SILICON VALLEY -- Pay-TV distributors will soon begin offering video services outside their traditional service areas, executives at digital media companies said Tuesday at OTTCON (http://xrl.us/bmywbh). “There’s a little hesitation to be the first company to go, but I think lots of them are thinking about this and some of them, very seriously,” said Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku. “This doesn’t exist today but I think it’s going to happen and probably this year,” he said.

The FCC cleared the way for more than 1,000 FM translator stations to go on-air in two items that also start work on an upcoming opportunity for tribes and community groups to seek new low-power stations on that band. An order and a rulemaking notice released Monday night appeared to largely track with drafts the Media Bureau circulated for a vote (CD Feb 9 p6), which commissioners approved as also expected (CD March 8 p12) before Wednesday’s agency meeting. The items said new rules for a 2003 application window for translators will expand the pool of construction permits issued from Auction 83 by 29 percent to 4,500 and possibly more. The next window for LPFM seekers to get permits for those stations may be the last, the commission said, asking about changes to some ownership rules.

The FCC, which has reformed some of its other Universal Service Fund programs, will continue to work toward completing all of its reform efforts, including reform of the rural healthcare program, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett said at a Broadband Breakfast Club briefing Tuesday. Other speakers cited healthcare licensing regulations and outdated healthcare infrastructure as barriers to expanding broadband-enabled healthcare.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will bring the Cybersecurity Act, S-2105, to the floor after the Easter/Passover recess, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told us Tuesday. “It won’t happen now in this work session, I don’t believe. But when we come back after the break Senator Reid will take the bill to the floor and challenge us to deal with it,” he said.

The cybersecurity working group of the House Communications Subcommittee aims to finish its work by the end of the month or early April, multiple Capitol Hill officials said. The group has held several staff-level meetings this month with stakeholders from across the tech sector and, at minimum, plans to release recommendations for the subcommittee, Hill and telecom industry officials said. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., has said he formed the group to make recommendations on several cyberissues including Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), securing the supply chain and a voluntary code of conduct and best practices for network operators.

The FCC is expected to propose getting rid of ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) rules for the S-band, potentially allowing Dish Network to provide terrestrial-only services in the 2 GHz spectrum allocated for mobile satellite services, industry and agency officials said of a rulemaking notice likely to be approved Wednesday. The agency will propose buildout conditions and leave related questions about the 2 GHz spectrum and advanced wireless service (AWS) band plans within a notice of inquiry, they said. The NOI will consider the future of the proposed 2 GHz expansion band, at 1695-1710 MHz, primarily used by NOAA, FCC officials said.

Many low-power TV stations likely will be forced off-air by FCC actions meant to clear the way to auction full-power broadcast spectrum, LPTV executives and lawyers predicted. Fears are mounting about low-power stations losing channels altogether because there’s no space for them after the voluntary broadcast incentive auction the commission has 10 years to hold, or because they can’t afford to move to new spots on the TV dial, they said in interviews. Those concerns increased after President Barack Obama signed spectrum auction legislation Feb. 22 (CD Feb 24 p10) to pay for relocation costs for one class of low-power station that doesn’t protect most others from being moved against their will, executives said.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell understands rural carriers’ concerns about cost recovery when the new Universal Service Fund rules start phasing in July 1, he said Monday. “As this thing gets phased in, if there are fundamental systemic issues, we will take corrective action,” he said during a wide-ranging Q-and-A session with NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield at NTCA’s legislative and policy conference. That’s one of the benefits of the “iterative” nature of the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, he said.

Republicans in the House and FCC took aim at Chairman Julius Genachowski for his proposal to require broadcasters to post political files online. At a budget hearing Monday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, the plan was criticized by Chairman Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Genachowski defended the FCC’s authority to make the change and highlighted the commission’s progress freeing up spectrum and deploying broadband.

Fetal exposure to radiofrequency energy from cellphones may be harmful, Yale researchers say in a new report, the first to draw such a link. Mice exposed in-utero showed symptoms of hyperactivity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), said the report by the Yale School of Medicine (http://xrl.us/bmyr3w).