Broadband customers are getting what they pay for, and they're getting it faster, a new report said. That’s the big takeaway from this year’s “Measuring Broadband America” report. It was released Thursday by the FCC Wireline Bureau using data gathered by contractor SamKnows in collaboration with ISPs with more than 80 percent of U.S. residential broadband subscribers. The report (http://xrl.us/bnhgkk) said broadband providers have significantly improved accuracy in actual versus advertised speeds during the past year, with speeds during peak times rising 9 percentage points to 96 percent of what companies marketed, and consumers are continuing to subscribe to ever-faster speed tiers.

911 calling problems were widespread in the wake of the derecho that hit the Midwest and East Coast June 29, Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky said in a report Thursday at the FCC meeting. The agency sought comment on communications breakdowns Wednesday (CD July 19 p15). Turetsky said 911 problems hit parts of country beyond the already well-publicized incidents in northern Virginia. Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC will revisit the issue of backup power for telecom facilities.

A series of larger-than-normal transactions involving broadcast and cable assets reveal a healthy market for raising debt and some faith that the media sector is healthy and profitable, said executives we spoke to Thursday. The last few days have seen deals disclosed involving media assets valued at more than $8 billion. They included several transactions that involved the former Clear Channel TV station group, Atlantic Broadband’s acquisition by a Canadian cable operator and Suddenlink’s $6.6 billion acquisition by BC Partners and CCP Investment Board.

Use of the TV white spaces for mobile broadband likely won’t start anytime soon, FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp said Thursday of the technology that’s been likened to “super Wi-Fi.” Commissioner Robert McDowell, the agency’s senior Republican member, warned that delays could be even longer, given continuing questions about changes to the TV band. “We expect that we're probably still a couple of years away from seeing white space technology in portable devices because the technical challenges there are greater,” Knapp said. The first uses are likely to be fixed, such as broadband to schools, machine-to-machine communications and by local governments, he said. Knapp cited the recently unveiled AIR.U consortium. It plans to use the TV white spaces to provide broadband at colleges in small towns and rural areas (CD June 27 p4).

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is working with lawmakers on a contingency plan in case the Senate fails to produce a cybersecurity bill this month, the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus co-chairman said during an event hosted by the American Foreign Policy Council. It’s “highly likely” that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring cybersecurity legislation to the floor for debate between now and the August recess, his spokesman told us separately, “but we still have to get through the outsourcing and Bush tax cut bills first.”

Challenges remain for women- and minority-owned businesses that seek to compete in telecom, but the larger carriers have expressed a desire for partnership and inclusion as supplier and procurement diversity have become stated goals for many executives, industry executives and lawyers said late Wednesday. Several speakers at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference debated the best ways to create a competitive telecom market.

Management teams and lenders are important components of new and legacy media businesses as they seek to create business models, said panelists at a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference. The Internet’s business opportunities have raised the question of “how to create a new business plan in a world in which [traditional media’s] function can now be bypassed,” said Anna-Maria Kovacs, a senior policy scholar at Georgetown University. The online world’s disintermediation and ability to bypass traditional media has “substantially changed the business plans and the risk profiles of the legacy world,” she said.

The Telecom Act needs updating because the now outdated law is hurting all stakeholders, including minorities, the top Washington executives at the two largest telcos said Wednesday. What’s worse, large portions of the 1996 law are based on language in the original 1934 Communications Act, said AT&T’s Jim Cicconi. Verizon’s Tom Tauke said if lawmakers get the policy right, it will lead to the deployment of more infrastructure and services, and “therefore more economic opportunities made available for people who want to part of the industry infrastructure,” as well as for “everybody who uses it.” They spoke at Wednesday’s Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference.

AT&T said it will roll out its own shared data plans. Wednesday’s announcement prompted further ire from public interest groups, who had earlier railed against speculation that the company may begin charging for use of the iPhone’s FaceTime app on its wireless network. AT&T’s forthcoming “Mobile Share” plans will be available in late August. The new plans will allow subscribers to buy a set amount of data -- up to 20 GB -- and share it among up to 10 devices, including smartphones and tablets. Verizon Wireless unveiled its similar “Share Everything” plans last month, which became available June 28 (CD June 13 p7). Both companies’ plans give subscribers unlimited voice minutes and text, charge a graduated fee depending on the amount of purchased data and an additional fee for each device that will use the plan’s data pool. Unlike Verizon, AT&T will still offer subscribers traditional individual and family plans as well.

The FCC must take steps to simplify and reduce the costs for small carriers to apply for waivers to the commission’s recent USF reform program, said members of the House Small Business Committee during a hearing Wednesday. Subcommittee Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., said the waiver process is overly burdensome for small businesses, while Rep. Mark Critz, D-Pa., said small carriers are paying up to $300,000 to apply for the program.