The FCC should write a fallback plan in case some wireless carriers refuse to support mobile alert technology, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said at a Friday hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. Richardson is the subcommittee’s ranking member. But FCC and CTIA witnesses said market forces are pushing carriers to voluntarily support the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The service, designed to send text-message alerts to people in disaster areas, is scheduled to rollout nationwide next April. Legislators also raised concerns about privacy and training issues related to mobile alerts.

Sprint’s continued vigilance in protecting its long-time claims against the mobile satellite service companies DBSD and TerreStar could be a headache for Dish Network as it moves forward in buying those S-band licensees out of bankruptcy. Sprint is trying to recoup more than $200 million in costs the wireless company took on when clearing broadcast auxiliary spectrum (BAS) from the 2 GHz band. The issue could also come up again once the FCC asks for comment on the transfer of control of either company to Dish, said an industry executive.

Among the comments that have started to arrive on AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile at the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Association of Competitive Telecom Companies asked the PUC to open a separate proceeding into AT&T’s retail service quality. The group wants the state regulators to examine “demand lock up” agreements for special access and to file comments with the FCC, Sarah DeYoung, the group’s executive director, told us. “We hope the FCC can address this in its special access proceeding.”

Christine Varney’s pending departure as head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division injects another note of uncertainty into the government’s review of AT&T’s $39 billion buy of T-Mobile, said industry and government officials. Still, with the review fairly far along, officials disagree on whether change at the top of the division will have much effect on the ultimate outcome of the review.

The FCC must remedy paperwork problems and other shortfalls in its cross-ownership and diversity rules (CD Dec 19/07 p1) in the current media ownership review, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Thursday. It threw out those rules, sending them back to the commission to be reworked in the ongoing review. The Philadelphia court noted that the agency is curing some of the old paperwork flaws in the current review. Industry and agency officials told us that can be accomplished fairly easily. A question is whether the 3rd Circuit will rule on the issue once the paperwork problems are remedied, said President John Sturm of the Newspaper Association of America, a petitioner in the case. The court earlier tossed out previous rules promulgated by a different FCC chairman appointed by President George W. Bush. All members of the three-judge panel upheld other rules.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., is moving ahead with legislation to update the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) and require independent agencies, such as the FCC, to review past regulations, the House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee chairman said after a hearing Thursday. The FCC is one agency that’s not doing enough to reduce regulation, Stearns and other subcommittee Republicans said. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, testifying alongside commissioners from the FTC and other independent agencies, agreed that the FCC should be more deregulatory.

The potential sale of Hulu to any of the dozen reported would-be buyers of the online video company, a list that includes the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T, raises few antitrust concerns, industry executives and lawyers said this week. Though some of the potential buyers already enjoy a large online video market share -- Google’s YouTube is the top online video site according to comScore data -- and their own online video platforms, most industry officials we spoke to welcomed a sale that would dissociate Hulu from its current owners: News Corp., Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

Internet access subscribers could have their service cut off if they ignore repeated “alerts” that copyright infringement has been detected on their accounts, though ISPs participating in a new “Copyright Alert System” unveiled Thursday emphasized they were unlikely to do that. But measures short of cutoff, such as throttling down to 256 kbps or “restriction” of access for some period, are explicitly laid out in a memorandum of understanding between ISPs and content providers dated July 6 and marked “final,” provided to us by the RIAA. (What appears to be an identical copy is circulating online.) Some digital rights groups gave a cautious nod to the new system while voicing concern that the ambiguity in the agreement could lead to termination or suspension of service without judicial review.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell is concerned about part of draft rules on complaints from independent programmers that they were discriminated against on the basis of affiliation by channels owned by cable operators, said agency and industry officials. NCTA stepped up its lobbying against part of the item, after cable operators expressed concerns earlier. McDowell is said to be concerned about the standstill provision of the draft Media Bureau order. It would require cable operators to continue carrying indies while their complaint is pending and after the bureau determined a prima face case was made.

The White House has yet to say who will step in to fill the role formerly played by Phil Weiser, overseeing high-tech and telecom issues for the executive branch, now that he’s returned to the University of Colorado Law School (CD June 1 p22). The White House also recently lost a second official with strong telecom experience, Scott Deutchman, deputy for telecom policy to federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra.