Career FCC staffers’ work on drafting an order on Comcast’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal may not result in the deal’s being approved as quickly as had been expected, because of the agency’s attention to net neutrality, said many agency and industry officials watching the review. They said staff work appears to be far along on the multibillion dollar deal, and ex parte filings indicate that the companies in the deal are discussing possible conditions on it. Conditions don’t seem to have been settled, agency and industry officials said. Chairman Julius Genachowski had at one point reportedly hoped to have an entire draft of the order available around Thanksgiving (CD Nov 5 p3).

Stand down on net neutrality, top Hill Republicans told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski after he announced the commission would move forward with a rulemaking. (See separate report above.) While many lawmakers issued angry statements Wednesday, more concrete Hill action isn’t expected until January. Genachowski won guarded support for his proposal from some Democrats, including Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski formally announced Wednesday that he'll bring a net neutrality order to a vote at the Dec. 21 meeting. The draft had been expected for several days. Genachowski and his staff said they have broad support from industry, public interest and other stakeholders. Senior officials said privately that they had secured no commitments not to challenge the proposed rules in court. Nonetheless, the chances of being sued by a major ISP are much lower if the commission doesn’t reclassify broadband and instead proceeds with net neutrality sticking with its Title 1 authority, industry executives and lawyers said.

TerreStar’s bankruptcy proceeding could take a surprising humanitarian twist if ahumanright.org succeeds in buying TerreStar’s on-orbit satellite, TerreStar-1, to connect unserved populations to the Internet. The nonprofit organization has started a largely Web-based campaign to raise funds to purchase the satellite from the mobile satellite services company for Internet access in Papua New Guinea.

Chairman Julius Genachowski was expected to circulate a net neutrality item for the FCC’s Dec. 21 meeting that would forbid blocking websites and telephone applications and condemn but not ban paid prioritization, commission, public interest and industry officials said Tuesday. They said the expected item roughly tracks an aborted bill by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., by adopting a Title I approach (CD Nov 26 p1), but it would discard Waxman’s two-year sunset provisions.

Advocates of net neutrality rules pounced on a dispute between Level 3 and Comcast, seeing an opportunity to widen the debate. “The point of this is, that at a minimum it has the strong appearance of anti-competitive behavior,” Public Knowledge spokesman Art Brodsky said. “At a maximum, there could be some net neutrality implications to it, depending on the net neutrality guidelines.” Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday that FCC staffers are examining Level 3’s allegations. He declined to say more about the dispute when asked about it at a news briefing after Tuesday’s FCC meeting.

The FCC proposes to give Congress a written record to consult as it weighs legislation to allow the agency to auction spectrum in such a way that the government will share the proceeds with incumbent licensees, Chairman Julius Genachowski said. A rulemaking notice on TV spectrum, approved at Tuesday’s commission meeting, would also help the FCC by giving it some technical wherewithal to hold the incentive auctions if lawmakers authorize them, he said. Genachowski spoke with reporters after the meeting, in which a rulemaking notice on experimental licensing and an inquiry on wireless spectrum innovation were approved 5-0, as expected.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., may face questions from net neutrality advocates as he seeks to lead Democrats next year on the House Communications Subcommittee. Rush opposed the FCC’s net neutrality effort but has the edge by seniority to become ranking member. ColorOfChange.org this month urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to reject Rush’s bid because of his position on the issue (CD Nov 22 p11).

Private equity firms are willing to finance the purchase of TV stations by companies run by veteran broadcast executives, as sharply reduced lending by banks has left few other ways to pay for mergers and acquisitions, said a top industry broker and one such broadcaster. They said the continued dearth of bank financing for radio and TV station M&A means operators either need to finance deals themselves with cash on hand or find private-equity partners. The broadcaster that broke a drought in purchases of Big Four network affiliated TV stations (CD Nov 5 p11) got such private equity backing, its chairman said.

Motorola is in talks with state and local governments about public safety opportunities, Rick Keith, director of product management, said in an interview. Motorola will commercially launch LTE public safety devices in Q3 of 2011, he said.