A new digital agenda is the “first flagship that is leaving the port” in Europe’s effort to jump-start its economy and catch up with global competitors, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Wednesday. Part of the EU 2020 strategy, the plan focuses on seven priorities, including the promise of broadband for all by 2013 and access to increased online content through changes in copyright licensing and online payment regimes. It won praise, and a few complaints, from industry and rights groups.

Broadcast and wireless industry representatives agreed that additional stations probably will look at taking part in the spectrum auction the FCC sought in the National Broadband Plan. Speaking at a Media Institute lunch Tuesday, President David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service TV and CTIA Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe agreed that the voluntary approach the commission is taking to the mobile-future auction is best. They agreed on little else and often interrupted each other and occasionally moderator Richard Wiley.

CTIA and two Louisiana Public Service Commission members asked the FCC to reverse a requirement by the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) that AT&T, T-Mobile and TracFone repay money they got for providing free wireless service after Hurricane Katrina almost five years ago. The carriers provided service under an emergency FCC program that provided $39 million in Lifeline money to help hurricane victims and temporarily made each an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC). A USAC audit later found that the carriers had failed to provide adequate documentation.

LOS ANGELES -- Although cable operators can offer 3D-TV pictures to viewers in a “frame compatible” mode today, much work remains to boost the viewing quality and experience of stereoscopic video images beamed to the home, industry experts on an NCTA convention panel said last week. They outlined cable’s initial approach of offering frame-compatible 3D-TV signals, which don’t offer full-resolution images but also don’t demand major changes in the industry’s existing video-delivery infrastructure. Using the frame-compatible approach, cable operators send separate left-eye and right-eye images in a side-by-side format or stacked top and bottom.

Broadcast and cable groups were among those seeking more time to get ready for a new technology that can geographically target emergency alerts across broadcasters, subscription-video providers and wireless services. Comments to the FCC from the NAB, the NCTA and Monroe Electronics, a maker of emergency alert system (EAS) gear, seek longer than the maximum of 180 days that the commission gives EAS participants to configure their networks to accept alerts based the Common Alerting Protocol after the technical standards are published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA has said the alerts may be adopted by the third quarter, the NCTA noted. FEMA has lagged in coming up with the standards. It had hoped to come up with guidelines for them in 2008 (CD May 30/07 p2).

Operators worldwide are still expected to deploy HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access), a wireless broadband technology, even as they move aggressively to LTE, company officials told us. Meanwhile, AT&T plans to move from the current planned rollout of HSPA 7.2 to HSPA+, a spokesman said.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on interoperability, out-of-band emissions and equipment certification rules for a proposed public-safety broadband network using 700 MHz spectrum. A public notice Tuesday from the bureau builds on preliminary rules that 21 local governments which won waivers last week will have to follow if they build out systems early (CD May 13 p1).

The FCC likely will request about ten media ownership studies from outside experts around the time it releases the forthcoming notice of inquiry (CD April 16 p3) formally starting the quadrennial review mandated by Congress for 2010, agency officials said. With revisions to the draft notice by commissioners’ offices nearing an end, it could be released within a week but may take longer, they said. The latest edition of the draft item, circulated last week, has many changes but none deemed likely to alter the course of the inquiry, they said.

Philips Healthcare Systems and the Land Mobile Communications Council disagreed sharply over whether the FCC should allow Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) devices to operate on a secondary basis in the parts of the 1427-1432 MHz band not set aside for medical telemetry. On a second question that the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus also sought comments on in a March 16 notice, there was general support for a proposal by the Association of American Railroads that its members be allowed to operate end-of-train telemetry devices at transmit power of up to 8 watts.

The long-awaited Interphone study, looking at whether heavy cellphone use causes central nervous system tumors, produced no conclusive results, according to a report to be released Tuesday in Geneva. Wireless industry groups said the results largely confirm what other studies have shown.