"Any additional action” by the FCC imposing even tougher E-911 location accuracy rules for wireless is “inappropriate at this time,” CTIA said in comments filed at the commission. The FCC sought comment on enhancements to its rules when it approved tougher location-accuracy standards Sept. 23 (CD Sept 24 p6). Other wireless carriers agreed the FCC should allow for more time before imposing additional rules.

FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker wants more attention given to satellite spectrum repurposing or incentive auctions, and less for now to broadcasters’ spectrum, she suggested in a recorded interview that was to have aired over the weekend and run again Monday. Speaking on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, she renewed her call for a comprehensive approach to spectrum policy. It must go beyond the recent conversations about redeploying TV stations’ airwaves for wireless broadband and focus on satellite and other areas, she said last week.

The FCC National Broadband Plan is a “fantastic step in the right direction,” One Economy CEO Kelley Dunne told the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference. The federal funding and corporate matches proposed would help One Economy, which is working to increase broadband adoption in low income communities, connect 27,000 housing units to “subsidized broadband connections,” he said late Thursday.

While getting more spectrum for mobile broadband is important, reallocating broadcast spectrum could harm the whole industry, broadcasters said on a Minority Media & Telecom Council Summit panel. Stations’ sharing a channel, as proposed, could produce technical issues and loss of service, said James Winston, executive director of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, said late Thursday. There are only a few minority TV stations, so the FCC needs to study the risks carefully, he said. “The issue can’t be handled in a hurry."

Hughes Communications is looking for a buyer and has hired Barclays Capital to help auction the company, Reuters reported. Hughes declined to comment Friday. The report, which cited four unnamed sources, said Hughes has been through a round of bids, and another is to begin in February. Industry observers said the sale is a logical next step for the majority owner, Apollo Management, a private equity firm. The first round of bids came largely from private equity firms and other satellite companies, according to Reuters. Hughes shares ended Friday at $60.86, up 18.2 percent.

Verizon said late Thursday it filed a notice of appeal to the net neutrality order of Dec. 21, of which it had repeatedly signaled its opposition, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The telco filed even before the order was published in the Federal Register.

FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker criticized review of Comcast-NBC Universal by the agency as having taken too long and imposed too many conditions, including about broadband deployment and online video. She expanded on a concurrence that she and Commissioner Robert McDowell put out concerning the order approving Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal. The deal stands to benefit consumers and other content companies, and the commission should have stuck to its 180-day voluntary shot clock for decisions on mergers and acquisitions and not imposed conditions that don’t directly relate to the NBCU deal, Baker said in a recorded interview to be shown on C-SPAN Saturday and Monday.

The FCC, and the federal government in general, have made “very little progress” dealing with the lack of broadband penetration among minority households and other issues critical to the Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC), President David Honig said at the group’s broadband conference. “The digital divide remains as deep as ever,” he said. “Minority employment in media and high-tech companies is in a tailspin, yet FCC … enforcement has collapsed to virtually none.” The commission is moving on diversity, Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell questioned the level of real industry support for the net neutrality rules that the commission approved 3-2 last month over strong dissent by the Republican commissioners, him and Commissioner Meredith Baker. McDowell also said at a TechFreedom symposium late Wednesday that he hopes the order will be stayed.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Online programmers and distributors have an opportunity to increase their share of total video ad revenue, but the Internet video industry may not be ready to handle the scale of ads and money that conventional TV handles, industry executives said late Wednesday. “Most of us are probably not as big as a single episode of American Idol,” CEO Erick Hachenburg of Metacafe said at an Online Media, Marketing and Advertising conference panel. One reason ad money hasn’t found its way to online video and keeps going to TV is that it’s easy to spend there, he said. Advertisers still can’t spend that kind of money on online video, Hachenburg said. No one can collect an audience the size of traditional TV online yet, and Web video companies need to “scale the business quickly enough to be able to be effective,” he said.