The Vermont Department of Public Service asked the FCC for a permanent waiver of Lifeline certification rules. The filing described how Vermont’s certification process works, and the department believes that process “meets the requirement of special circumstances that provide a proper basis for the granting of the permanent waiver,” it said (http://bit.ly/1hCj7rT). “The waiver will allow uninterrupted continuation of the current process in Vermont, which has demonstrated over a number of years to be successful in providing this valuable telephone service to eligible subscribers, while eliminating fraud and duplication of service, and also allowing Vermont subscribers to benefit from the state add-on program."

Vonage is modifying its VoIP service to comply with the FCC’s new rule banning false ringing tones, it said in a Thursday meeting with Wireline Bureau representatives (http://bit.ly/1eCDxmL). Currently, Vonage plays the rings on the small percentage of calls where it doesn’t receive a ring signal from an intermediate carrier within four seconds, it said. “It is not possible for Vonage to modify the analog terminal adapter to deliver a messaging solution consistent with the new ring signaling rules.” The VoIP provider said it’s “significantly modifying its service to deliver network-generated messages” to callers instead of the ringing tones.

Members of the GPS community again said the FCC shouldn’t permit the operations proposed in LightSquared’s request to use its spectrum for a terrestrial network until technical interference concerns have been resolved. The concerns should be resolved in “transparent, public notice and comment rulemaking proceedings,” like the process involving Dish Network’s AWS-4 spectrum, the GPS Innovation Alliance said in an ex parte filing in docket 11-109 (http://bit.ly/1cPXT5e). The filing recounted a meeting last week with members of the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis, it said.

There’s optimism multichannel video programming distributors will embark on a third stage of reducing power consumption by set-top boxes after an expanded voluntary agreement (VA) among MVPDs that now includes energy efficiency advocates ends Dec. 31, 2017, said two advocates. They said in interviews that they have some hope that a Tier 3 for further reductions in set-top energy, following the Tier 2 in the new voluntary agreement disclosed Monday (CD Dec 24 p1), could come to fruition, though they said further VA expansion would be a long way off. Jennifer Thorne Amann, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy buildings program director, is “guardedly optimistic” for a Tier 3, she said. “We've laid the basis for a relationship where we hopefully can get there,” and now she wants to see how the industry does with the new commitments, she said. “We'll be able to keep working with them to make continued progress,” because advocates are joining the steering committee overseeing the energy savings, said Amann. “It looked like a good opportunity for us certainly to capture a larger amount of savings” for set-tops than would have occurred absent the pact and waiting for the Department of Energy’s rulemaking process, she said. DOE said Monday it’s ending that process. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has targeted version 4 Energy Star specifications for set-top boxes, had no comment Tuesday on the amended VA. “Industry was very willing to work with us to make sure we had a seat at the table” and to make continued improvements, said Amann. Any Tier 3 could start Jan. 1, 2018, said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz. Information on set-top boxes’ energy use had been in the public domain, and with the deal “now, through other forums, the information will be more readily available,” said Vice President Evan Groat of Arris, which is part of the VA. “If consumers are interested, it’s something they can look at.” At Cisco in recent years, it has “become clear that we can do better when it comes to reducing set-top-box energy consumption,” wrote Vice President Joe Chow, who runs the company’s Connected Devices unit, on the blog of the participating VA company Monday (http://bit.ly/19e9IV9). He said the amended VA is a win for saving consumers money, protecting the environment and providing “regulatory certainty for manufacturers and providers alike.”

Time Warner Cable and Viacom reached a multiyear renewal of their retransmission consent agreement. The agreement allows TWC and Bright House Networks “to continue delivery of the entire portfolio of Viacom networks to their subscribers and provides an enriched multiplatform experience to a vast library of popular on-demand content,” Time Warner Cable and Viacom said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1jFxb8i). The agreement enables continued carriage of Viacom’s channels and content across linear TV in both SD and HD, video on-demand, authenticated websites and apps, it said. As part of an expansion of the arrangement, TWC will make the entertainment network Epix available to its subscribers under the terms of the agreement, it said. Time Warner Cable sometimes negotiates carriage deals on behalf of Bright House.

NCTA President Michael Powell, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President James Cicconi and Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen met with a senior aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday to discuss the pending judicial review of the net neutrality order, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1gUR1dT). They said that “regardless of how the case comes out, the principles articulated by the Commission enjoy widespread support and broadband customers will continue to enjoy unfettered access to Internet content and applications."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau dealt with various requests for more time beyond a Nov. 20 deadline for licensees along the Mexican border seeking 800 MHz rebanding reimbursement from Sprint to file cost estimates with the company. The order released Tuesday was part of the ongoing 800 MHz rebanding process. FCC rules say “extensions of time shall not be routinely granted,” the bureau said (http://fcc.us/JoldPC): “The import of that rule is especially relevant to 800 MHz rebanding where delay in rebanding by one licensee can cause a ‘domino effect’ delay in the rebanding efforts of other licensees that have met the Commission’s 800 MHz band reconfiguration deadlines, with a consequent delay of the overall program.” The bureau approved some extensions for licensees that “have shown that grant of the request will not unreasonably delay rebanding” while holding other requests in abeyance. Among those getting an extension were Tucson Electric Power Co. and the Glendale Police Department in Arizona and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. Some large licensees need to justify an extension, including Maricopa County, Ariz., Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego County, Calif., the bureau said. All licensees that won approval have promised to complete rebanding cost estimates by March 10.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court faced a flurry of separate filings from the American Civil Liberties Union, ProPublica and technology companies in the past week, all pushing back against the government urge to classify and redact. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn joined in a filing to attack the government’s redactions. “The government offers no explanation of how national security would be harmed by allowing the providers -- each of whom would have been or could be entrusted with the individual orders issued by the court -- to access the government’s response,” the tech companies said (http://1.usa.gov/1hCqyz5). “It fails to grapple with the specifics of this case, resting its response to the providers’ constitutional arguments on generalities about the protection of classified information.” The providers know what FISC requests they have received, if any, and “only now, in this lawsuit” does the government argue the information is too sensitive to reveal, the companies said, asking that the FISC strike the government’s Sept. 30 filing unless providers can access the unredacted version. The ACLU, in a separate proceeding, also criticized government redactions and pressed for release of opinions related to bulk collection of metadata. The ACLU joined the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic in the filing (http://1.usa.gov/1cm2Fe0), which asked for expedited consideration and oral argument before the FISC. The ACLU cited increased public debate on the programs, such as in the Klayman v. Obama opinion that ruled unconstitutional the surveillance. “Just days ago, the President’s own review group joined that conversation with a three-hundred-page report that recommends, in part, greater transparency in this Court’s operation,” the ACLU said. ProPublica, in yet another proceeding, had asked for release of phone surveillance opinions but attacked subsequent classifications and redactions, in a Monday filing. “But the Executive’s claims of classification have yet to be subject to judicial scrutiny, and therefore they do not moot ProPublica’s motion,” it said. The FISC should review the redacted opinions and “independently determine whether to publish it,” ProPublica said (http://1.usa.gov/1kDlOf6). “There is a growing recognition that the classification system itself is in drastic need of oversight."

Japan’s SoftBank plans to make an offer of more than $19 billion for T-Mobile US, to merge it with Sprint, which the company already owns, Japanese news service Nikkei reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cm8kAO). The deal is likely as early as the spring, the report said.

The bill text of the Department of Commerce and the Workforce Consolidation Act was posted online this week. This Senate legislation proposes to merge the Commerce Department and Labor Department; unsuccessful variations have been introduced in the past. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., introduced S-1836 Dec. 17, and it was referred to the Homeland Security Committee. “The goal of this legislation is twofold: to achieve cost savings by combining duplicative functions, and to improve the quality of our country’s economic policies by ensuring a coordinated approach,” Burr said in a document providing background information on the bill. It would save billions of dollars, he said, citing the potential consolidation of 35 offices into 12 and the killing or reducing of funds for seven programs or initiatives. The new cabinet agency the bill proposes to create would be called the Department of Commerce and the Workforce. In an envisioned organizational chart of the department, NTIA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology would report directly to the department’s secretary and deputy secretary. It would put the Small Business Administration within the Commerce Department and move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Department of the Interior, a news release said (http://1.usa.gov/1c522RI). The bill has two co-sponsors, Dan Coats, R-Ind., and James Inhofe, R-Okla.