A draft House bill on broadband stimulus spending would take away NTIA’s discretion to decide when to take back grants provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The draft bill by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., also would speed delivery of reclaimed funds to the U.S. Treasury. But committee Democrats asked in a Democratic Commerce Committee staff memo circulated Wednesday among lobbyists why the bill is necessary.

Fox affiliates could end up paying higher fees for network programming or risk losing their affiliations entirely, according to a letter from Fox Affiliate Sales and Marketing President Michael Hopkins sent to station owners last week. The letter came in response to a Jan. 28 letter from affiliate board Chairman Brian Brady who wrote that Fox had rejected several proposals from the board’s negotiating committee and is instead seeking to negotiate directly with each station or group. “The network values the partnership with our affiliates even while we realize that our proposal may not work for every company,” Fox’s Hopkins wrote in his Feb. 4 letter. “If that should be the case, Fox will have to pursue different distribution channels to receive a fair value for our programming and continue to run a successful network. We don’t want that to sound like a threat, but it is a fact."

The FCC significantly underestimates the burden it would impose on wireless carriers if it adopts bill shock rules, the CTIA said in reply comments filed at the FCC. CTIA said the FCC should “heed” recently annunciated administration policy and refrain from imposing a new set of regulations on carriers. But the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and various consumer groups said federal rules are critical.

Wireless broadband in 2021 may be faster than wireline access now is, cars could be virtual social networks, radio stations will have “fully embraced” HD Radio and “no one cares” anymore about net neutrality, predicted CEA President Gary Shapiro. Autos could become rolling “music devices” with Internet access and electronics in the backseat akin to “rolling homes,” with most cars having social media features, he said Wednesday. Speaking to communications lobbyists and executives, Shapiro acknowledged that his predictions were semi-serious and that he was asked by President Patrick Maines of the Media Institute, whose luncheon he addressed, not to speak about spectrum in his prepared remarks. He managed anyway to get in a dig at the NAB, at odds with the CEA over spectrum and broadcasters’ desire for more cellphones to receive terrestrial radio.

Critics of Internet regulation called the FTC’s hiring of Tim Wu (CD Feb 9 p12), credited with coining the expression “net neutrality,” an especially untimely signal that the commission will deepen its intervention in online matters. The FTC’s ability to attract prominent academics such as Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York, and Chief Technology Officer Edward Felten, a Princeton University professor of computer science and public affairs, reflects that the commission “is able to take more political risks than the FCC is at this point,” said Prof. Susan Crawford of Cardozo Law School in New York, who led the transition review of the FCC in 2008 and was a White House technology adviser the next year.

The FCC took its first steps toward remaking the Universal Service Fund and the intercarrier compensation system Tuesday with a 5-0 vote in favor of a broadly worded rulemaking notice. The commission also voted to adopt a notice for a separate rulemaking that commission officials said will “streamline its data collection program” and eliminate “unneeded data collections that impose unnecessary burdens on filers.”

Verizon Wireless opposed a proposal by the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age for a new “overcoming disadvantages” category for designated entities (DE) in FCC spectrum auctions (CD Oct 4 p3). But public interest groups led by the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ said the proposal shows promise. Council Tree, a DE, said the FCC should consider the proposal, but must restructure the current program so a larger number of DEs can bid successfully for spectrum licenses.

Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile urged lawmakers to focus on “substance” when deciding how best to build a national wireless broadband network for public safety. In a Monday briefing, the No. 3 and 4 carriers previewed a new white paper showing how spectrum sharing would meet public safety’s needs if the government auctions the 700 MHz D-block. The carriers say they would buy the spectrum and negotiate sharing arrangements with public safety. The companies’ effort met a setback earlier this month when President Barack Obama endorsed a direct reallocation of the D-block to public safety.

In-flight broadband provider Aircell received $35 million in private equity funding to expand services in both commercial and business aviation markets, CEO Michael Small said in an interview. The company seeks to offer more in-flight content, including movies, to compliment its Wi-Fi services, he said.

The FCC will make tribal issues a key focus at the March 3 meeting, Wireless Bureau Chief of Staff Matthew Nodine confirmed Monday. Other commission officials also provided updates on key initiatives before the agency, in an FCC webinar Monday aimed at the states. The FCC will look at “ways to increase spectrum coverage in the tribal areas of the United States,” Nodine said. “We do have some very interesting things that we've got coming up to figure out ways to bring high-speed Internet, high-speed broadband, high-speed 3G and 4G services to the tribal areas.”