Days before the Tribune Company expects to clear a major hurdle in its long exit from bankruptcy, consumer advocate groups renewed their objections to requests from the company that would let its broadcast-newspaper cross ownership (NBCO) ban waivers survive a change in control of Tribune’s broadcast licenses. Free Press, Media Alliance, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET/CWA), the United Church of Christ and the Benton Foundation said in a letter Friday (http://xrl.us/bnnd46) that Tribune’s requests for waivers of the ban must be evaluated under the standard adopted with the rule in 1975 because a federal appeals court has remanded the commission’s most recent attempts to change it. Meanwhile, Tribune’s bankruptcy proceeding may finally be approaching an end. Creditors opposing the reorganization plan recently approved by a bankruptcy court have until Wednesday to post a $1.5 billion bond in order to stay it, court filings show.

Dish Networks’ PrimeTime Anytime is an “attempt to camouflage” its copyright infringement of TV programming that occurs every night, Fox Entertainment argued, seeking a court injunction barring the service.

Contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn warned Monday about “challenging economic conditions.” Apple’s main manufacturer of iPhones and iPads reported weaker results for the first half of this fiscal year ended June 30, and said it “remains cautious” about “handset market conditions."

The FCC faces no shortage of opinions on how best to move forward with its reform of the Rural Health Care Program, as telecom associations, healthcare providers and states offered suggestions in comments in docket 02-60 last week. Groups widely supported the program, and discussed the importance of exercising fiscal responsibility, but differed on whether the funds should be used for infrastructure buildout. Proposed reporting requirements also attracted disagreement.

With movement in a House Appropriations subcommittee and comments from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney supporting efforts to eliminate funding for public broadcasting, lawmakers on both sides of the issue said they're motivated to continue their efforts. Romney said in an interview with Fortune this month that if elected, he would end the public broadcasting subsidy, among other government subsidies. Executives in the public broadcasting industry said they're remaining active in working with Congress to keep the funding intact.

A question about the scope of a license agreement between Personalized Media Communications (PMC) and Rovi, formerly known as Gemstar-TV Guide, will be decided in a Texas federal court, not in a Georgia federal court, a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week said (http://xrl.us/bnmxcc). Gemstar appealed part of a federal judge’s ruling in Georgia in a long-since-settled patent infringement case between PMC and Scientific-Atlanta; in Georgia it has sought a declaratory judgment on the scope of the licensing agreement between it and PMC, the opinion said.

Allband, the first telco to get a waiver of new rules limiting universal service support in high-cost areas, said a three-year waiver isn’t enough to prevent loss of voice and broadband service throughout its service territory. The rural Michigan cooperative asked the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) to extend the time period of the waiver of the $250 per-line-per-month cap to 15 years because it can’t reduce its expenses to meet the cap, it said in an application for review Friday (http://xrl.us/bnm2w5). Absent the extension, Allband will “soon be forced to again file a waiver” in late 2013 or early 2014, at an estimated cost of $50,000, and a drain on FCC staff time of “many hours” to review the petition, Allband said. The telco also requested a waiver of the regression-based caps on high cost loop support. The bureau had found this request moot, because under the quantile regression methodology ultimately adopted, Allband was not capped (CD July 27 p6).

The FCC voted to approve a series of spectrum transactions involving Verizon Wireless and some of the largest cable operators, as was expected (CD Aug 17 p1). All five commissioners approved the deal, though Republicans Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai approved in part and concurred in part (http://xrl.us/bnmxe5). “Two of my colleagues disagree with important elements of the Commission’s order,” Chairman Julius Genachowski acknowledged in a statement that was released along with the order. They opposed the FCC’s roaming-related conditions and the agency’s assertion of authority over the commercial agreements between Verizon Wireless and the cable operators, they each said in their statements.

Special access providers, free-market think tanks and congressional Republicans criticized the FCC for suspending pricing flexibility triggers before obtaining meaningful data (CD Aug 22 Bulletin). But in its Wednesday order the commission said it already had enough data to know the market was broken. CLECs and other purchasers of special access services commended the commission for taking what they called long overdue action. Congressional reaction was split along partisan lines, as written statements from House GOP members denounced the decision, while Democrats commended the commission for taking steps to suspend what they called its outdated special access rules.

Wisconsin is in the final stages of crafting a “broadband playbook” to sharpen its strategy and create a forum for state legislators and other stakeholders, state officials said. The playbook is a joint effort of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and its own broadband-focused initiative, LinkWISCONSIN, and has been in the works for months. Comments on the 13-page playbook draft, Wisconsin’s Playbook for Broadband Progress, are due Aug. 31 and the final version is expected to come out shortly after, the PSC said.