A pair of moderate House Democrats supported the joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the FCC net neutrality order. Reps. Dan Boren, D-Okla., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., joined Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and subcommittee Vice Chairman Lee Terry, R-Neb., on a letter that was circulated among House members Monday supporting the legislation. House Commerce began a markup of the resolution Monday afternoon, but the body put off the vote until Tuesday morning.

The Rural Telecommunications Group, the Rural Cellular Association and public interest groups separately asked the FCC to reject AT&T’s application to acquire six D block and five E block licenses in the Lower 700 MHz band from Qualcomm. Several smaller carriers said the transaction should be approved, but only if the FCC takes other steps to promote competition. AT&T announced the $1.93 billion deal in December. Qualcomm originally bought the spectrum for its mobile TV service, which it’s shutting down.

Mobile satellite service satellites and spectrum could end up in the hands of the major wireless players after MSS companies move through their bankruptcies, said several panelists at the Satellite 2011 conference in Washington. The panelists showed a reticence to predict who will end up with the MSS assets, but many pointed to the wireless players as a logical end, due in part to the FCC’s focus on making that spectrum available for terrestrial use.

TORONTO -- The two largest cable operators, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, appear to be taking somewhat divergent paths on an ambitious next-generation architecture for the cable industry, frustrating the original goals of network designers, aggravating equipment vendors, and potentially driving up equipment production costs, officials said at the SCTE Canadian Summit.

Peter Cramton, an expert on spectrum auctions, said Friday he is “optimistic” about the outlook for a voluntary incentive auction. The key to attracting wireless industry interest, he said, is forcing broadcasters to repack their spectrum to make it valuable in multiple markets, he said at a Media Access Project conference.

The FCC should delay an incentive auction of TV spectrum for at least a decade to give broadcasters time to start using a more efficient signal modulation standard, a midsize broadcaster’s CEO said Friday. Jim Goodmon of Capitol Broadcasting, known as a maverick for pushing technology and other changes before broadcasters do, told us he thinks that the industry can soon agree to use OFDM to replace the 8-VSB standard used for digital broadcasts.

The FCC’s order reducing high-cost Universal Service Fund support to competitive eligible telecommunications carriers violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the telcos’ Fifth Amendment protection against illegal takings, 13 of the CETCs said in a petition released Friday. In language that suggests the carriers are considering seeking an injunction, the telcos said they “are each adversely affected” by the Wireline Bureau’s “decision to retroactively modify the cap level.” The petition’s signers were AST Telecom, Bluegrass Cellular, Cellular South Licenses, Union Telephone, Corr Wireless, East Kentucky Networks, Illinois Valley Cellular, Cellular One, Commnet Wireless, MTPCS, PR Wireless, Georgia RSA #8 Partnership and Allied Wireless.

Moving TV stations to lower channel slots won’t let them broadcast to mobile devices, which many in the industry are banking on to help keep the medium competitive with newer media, agreed numerous executives and technical consultants to broadcasters. FCC officials have been saying publicly for some time that they hope to repack some TV stations into the VHF band. That’s part of the commission’s ongoing effort to reallot 120 MHz from TV to wireless broadband, something drawing concern from broadcasters who don’t want to be adversely affected if they don’t agree to move.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is undaunted by a likely presidential veto of any bill to overturn FCC net neutrality rules, he said in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators. The House Communications Subcommittee chairman isn’t worried about the lack of industry support either, he said. Walden outlined plans to aggressively pursue other communications issues once net neutrality is resolved.

Vonage is pressing the FCC to allow for direct access to phone numbers from the North American Numbering Plan or the pooling administrator. In a letter dated Tuesday but published on the FCC website Thursday, Vonage renewed a 2005 petition for direct access to numbers, saying that it will help Vonage “deploy innovative services” and “drive down costs” to customers.