Changes in the telecom industry spurred a partnership between the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, which was announced Monday, OPASTCO President John Rose said in an interview. “We want to get outside of being just a carrier [association]. Because of the future of IP networks we must broaden our base of who we work with.” The groups have signed a “friendship agreement” aimed at helping to inform their members and to collaborate on the conventions and trade shows of each association, he said. That “allows us to exchange ideas and information and understand each other’s policies and positions,” said TIA President Grant Seiffert. TIA has similar partnerships with the CEA and other organizations, he said.

LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters attacked recommendations in the FCC’s broadband plan to reallocate some of the TV band for mobile wireless use. “We've been trying to fight this for a long time and up until the publication of the National Broadband Plan, all we've had to go up against is rhetoric,” said Robert Hubbard, Association of Maximum Service TV chairman and Hubbard Broadcasting CEO. Now that broadcasters have had an opportunity to read the plan, it’s clear the details and rhetoric don’t match, he said.

LAS VEGAS -- Most people who viewed 3D telecasts or highlight reels of Masters golf came away so impressed that they think the jump to 3D from HD will “be a bigger transition than it was from SD to HD,” said Dan Holden, chief scientist at the Comcast Media Center in Centennial, Colo. At the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering Conference on Saturday, he said Comcast plans to deliver 3D content in an “over-under” format at half the resolution per eye of full HD, which won’t require adding bandwidth. He thinks most other cable companies will do the same, he said.

Motorola weighed in against a proposal in the National Broadband Plan to sell the 700 MHz D-block in an upcoming auction rather than reallocating the spectrum directly to public safety. The plan’s approach on a national interoperable network for public safety “falls short in several ways,” said Motorola, the latest party to express reservations about the plan.

A draft FCC rulemaking notice about CableCARDs probably will be changed before a vote scheduled for April 21 to deal with large cable systems’ use of HD-only set-top boxes, commission officials said Monday. The draft Media Bureau notice that’s circulating proposes exempting systems with 552 MHz or less activated capacity from a requirement that boxes use separate security and navigation functions for devices that can handle HD but not more advanced functions (CD April 6 p2). The NCTA and large cable operators sought a wider HD box exemption in recent ex parte meetings, filings in docket 97-80 show.

Twenty-one economists, including academics from universities across the U.S., filed a paper Monday at the FCC concluding that the economic evidence doesn’t justify the net neutrality rules the commission is considering. The paper builds on qualms expressed by Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, the rule opponents on the FCC.

The FCC’s proposed network neutrality rules could have a negative effect on journalists, musicians, actors and others in creative industries, some attorneys said during a panel at an American Bar Association event. “The non-discrimination rules the FCC has proposed by their terms and on their face only apply to lawful content or lawfully distributed content,” said Markham Erickson of Holch and Erickson. If the content is unlawful, then the rules wouldn’t apply in the first place, he said. His clients think it potentially means “to either allow or mandate an ISP to block lawful content as long as it’s reasonable,” he said.

Streamlining the process for access and use of infrastructure, also part of the recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, could be a key positive for Distributed Antenna System (DAS) operators, some of them large tower companies, company officials told us. But hurdles remain as operators gear up for 4G, they said.

Verizon representatives opposed proposed changes to the FCC’s in-market roaming exclusion in a series of meetings at the FCC. AT&T has also asked the commission not to eliminate the exclusion, in a series of meetings with FCC officials. The FCC is expected to consider an order that would pull back the exclusion at its April 21 meeting.

Spectrum inventory legislation is speeding to the finish line in the House and Senate. The Senate may soon pass by unanimous consent a bill (S-649) by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., Senate aides told us Friday. And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said late Thursday the House plans to vote Wednesday morning on a similar bill (HR-3125) by Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Also up for a House vote that day is a caller ID spoofing bill (HR-1258) by Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., that would ban manipulation of caller ID information.