The FCC should move quickly to streamline foreign ownership rules, said industry reply comments to an August rulemaking notice seeking feedback on the agency’s foreign ownership practices for common carrier and aeronautical radio licensees (CD Aug 10 p11). In the initial comment round, the Satellite Industry Association asked for changes, while the Justice and Homeland Security departments jointly expressed concerns (CD Dec 6 p14).

USTelecom launched a new website offering what the association is calling “robust information on the broadband industry.” The site, available through www.ustelecom.org, will provide data on e-health, smart grid and online education and jobs, USTelecom said. An official at USTelecom denied that the group was hoping to push back against recent findings by the FCC that broadband wasn’t being deployed quickly or efficiently enough. But in the statement announcing the Web changes, USTelecom President Walter McCormick said: “Our research and data analysis clearly illuminate the highly competitive marketplace for voice services, which affirms our view that it is time to restructure long-standing legacy regulation on the industry that is not relevant to today’s marketplace.”

The FCC understands that some companies may not be able to meet newly imposed deadlines for auditing their books under new Universal Service Fund rules, Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey said Thursday. “We are well aware of the challenges of companies that have not been able to submit to a financial audit,” Mattey said in a webinar hosted by USTelecom. “I do very much appreciate the time-sensitivity of it and I think we will be able to give some guidance on the timing of that. We recognize that certain things may not be able to be implemented by the deadline of this year.”

Media association heads grabbed the top three spots in our survey of non-profit group salaries. The field was led by RIAA President Cary Sherman at nearly $3.2 million. He was followed by former NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow at nearly $2.7 million and NAB ex-President David Rehr at $2.5 million. All figures are based on the groups’ most recent tax returns -- 2009 except where noted.

Southern Company Services and the Utilities Telecom Council pushed back against Public Knowledge in docket 07-52, arguing that the FCC’s net neutrality rules could threaten the emerging “smart grid.” Southern Companies had asked the commission to reconsider part of its net neutrality rules but its petition was assailed by Public Knowledge, which said utility companies could seek declaratory judgments in court based on individual facts in a given specialized service. USTelecom said it was generally sympathetic to Southern’s point of view, but suggested that the commission reject its petition for reconsideration.

AT&T, Verizon and CTIA raised concerns in separate filings at the agency about changes the FTC proposed to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule. In September, the FTC proposed more than two dozen changes to the COPPA rule imposing new requirements on website operators while further protecting children from online threats. USTelecom, the main wireline trade association, did not file comments, a spokeswoman said.

The FCC can expect to be flooded with petitions to reconsider its Universal Service Fund reforms (CD Oct 28 p1), telecom officials said and the public record showed. Petitions were expected from nearly every sector of the telecom industry, from state regulators to rate-of-return carriers, several telecom officials said. The commission is drafting a sua sponte -- of its own accord -- reconsideration in an effort to head off one of the thorniest issues in the docket -- whether local rates on local traffic exchanged between wireless and wireline companies should be subject to bill-and-keep immediately, FCC and telecom officials told us.

Competitive telcos think the FCC has turned its back on them, CLEC executives and lawyers told us. “I think the commission hasn’t taken any initiatives to promote competition,” said Eckert, Seamans telecom lawyer James Falvey. “There have been a number of issues that the CLECs have brought to the commission and said, ‘We need your help on this to promote competition.’ The commission hasn’t taken any proactive steps.”

New FCC ex parte rules were violated at least 11 times since taking effect June 1, a Communications Daily review of all filings and the agency’s own checks found. Some filings were made late -- from a day in many instances to a few weeks -- and others didn’t contain enough information on what was discussed during lobbying meetings. The filings were made by companies and associations big and small. They covered proceedings ranging from changing the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband deployment to retransmission consent, ISP speeds, disabilities access legislation passed in 2010 and getting low-power TV stations to fully vacate the 700 MHz band for wireless broadband in the small portion they occupy.

The FCC should use its media ownership rulemaking proceeding to look at the issue of retransmission consent, advocates for changing the retrans rules told Media Bureau officials last week, an ex parte notice shows. They asked the commission to examine whether the major broadcast networks’ involvement in affiliates’ retrans negotiations violates FCC’s ownership rules. Under current rules, a single company is barred from owning TV stations that reach more than 39 percent of the country’s households, the notice said. “The FCC should examine whether a national network’s veto power or right of approval over its affiliated stations’ retransmission consent agreements give the network an attributable interest in those stations, which would result in the network’s violation of the national ownership cap.” Representatives from the American TV Alliance including DirecTV, Mediacom, American Cable Association, Dish Network, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom asked Media Bureau staff to study whether the practice of jointly-negotiated retransmission deals between multiple stations in a given market violates FCC rules. They also asked the staff to examine the effects of a station having multiple major network affiliations through multicasting. The ATVA released a research paper that found broadcasters’ increased retrans revenue hasn’t been used “to enhance their provision of local news and public affairs programming.” The study, by Fordham University professor Philip Napoli, suggests that “retransmission consent provisions are not accomplishing their original goal of enhancing broadcasters’ commitment to localism.” A spokesman for the NAB said the premise of the study is absurd. “There is more local news on broadcast TV now than in any time in history,” he said. Moreover, “revenue derived from retransmission consent is not just used for news, but to keep the most-watched entertainment and sports programming from migrating to pay-TV."