement covering AOL’s expanded partnership with Microsoft, AOL will transition to using the Bing-powered search engine beginning Jan. 1, said the companies. Verizon last week bought AOL (see 1506230044).

Friday’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage “not only is a step forward for equality and humanity, it allows American businesses to attract the best employees without regard to the marriage laws of their state,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement. That’s why “a progressive and inclusive view of marriage is pro-business, pro-innovation policy,” Shapiro said. Diversity is served because “my nation's highest court recognizes that a person should not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality,” he said. Other tech leaders reacting to the decision included Apple CEO Tim Cook, who tweeted: “Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.” For Verizon, "when you’re in the business of connecting people across the planet, diversity needs to be a part of your DNA and your blueprint for success," wrote Senior Vice President-Public Policy and Government Affairs Mike Glover on the carrier's blog Friday.

Many Americans, especially African-Americans and Hispanics, are still struggling to find jobs, but broadband offers some hope, said Ralph Everett, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy, in a white paper. Everett said the USF Lifeline program can help. “The FCC’s Lifeline program, if updated to cover broadband, can help ensure that young students and other lower income Americans can fully participate in the 21st century economy,” he said. But changes are needed. Lifeline “needs to be revised so that consumers are empowered to decide for themselves what communications services best meet their needs, and are provided the financial assistance to take advantage of this right to choose,” he wrote. “In addition, and this is critical to success, the program must be reformed to wring out waste, fraud, and abuse in order to maximize the dollars available to those who qualify for assistance.”

The FCC Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture holds its third meeting July 27, the FCC said in notice in the Federal Register Tuesday. The task force is to vote on the recommendations and report of Working Group 3, “Optimal Approach to Next-Generation 911 Resource Allocation for PSAPs,” the FCC said. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters in Washington.

Frontier Secure is knocking $150 off the price of a Nest thermostat to $99 for subscribers who update the speed of their Internet service, the company said Tuesday. “The Internet has become so much more than smartphones, tablets and computers,” said Kelly Morgan, general manager. The connected Nest thermostat helps consumers save 10-15 percent on energy usage, said Frontier.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos was among those attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser featuring President Barack Obama in Beverly Hills, California, Thursday at the home of filmmaker Tyler Perry, said White House pool reports. About 250 supporters paid $2,500 to $33,400 each to attend, the reports said. Netflix has been a vocal lobbying force in the net neutrality debates for more than a year and strongly pressured the FCC to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, as Obama himself did in November.

The FCC set the comment deadlines on a March NPRM on Part 4 outage reporting rules (see 1503300066). The NPRM is aimed at improving “the reliability and resiliency of the Nation’s communication system, in particular to strengthen the Nation’s 911 system,” said a Wednesday notice. Comments are due July 16, replies July 31.

The FCC will ask the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to work on additional cybersecurity issues when the rechartered CSRIC V convenes June 24 for its first public meeting, Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Simpson said in a Monday blog post. CSRIC voted in March to adopt recommendations on adapting the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework for communications sector use (see 1503180056). The CSRIC report drew wide praise from industry stakeholders, including in comments published earlier this month (see 1506010055). That report was one of CSRIC IV’s “biggest achievements” and “I expect the new CSRIC to build on these efforts by developing recommendations on how communications companies can improve information sharing about cyber risks within the private sector,” Simpson said. The FCC also expects CSRIC V to develop recommendations on reducing the frequency and impact of “misrouted” 911 calls, improving Next-Generation 911 and emergency alert systems, and enhancing communications infrastructure reliability, Simpson said. “I also expect that members will examine the challenges associated with prioritizing emergency communications during disaster-related infrastructure outages,” he said. The CSRIC meeting is set to begin at 1 p.m. at FCC headquarters.

The FCC proposed a Q3 industry USF contribution factor of 17.1 percent, said the Office of Managing Director in a public notice in docket 96-45 that also appeared in Monday's Daily Digest. That means telecom carriers would generally have to contribute 17.1 percent of their interstate and international telecom revenue to the USF mechanism, which is slightly down from Q2's 17.4 percent but up from Q3 2014's 15.7 percent. The USF contribution factor has been trending up over time as USF demand increases and the industry interstate/international telecom revenue base erodes. Industry contributions pay for USF's four programs, which are projected to need $2.17 billion in Q3. High-cost rural support remains the most expensive program, needing $1.14 billion (after certain adjustments), followed by schools and libraries (E-rate discounts) at $618.9 million, low income (Lifeline) at $344.6 million, and rural healthcare at $68 million. The industry's interstate/international end-user telecom revenue base was calculated at $15.05 billion, which is down from Q2's $15.15 billion and Q3 2014's $16.02 billion. After adjustments to account for "circularity" (taking out the amount needed to fund USF) and uncollectible contributions, the industry revenue number is divided by the $2.17 billion in projected USF demand to produce the 17.1 percent industry contribution factor. If the FCC takes no further action, the proposed contribution factor will be deemed approved June 26. Carriers are allowed to recover line-item fees on consumer phone bills but those fees can't exceed 17.1 percent of the interstate/international telecom charges.