With increasing trouble completing long-distance calls and other connection problems in Oregon, the state’s Public Utility Commission will investigate the issue and expects to move quickly on it, Commissioner Susan Ackerman told us. Major concerns are impacts on businesses and emergency calls, she said. The problem appears to be caused by using the least-expensive routing practices, Ackerman said. The investigation is early on and more work needs to be done, she said. There’s a potentially big business impact because many firms reply on high-quality connections for long-distance calls and faxes, she said.

TIA and Sprint Nextel said the FCC should clarify, as Harris County, Texas, has asked, that the commission does not endorse any procurement model for building an interoperable public safety broadband network using 700 MHz spectrum. The Public Safety Bureau sought comment June 15 on Harris County’s petition seeking further clarity (http://xrl.us/bky799), and comments were due Tuesday.

The FCC would approve FM translators in radio markets with an eye toward how many low-power FM (LPFM) stations could be started in each market, under a draft order (CD July 6 p11) to be voted on Tuesday, commission and industry officials said. They said the rulemaking notice proposes a market-by-market approach to processing the remaining applications from a 2003 application window for FM translators. Such an approach has been backed by LPFM proponents. AM stations would get a boost because the draft rulemaking is said to propose that they can use FM translators awarded in recent years as part of Auction 83. The rulemaking also asks about issuing new LPFM licenses.

More resources for federal agencies could help smooth reallocation of government spectrum, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said at a hearing Wednesday afternoon on federal spectrum. While reallocation has been called a win-win, Strickling said not all federal agencies see “what the win is for them.” Subcommittee members of both parties said reassigning government spectrum for commercial use is one key in efforts to prevent a spectrum crunch.

Mobile operators’ failure to end “roaming rip-offs” calls for a “fundamentally new” regulatory approach, said European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Wednesday. The European Commission proposed measures to let customers sign roaming agreements separate from their contracts with their national services and keep the same cellphone numbers, and to give alternative providers the right to use others’ networks in other EU countries at regulated wholesale prices. The move brought cautious cheers from the head of the European Parliament’s industry committee. The GSM Association Europe said the changes need “assessing in detail."

NTIA is responding to a scathing GAO report from May, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said in written testimony for a hearing Wednesday afternoon. Strickling, the lone witness scheduled to testify at the House Communications Subcommittee hearing on federal spectrum, also urged Congress to complete spectrum legislation. More than one-fifth of a Democratic Commerce Committee memo dated Tuesday addresses the May GAO report (CD May 13 p3). The report claimed NTIA lacks focus, accountability and “an overall strategic vision.” The hearing is to start at 2 p.m. in Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building.

The Arizona Corporation Commission signed off on AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile, without a hearing. The deal is pending before state regulators in California, Hawaii, Louisiana and West Virginia. Meanwhile, both AT&T and merger opponent Sprint Nextel were at the FCC last week, for a series of high-profile meetings on the $39 billion transaction.

Large and mid-size telcos have moved closer together on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, but several questions remain -- as does the gulf between small rural carriers and the rest of industry, the public record shows and FCC officials told us. Executives from USTelecom, Windstream, CenturyLink, AT&T and Frontier met with wireline advisers to three commissioners last week, USTelecom Vice President Jonathan Banks said in an ex parte notice filed late Friday. The executives were invited in by the staffers, two FCC officials said. The executives said they have agreed in principle to reforms that roll out in stages over several years, the officials said.

The White House’s first ever “Twitter Townhall” is part of the administration’s attempt to find new opportunities to connect with people across the country, said Macon Phillips, White House new media director. On Wednesday at 2 p.m. EDT, President Barack Obama will respond to questions from Twitter users during a webcast, a White House blog post said. People began posting questions for the president Tuesday using the Twitter hashtag #AskObama, Phillips said during a teleconference with reporters.

Broadcasters may succeed in scaling back FCC regulation of on-air cursing and nudity when the first major indecency case in 23 years is heard by the Supreme Court on constitutional grounds, said all scholars we interviewed. The high court decided last Monday to hear the U.S. government’s consolidated case against Disney’s ABC and News Corp.’s Fox networks (CD June 28 p1). Its 7-2 ruling the same day overturning California’s law against the sale of violent videogames to kids and a 6-3 decision earlier in June against a Vermont ban on selling patients’ prescription information to drugmakers point up a recent tilt on First Amendment cases, the law professors said. They expect such an outlook to be on display in the fall 2011 term when the justices consider the indecency case, with the networks seen likely to win.