TerreStar is in “active discussions” with interested bidders, the company said in a court notification of a bankruptcy auction delay filed late Tuesday. Bids for TerreStar’s assets were originally due Wednesday. TerreStar’s filing pushes the bid deadline back a week to June 15 and the auction to June 22. The TerreStar bankruptcy is one of several moving parts involved in what will happen in the S-band.

The FCC shouldn’t get bogged down in questions of how to classify text messaging for Universal Service Fund contributions or any other piecemeal approach to universal service contribution reform, USTelecom warned the commission in comments posted to docket 06-122 and released Tuesday. “Universal service contribution issues need to be addressed in a comprehensive proceeding, not through ad hoc proceedings, such as those for which the Commission requests comment here,” USTelecom executives David Cohen and Jonathan Banks wrote in their comments.

Free Press asked the FCC to investigate whether Verizon Wireless asked Google to block tethering apps in the Android Market. Free Press targeted Verizon since part of the spectrum it bought in the 700 MHz auction, the C-block, carries a requirement that the licensee not “deny, limit, or restrict” the ability of customers to use apps or devices of their own choosing. Free Press said AT&T and T-Mobile have also sought to block tethering unless a subscriber pays extra.

As part of the Internet Society’s World IPv6 Day, federal agencies, ISPs and other technology organizations are trying to help other entities understand the importance of preparing their services for the IPv6 transition of the Internet. There are 435 participants, including Google, Mozilla, the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau. Although they're attempting to motivate entities that are slow to transition, the participants also are expecting to continue educating themselves about the benefits and challenges of the new protocol, they said.

The price of public safety legislation is a major concern for Senate Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim DeMint, R-S.C., going into Wednesday’s markup of S-911 in the Senate Commerce Committee. While the bill by Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, promises to send $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury, the bill’s cost could be an issue for other budget hawks as well, telecom industry lobbyists said. Meanwhile, public safety pushed back against a campaign to add language requiring interoperability across the 700 MHz band.

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The FCC will recommend some of what amounts to deregulatory actions, in what’s been called the Future of Media report which is slated to be released Thursday, agency and industry officials said. They said the document, which the commission of late has referred to by another name, will include some possible actions the regulator can take to communicate with the public. Report author Steve Waldman will spend some time during Thursday’s commissioner meeting discussing the document, and FCC members will issue statements responding to the study, agency and industry officials said.

The FCC needs more specific broadband and telephone service data to perform a solid competitive analysis of the markets it regulates, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division said in an ex parte filing. The National Broadband Map isn’t a precise enough tool to meet the commission’s needs, DOJ said. The department weighed in more than a month after the close of the FCC’s comment period on how its Form 477 Data Program could be improved.

AT&T will use 700 MHz spectrum licenses it proposes to buy from Qualcomm to expand its network’s downlink capacity by late 2014, AT&T said in a letter responding to a series of questions about the transaction posed by the FCC Wireless Bureau. AT&T estimated that handsets and equipment incorporating the Qualcomm spectrum won’t be available before 2014-2015. The carrier said it’s still “collecting the tens of thousands of pages of documents requested by the Commission” and argued again that the information must be protected because it’s commercially sensitive (CD June 6 p14).

Government procurement rules are stymieing the FCC’s efforts to build an auctions program, Commission economist Evan Kwerel said Monday. “We've been trying for a year to get some auction experts,” Kwerel said, but contracting and procurement rules “are nothing but an obstacle to good policy.” Kwerel spoke in a question and answer session at Georgetown Law Center after a speech by Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s top regulatory adviser. Sunstein had given a round-up of the administration’s efforts to eliminate overly burdensome regulations.