Sprint Nextel representatives urged the FCC to encourage public-private partnerships for 4G wireless broadband on a band-neutral, technology-neutral basis, in meetings with Commissioners Michael Copps and Meredith Baker. Sprint representatives “discussed the company’s proposals to expedite and advance wireless broadband deployment, innovation and investment in the FCC’s broadband policy proceedings,” said an ex parte filing: “They highlighted the need for the FCC to: (1) encourage the availability of cost effective backhaul; (2) reform the Universal Service Fund to recognize broadband deployment; (3) eliminate an inter- carrier compensation system designed to subsidize old technology; (4) unleash spectrum for commercial mobile broadband use; (5) timely and vigorously enforce relocation and technical rules; and (6) continue flexible and efficient licensing of mobile broadband spectrum.”

The recording industry wants to protect children and parents from punitive infringement lawsuits, while the tech advocacy community wants to leave them vulnerable. That was a conclusion at the State of the Net conference in Washington Wednesday on a panel about graduated-response systems under development in the U.K. and France, and how they might face implementation problems under U.S. law. The Internet access cutoff protocol, known as “three strikes,” is a “far more effective and one might say kinder and gentler approach” than the end-user lawsuits the RIAA started wrapping up a year ago, said Shira Perlmutter, executive vice president of global legal policy for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Applicants for RUS broadband money who lost in the first funding round should try again in the second, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said at the winter conference of the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. Adelstein announced $309 million in broadband grants, including one to OPASTCO member TDS Telecom’s Butler Telephone Co. He assured attendees that the RUS will soon spell out completely who succeeded and who fell short in the first round. Industry officials have expressed concern about the RUS’ and the NTIA’s slow pace in making awards (CD Jan 22 p1).

Allocating the AWS 3 spectrum block for a free national broadband plan would help the commission keep the cost of the Universal Service Fund under control, M2Z said in meetings with Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett, Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and other FCC officials. M2Z’s website says its mission is to provide free wireless broadband access to 95% of the U.S. population. M2Z “discussed several scenarios that show how the free broadband proposal could constrain the growth of the USF Low Income program should the Low Income program be expanded to cover broadband services,” M2Z said in an ex parte filing. “According to M2Z’s analysis, based on certain assumptions, the free broadband service proposal could potentially reduce the cost of an expanded Low Income broadband program by at least $1.8 billion annually.”

Congress should ensure that broadband efforts maintain support for rural telcos, executives of four major rural telco associations told congressional staff at a closed meeting Monday of the Rural Telecommunications Task Force, a subcommittee of the House Rural Caucus. Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., are the co-chairmen of the task force, but didn’t attend the briefing. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies asked Congress to ensure that rural broadband providers continue to receive support from the Universal Service Fund, intercarrier compensation “or some combination,” ITTA President Curt Stamp said in an interview after the meeting. It’s hard for rural carriers to justify investing in very remote areas without “something to fill in the gap,” such as stimulus money, USF “or some other mechanism,” he said. The rural carriers had approached the task force about holding a briefing last year, but today’s meeting didn’t come together until a few weeks ago, said ITTA Vice President Paul Raak. The task force is expected to invite the cable and wireless industries in for later briefings, Stamp said. Meanwhile, the rural telcos hope to hold more briefings with other congressional groups and plan to meet separately with every rural member, Raak said. He expects broadband to be a big issue for Congress this year. “Once you get past energy and healthcare … broadband is next.” But the Hill seems to be waiting for the National Broadband Plan before moving, Stamp said. “I don’t get the sense that there are a lot of members who are trying to influence the content of the plan.” But they'll likely have questions and suggestions when it’s delivered, he said.

Congress is watching the planned merger of Comcast and NBC Universal closely, and members are expected to weigh what it means to consumers and competitors, said Hill and industry figures. “This is one of the larger consolidations in the telecom/media space in history, and it is a matter of public interest, [and] it’s a matter of interest to those of us involved in telecommunications policy,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., in an interview. Boucher also outlined his legislative priorities for the new term, including work on a spectrum inventory, Internet privacy and the Universal Service Fund.

Three matching broadband grants totaling nearly $27.8 million were approved by California’s Public Utilities Commission. California Advanced Services Fund grants to California Valley Broadband, Broadband Associates International and Verizon will underwrite projects in the Central Valley, on the northern coast and in the state’s northeast. Two are conditional on the sponsors’ getting NTIA grants for most of the project costs. Besides creating jobs, the projects will “indicate how California and the federal government, working together and using stimulus funds, can greatly benefit our communities,” commission President Michael Peevey said. “Moving to quickly approve funding allows California to take advantage of federal stimulus funds.” He said the state stands to receive as much as $225.3 million in NTIA broadband money. The valley project proposes to build a wireless network for Fresno, Madera, Merced, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Stanislaus counties. Of a total cost approaching $79 million, the state grant will cover 10 percent, if the NTIA awards 80 percent of the total. The project envisions Wi-Fi and WiMAX delivering services including VoIP at speeds reaching 20 Mbps down and 6 up. The network could reach nearly 41,000 unserved households and more than 36,000 underserved households, the commission said. The project would create about 560 jobs, stimulate growth and improve Central Valley life, it said. California Valley Broadband, a consortium of Moreno Trenching, Mika Telecom Group and MT2 Telecom, formed in May 2009 to develop the project. The Northeastern California Broadband Project, by Broadband Associates International, would install 640 miles of fiber from an existing company backbone at State Highway 299. The service area would be about 6,000 square miles and would connect schools, colleges, health centers, businesses and residents in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama and Yuba counties. To get the state’s 10 percent portion, which comes to slightly more than $18 million, Broadband Associates must land an 80 percent NTIA grant slightly exceeding $163.1 million. The project would connect 11 county offices of education, 599 K-12 schools, five community colleges and the California State University at Chico, along with libraries, health centers, businesses and residents, the commission said. The sponsor’s partners on the project are Level 3 Communications and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California’s California Research and Education Network. Verizon’s Sea Ranch Project would install new fiber in unserved and underserved portions of a 20-square-mile area in the Sea Ranch, Cazadero and Timber Cove areas on Sonoma County’s northern coast. The project, which will serve about 232 households in a community where the asking prices of homes for sale on one website run $519,000 to $1.7 million., envisions speeds of 7 Mbps download and 0.768 Mbps upload. No NTIA money is involved. The state’s 40 percent contribution is slightly more than $1.8 million.

Congress is watching the planned merger of Comcast and NBC Universal closely, and members are expected to weigh what it means to consumers and competitors, said Hill and industry figures.

The first phase of a “Zap the Gap” program to improve cellphone service in northern Mississippi has been “a huge success,” Chairman Brandon Presley of the Public Service Commission said Tuesday. His office has forwarded to the companies involved almost 1,500 reports of little or no service that the commission has collected since August, he said. “It’s time for the cellular companies to tell us how they are going to fix these problems,” Presley said. Since 2005 the federal Universal Service Fund has paid wireless eligible telecommunications carriers more than $512 million in dedicated high-cost subsidies to extend and improve wireless service in rural Mississippi, he told us.

The FCC’s Feb. 11 meeting agenda tentatively includes a rulemaking notice to enable schools receiving E-rate funding to allow the public to use the Internet access during non- operating hours at no additional cost to the Universal Service Fund. Another rulemaking notice to improve the commission’s transparency and effectiveness in its decision- making process by reforming ex parte rules also will be discussed, as will a notice to improve that transparency by improving and modernizing certain organizational and procedural rules. Commission staff will provide an update on the status of the National Broadband Plan and provide a framework for its national purposes portion.