AT&T’s proposed buy of T-Mobile “clearly” crossed a line and posed a risk to competition, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Monday at a Silicon Flatirons conference on “The Digital Broadband Migration.” Genachowski also indicated the FCC may reopen its receiver standards inquiry.

Cable operators still will be able to scramble all channels, as FCC staff are working toward an order allowing encrypting on the basic tier, agency and industry officials said. They said work continues to be slowed by concerns that some consumer electronics wouldn’t work at all with encrypted systems (CD Feb 9 p4). But top aides in the Media Bureau and office of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski are still believed by CE and cable officials to be inclined to circulate for a vote by commissioners an order allowing encrypting. Operators have said encrypting all broadcast and other expanded-basic channels would let them reduce carbon dioxide emissions when technicians drive to customer homes to turn on and off video, though CE companies still say those claims are overblown.

With Cincinnati Bell considering strategic alternatives for its recently acquired data center unit CyrusOne (CD Feb 13 p11), analysts said the market for transactional activity in the data center sector is strong, especially in smaller assets.

The White House renewed an emphasis on wireless broadband in President Barack Obama’s FY 2013 budget, released Monday (www.budget.gov). “High-speed, wireless broadband is fast becoming a critical component of business operations and economic growth,” the budget said. “The United States needs to lead the world in providing broad access to the fastest networks possible.” The budget also proposes significant funding for cybersecurity research. In total, the 2013 budget proposes $140.8 billion for federal R&D, 1.4 percent more than the 2012-enacted level. The overall increase is the same as the rate of inflation.

The intersection of antitrust law and intellectual property is likely to be “the single most important” antitrust issue of the next decade, said former Department of Justice antitrust chief Christine Varney during a Monday panel at a Silicon Flatirons conference on digital broadband migration. Varney also warned that federal regulators have much more trouble sorting through vertical market power issues than they do traditional horizontal issues. She said she has continuing concerns about the Comcast-NBCU deal, approved while she was chief of DOJ’s Antitrust Division.

GENEVA -- African, Arab and European officials have preliminarily agreed to mobile allocations, with the entry into force immediately following the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), an official told us at the 2012 conference. The resolution, given initial approval at our deadline, calls for an allocation to the mobile service in the band 694 to 790 MHz in ITU region 1 on a co-primary basis with other primary allocated services, and to identify it for International Mobile Telecommunications, the international standard for advanced wireless communications. Broadcasters continued to raise concerns. More approvals will be needed.

In the long transition toward bill-and-keep, a skirmish is building over how to handle intrastate originating access rates for calls that start over the public switched telephone network and terminate on the Internet. LECs like Windstream and Frontier are charging intrastate rates, while interexchange carriers like Verizon and AT&T argue that they should pay the lower interstate rate. In a series of meetings over the past several weeks, the industry has been appealing to the FCC for clarification.

Cable industry efforts to provide bargain-basement-priced broadband service to low-income consumers (CD Feb 2 p8) played to rave reviews from federal regulators. But the programs aren’t expected to make major contributions to company bottom lines, industry officials said. That’s because the aim of the program isn’t to make money for now but instead is to spur further consumer uptake of broadband, said companies participating in “Connect to Compete.”

The launch of ViaSat-1 gives Viasat a new chance to convince regulators of satellites of their usefulness in bringing broadband to hard-to-reach areas, said Tom Moore, ViaSat senior vice president, in an interview Friday. Satellite companies have increased the push in recent years for increased government recognition of them as broadband providers. The new satellite marks a shift for ViaSat, which has its origins as a satellite system components manufacturer, though the purchase of WildBlue in 2009 has helped with the transition, said Moore. Moore co-founded WildBlue.

Mobile communications technological innovation is not as world-changing as the industry would have us believe, panelists said at a New America Foundation event Thursday. Mobile solutions may benefit society in the long run but don’t offer any immediate solutions to longstanding human problems, said U.S. Agency for International Development Chief Innovation Officer Maura O'Neill. She said she’s hopeful about the future effects of mobile innovation, but current effects are being over-hyped. Solution providers should focus first on adoption rates, especially among minority groups, connectivity and affordability, she said.