A grant to Dish Network of a rare full-court review of a ruling of a DVR patent infringement ruling it lost to TiVo hinges on whether a redesigned satellite receiver/DVR should be subject to new infringement proceedings, analysts said. In granting an en banc review, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit ordered that four additional briefs be filed by September. That set the stage for oral argument this fall, analysts said.

Slow broadband speeds and insufficient access stifles small business, business owners and executives told the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee during a round table discussion Thursday. “Broadband Internet service is the ability to open doors for small businesses that have been historically shut,” said Committee Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La. “Broadband can help some small businesses function like big businesses and increase their geographic presence by moving their operations online."

LOS ANGELES - State PUC Commissioners debated the implications of the National Broadband Plan at NCTA’s annual show and urged the federal government not to pull rank on states.

LOS ANGELES -- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday he’s open to self-regulation on net neutrality -- with a commission “backstop” -- and to work with industry to ensure forbearance in the broadband reclassification he proposes can’t be undone. Wholesale unbundling and rate regulation in the six sections of Title II Genachowski seeks to impose on broadband transport are “off the table,” he said in a Q-and-A with NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow at the cable show. “We're going to rely on competitive markets,” Genachowski said.

The Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecom Group sharply criticized Verizon Wireless’s disclosure that it’s in talks about partnerships with rural carriers to accelerate LTE deployment in remote places. The association’s president, Steve Berry, said the announcement doesn’t deal with a crucial matter: Data-roaming agreements with smaller carriers around the country.

House Communications Subcommittee leaders want to engage industry on net neutrality and adopt a consensus proposal as law, even as the FCC moves to make rules on its own. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., wants to legislate based on industry consensus, he said at a subcommittee broadband adoption hearing and a conference of the Computer & Communications Industry Association. At the hearing, Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said he’s “100 percent behind” Boucher in the belief that Congress should get involved. But some other legislators questioned the speediness of doing net neutrality on Capitol Hill.

The FCC heard a litany of complaints from advocates for people with disabilities Thursday, on the opening panel of the FCC’s Wireless Technology/Disability Access Workshop. They asked the commission to step in and make cellphones more accessible for their members. Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and Karen Strauss, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, assured speakers that the FCC takes their concerns seriously.

The FCC should recognize aircraft mounted earth stations (AMES) as a primary application of the fixed satellite service Ku-band spectrum before it allows vehicle mounted earth stations (VMES) networks to begin operations, Boeing told the commission in a filing.

Expanding Lifeline and Link-Up programs to spur broadband adoption by those who can’t afford it should be part of comprehensive Universal Service Fund revamp legislation, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. At a hearing on the FCC’s adoption recommendations made in the National Broadband Plan, Boucher said he wants to work with Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., to integrate her adoption-focused USF bill with his own comprehensive USF bill. Boucher urged the FCC to accelerate its process to finalize details on an intended pilot program, saying the time frame for introducing his bill with Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., is “fairly near term.”

LOS ANGELES -- FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the fastest way to protect consumer privacy on the Internet is through government regulation, but it’s not the preferred method. Speaking at the NCTA show Wednesday, he stressed the agency doesn’t want to stifle innovation or shut down the online marketplace. “But we do want to protect consumer choice and control,” he said. “And the message we have to the business community is: As long as you work toward the goal of meaningful self-regulation, then we will support it. But Congress will step in if the business community falls off the track and does not find a way to protect consumers’ privacy.”