The FCC can impose net neutrality by directly implementing at least four sections of the Communications Act, under a draft of the order set for a Dec. 21 vote, according to agency, industry and public-interest officials briefed on the rulemaking. Several other parts of the Act are mentioned in the draft order as giving the commission authority, they said. With the sunshine period on the order set to begin Tuesday night under usual commission procedure, lobbying on the eighth floor continues by those supporting and opposing Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to adopt nondiscrimination rules without reclassifying broadband as a telecom service, filings in docket 09-191 show. Some companies and groups that support net neutrality rules but oppose reclassification suggested that they're dissatisfied with the draft.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The rise of cloud services will mean the arrival of the “cloud phone,” with some hardware specifications reduced from those of high-powered smartphones that perform many functions locally, said Satya Mallya, director of mobile for the carrier Orange. “Cloud services are really going to take off,” and with HTML5 Web technology and quality-of-service guarantees, “from enterprise to consumer, you'll see a whole range of services,” he said last week. Mallya spoke at the Mobile Internet Tsunami Conference of the SDForum emerging technology business network.

The House Commerce Committee took its first steps at naming GOP members beyond the chairman. The office of incoming Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., released a list Friday of 13 others from his party who will be new members of the full committee. Many are new faces to telecom, industry officials and lobbyists said. They said that poses challenges to the communications and high-tech industries, which will have to quickly get members up to speed, and also an opportunity to lobby them.

CTIA will oppose any effort to strengthen wireless rules in the FCC’s net neutrality proposal, President Steve Largent told reporters Friday. Besides net neutrality and spectrum, taxation is a 2011 priority for the group, CTIA officials said.

The dispute involving Comcast, Level 3 and Netflix heralds Internet “management crises” that may not be resolved until Congress enacts permanent net neutrality rules, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said Friday. There’s a divide over whether it’s a peering dispute -- the position of Comcast and allies -- or a content-discrimination dispute, as Level 3, Netflix and allies say, she told a Practising Law Institute event. “The fact is, it’s both.” Another panelist, from Google, worried about lawsuits over however the FCC proceeds on net neutrality rules. Commissioner Robert McDowell said later that he shares those worries.

LightSquared shot back in FCC filings at companies and wireless associations opposing its ancillary terrestrial component license modification application now being considered by the International Bureau. The bureau should move forward and approve the modification through adjudication, LightSquared said. Critics have said the modification would mean a significant change to mobile satellite services/ATC policy (CD Dec 6 p7). LightSquared, which plans to lease out its spectrum wholesale, recently said its business plans would allow retailers the choice to offer devices that don’t connect to satellite. MSS/ATC licensees are currently required to only offer devices able to connect to both satellite and terrestrial services. The filings are at http://xrl.us/bh969f.

Familiar faces to the communications industry may have key posts on the House Communications Subcommittee and the full Commerce Committee next Congress, after Democrats decide on ranking members and Republicans pick a subcommittee chairman, said industry lobbyists watching the races. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is seen by many lobbyists and a Capitol Hill aide as having the best chance to be named chairman of the subcommittee. Outgoing Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is said to be very likely to become the ranking member of the full committee. And possible competition is shaping up for the ranking member of the subcommittee.

The House Democratic Caucus voted Thursday to reject President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans in its current form. It was unclear how much the package may need to change. Telecom and tech groups urged passage of the package, citing provisions of the proposal that they said would encourage R&D and investment.

BALTIMORE -- Asking the government to require FM tuners in cellphones, as the NAB has done, “brands” the radio industry as “desperate” for a bailout, CEA President Gary Shapiro said Thursday at the Arbitron-Jacobs Media Summit. Shapiro, who in the summer will mark his 20th year at the CEA’s helm, has no plans to run for public office, he told us at the conference.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to be using Qwest-CenturyLink merger conditions as a “trick shot” way of regulating broadband without reclassifying the service, Cardozo Law Professor Susan Crawford, a former Obama administration telecom adviser, said Thursday. “He’s going to try to get through merger conditions what another regulator would try to get through regulatory authority,” she said.