NBCUniversal promotes Frances Berwick to president of Bravo and Style media … Brandon Heiner, ex-USTelecom, becomes CenturyLink director-federal legislative affairs … Vindco online video ad company hires Jes Santoro, ex-NBCUniversal, as senior vice president of sales … Lobbyist Registrations: Comcast, Cabralgroup and Gephardt Group, both effective April 1 … Google, Chesapeake Enterprises, effective April 29 … Netflix, Kountoupes Consulting, effective June 1, and Franklin Square Group, effective June 2 … PCIA, Patton Boggs, effective June 22.

Upcoming results from a broadband speed study should be viewed skeptically because the FCC has been captured by ISPs, said New America Foundation Director Sascha Meinrath. “Even though we have been a core partner on this project and were a part of the official meetings for months and months, recently, we have not been invited to any of the meetings (nor have we seen ex partes from those meetings),” he said in an email exchange. Earlier meetings where ISPs discussed SamKnows work with agency officials were reported in such filings, and Meinrath was talking about the results of the SamKnows study involving 13 Internet companies. Release of the speed study has been pushed back to August (CD July 19 p14).

Frequent updates at the FCC by News Corp. and the addition of internal watchdogs are good ways to guard against the kind of illegality in the U.S. that continues to swirl around the company and its newspapers in the U.K., said industry executives. News Corp. closed its News of the World newspaper two Sundays ago after it was revealed its reporters hacked into the phone systems of politicians and private citizens. The FBI and Justice Department have reportedly opened investigations into the scandal after several U.S. lawmakers pushed for increased scrutiny based on potential violations of the Federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (CD July 14 p7). News Corp. recently hired Williams & Connolly, a prominent Washington, D.C., criminal defense firm, as the legal stakes of the scandal continue to grow.

Congress will finish off Universal Service Fund reform, Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said at a press conference Thursday kicking off rural telecom associations’ marketing push on rural broadband. Terry said he’s “extremely optimistic” there will be a deal by the end of August that’s supported by industry, the FCC and the House Commerce Committee. Also at the event, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, predicted that the Senate will get “very aggressive” on the issue.

House Republicans are thinking about using the Universal Service Fund to help pay down the budget deficit, Congressional documents show and Hill and industry officials told us. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., circulated a slide presentation among his colleagues Tuesday that contained cuts and savings proposed in talks with Vice President Joe Biden, including between $20 billion and $25 billion in “spectrum/USF” savings.

The Senate Commerce Committee is considering a statutory ban on all third-party charges on landline phone bills, Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said at a committee hearing Wednesday. The committee released a study on cramming, the practice of billing customers -- often on behalf of third parties -- for products or services they either didn’t order or don’t want. Each third-party charge costs consumers between $10 and $30, and most are unauthorized, Rockefeller said. Telcos place $2 billion in third-party charges on customers’ landline bills every year, the committee said in its report.

The FCC is in the “home stretch” of its Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime overhaul, Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday. Speaking after the commission’s monthly meeting, Genachowski said he didn’t “think it’s news” that the relevant orders won’t be ready in August, given his aides have said the same (CD June 16 p2). Genachowski said he’s confident that orders are coming soon. “The staff is working very hard,” he said at a news conference. “The stakeholders are working very hard.” It’s “very important” that USF is retooled for Internet service “in a way that tackles inefficiency” and “waste,” as well as closes “the rural-urban divide” and meets U.S. broadband goals, Genachowski said.

USTelecom, its member companies, and CenturyLink and Frontier believe they have come up with a “potential” set of intercarrier compensation regime reforms that will achieve “broad consensus” among industry, they said in an ex parte meeting with FCC officials last week (http://xrl.us/bkzp8c). “In the intercarrier reform area, we also discussed how shifts in intercarrier access revenues could be measured and potentially recovered in ways other than through per minute charges that may distort incentives to use communications services and whether reciprocal compensations revenues should be included in any circumstances,” said USTelecom Vice President Jonathan Banks in an ex parte notice released Monday in docket 10-90. “On reform of universal service, our discussion centered on identifying whether and where it is appropriate to establish a limited right-of-first-refusal for potential recipients of explicit support for the construction and operation of broadband networks,” Banks said. “We also discussed the potential role of satellite broadband in providing broadband service to the very highest cost to serve locations and the interplay between reliance on satellite broadband in these locations and the overall size of an explicit support fund for broadband.” A day after USTelecom’s meeting, Dish Network made its own case for giving satellite a slice of the Universal Service Fund. “Satellite broadband is the most-effective technology for providing true broadband to many currently unserved households,” Dish Corporate Counsel Alison Minea said in her ex parte notice (http://xrl.us/bkzp8n). “Its direct and full inclusion in Universal Service Fund reform will maximize efficiency, reduce the size of the fund, and ensure that rural America has access to high-quality broadband.” Also last week, leaders from NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecommunications Alliance met with FCC officials (http://xrl.us/bkzp8x). “The Rural parties discussed the need to ensure sufficient cost recovery to promote and sustain broadband availability and affordability in rural areas in a manner that recognizes the varied characteristics among carrier serving those areas,” the groups said in an ex parte notice. “While contemplating reform of existing high cost recovery mechanisms, the Rural parties discussed: the need for adequate transition periods and reasonable transition paths; management of fund growth without impairing reasonable cost recovery; the role of rate benchmarks; and through identification and recognition of consumer impacts.”

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to hear testimony on cramming from USTelecom CEO Walter McCormick at a hearing this Wednesday. Other witnesses include Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Vermont Assistant Attorney General Elliot Burg, Xigo CEO David Spofford and Susan Eppley, a citizen of Decatur, Ga. The hearing is 10 a.m. in Room 253, Russell Senate Office Building.

New York regulators urged the FCC to adopt and enforce geographic redundancy requirements and contingency power standards for “critical” wireless and broadband facilities being studied in docket 11-60. But USTelecom, ATIS and the Telecommunications Industry Association said the commission ought to use a light touch in ensuring the safety of wireless and broadband emergency networks.