The Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico asked to withdraw its petition to opt out of the National Lifeline Accountability Database, in a letter to the FCC posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/18N4MZh). The board had previously sought a participation waiver because it had already implemented a similar database. Due to cuts to the board’s budget, however, it won’t be able to make the Puerto Rico database compliant with the Lifeline rules, it said. “The Board commits to maintaining the current Puerto Rico database to retain its ability to eliminate and prevent duplicates in the Lifeline rolls until such time as Puerto Rico has been successfully migrated to the national system,” which will happen in the spring, it said.

The FCC should raise the maximum effective radiated power for low power FM stations from 100 watts to 250 watts and hold an FM translator window exclusively for LPFM licenses, said the Prometheus Radio Project in an ex parte filing this week (http://bit.ly/1hHfVLF). Those changes would “significantly unburden” LPFM stations while addressing the problem of limited signal coverage, a “major threat” to LPFM, Prometheus said. The FCC should also delay a proposed FM translator filing window for AM stations until all LPFM applications have been resolved, Prometheus said. That window should also be restricted to Class D and C stations, the filing said.

Four House members signed onto the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) as co-sponsors, said an NAB news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1eGw6uQ). They are Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., Robert Hurt, R-Va., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. The LRFA was introduced in the House in February as H.Con. Res. 16 (http://1.usa.gov/1bstiK2) and in the Senate in March as S.Con. Res. 6 (http://1.usa.gov/19jGhxF), said the NAB. The bill says Congress “should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over-the-air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings,” it said. The LRFA has 188 co-sponsors in the House and 12 co-sponsors in the Senate, NAB said.

It’s time for new telecom policies to match the “new marketplace,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ijg7DA). One hundred years after the Kingsbury Commitment that made AT&T a government-sanctioned monopoly in exchange for “agreeing to pervasive economic regulation,” it’s time for “early 20th century policies” to sunset, McCormick said. “Today the notion of a single voice provider is quaint, at best,” he said. “After 100 years, it’s time to leave the wireline-centric regulation of the monopoly voice era behind, focus on the broader social compact between network operators and their customers, and embrace our nation’s highly competitive, consumer driven, Internet-enabled future."

The FCC should grant time extensions to stations that need to buy new equipment to comply with the commission’s proposed procedural update to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act rules, said NAB in comments filed in response to the commission’s November FNPRM on the proposed update (http://bit.ly/1aaVmBV). The proposed changes are prompted by changes in March to the Advanced Television Systems Committee algorithm used to calculate loudness (CD Nov 5 p18). Because the CALM Act legislation references the old standard, the commission proposal would update the language with the new standard. NAB supports the proposed change, and said most stations should be able to follow the proposed new standard with “relatively low-cost software upgrades” within the proposed one-year deadline. However, some stations may need to buy additional equipment, and may need time to do it, since most 2014 budgets have already been finalized, NAB said. The commission should “clarify that it will look favorably on requests for waivers for extensions of time” to comply with the proposed new standards, NAB said.

The FCC should maintain a “flexible regime” in its oversight of closed captions, said NAB in an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cUfWad). Broadcasting is a “diverse industry” with “some errors and latency issues that cannot be avoided, due to human and transmission issues,” said NAB. The commission should continue to allow broadcasters to use the Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) to provide captions, the filing said. A phase-out of ENT “could likely result in a loss of competitive local news coverage, as well as additional voices in the market,” NAB said. Instead, the commission should “work with industry to examine how ENT can be better utilized to ensure local viewers have improved access to important news and information,” said the filing.

Speculation about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile US merger “will continue to persist,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche Thursday in an email to investors. There would likely be “little resistance of such a move from both” AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Fritzsche said. “If the industry continues to see more consolidation, we remain confident that Sprint will play a key role."

Doctor Television Channel (DrTV), a broadcast network with a focus on medical news and health related programming, will launch Jan. 6, it said in a news release Thursday. DrTV’s focus is on “medical programming by medical professionals,” said DrTV president Jim West in the release. The channel has affiliation agreements in 93 markets, covering almost 30 million homes, the release said. The largest affiliate group signed is DTV America with 68 TV markets. The new channel allows the affiliate group to “build partnerships with local medical professionals” to “reach consumers with targeted health initiatives and community programs,” said DTV America CEO John Kyle.

Level 3 and the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA) “have resolved their differences and have generally settled matters” regarding placement of Level 3 facilities in NYSTA rights of way, Level 3 told the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/1bsEhmI). Level 3 asked the FCC in 2009 to preempt “unreasonable, unfair and discriminatory annual rents” required by the NYSTA for Level 3 infrastructure. Level 3 had argued that the rates were hundreds of times higher than prevailing charges and prevented the company from providing middle-mile broadband transport to small- and mid-sized communities along the Thruway (CD July 28/09 p7). Level 3 is “no longer seeking any relief vis a vis NYSTA” in state proceedings, it said Thursday.

Twitter (TWTR) stock value was up by nearly 4.8 percent at the close of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday (http://bit.ly/K77WLU). After closing at $70 per share on Tuesday, Twitter stock was trading at $73.31 per share by the end of trading Thursday.