The FCC Public Safety Bureau faced tough questions from public safety groups Wednesday on a key element of its proposal for a 700 MHz wireless broadband network serving first responders: How public safety would get “priority access” to public safety networks. FCC officials said Wednesday that research done for the National Broadband Plan found that a fee of less that $1 a month, similar to the E-911 surcharge, if imposed on broadband subscriber bills, would be enough to pay for the operating cost of this public safety network. The agency hosted a technical panel Wednesday on the proposal for a 700 MHz Nationwide Interoperable Public Safety Wireless Broadband Network, a day after the release of the broadband plan (CD March 17 p1).

The FCC National Broadband Plan recognizes the value of mobile satellite services (MSS) but calls out the ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) license holders for failing to deploy a functional service, said Iridium CEO Matt Desch Wednesday on a panel at the Satellite 2010 conference. Significant investment has been made in ATC, but nobody has made money from the terrestrial side, he said. Globalstar Chairman Jay Monroe disagreed, citing revenue that its ATC license brings in through an agreement with a wireless broadband provider, Open Range. Desch said he’s glad some companies will be able to recoup some of their investments in ATC while raising the value of Iridium’s spectrum: “This is about repurposing spectrum.” Monroe said the commission is right to try to make spectrum use as efficient as possible.

Atlantic City, N.J., will get a new DTV station (CD Feb 5 p12) because of an FCC ruling issued Wednesday. Channel 4 is being added to the Post-Transition Table of DTV Allotments, a Media Bureau order said. This is the first time the commission has authorized a new TV station in at least several years, said broadcast lawyers and an FCC official. Before last year’s analog cutoff, the commission had put a freeze on accepting applications for new DTV stations, they said.

FCC members of both parties had words of caution about parts of the National Broadband Plan concerning media. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said at Tuesday’s commission meeting that she has qualms about the reallotment of spectrum used by TV stations that the plan envisions. Commissioner Robert McDowell asked the commission to “tread gingerly” regarding set-top boxes. Blair Levin, who’s leaving the commission as the executive director of the broadband-plan work now that the document is complete, said his staff had taken concerns like Clyburn’s into account.

Governmental plans for broadband deployment in the U.S. and other countries should emphasize universal connectivity rather than a limited population’s reaching the highest speeds, David McGlade, Intelsat’s said Tuesday on a panel at the Satellite 2010 conference in National Harbor, Md. Speeds as high as 100 Mbps, although reachable, make sense only for the densest regions, he said.

Some members of Congress may be wary of spending additional money on broadband, said Republican aides at a Broadband Breakfast event Tuesday morning. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan asks Congress for $16 billion for a national public-safety network and $9 billion for a new Universal Service Fund emphasizing high-speed access. Aides from both parties called the plan a step toward broadband for all.

Utilities should be allowed to use the public safety wireless broadband network in the 700 MHz band to promote grid reliability and efficiency and Congress must consider amending the Communications Act to make it possible, the FCC said in a National Broadband Plan released Tuesday. The commission devoted an entire section to the “important” role broadband and advanced communications would play in achieving energy independence and efficiency.

The current FCC is more active in finding solutions to broadband issues than its predecessor under Chairman Kevin Martin, telco officials said on a CompTel panel. “I think there has been a change in tune with respect to competition since the Martin administration,” said Tony Hansel, Covad assistant general counsel. Martin said “you have to choose between competition and investment,” and current Chairman Julius Genachowski “has already acknowledged that’s a false choice.” Stephen Crawford, Alpheus senior vice president, said, “It is exciting that they realized they've got to have those long-term goals, but at the same time the FCC is saying tell us what we can do right now."

Mediacom and Time Warner Cable have decided to phase out Sprint’s wholesale VoIP services and take their IP voice service operations in-house, the companies said. Cost is the primary reason that cable operators plan their own IP voice operations, companies and analysts said.

NASHVILLE -- The release of the National Broadband Plan signifies how “essential telecommunications is to our lives,” Jonathan Adelstein, the Rural Utilities Service administrator said in a CompTel keynote. “Broadband offers probably the greatest potential to advance our social and economic welfare since the rise of electricity. It’s that critical that everybody have it.” He credited the FCC and the White House with strong efforts toward broadband expansion. “It’s great to be part of an administration which has put broadband expansion at the very top of its agenda,” Adelstein said.