The New York Senate passed legislation that would prevent state regulation of VoIP services. The bill, introduced by GOP Sen. George Maziarz, might not be going anywhere because the state Assembly session ended Monday, his legislative aide told us. Maziarz is working with the Assembly to try to pass the bill in potential extended session, the aide said. S-5769 passed Monday.

NAB will release a study Tuesday that claims local TV and Radio stations affect about $1.17 trillion of the United States’ $14.66 trillion gross domestic product. The analysis, by Woods & Poole Economics, with help from BIA/Kelsey, looks at broadcasters’ cumulative effect on GDP and on the economies of each of the 50 states. Stations contribute almost $60 billion directly to GDP; the rest of the $1.17 trillion comes from broadcasting’s effects on other industries through the money its workers spend, and its “stimulative effect” on the economy through the ads it sells, the study said. The ads placed on local stations are “estimated to stimulate more than $986 billion in economic activity and support 1.38 million jobs,” the study said.

CLEC association CompTel was among those offering early replies in the AT&T/T-Mobile docket Monday, opposing the deal. Comments were flooding into the FCC Monday, responding mostly to the “opposition” AT&T/T-Mobile filed June 10 (CD June 13 p1) in answer to some 50 petitions asking the commission to reject the deal. At our deadline, almost 39,000 comments have been filed in docket 11-65, on AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile.

Charging wireline broadband subscribers for the amount of bandwidth they consume, instead of sending all who buy a certain product the same bill each month, will become increasingly prevalent among U.S. ISPs in the coming years, executives predicted in interviews Monday. They said few cable or phone companies in this country now charge broadband customers for how many megabytes they use, and that may take some time to change. U.S. wireless carriers frequently charge customers based on usage, or impose bandwidth caps, as do wireline ISPs outside the U.S., executives said.

Early reviews are mixed on draft FCC process reform legislation circulated Friday by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The subcommittee has a hearing Wednesday on the draft bill. Among its provisions, the draft would allow three or more commissioners to meet behind closed doors, would set shot clocks on agency actions and require the FCC to provide greater justification for new regulations and transaction conditions.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he will circulate Tuesday a notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at preventing “cramming.” That comes in the aftermath of enforcement actions the commission took against four companies for cramming last week (CD June 17 p5). Genachowski also indicated Monday in a speech at the Center for American Progress that controversial “bill shock” rules could soon be ready for a commission vote.

LightSquared will propose initially only using the lower 10 MHz of the L-band spectrum the company has access to as a way to deal with interference problems with GPS services, it said Monday. The proposal, which includes the acceleration of a LightSquared agreement with Inmarsat, would allow LightSquared to begin service further away from spectrum used by the GPS industry. LightSquared made the decision after “early test results indicated that one of LightSquared’s 10MHz blocks of frequencies poses interference to many GPS receivers,” the company said. The GPS industry has expressed concerns over such plans in the past (CD June p9).

CHICAGO -— Comcast plans to introduce a Web-connected, personalized TV program guide and content navigation platform to its Xfinity TV digital cable subscribers. That’s part of its effort to put video content on multiple screens and stave off competition from telco TV, DBS and over-the top (OTT) video providers.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sent the White House a letter asking President Barack Obama to nominate Ajit Pai for the Republican seat on the FCC vacated by Meredith Baker. Industry and government officials we spoke with Friday said Pai is likely to be nominated and should face a relatively easy time being confirmed, barring unforeseen complications. Pai’s nomination is likely to be paired with that of Jessica Rosenworcel, an aide to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.Rosenworcel is expected to be the nominee to replace Democrat Michael Copps on the commission. Copps must leave the FCC when the current session of Congress ends.

The FCC shouldn’t require those lobbying it to disclose their ownership as the agency seeks to further update ex parte filing rules, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NAB and the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC). They sought exclusions if there are new rules for associations and coalitions, so such entities don’t need to list every member that participated in an issue. The Chamber was among those also raising constitutional concerns about more disclosure. Free Press and the Media Access Project backed additional ownership details. A rulemaking notice sought ways to collect additional information in ex parte filings, without overly burdening those making them (CD Feb 4 p2).