Draft universal service reform legislation announced Friday would cover broadband, expand the contribution base and cap high-cost support, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. This is the third round of legislation the two lawmakers have worked on, and comes after months of negotiations among industry and regional regulators. “The Universal Service Fund is broken,” said Boucher and Terry. Consumers will pay more than 14 percent of long-distance revenue into the fund next year, up from 12 percent in 2009, they said. A hearing on the draft is planned for Nov. 17.

Regina Hopper, ex-USTelecom, becomes president-CEO of America’s Natural Gas Alliance; Tom Amontree, also ex- USTelecom, joins as executive vice president … Brightpoint promotes Ryan Willman to controller, Europe, Middle East and Africa … New at AOL: Ned Brody rejoins as executive vice president, paid services; Mike Suffredini, ex- Discovery, vice president-treasurer; Eoin Ryan, ex-IAC, vice president, investor relations; Don Neff moves to senior vice president, internal audit.

Big phone companies urged the FCC to reject a petition on broadband data collection by state regulators. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners had asked the commission to decide that federal rules don’t limit states’ collecting information from broadband service or infrastructure providers (CD Sept 30 p10). But in comments this week, AT&T, Verizon and USTelecom said the proposed rule would represent an unwarranted expansion of state authority.

The Adolescent Web Awareness Requires Education Act(HR- 3222) probably will be marked up soon, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said Tuesday at a meeting of the Online Safety and Technology Working Group. Education for children, parents and teachers is crucial, speakers said.

The FCC is discussing ways to step up the agency’s involvement in cybersecurity matters, but it isn’t seeking to broaden its responsibilities, said Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau spokesman Robert Kenny. The commission collected big phone companies’ opinions in a meeting last month (CD Oct 27 p10). So far, industry officials have revealed no concerns.

There will be changes in the guidelines governing the broadband stimulus program, said NTIA Chief of Staff Thomas Power at an Federal Communications Bar Association seminar late Thursday. Other speakers urged more clarity and regulatory certainty.

The FCC Communication Systems Analysis Division called in cybersecurity experts from USTelecom, AT&T, Qwest and Verizon for a meeting Oct. 22, a USTelecom ex parte filing said. They discussed cybersecurity and the commission’s “broader goals of collecting information on the resiliency of networks to withstand cyber attacks,” USTelecom said. The FCC is looking to “broaden its role” in cybersecurity, and it called the industry providers in to get their opinions, a USTelecom spokesman said.

CHICAGO -- The need for a long-term and “holistic” commitment to spurring broadband is the most important lesson to be learned from international broadband comparisons, FCC broadband plan coordinator Blair Levin said at Supercomm Wednesday afternoon. “If this is just kind of a one-shot deal, five years from now it will just be like an infinite number of other things” that people talked a lot about but never accomplished, he said.

Six industry associations offered NTIA and RUS suggestions for changing the broadband mapping tool that companies must use to apply for federal broadband funds. “Unfortunately, the application information made available by the agencies about pending applications for areas listed as ‘unserved’ and ‘underserved’ makes it difficult, and in some cases impossible, for our members to examine and respond fully and completely to those applications within the 30-day deadline set by the agencies,” the groups wrote in a letter to the agencies. The format of the mapping tool “creates a significant barrier to submitting data in a timely fashion,” the letter said. “Providing a dataset of census block/group/tract information with application numbers would simplify and speed the process for responding,” it said. “Our members are reviewing the list of proposed funded service areas and have reported that funding has been sought in hundreds of areas where they provide broadband service. They have discovered, however, that using the tools available to research each proposed funded service area separately, as the agencies require, is unnecessarily burdensome.” The letter said the database’s 7,500 census block limit “creates a barrier to obtaining information about areas where funding is proposed and should be lifted.” There are more than 8 million census blocks nationwide, the letter said. “Many applications include service areas that cross multiple counties or multiple states and potentially hundreds to thousands of census blocks. Despite this fact, the database only displays up to 7,500 census blocks per proposed funded service area.” OPASTCO, USTelecom, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the American Cable Association, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance and the Western Telecommunications Alliance signed the letter.

New at FCC: Yul Kwon, ex-aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., becomes deputy chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau … USTelecom elections: SureWest Communications CEO Steve Oldham, chair; Jeff Gardner, Windstream, vice chair; Tom Gerke, CenturyLink, secretary; Tom Tauke, Verizon, treasurer … New joint- presidents, European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations: Thomas Ewers, Electronic Communications Committee; Ulrich Dammann, European Committee for Postal Regulation; Anders Jonsson, Committee for ITU Policy … Sharon Otterman, ex-ESPN, named MSNBC vice president-chief marketing officer … Comcast names Mark O'Leary, ex-Excite@Home, regional vice president-business services, California … Nexstar Broadcasting names Marc Montoya, ex-Noofangle Media, senior vice president, eMedia sales and operations.