NTIA must soon convince a Congress concerned about federal spending to pay millions of dollars so the agency can conduct oversight of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. In December, the lame-duck Congress passed a continuing resolution increasing NTIA’s budget by about $20 million to $40.6 million, in part to pay for BTOP oversight. The resolution expires March 4. With one month to go and the GOP-controlled House looking for budget cuts, some fiscal conservatives are looking at NTIA.

Cable and telecom companies in Virginia back a state legislative proposal to cap pole attachment rates, while co-ops are pushing their own measures in the state legislature, officials told us. Meanwhile, the State Corporation Commission raised concern over the proposed 2011 Telecom Modernization bill. Legislation sponsored by Del. Bill Janis (R) would alter the current arrangement by making the State Corporation Commission the arbiter of disputes between co-ops and companies seeking to link to their poles. The bill would cap the rates that co-ops can charge at an amount not higher than what regulated utility companies charge for similar pole connections.

Dish Network’s proposed purchase of bankrupt S-band licensee DBSD (CD Feb 2 p8) came right after the FCC’s LightSquared waiver approval (CD Jan 27 p1), yet it remains difficult to predict if Dish could garner similar waiver treatment from the agency, said industry executives. Dish has numerous options for use of the spectrum and much will depend on specific plans before it’s clear that Dish will even need such approval, they said. Its agreement to buy DBSD for $1 billion is still contingent on bankruptcy court and FCC approval.

Time Warner’s movie studio isn’t getting enough value from Netflix and Redbox, and it’s time to take a look at arrangements with the low-price DVD rental businesses, said the parent company’s CEO. The Warner Bros. studio already imposes a 28-day delay in releasing DVDs to those platforms, and Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes said Wednesday on the company’s Q4 earnings teleconference that having the window is better than not. “It’s getting kind of clear that the acceleration in consumer usage of these kinds of services … makes it a good time for us to reevaluate the terms,” he said. “We can’t be more specific at this time. We just think the value that our film company should get for that period of exhibition is considerably higher than what’s there now,” he said. Netflix and Redbox didn’t immediately respond to our queries.

Broadcasters would be among those required to run nationwide tests of the emergency alert system (EAS) in conjunction with federal agencies and other programmers, under a draft FCC order that commissioners may vote on soon, commission and industry officials said Tuesday. The Public Safety Bureau circulated an item on EAS Jan. 20, the FCC website said. That’s a draft order to require nationwide tests to be done annually, perhaps starting this year, commission and industry officials said. The order would turn into rules the proposals in a January 2010 rulemaking notice (CD Jan 15/10 p5), FCC officials said.

Municipal wireless in the U.S. “is not dead,” said Ben Lennett of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative during a panel discussion sponsored by the group Tuesday.

New Jersey’s Legislature is considering a bill to lift several telecom regulations. The proposal would harm consumers and leave the state’s telecom regulators with little authority, consumer advocates told us, saying some provisions conflict with federal law.

Requiring Voice over Internet providers to pay legacy access charges “would be a fundamental mistake,” the Voice on the Net Coalition said in comments on the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation rulemaking notice. “The commission is about to embark on real reform of the intercarrier compensation system precisely because the legacy system does not work with modern communications technologies,” VON Executive Director Glenn Richards said in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski posted to dockets 01-92, 07-135, 04-36 and 09-51. “Access charges are part of a regime that regulators designed 30 years ago before the advent of IP-based services.”

Cable and telecom ISPs are continuing efforts toward IPv6 deployment, as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority issues the last five IPv4 address blocks, executives told us Tuesday. Cable operators and consumer electronics manufacturers are working together and with other companies affected by the looming transition to IPv6 from IPv4, said CableLabs and CEA officials.

Monday’s announcement that NTIA is looking at the 1755-1850 MHz band for possible reallocation for wireless broadband could lay the groundwork for the biggest single spectrum auction since the 700 MHz sale in 2007, industry officials said. The wireless industry has been pushing hard for an auction pairing the cleared 1755-1780 MHz band with the AWS-3 band. Recent signs have been that the 1755-1850 band was getting NTIA and FCC attention (CD Jan 14 p1).