House Commerce Committee leaders disagreed whether new regulatory reforms by President Barack Obama should apply to independent federal agencies like the FCC. At a House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, an Office of Management and Budget official said current law prevented Obama from applying his recent executive order to independent agencies. Full Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said he will pursue legislation so that no federal agency is exempt. But Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said afterward that he has reservations.

The FCC gave LightSquared on Wednesday the regulatory go-ahead that could allow terrestrial service in spectrum allocated for mobile satellite service. The waiver from the International Bureau comes with several conditions meant to allay interference concerns raised by GPS providers and federal agencies, which use neighboring spectrum. The waiver applies to rules that prevent MSS/ancillary terrestrial component licensees from offering terrestrial-only service. LightSquared plans to lease its L-band spectrum wholesale to customers that would be allowed to sell terrestrial-only service. The ability to provide the terrestrial-only service is widely viewed as a necessity for LightSquared’s service to succeed financially. The company is hoped to add competition to the wireless market.

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- The tracking opt-out technologies that Google and Mozilla offered this week, together with Microsoft’s earlier promise of a do-not-track list, pose “an important test” for the online marketing industry, said a Center for Democracy & Technology executive. Advertisers and publishers “are being offered an opportunity here,” said Jim Dempsey, the center’s public-policy vice president.

GENEVA -- Mobile satellite service proponents are pressing administrations to wait for crucial feasibility studies on possible sharing arrangements in some of the six bands under consideration for allocations at WRC-12. ITU-R studies on providing broadband MSS service to land, maritime and aeronautical users using small directional antennas showed the need for much more spectrum than is currently available, the draft WRC-12 report said. The spectrum would ensure broadband availability in most areas, it said.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Significant opportunities are said to await Internet service providers as smart grid deployment expands and consumers have the option to monitor and manage their home energy usage. While utilities wrestle with new models of interacting with consumers in a two-way environment, giving consumers control in what has been a decidedly one-way relationship, telcos and cable companies are hoping to grab a bit of the smart grid action.

The FCC Tuesday approved 5-0 a report and order and further notice that adopts LTE as the air interface for a national public safety network and asks a battery of technical questions on the build-out of that network in the 700 MHz band. The rulemaking notice doesn’t ask any questions about the future of the 700 MHz D-block (CD Dec 30 p2), which public safety groups are seeking to add to the 700 MHz spectrum they already have been allocated for broadband.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wants tougher net neutrality rules for ISPs. On Tuesday she introduced legislation with Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to create a new section in Title II of the Communications Act to codify the FCC’s six net neutrality principles. The bill would apply equally to wireline and wireless providers. Public interest groups that thought the FCC didn’t go far enough in its order said they supported the Cantwell measure.

The federal government seeks to partner with the private sector and international bodies to help drive standards development, key to achieving national priorities like smart grid, health IT, cybersecurity, cloud computing and public safety, said Commerce Department Secretary Gary Locke at the National Institute of Standards and Technology roundtable Tuesday. The administration is seeking public input on effective federal participation on standards and conformity assessment activities related to technology, he said.

MetroPCS will file a legal challenge to the FCC’s Dec. 21 net neutrality order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the carrier said. The lawsuit is patterned on Verizon’s challenge filed last week in the same court (CD Jan 21 p1). The company filed a notice of appeal through its law firm Paul, Hastings.

Helped by wireless growth, Verizon Communications posted a Q4 net income of $4.6 billion, nearly doubling its Q4 2009 profit of $2.4 billion. Meanwhile, most of the impact from the FCC’s net neutrality order “won’t be felt this year,” CEO Ivan Seidenberg said during a conference call Tuesday. The rules don’t sound “anywhere near troublesome” but there would be longer term impact if the FCC exercises its authority, he said. “We need to challenge the authority” over the long term, he said. MetroPCS followed Verizon in suing the FCC over net neutrality rules (see separate story in this issue).