The FCC’s April 21 meeting will start the agency on the long road to implementing the National Broadband Plan. The FCC will take up items touching on the future of the Universal Service Fund, data roaming, an area discussed by the plan, and two media items on network-gateways and CableCARD rules, also in the plan (CD April 1 p4), officials said. Dozens of other plan-related items await commissioner attention. Industry and FCC officials expect an active year as the agency moves forward on implementing the plan.

Insular support for broadband penetration in Puerto Rico “is at bottom a civil rights issue,” the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council said in an FCC filing. Deployment costs on the island are “much higher than costs for urban areas on the mainland,” due to weather, shipping, poverty and other factors. The cost of supporting the 200,000 unserved there is “minimal relative to the urgent need, and Universal Service Fund reform can rationalize those costs."

Five items might well be voted on at the FCC meeting April 21, moved up a day because of a schedule conflict, an official said. At the meeting, an item from the Media Bureau on fixes to CableCARDs and one on developing a gateway device to connect plug-and-play devices to any pay-TV provider and the Internet likely will be voted on, as expected (CD March 24 p5). An item related to a Universal Service Fund cost study that will be referred to the federal-state joint board also will probably get a vote, said industry and commission officials. Two items from the Public Safety Bureau probably will be decided, a commission official said. A Media Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment on any items from that bureau, and an FCC spokesman didn’t reply to a message. The original meeting date, April 22, is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

The FCC may not be able to turn the National Broadband Plan into action as fast as the report to Congress envisions, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell warned in an interview. Congress may never act on some recommendations, and it could revise others, said Powell, who co-chairs the industry advocacy group Broadband for America. The FCC’s part depends on completing long and “messy” rulemaking proceedings “that may or may not come out the way that is envisioned,” he said. Powell also sought a targeted revamp of the Telecom Act.

The FCC should adopt high-cost universal service funding for insular areas like Puerto Rico, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council said. It’s concerned that residents of Puerto Rico “still do not enjoy the same basic telecommunications services that their fellow citizens in other U.S. jurisdictions enjoy,” MMTC wrote Chairman Julius Genachowski. Only 24 percent of households on the island have broadband, the group said. “Adoption of an insular universal service support mechanism that fails to distribute sufficient universal service support to Puerto Rico to improve telecommunications services would merely be a pyrrhic victory and therefore, unacceptable."

Congress’ role in action on the National Broadband Plan may be bigger than the FCC planned, Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva said in a research note Friday. “While the FCC attempted to limit legislative recommendations and thereby assume the lion’s share of responsibility for the NBP’s implementation, there are signs congressional intervention could be more significant than anticipated insofar as stand-alone bills and perhaps even significant legislative reforms.” House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., in particular has staked a claim on telecom issues such as the Universal Service Fund, privacy, spectrum and wireless consumer protections, Silva said. Verizon and AT&T have begun asking Congress to rethink the 1996 Telecom Act, he said. Boucher has said he intends to work on a telecom law overhaul in the next Congress, which starts in January (CD March 25 p1). “Boucher will be a key figure on any telecom overhaul if he survives a tough re-election bid,” Silva said.

Congress’ role in turning the National Broadband Plan into action may be bigger than the FCC planned for, Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva said in a research note Friday. “While the FCC attempted to limit legislative recommendations and thereby assume the lion’s share of responsibility for the NBP’s implementation, there are signs congressional intervention could be more significant than anticipated insofar as stand-alone bills and perhaps even significant legislative reforms.” House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., in particular has staked a claim on telecom issues such as the Universal Service Fund, privacy, spectrum and wireless consumer protections, Silva said. Verizon and AT&T have begun asking Congress to rethink the 1996 Telecom Act, he said. Boucher has said he intends to work on a telecom law overhaul in the next Congress. “Boucher will be a key figure on any telecom overhaul if he survives a tough re-election bid,” Silva said.

On February 1, 2010, the President submitted his fiscal year 2011 budget (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011) to Congress. The FY 2011 Department of Homeland Security budget requests $8.2 billion for the Transportation Security Administration, an increase of $508.7 million.

Rural local exchange carriers and mid-sized LECs in general appear to be one of the few sectors that could take a hit as a result of the National Broadband Plan, because of the “drive to cut intercarrier compensation,” Stifel Nicolaus said Friday. “The Plan suggests a reasonable glide path in ICC cuts for the price-cap midsize RLECs with an opportunity for ‘adequate’ revenue offsets -- providing some comfort to the carriers -- but the details are key and remain to be hashed out,” said a research report. “The midsize carriers actually seek ICC and Universal Service Fund shifts to make revenue flows more sustainable long term, and we think a rough, messy compromise is the most-likely scenario, ultimately, but we believe the overhang will be extended. There are so many drags and points of resistance (e.g., legal jurisdiction, rate-of-return carrier resistance, complexity) that the reform push could (once again) fail.” Broadcasters and the studios also face risks, the firm said: “But whether broadcasters are the big winners or losers in the spectrum drama depends on whether they have a credible plan to monetize their excess spectrum.” The firm said the plan’s central thesis, “simply put, is to get more people to do more things on more broadband, and particularly if it can marshal the power of the government to deploy its resources and power through purchasing and supplying services, it could provide a catalyst."

Chet Simmons, president of ESPN at the cable channel’s 1979 start, died of natural causes Friday in Atlanta at 81. He later was founding commissioner of the now-defunct U.S. Football League. ESPN called Simmons the “founding father of sports television” for starting in 1957 what became ABC Sports. He’s survived by wife, four children and nine grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are being made with Gamble Funeral Service in Savannah, Ga., and a scholarship fund will be set up at the University of Alabama.