The fight over net neutrality rules is being waged in a new lobbying arena, pitting traditional corporate lobbying tactics against the well-honed social networking that helped win the election for President Barack Obama. Free Press, Public Knowledge and the Open Internet Coalition are leading the way with grassroots outreach to build support for strong net neutrality rules. The phone and cable industry have a large and well-financed network of lobbyists on Capitol Hill and at the FCC, according to Senate lobbying records. Both sides of the neutrality debate supplement their lobbying with membership in more than two dozen coalitions, alliances and trade associations that share their opinions, according to our research based on tax filings, interviews and organizational disclosures on Web sites.

The Telecommunications Industry Association asked the FCC to remake the Universal Service Fund into a broadband fund, in comments on National Broadband Plan Public Notice #19, on USF and intercarrier compensation issues. Five mid- sized incumbent telcos offered a proposal for revamping both. Most filers agreed that USF and ICC overhauls should be included in the plan, due to be submitted to Congress in February. Many comments built on those filed in previous comment rounds.

Free Press and big broadband providers drew different conclusions about future broadband investment and competition from a broadband report requested by the FCC for its National Broadband Plan, written by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI). In comments Friday, companies said the study highlighted significant industry investment, while Free Press said it showed consumers “are faced with slow speeds, high prices and few choices.” Meanwhile, the Satellite Industry Association objected to the report’s assessment of the quality of satellite broadband.

The NTIA and RUS received a bevy of proposed rule changes as they prepare to move ahead with the second and final round of broadband stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In comments on the agencies’ November request for information (CD Nov 12 p1), broadband providers and others cited many problems in the first round that they said discouraged participation or colored results. Many of the comments were unreadable Tuesday due to problems on the agencies’ stimulus Web site, BroadbandUSA.gov.

The FCC wants comment on a petition by Cincinnati Bell to waive the equal-access scripting requirement. The commission also asked whether it should forbear from applying the rule to the company. The FCC also is considering a USTelecom petition to kill the rule, which requires small- and mid-sized incumbent carriers to tell consumers that they have a choice of long-distance providers. Carriers uniformly supported that petition in September comments (CD Sept 15 p2). Comments on the Cincinnati Bell petition are due Dec. 21, replies Jan. 8.

The FCC wants comment on a petition by Cincinnati Bell to waive the equal-access scripting requirement. The commission also asked whether it should forbear from applying the rule to the company. The FCC also is considering a USTelecom petition to kill the rule, which requires small- and mid-sized incumbent carriers to tell consumers that they have a choice of long-distance providers. Carriers uniformly supported that petition in September comments (CD Sept 15 p2). Comments on the Cincinnati Bell petition are due Dec. 21, replies Jan. 8.

Ex partes: The Coalition for Competitive Access to Content still wants closed the so-called terrestrial loophole that lets cable operators withhold from rivals programming they don’t use satellites to deliver. The “harm and need have been fully documented,” said handouts from meetings last week with FCC member Mignon Clyburn and an aide to Commissioner Michael Copps. “Program access rules need to cover all delivered formats and technologies used to distribute vertically integrated programming.” AT&T, DirecTV, Knology, RCN, SureWest, USTelecom and Verizon and others sent representatives. … Cablevision asked the FCC to change the program-withholding ban so it doesn’t apply to markets where an analysis shows “durable competition exists.” New York, served by the cable operator and five rivals, is such an area, a Friday Cablevision ex parte filing said. “Rather than expand the scope of the program access rules, the Commission should relax the exclusivity ban in those local markets where competition among video distributors has taken firm root.”

Incumbent broadband providers accused a broadband study commissioned by the FCC of bias. The paper, written by researchers at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, concluded among other things that open-access policies drove broadband growth in other countries. The commission ordered the study to help it develop a National Broadband Plan. In comments Monday, incumbents and free-market proponents told the commission to scrap the report’s findings, but competitors urged the FCC to give them significant weight.

A group representing public, educational and government channels sought FCC action on petitions for the commission to make pay-TV companies treat PEG channels like other ones. Representatives of the Alliance for Community Media told Chairman Julius Genachowski, his media adviser and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake that AT&T, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance and USTelecom were wrong that state law would be preempted by FCC action (CD July 17 p7). “The assertion is a red herring,” said an ex parte filing. “ACM’s Petition does not seek the preemption of any state law or local franchise.” Another filing said “problems” caused by AT&T’s U-verse subscription video service were discussed with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps and aides to the other FCC members. The service “consigns PEG channels to an inferior, inaccessible format that fails to provide basic functionality,” it said.

Section 271 interconnection prices charged by Qwest, AT&T and Verizon are unreasonable and unlawful, said a coalition of competitive carriers that rely on the incumbents’ unbundled network elements. In a petition Monday, CompTel, Sprint Nextel, TW Telecom and six other competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) urged the FCC to adopt rules guiding enforcement of the big carriers’ Section 271 obligations under the 1996 Telecom Act. USTelecom condemned the petition as unnecessary and counterproductive to the commission’s promotion of broadband.