A Universal Service Fund revamp and additional public funding are needed to bring broadband to small businesses and encourage adoption, top government and broadband industry officials said Tuesday. At a hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said high prices, sparse availability and low digital literacy are the largest barriers keeping broadband from small businesses. And NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling called continued funding in fiscal 2011 critical to ensuring a successful broadband stimulus program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The FCC’s long-awaited changes to an ownership form for radio and TV stations (CD April 9 p9) and their investors to fill out offer a mixed bag for industry and public-interest advocates, our survey of both sides found. The version of Form 323 unveiled by the Media Bureau earlier this month ought to make filing information about those who own more than 5 percent of each station or broadcast company easier because Excel spreadsheets can be uploaded to the commission’s Consolidated Database System where the documents will be filed, industry lawyers said. And the document ought to be searchable by keywords, making for an easier job when public interest groups and others want to do research on who owns what, some of those advocates said.

A recent lobbying push by free conference call providers is set on getting “the truth out” to Washington policymakers about how consumers benefit from a business practice that long-distance carriers decry as “traffic pumping,” Free Conferencing Corp. CEO Dave Erickson said in an interview. But House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., who’s working on a bill banning such arrangements, told us his views have changed “not at all.” Congress and the FCC are both mulling curbs on the practice, which involves revenue-sharing agreements under which rural local exchange carriers pay conferencing companies to send traffic to their exchanges.

Analysts are uncertain if any major U.S. telecom operators would plan consolidation with Canadian players if a restriction on foreign ownership there is lifted (CD April 26 p3). Small wireless deals are possible, they said. Some major U.S. telcos were mum on their plans.

The National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and TechAmerica called on the FCC not to rush to reclassify broadband as a Title II service in the wake of the Comcast decision. Each said it planned to file reply comments on the net neutrality proceeding to the FCC shortly before the deadline late Monday. Several groups put out statements to get their positions heard ahead of a likely deluge of filings. The FCC said it received more than 100,000 comments in its first comment round (CD Jan 19 p1).

Dish Network and DirecTV said they'll work together on a new advertising platform meant to increase sales to national advertisers. The platform, called the Advanced Satellite Advertising Platform (ASAP), will give advertisers access to almost 30 million households, a major selling point. The platform will be interactive and it allows regional locators, product information and requests for additional information, the companies said Monday.

GENEVA -- Several major countries raised concerns during a council meeting last week with ITU’s efforts to spur telecom equipment interoperability with a conformance database, interoperability testing and other measures. Developing countries were largely supportive of the intergovernmental organization’s efforts, but commercial worries weren’t directly addressed. The ITU initiatives were prompted by a 2008 resolution agreed to by almost 100 countries (CD Oct 31/08 p10).

TORONTO -- Canadian government officials are looking at ways to lift limits on foreign telecom and broadcast investment and attract more capital from the U.S. and abroad in response to industry complaints about the country’s restrictions. They're squabbling over how to do so without sacrificing Canadian control of the broadcast, cable, and telecom industries.

Wireless communications band licensees have long hoarded their spectrum without any serious effort toward deploying services and waited for regulatory relief to make service in the band possible, Sirius XM told the FCC in comments on potential buildout requirements for users of the band. The licensees have no reason to justify the inaction and have simply disregarded the buildout obligations when the spectrum was acquired in 1997 for $13.6 million, it said. “Simply put, WCS licensees have been egregious spectrum warehousers whose actions and words demonstrate a disregard for their buildout obligations, not to mention for the Commissions’ processes,” the company said in comments.

A deal that will bring the NCAA men’s basketball finals to cable every other year after 2015 drew praise from the chairman of the CBS affiliate board, while others said it will help the broadcast network. The network, Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting and the NCAA unveiled the $10.8 billion, 14-year deal Thursday. It calls for national distribution of every game of the tournament beginning next year on CBS and three Turner networks. In 2016, the finals and semifinals will be shared between CBS and TBS (CD April 23 p16). “I applaud his efforts for being able to retain such a premier property on CBS,” said Tim Busch, affiliates chairman and Nexstar chief operating officer. The network and affiliates ran the risk of losing the tournament entirely, he said.