A draft spectrum bill similar to S-911 is circulating in the House courtesy of Commerce Committee Democrats. By proposing reallocation of the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, the bill stands in opposition to a Republican draft bill (CD July 14 p2) released Wednesday. With a legislative hearing scheduled for Friday morning, Democrats have told staff to continue talks with Republicans.

A popular item on consumers’ holiday gift lists this year could be digital content subscriptions, if announcements made Thursday hit their marks. On the same day Spotify unveiled U.S. availability of its long-promised streaming music service, the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) said it began its licensing program for UltraViolet. That starts the infrastructure installation process for a fall start of the UltraViolet ecosystem.

The House Judiciary Committee passed the Wireless Tax Fairness Act with two amendments that call for exemptions and studies on the HR-1002’s potential impact and phone cramming. The bill, which will go to the floor, would ban state and local taxes on wireless for five years.

The economic downturn and rising costs make it hard for some tribal radio licensees to build stations before construction permits expire, some tribal broadcasters said. When the FCC opened a filing window for new noncommercial FM stations in October 2007, it provided an opportunity for the number of stations on tribal lands to increase, they said. Construction permits were granted in 2008, requiring recipients to start up their radio stations this year. Some recipients requested extensions from the Media Bureau.

The FCC considered speeding up the deadline for all wireless carriers to meet the location accuracy requirements faced now by carriers that use a handset-based 911 solution, but decided the better course was instead to require compliance for all new network builds, the agency said. The text of a third report and order on 911 location accuracy rules was posted online by the commission. All wireless carriers -- CDMA and GMS -- are required to meet the more stringent E-911 location-accuracy requirements by 2019.

The FCC must not remove state jurisdiction over intrastate communications and preserve the joint governmental structure in its Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation proceeding, state officials said during a seminar held by the National Regulatory Research Institute Wednesday. Other top concerns for state regulators include cost and contribution methods, they said.

House Republicans are thinking about using the Universal Service Fund to help pay down the budget deficit, Congressional documents show and Hill and industry officials told us. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., circulated a slide presentation among his colleagues Tuesday that contained cuts and savings proposed in talks with Vice President Joe Biden, including between $20 billion and $25 billion in “spectrum/USF” savings.

House and Senate Democrats objected to draft spectrum legislation floated Wednesday by House Commerce Committee Republicans. The draft bill, which will be the subject of a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Friday, does not give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, unlike the Senate’s bipartisan spectrum bill. Like S-911, the House draft would authorize the FCC to conduct voluntary incentive auctions, but it limits the FCC to a single auction of broadcaster spectrum. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced a separate spectrum bill Friday related to unlicensed use.

The record is clear that the FCC should act “expeditiously” to identify spectrum in the 217 MHz to 222 MHz range for positive train control (PTC), the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said in reply comments filed at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bkzwnp). Comments have been almost universally supportive of giving railroads the spectrum they need to comply with a mandate from Congress in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, AAR said. PTC systems are designed to protect trains from collisions, overspeed derailments and other threats to rail safety.

A proposal by major players in European broadband networks failed to completely win over alternative telecom providers, commercial broadcasters and digital rights activists at a European Commission CEO roundtable in Brussels Wednesday, representatives of those companies said. The 11 recommendations on how to spur investment in broadband, which include a call for differentiated services, were requested by Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes and drafted by corporate chiefs drawn from content providers, equipment makers, investors and telecom operators, the EC said. Kroes said after the meeting that while the work produced no consensus, it “certainly helped to build mutual understanding."