Tipton Osterthaler, ex-SAIC, named pres.-CEO of Americom Govt. Services… Changes at VNU: Susan Whiting promoted to exec. vp, remains head of Nielsen Media Research; John Lewis promoted to head of ACNielsen N. America; Pat Dodd promoted to pres., ACNielsen Europe; Steve Schmidt leaves as pres.- CEO of Marketing Information… Yahoo names National League of Cities telecom lobbyist Alex Ponder becomes aide to Cal. Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-L.A.)… Jill Nash, ex-Gap Inc., chief communications officer… Changes at SkyTerra: Mobile Satellite Ventures CEO Alexander Good becomes SkyTerra pres.- CEO, retains MSV role; Mobile Satellite Ventures CFO Scott Macleod becomes SkyTerra CFO, retains MSV role… Graig Hale, ex-Charter Media, becomes Sportsman Channel gen. sales mgr.

With the FCC expected to act on video franchising rules at its Wed. agenda meeting, USTelecom made a last minute pitch for removing “obstacles” to wireline video competition. Only a few communities have wireline competition “and the obstacles posed by the local franchising process bear a significant part of the blame,” said USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick in an ex parte letter sent FCC commissioners. “America’s consumers -- particularly in rural areas -- have waited long enough for the many benefits of video competition,” McCormick said. The letter was sent on behalf of 53 small and midsized carriers, he said. “Only a small minority of communities has the benefit of wireline video competition,” wrote the companies, including CenturyTel, Embarq and Windstream: “The obstacles posed by the local franchising process bear a significant part of the blame.” At our deadline, the agenda hadn’t been released yet.

The telco and wireless industries hailed an antipretexting bill (HR-4709) that Congress passed in the early hours of Sat. It would outlaw impersonation to get private phone records (CD Dec 9 Bulletin). “Pretexting is fraud -- pure and simple -- and I applaud Congress for moving to put a strong federal law on the books,” said CTIA Pres. Steve Largent. Wireless carriers will keep working to protect themselves and customers from such schemes, he said, and the legislation offers a “significant and meaningful deterrent.”

The separations process should be scaled back because it’s outdated, Bell companies told the FCC in reply comments filed Nov. 20. NASUCA and the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee disagreed, calling the rules “important tools” for regulators. The comments came in response to an FCC request for views on reforming separations -- used to decide if a particular telecom company’s costs are regulated by the FCC or by the states.

The FCC should extend a deadline for comments on TV captioning waiver petitions, said 7 deaf and disabled advocacy groups and a captioning company. Aberdeen Captioning wants an extension of at least 60 days from a Nov. 27 deadline (CD Nov 9 p18). Some religious programmers filed waiver requests with the FCC because they said captioning costs would place an “undue burden” on their budgets. Aberdeen and the advocates said more time was needed to review the hundreds of waiver requests. “Never before has the FCC put on public notice such a mass filing of petitions,” Aberdeen said: “The petition submittals are uneven in providing evidence to support granting an exemption on the basis of undue burden.” Advocates asked for a March 26 deadline, saying they need more time to review each petition. “The combination of an unprecedented and dramatically larger number of requests and a significantly shorter comment period makes it impossible for petitioners and members of the public to respond meaningfully,” said groups including American Assn. for People with Disabilities, Hearing Loss Assn. of America and Telecom for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing. Commenting on the potential for new captioning rules, USTelecom said the FCC should shorten the complaint process and use a standardized complaint form. “New regulations would be particularly burdensome on USTelecom’s smaller members,” the filing said: “Our members are distributors… and therefore lack control over non-technical quality aspects of closed captioning.”

Jeff Lanning, ex-USTelecom, joins Embarq Corp. as dir.- regulatory affairs… New members of Comverse Technology board: Susan Bowick, ex-Hewlett-Packard; Charles Burdick, ex-HIT Entertainment; Richard Nottenburg, Motorola; Joseph O'Donnell, ex-Artesyn Technologies; Theodore Schell, Liberty Associated Partners… Lt. Gen. John Campbell, U.S.A.F. (Ret.), becomes Iridium exec. vp-govt. affairs… Cedar Point Communications names Michael Brunsveld, ex-Nortel, managing dir.-Europe, heading new Europe subsidiary… Arris names Hubert Wo, ex-UTStarcom, to head technical operations in China… Cingular moves Chris Penrose to vp-gen. mgr., south Tex.

The IRS said Thurs. a “reasonable approach” for companies to collect refunds of the excise tax on long distance phone service, said USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick. The agency, which declared this year it no longer would collect the tax, already outlined how individual taxpayers could get refunds. A similar process now has been offered to businesses and tax exempt entities, giving them an option of listing actual tax paid or using a formula. The next step is for Congress to repeal the phone excise tax, still imposed on local phone service, McCormick said.

Introducing blues legend Buddy Guy at the DMA-USTelecom- RIAA Digital Media Expo late Wed., Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska) said the GOP now understands what it’s like to have the blues, having lost so many seats in the election. Stevens sat on the stage during Guy’s performance for a crowd of legislators, aides and industry types. RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol called the event -- a showcase of digital technologies like Microsoft’s Zune and MTV’s Urge -- a chance to have some fun and “respect private property” by downloading legally.

Congress is turning a “deaf ear to reality” by not passing a permanent, “strengthened” R&D tax credit that can keep America competitive with other nations for innovative research, outgoing Rep. Johnson (R-Conn.) said Tues. Speaking with returning Rep. Tiahrt (R-Kan.) and several tech trade groups, Johnson called herself “very hopeful the next Congress will have the guts” to pass a credit that doesn’t need annual renewal and that keeps U.S. research competitive with those of R&D-friendly places like India and Ireland.

Despite 12 years of GOP dominance in Congress and control of the White House since 2001, most of the communications sector’s trade associations and companies won’t be caught completely flat-footed by the Democrats’ reemergence as the party in charge in the House and Senate, sources said.