The Supreme Court likely will spend much time on a landmark broadcast indecency decision, reviewing whether the FCC has constitutional authority to find that an isolated occurrence of nudity or instance of cursing is indecent, industry lawyers and professors predicted. They said the 1978 Pacifica case, where the high court found the commission can find certain swear words indecent, is likely to get more attention than the 1969 Red Lion ruling upholding broadcast regulation because of the scarcity of spectrum. That’s because in certifying for oral argument cases involving the ABC and Fox networks, the court on Monday said it will limit consideration to issues involving the First and Fifth Amendments.

A handful of rural rate-of-return telco executives took aim at the USTelecom-led efforts to create cost models for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, an ex parte notice released Monday showed. USTelecom had brought in analyst CostQuest to create cost models as it continues to lead industry-wide talks on wholesale reform. CostQuest executives have been sitting in on ex parte meetings since at least May to discuss some of their findings (CD May 24 p14).

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill advocated Do Not Track mechanisms for mobile devices, apps, and services, during a Center for American Progress event in Washington Monday. “With so much information about consumers being exchanged in that space,” said Brill, “this branch of the information superhighway is in desperate need of reform.” Brill also said there was a “widespread consensus” that the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) apply to most mobile technologies.

Whether the start of more low-power FM stations will affect commercial radio stations operating at full power was debated in FCC filings on a coming Media Bureau study on LPFM. NAB said licensing of many more LPFMs could hurt full-power stations in the major markets that haven’t before had low-power rivals, if the upstarts have similar programming as incumbents. The study the commission was ordered by Congress to do under last year’s Local Community Radio Act ought to take future stations into account, the association said. Low-power stations and their advocates predicted the economic impact of those broadcasters will to be nonexistent or small. Filings were posted Monday and Friday in docket 11-83, on the study due to Congress Jan. 4. The agency is taking other steps to implement the legislation (CD May 3 p3), with commissioners tentatively set to vote on a rulemaking notice on the subject at the July 12 meeting.

Mobile phones and the Internet have played a big part in the overthrow of repressive regimes internationally, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said Monday at a conference for international regulators in Stockholm. McDowell expressed strong concerns about attacks on Internet freedom, particularly in China.

AT&T got some political cover from House Democrats last week, in the form of a letter signed by 76 of them who said the transaction will create “good paying union jobs” and expand broadband to unserved areas (CD June 23 p13) . The letter doesn’t specifically endorse the deal. Foes of the transaction were quick to question the significance of the letter and whether it will resonate at the FCC or elsewhere in the administration.

Top congressional staffers are lending a hand in the ongoing talks on an industry-endorsed Universal Service Fund reform proposal, telco and Capitol Hill officials said in interviews. Ray Baum, senior policy adviser on the House Communications Subcommittee and longtime friend of Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Nick Degani, legal counsel to the subcommittee; and Brad Schweer, legislative director to Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.; have all taken an active part in the industry talks in recent weeks, telco officials and Baum said. Since the November elections, Congress had steered clear of USF, focusing on net neutrality, spectrum, FCC reform and AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile. Walden earlier this month said he was “encouraged” by the FCC’s USF efforts, and urged industry to come up with a reform package soon (CD June 8 p5).

Cable subscribers who own iPads will use cable-operator iPad apps more when there’s more programming available on them, Time Warner Cable Executive Vice President Kevin Leddy told C-SPAN’s The Communicators for a show set to have been telecast Saturday. Some 500,000 people have downloaded TWC’s iPad app since it was first introduced and a “high percentage” of iPad owners in TWC’s service area have the app, he said. The linear programming lineup is limited to 80 channels and still lacks local TV stations and much sports programming, he said. “As we add more sports and local broadcasters, we expect usage to go up quite a bit."

Forthcoming products don’t undercut the need for AllVid rules so that all subscription-video providers will use open standards to connect TV sets to consumer electronics, backers of such regulation said. The AllVid Tech Company Alliance, representing major device manufacturers and retailers, last week renewed its lobbying for the FCC to propose rules. The commission’s proceeding has been effectively paused. Chairman Julius Genachowski and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake hope to see multichannel video programming providers and CE companies reach more deals for various devices to receive Internet and cable content without CableCARDs, such as those unveiled at the Cable Show earlier this month (CD June 23 p6).

Wireless carriers in countries around the world are deploying LTE in “new” spectrum, not having to refarm spectrum already dedicated to another use, 4G Americas President Chris Pearson said in an interview last week. This is a critical time for U.S. policymakers to step up to the plate and make more spectrum available for wireless broadband, he said. Pearson said the outlook remains unclear for the 1755-1780 MHz band, a key target of wireless carriers.