In a precedent-setting move, the cable industry will embrace a telco-style PON (passive optical network) technology for delivering multimedia services over new fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks.

The FCC has fallen months behind its aggressive schedule for issuing follow-up orders to the National Broadband Plan. By the FCC’s latest count, 21 of 68 action items set up by the report remain incomplete. The agency has made “incremental progress” on two others, an agency spokesman said Friday. Two items which were scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of June remain on the FCC’s to-do list. Critics of the net neutrality order approved by the agency Dec. 21, including Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, say the agency’s months’ long focus on that order is in part responsible for sometimes slow progress implementing the plan.

As federal agencies and private sector companies are transitioning from IPv4 technology to IPv6, the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided final guidelines to aid in a secure deployment. The guide identifies security challenges and offers recommendations for overcoming obstacles tied to IPv6 deployment.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will look into illegal VoIP services in the country, the country’s telecom regulator said in a notice last week. The move is expected to make services like Skype unavailable in the country, some analysts said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is teeing up an order that takes on a number of lingering public safety communications issues possibly for the Jan. 25 meeting, industry officials said Wednesday. The meeting will be the first since last week’s meeting, in which the FCC approved controversial net neutrality rules. Orders are expected to circulate among the other commissioner offices Tuesday, three weeks before the meeting date.

The FCC should force Time Warner Cable to drop some Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting TV signals in markets where Smith Media owns or manages the local station, Nexstar and Mission said in an emergency petition filed with the agency this week. The petition came after Smith and TWC reached an impasse in retransmission consent negotiations covering three northeastern TV stations Dec. 15, and TWC began importing Nexstar and Mission signals to replace them. TWC didn’t properly notify Nexstar, Mission, local subscribers or franchise authorities before adding the out-of-market stations, Nexstar and Mission said in the petitions. They also asked the FCC to immediately give Smith its network non-duplication rights and waive a standard 60-day notice requirement.

Deregulation advocates in Wisconsin are pushing to update state telecom laws even before the new state legislature and governor take office in January. Groups like Wisconsin Technology Council and Wired Wisconsin cited recently updated telecom laws in other Midwestern states, saying modernizing the law would create or retain 50,000 jobs, in addition to having a $2.6 billion economic impact.

An NTIA report on contraband cellphones in prisons said cell signal jamming, which is strongly opposed by wireless carriers, presents many problems and, in the case of state or local prison officials, would be a violation of the Communications Act. The report said managed access technologies “hold promise as a solution.” Cellphone detection also may offer a solution, the report said. NTIA took comments, conducted tests at its lab in Boulder, Colo., and participated in a field test at a prison in Cumberland, Md., in preparing the study.

Verizon Wireless used Alltel’s license to obtain high-cost Universal Service Fund support without getting permission from state regulators, U.S. Cellular, Allied Wireless, Commnet Wireless, and Viaero Wireless said in an ex parte filing published Tuesday. The wireless companies said “the core issue is whether Verizon Wireless was ever properly designated by state authorities” and that using Alltel’s high-cost support caused “ongoing harm … by driving up statewide support levels, causing steep reductions under the cap.” The high-cost issue involves tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, in USF support, one industry official said.

A group of small wireless carriers asked the FCC to reject a TracFone petition seeking new rules for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) under the Link-Up program. The Competitive ETC coalition accused TracFone of seeking a competitive advantage. TracFone, which provides pre-paid wireless service, asked the FCC for a ruling that ETCs may not receive support for providing Link-Up benefits unless they routinely charge customers for commencing service, and may not expand services they offer under the program to wireless service without obtaining approval from the proper authority.