Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile urged lawmakers to focus on “substance” when deciding how best to build a national wireless broadband network for public safety. In a Monday briefing, the No. 3 and 4 carriers previewed a new white paper showing how spectrum sharing would meet public safety’s needs if the government auctions the 700 MHz D-block. The carriers say they would buy the spectrum and negotiate sharing arrangements with public safety. The companies’ effort met a setback earlier this month when President Barack Obama endorsed a direct reallocation of the D-block to public safety.

In-flight broadband provider Aircell received $35 million in private equity funding to expand services in both commercial and business aviation markets, CEO Michael Small said in an interview. The company seeks to offer more in-flight content, including movies, to compliment its Wi-Fi services, he said.

The FCC will make tribal issues a key focus at the March 3 meeting, Wireless Bureau Chief of Staff Matthew Nodine confirmed Monday. Other commission officials also provided updates on key initiatives before the agency, in an FCC webinar Monday aimed at the states. The FCC will look at “ways to increase spectrum coverage in the tribal areas of the United States,” Nodine said. “We do have some very interesting things that we've got coming up to figure out ways to bring high-speed Internet, high-speed broadband, high-speed 3G and 4G services to the tribal areas.”

All submissions to the FCC must be available online, with staff required to assign docket numbers to all proceedings other than those in “exceptional circumstances,” the commission said in an order released late Friday. It’s the second order approved by commissioners last week that the agency said would help improve public access to FCC materials. “These two items should result in significant efficiency and fairness improvements for the Commission and for those who do business with us,” said FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick.

Congress is unlikely to move quickly on a Universal Service Fund overhaul, industry and FCC officials said. The commission is scheduled to take up Tuesday a broadly worded rulemaking notice on the high-cost fund and the intercarrier compensation system. Chairman Julius Genachowski and his staff made clear Monday that the commission is taking a long view of the revamp, with a senior FCC official calling it “a multiyear project.”

The NAB and the Association for Maximum Service TV asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to continue to hold in abeyance challenges to the FCC’s white spaces order. The groups were responding to a request by the court for the parties’ opinions about how the case should be handled as the commission considers petitions for reconsideration.

The “hurdles” for utilities’ use of public cellular networks for smart grid projects have “dropped significantly in terms of monthly costs and the costs to embed connectivity into the smart meter,” a Sprint Nextel executive said. The company believes there’s a role for public and private networks in the smart grid arena, said Brian Huey, manager of smart grid and utilities business development and strategy. “But we are seeing a trend where [resistance] to public networks has dropped significantly."

Blair Levin, who headed the FCC National Broadband Plan work, said Congress should impose a deadline on the commission to address the 700 MHz D-block, during a discussion at a Free State Foundation conference on Friday. Commissioner Robert McDowell also said he’s anxious to see the agency move forward on the D-block.

With four bills introduced in Congress this year set on eliminating the funding for public broadcasting entities in an effort to trim the budget, some legislators will begin counter efforts this year, legislators and aides said. “In the face of the fiscal reality our new majority inherited after years of reckless spending, the necessary fact is that everything is on the table,” said Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., chairman of the House Labor, Health and Human Service subcommittee. It oversees funding for NPR.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is looking into allegations that Verizon improperly obtained high-cost Universal Service Fund support, a spokeswoman for Cortez Masto told us. The attorney general’s office has received a petition by staff at the Nevada Public Utilities Commission urging the FCC to revoke Verizon’s Eligible Telecom Carrier status. The petition accused Verizon of using Alltel’s ETC designation to gain funding for non-legacy Alltel lines. Similar complaints from Verizon rivals were filed in other states like Wisconsin. Verizon dismissed the allegations as “unwarranted,” in an ex parte filing with the FCC, saying it filed “pro forma amendments” that “were fully contemplated by the commission’s orders.”