A broad coalition of industry, labor and public interest groups is urging Congress to adopt broadband legislation (S- 1492, HR-3919) before Congress adjourns, said a letter sent Monday to House and Senate Commerce Committee leaders. A national broadband policy “could have dramatic and far- reaching economic impacts,” said the letter, signed by more than 30 phone, cable and rural interests. The letter signals stepped-up lobbying to get the legislation approved before the 110th Congress ends.

Federal appeals judges shouldn’t stay an FCC ruling that would force Verizon to change its retention marketing practices, FCC General Counsel Matthew Berry argued in a brief to the District of Columbia Circuit Court. “Unlike the typical stay request, Verizon asks not that the Court preserve the status quo in the wake of a newly imposed regulatory requirement, but that it in effect bar the application of established rules with which Verizon complied for more than eight years and with which every other carrier in the industry continues to comply,” the brief said. Consumers Union, CompTel, NCTA, Bright House, Comcast and Time Warner Cable also opposed Verizon’s stay request. USTelecom filed a brief supporting Verizon, it said.

Major wireless and wireline associations and their carrier members asked the FCC to back off imposing a requirement that eligible telecommunications carriers send billing inserts or postcards to all subscribers explaining the DTV transition. The CTIA said there’s no “cognizable connection” between a consumer’s wireless service and TV service. A notice asking whether the FCC should expand digital TV consumer-education mandates (CD April 24 p6) faced by cable and satellite-TV providers and telcos getting government money drew no support. In comments on the rulemaking notice filed with the agency Friday, no one supported requiring eligible telecommunications carriers to include information on monthly customer bills or send postcards on the transition to all subscribers.

The FCC should stay an order finding that Verizon unlawfully marketed to departing phone customers (CD June 25 p5), USTelecom said Wednesday. The order will “create an artificial regulatory advantage for cable companies” because it stops “one set of competitors from engaging in pro-consumer retention marketing while others engage in similar practices,” said President Walter McCormick in a statement.

Allison Remsen leaves USTelecom July 3 to become executive director of Mobile Future, a new coalition focused on wireless issues.

Rural wireless carriers made clear in reply comments on three Universal Service Fund rulemaking notices that the FCC could face legal challenge if it kills the identical-support rule. VoIP carriers and American Indian tribes, meanwhile, entered the debate over a USF overhaul, urging a broadband- specific fund. They had sat out an earlier comment round.

Conferees on a VoIP E-911 bill (HR-3403) are hoping to get the Senate to approve a bill reflecting an agreement struck two weeks ago by members of both parties and chambers (CD May 22 p2), Hill and industry sources said Tuesday. The bill drops language opposed by telecom carriers that would have barred them from using customer information in FCC competition proceedings. Earlier drafts of the bill would have limited use of the information to emergency network needs.

Conferees have reached an “agreement in principle” on a VoIP E-911 bill that was hung up over rules governing a database collecting customer location information and provider access to 911 components, industry and Hill sources said Wednesday. Once the conference report is drafted, it’s likely to be considered for an expedited vote in the Senate first and then the House. The Senate bill (S-428) passed the Senate by unanimous consent Feb. 26, while the House approved its measure in mid-November with only one dissenting vote.

AT&T saw nothing but industry support on its appeal of a Universal Service Administrative Co. audit. AT&T disputes a USAC order that eligible telecommunications carriers must report partial or pro-rata dollars for USF Lifeline subscribers who left the Lifeline program within the month they joined. AT&T said it doesn’t need to provide the information because it has never asked USAC for partial or pro-rata support. In comments filed Wednesday, USTelecom, Qwest, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, Embarq and Sprint Nextel supported the appeal. No one opposed it.

Needless regulation threatens democracy, USTelecom President Walter McCormick told a Wednesday Media Institute lunch. “The Internet today is driving tremendous diverse participation in the democratic process in the absence of government management,” he said. The same freedom of speech isn’t present in China, which “manages the Internet,” he said, voicing fear that regulation could stifle innovation. Net management rules aren’t needed because “today, anybody who wants to invest and to offer Internet access is free to do so,” he said. Broadband investment is private sector- based, making it “unique from other significant technologies and infrastructure programs,” he said. In today’s dollars, taxpayers paid about $20 billion per year for 25 years to build the interstate highway, and $10 billion per year on the Apollo space program, he said. “But, last year alone, private companies invested more than $70 billion in North American communications infrastructure,” he said. McCormick’s speech was his first to the Media Institute. “Just a few years ago, the Media Institute probably would not have been interested in having the president of what was then the United States Telephone Association address media issues,” he said. But, in a converged world, “this is no longer the telephone industry, but the broadband industry.” - - AB