T-Mobile USA is expected to make a turnaround this year, parent company Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann said Thursday on the company’s investor day. The company’s 54 MHz of spectrum in core markets is enough for now, but more spectrum will be needed for growth, he said.

ILECs and VoIP providers urged the FCC to steer clear of further e-911 location accuracy requirements. Emergency responders’ groups and locator companies said the commission should go even further in its rules. The comments in docket 07-114 came in a commission rulemaking to require nomadic VoIP providers to automatically send out addresses in connection with emergency calls.

Ohio’s new telecom rules kicked in Jan. 20, replacing rules on the books since 1989. While proponents believe the new rules reflect changes in the industry and establish a level playing field, consumer advocates warned of potential rate hikes and less consumer protection, both sides said in interviews. The legislature passed the Ohio Telecom Modernization Act earlier last year.

The Rural Telecommunications Group and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association will ask the FCC to change its E-911 location accuracy rules so they're less demanding for some small carriers. The groups plan to file a petition for rulemaking Thursday, RTG Counsel Carri Bennett told us.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is taking an aerial view of revamping universal service and intercarrier compensation in a new rulemaking notice. It takes up in general the necessity of subsidizing and deploying high-speed broadband but leaves contentious questions like the contribution factor for another day, commission and industry officials said. As expected, the FCC circulated a rulemaking notice late Tuesday for the commission meeting Feb. 8. The commission wants to use “market-driven, incentive based policies and increased accountability” to shift universal service money to “near term support for broadband deployment in unserved areas,” the agency said in a news release. It seeks to adopt measures to address intercarrier compensation (ICC) “arbitrage, as well as a long-term transition from current high-cost support and ICC mechanism to a single, fiscally responsible Connect America Fund,” the FCC said.

There won’t be much effect on the cybersecurity bill from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., deciding not to seek re-election in 2012, despite his lame-duck status, industry officials said. Some said it could even boost the bill’s chances, and he could also boost cybersecurity if he moves to head the Defense Department. Friend Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggested Wednesday that the Connecticut senator would make a good replacement for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who plans to step down this year. If he left immediately, Lieberman’s departure might actually boost the chances for getting a cybersecurity bill through Congress, TechAmerica Vice President Kevin Richards said.

Any efforts to fight the U.S. government’s conditional approval of Comcast’s acquisition of control of NBC Universal would face hurdles, and challenges seem unlikely at first glance to be made, those who had sought more conditions agreed with one who opposed them. A hurdle is that the Justice Department and FCC imposed similar Internet conditions (CD Jan 19 p1) , and DOJ’s probably would stand even in the unlikely event that a lawsuit against the commission succeeded, said several lawyers who had sought more deal curbs. Judges who review consent decrees, such as the one that Comcast agreed to with DOJ, usually approve them, even if parties seek changes through written comments that they can submit to the court under the Tunney Act, the nonprofit group lawyers said.

A mobility fund offering only the $100 million to $300 million proposed by the FCC won’t be enough to meet the many needs for mobile deployment, said CTIA and many of the wireless carriers it represents, in reply comments to the commission. Commenters also said there’s widespread concern about a proposal to use reverse auctions to determine which carriers get funding. The comments arrived at the FCC as it announced that a rulemaking to overhaul the Universal Service Fund is scheduled for a vote at the Feb. 8 commission meeting. (See the related report in this issue.)

Nullification of FCC net neutrality rules through the Congressional Review Act topped a list of communications and technology priorities for Republicans on the House Commerce Committee. Also listed in a staff memo Tuesday as “key issues” this year: Spectrum auction legislation, revamping the commission’s processes, broadband stimulus oversight and a Universal Service Fund overhaul. Colin Crowell, former aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said on a panel Wednesday at the State of the Net Conference he doubts that the GOP’s planned resolution of disapproval concerning net neutrality will succeed.

Payphone operators’ request for emergency cash and long-term Universal Service Fund support was panned by Sprint-Nextel, Verizon, USTelecom and TracFone Wireless. The American Public Communications Council filed a petition last month asking the FCC for about $57 million in emergency Lifeline money and for a proceeding on whether payphones should receive universal service support permanently (CD Dec 6 p6). The petition drew support from the Florida Public Telecommunications Association, which said that the collapse of the payphone industry “has been greatly exacerbated in Florida and other states … due to the introduction of ‘free’ governmentally supported cell phone service offered by TracFone and more recently Virgin Mobile.”