Low-power FM (LPFM) advocates and incumbent radio broadcasters squared off this week in comments on how the FCC should implement the Local Community Radio Act (LCRA). Individual LPFM stations and the Prometheus Radio Project also solicited listeners and members of the public to file comments with the agency, resulting in hundreds of brief comments in the docket. In general LPFM advocates argued for broader interpretations of the statute allowing more flexible rules for LPFM operators while incumbent FM broadcasters made the case for more narrowly tailored rules that protect their services.

Carriers filing replies in the FCC Lifeline proceeding generally supported the creation of a national Lifeline eligibility database, and want to maintain the current monthly reimbursement of $9.25, or increase it to $10. Replies posted Wednesday in docket 11-42 discussed an array of lingering concerns, including reseller eligibility for Lifeline discounts and whether Lifeline should be applied to bundled offerings that include a voice component.

High-cost loop support got a major overhaul Wednesday, in an order designed to fix “problematic incentives and inequitable distribution of support” (http://xrl.us/bm49qi). The FCC Wireline Bureau order fleshed out the details of 2011’s commission-level USF/intercarrier compensation order, which set out a framework for reform. About 100 study areas with “very high costs relative to similarly situated peers” will see a total reduction in support of $65 million, the bureau said, and the reduction will be phased in between July 1 and 2014. “By delaying the full impact of the reductions until 2014, we provide companies who would be adversely affected adequate time to make adjustments and, if necessary, demonstrate that a waiver is warranted either to correct inaccurate boundary information and/or to ensure that consumers in the area continue to receive voice service,” the order said. The bureau expects about 500 study areas to receive $55 million to fund new broadband investment.

SAN FRANCISCO -- States are moving toward legalizing online gambling within their borders after recent political and regulatory milestones, said government officials and industry executives. Phill Brear, Gibraltar’s gambling commissioner said late Wednesday at the Global iGaming Summit, “2012 is looking like the breakthrough year” for Internet betting in the U.S.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) is to meet May 22-23, 2012, and a Transit-Oriented Development Workshop is set for May 24, 2012, the EPA said in a Federal Register notice. Environmental Finance topics to be discussed include clean air technology, tribal environmental programs, transit-oriented development, energy efficiency and green infrastructure.

The FCC must consider the trust relationship between the U.S. government and federally recognized tribes as it enacts policies impacting tribally owned telecom companies, the Mescalero Apache Tribe told officials from the FCC Wireline Bureau and the Office of Native Affairs and Policy, said an ex parte letter (http://xrl.us/bm2w6b). The USF/intercarrier compensation order “does not sufficiently incentivize broadband development on Tribal lands,” it said. Representatives from Mescalero Apache Telecom expressed concern about the use of regression analysis to limit reimbursable capital and operating expenses to determine high-cost loop support (HCLS), and suggested the regression methodology include inputs on climate, soil-type, terrain, density, percentage of Lifeline customers and amount of unemployment. They also requested a cap of 95 percent on HCLS benchmarks rather than the proposed 90 percent.

Alltel Communications can’t get access to tribal documents that could prove one of its former senior vice presidents breached a separation agreement, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm2uai). Alltel argued that the former employee, Eugene DeJordy, had breached the agreement when he assisted the Oglala Sioux Tribe in a tribal court lawsuit to enjoin Alltel from a sale of assets that provide telecommunications services on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The 8th Circuit ruled unanimously that a third-party subpoena in private civil litigation is a “suit” for the purposes of a Tribe’s common law sovereign immunity, and the Tribe’s motion to quash based on tribal immunity, which the lower court denied, should have been granted.

Carriers uniformly support the launch of an integrated national database to address duplicate and eligibility concerns for the Lifeline program, according to comments filed in response to a further notice of proposed rulemaking in the FCC’s Lifeline Order. But several carriers, as well as state commissions, were wary of a proposal to use USF dollars to encourage digital literacy, questioning whether the FCC had such authority. States also expressed concerns over privacy issues, the expected cost of the national database, and AT&T’s proposal to let ILECs opt out of the Lifeline program.

Paperwork burdens imposed by changes to the FCC Lifeline order will outweigh the benefits claimed by the FCC, Smith Bagley Inc. said in comments to the Office of Management and Budget (http://xrl.us/bmzxfj). SBI, which operates wireless networks covering approximately 70,000 Lifeline customers in tribal lands, takes issue with rules requiring the 90-day re-certification of temporary addresses, the self-funding of biennial audits and inclusion of fine-print regulatory disclosures in all marketing materials. “The FCC has failed to adequately and accurately calculate the expected burdens of these requirements, and has failed to show how these requirements are not redundant or excessive in light of other program protections in place,” SBI said Thursday.

The FCC Consumer Advisory Committee recommended the agency back funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the commission’s “interaction with the Administration and with the Congress.” Funding will enable CPB “to continue its support for public broadcast stations, including those providing service to rural, tribal, native and disability communities,” the committee said in a statement. A loss or significant reduction of CPB’s federal funds would impact all funded stations, “causing reductions in programming and services to local communities and, in some cases, leading to stations going off the air,” the committee said.