The FCC seems unlikely to soon change retransmission consent rules as it considers a request for rulemaking by many multichannel video programming distributors, unless a contractual dispute between a TV station and an MVPD leads to an outage for subscribers, an analyst and an FCC aide suggested Wednesday. No executives at a USTelecom event on retransmission predicted quick commission action on the petition by 14 cable, satellite, telco-TV and nonprofit entities. That could change if there’s another instance in which MVPD customers can’t watch broadcasts because of a contractual dispute, as with the removal for less than a day of Disney’s WABC-TV New York from Cablevision’s lineup this year (CD March 9 p2), some said.

On September 29, 2010, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2378, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, by a wide margin of 348 to 79.

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program (i.e., A, A*, and A+) for most beneficiary countries, i.e., other than those listed as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beneficiary countries, will expire on December 31, 2010, unless a law extending it is enacted.

A rulemaking paving the way for the FCC to auction TV stations’ spectrum for wireless broadband use and give part of the proceeds to the affected broadcasters won’t be approved until after the deadline envisioned by the commission in its agenda to deliver on the National Broadband Plan. The plan called for action this quarter on an item on “broadcast TV spectrum innovation” that would seek comment on proposals to increase spectrum efficiency and innovation (http://xrl.us/bhf9kj). Instead, Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate in Q4 a rulemaking notice that could be voted on at the November or December FCC meetings, agency officials and industry executives said. The FCC has missed several other deadlines in the agenda (CD Sept 1 p1).

A rulemaking paving the way for the FCC to auction TV stations’ spectrum for wireless broadband use and give part of the proceeds to the affected broadcasters won’t be approved until after the deadline envisioned by the commission in its agenda to deliver on the National Broadband Plan. The plan called for action this quarter on an item on “broadcast TV spectrum innovation” that would seek comment on proposals to increase spectrum efficiency and innovation (http://xrl.us/bhf9kj). Instead, Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate in Q4 a rulemaking notice that could be voted on at the November or December FCC meetings, agency officials and industry executives said. The FCC has missed several other deadlines in the agenda.

Fifteen groups asked the FCC not to act on Auction 83 rules while advocates for low-power FM stations and operators of translators on the band work together on a new compromise after commission staffers raised concerns about an earlier plan (CD July 27 p5). “The parties are working together diligently to create a second iteration of the plan which will address as many of the staff’s concerns as possible,” said Prometheus Radio Project, which had signed on to the plan, along with groups that hadn’t. The commission shouldn’t act on rules limiting the number of applications it can grant from those for the auction, a 2003 window for translators, until this Congress ends, the Local Community Radio Act passes or those involved in the earlier deal strike a new one dealing with the FCC’s qualms, said a filing posted Monday to docket 99-25. It was signed by the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Future of Music Coalition, the New America Foundation, Public Knowledge, Free Press and the Media Access Project. Educational Media Foundation, an owner of FM translators that agreed to the deal, didn’t sign the filing.

The International Trade Commission announces that a section 337 patent-based complaint has been filed regarding certain digital televisions and components thereof.

"Regulatory holidays” for build-out of new fiber networks won’t be tolerated, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Monday, unveiling the European Commission’s proposed three-pronged approach to universal and high-speed broadband. The statements on broadband investment, regulation of access to new networks and establishing a five-year spectrum policy program make up a package of reforms the EC hopes will jump-start Europe’s digital economy. The proposals won general praise from the telecom sector, but a few niggling concerns remain, various sources said. The measures must be approved by the European Parliament and Council.

The Senate approved the Small Business Jobs Act, which contains language removing wireless devices from IRS “listed property” rules. If the change becomes law people with a business-provided mobile device are no longer required to record the amount of such expense, the time and place of the use of the property, the business purpose of the expense and business relationship to the taxpayer of the persons using the property. The legislation, better known as the MOBILE Cell Phone Act, will provide relief for businesses and employees across the country, said CTIA President Steve Largent. “We hope the House will act soon so that wireless devices can be removed from the IRS listed property rules. The existing rule punishes productivity and raises compliance costs, and its permanent repeal is long overdue,” he said. “You can’t do business in the modern economy without a cellphone so it’s crazy to tax them like some executive perk,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.: “This law was long in need of modernization and I'm glad we've done right by businesses and abolished this silly and outdated law.” CTIA is pleased that the legislation has gained bipartisan support, a CTIA spokeswoman said. The administration also supports it, she said. The legislation was introduced by Kerry, and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., in 2008.

Google is a “serial offender” that is violating copyright law, other companies’ patents and the privacy of the public, Precursor CEO Scott Cleland, a longtime critic of the company, said Thursday in a hearing by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy. But much of the focus of the hearing was on the broader issue of whether recent developments like Apple’s launch of its own mobile advertising network, iAd, after it bought mobile ad network Quattro Wireless, are moving too fast for antitrust law to keep up.