Democrats and the telecom industry are pushing for “dig once” language to be added to the surface transportation legislation due for votes after Congress returns next week from recess. House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has an amendment that would require states to evaluate including broadband conduit during the construction of federal highways. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have a Senate amendment requiring states to include the conduit. CTIA, USTelecom and the Telecom Industry Association support the broadband conduit proposals, their officials said.

Calling cyberattacks a “critical threat to our economic future and national security,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked Internet stakeholders Wednesday to address three significant cyberthreats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking. Specifically, Genachowski called on ISPs to develop and adopt an industry-wide code of conduct to combat botnets; develop secure routing standards to eliminate maliciously misrouted traffic; and adopt a series of DNS security extensions, called DNSSEC, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Genachowski said the vulnerabilities were identified after he tasked the FCC’s Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) with making recommendations in March 2011.

Tower operator SBA Communications will acquire 2,300 tower sites in the U.S. and Central America and some distributed antenna systems from Mobilitie for $1 billion, the companies said. Rivals American Tower and Crown Castle recently snapped up tower sites and small antenna assets. More tower deals, especially carrier deals and small antenna system transactions, are expected, analysts said.

FCC VoIP outage reporting rules will apply to both facilities-based and non-facilities based interconnected VoIP providers, according to the text of the order extending outage reporting requirements to VoIP service providers released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmsyer). Because non-facilities-based VoIP providers may have difficulty complying with mandatory outage reporting for underlying broadband networks not in their control, the rules require non-facilities based providers to report service outages only “that involve facilities that they own, operate, lease, or otherwise utilize.”

Spectrum legislation approved by Congress last week as part of the payroll tax cut extension bill offers $115 million to help defray the costs of a next generation 911 (NG911) network. That’s the good news for public safety. The bad news is that amount is less than one twentieth of the expected cost. But public safety officials said other provisions should be helpful in making NG911 a reality.

Debate between broadcasters and nonprofits about what information TV stations should be required to report online, by moving paper files in studios to the Internet, heated up as an FCC vote on an order nears. The Media Bureau continues work on an order to require many parts of stations’ public files to be put online, and may circulate an order in time for a vote at the March 21 meeting, agency and industry officials said. Public interest groups and broadcasters continued trading FCC filings about the merits of scaling back the commission’s proposed rules, with industry wanting fewer requirements than the commission has proposed and nonprofits urging the agency to stick with what was floated in an October rulemaking notice.

The Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecommunications Group both warned the FCC the Mobility Fund created by the Connect America Fund order is too small to meet the needs of rural America. Replies were due last week on the dedicated wireless fund created by the FCC’s October Universal Service Fund reform order (CD Oct 28 p1).

Online video distributors (OVDs) have refused to disclose their licensing agreements with other major networks when they're seeking access to Comcast/NBCUniversal programming under terms of a condition the government applied to approval of Comcast’s application to take control of NBCU, said lawyers for Comcast/NBCU in a letter to the FCC last week. In the so-called “Benchmark Condition” of the FCC’s order approving the deal, the FCC required Comcast to provide “comparable programming” to OVDs that have at least one agreement with a major broadcast network, pay-TV network, TV or film studio not affiliated with Comcast or NBCU. But OVDs have told the company they can’t share those deals because of confidentiality restrictions, the letter said. The FCC Media Bureau should issue a new protective order to ensure the confidentiality of OVDs’ peer deals, the letter said.

The cable industry is beginning another phase in its transition to all-digital systems, our survey of major U.S. operators found. Most provide some digital channels in all or nearly all systems, which marked the first phase of the multiyear transition. Systems are continuing to switch off the remaining analog channels to take them all-digital in the second phase of the transition. Cable operators have a way to go before most companies are fully digital in all systems and have moved all channels off the analog tier, which frees up bandwidth for HD and broadband.

The FCC plans a nationwide broadband speed test, following up on the limited tests it did last year which showed that customers at 13 of the largest ISPs were generally receiving performance at or exceeding advertised levels. Industry players have been meeting with the commission over the past several weeks to hammer out details of how the expanded tests will be done and what they'll measure, according to a series of ex parte filings. An agency source said that in addition to raw speed measurements, the new tests will include data on jitter, latency and variance.