The FCC needs more data before it can make any decisions about whether to move forward on allocating spectrum to an advertising-supported free or low-cost broadband service, one of the suggestions in the National Broadband Plan, Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, said Friday during a taping of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, to be telecast over the weekend. Levin also responded to criticisms of the plan from both Democrats and Republicans that were voiced during last week’s House hearing on the plan.

The Commerce Department will have made more than $4 billion in grants by September to help connect to broadband communities that are unserved or underserved, Secretary Gary Locke said at a briefing Thursday run by the Democratic Leadership Council. The department is funding “middle-mile highways of high-speed Internet” connecting community anchor institutions like colleges, hospitals and government institutions, Locke said.

Satellite broadband providers were pleased to find significant recognition of the role the technology could play in increasing the reach of broadband in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, executives from Hughes Networks and WildBlue said in interviews. While past government broadband initiatives, such as the first round of the broadband stimulus grants, largely discounted satellite broadband as a useful means for connectivity expansion, the FCC’s broadband task for took a new approach, they said.

LAS VEGAS -- Commissioners will next week get a calendar laying out basic timing of the rulemakings and other actions that follow up on the National Broadband Plan, FCC officials said at the spring CTIA meeting. Commissioners won’t vote on the schedule but it’s expected to be discussed at the April 22 meeting.

Comcast’s deal to buy control of NBC Universal has been discussed by the Department of Justice with some of those likely to be affected, at this early stage of antitrust review (CD March 10 p2), said some following the transaction and an opponent. An Asian American group that wants Comcast to pay $1 billion into a media diversity fund to be run by the FCC was the first to say in a commission filing that it has met with Justice. Others probably have discussed the deal with the department or will, analysts and a deal opponent said.

Debate over the FCC’s authority to regulate the Internet heated up at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday on the National Broadband Plan. Republicans strongly opposed the FCC invoking Title II of the Communications Act if the commission loses an effort to persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that it can regulate broadband under Title I. But Democrats seemed open to the possibility. Lawmakers from the two parties differed on plan details but praised the FCC for hard work and ambition. “Y'all have done as good as could be done,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the Commerce Committee’s ranking member.

LAS VEGAS -- A week after the FCC released the National Broadband Plan, unjustified “panic” remains among broadcasters about the proposals to ask some to free up TV spectrum for wireless broadband, Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, said at the CTIA conference. For small broadcasters, in particular, the plan offers opportunity, he said.

Intelsat is ramping up efforts to slow satellite interference, as growth in satellite services worldwide has led to increased problems for operators, company executives said. Customers are complaining of interference more than any other issue, and complaints will likely continue to increase as satellite device sales and fill rates move higher unless something is done, CEO Dave McGlade told reporters.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC is still contacting public safety groups and others in the wireless world to explain the National Broadband Plan’s proposal for the 700 MHz band, said Jennifer Manner, the Deputy Public Safety Bureau’s deputy chief, at the CTIA convention. Questions about the plan, which has faced a firestorm of criticism from public safety groups, followed FCC officials to Las Vegas.

The FCC is likely to stick close to its comment deadlines for Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal after a request for a 45-day delay backed by a many advocacy and industry groups, agency and industry officials predicted. That the groups cite no reasons specific to the deal structure to extend a May 3 deadline to file oppositions make it unlikely that the Media Access Project (MAP) and supporters will succeed in getting approval to have final comments due Aug. 1, they said. The Media Bureau built in extra time for comments (CD March 19 p2) in part to rebut time-constraint criticisms, an agency official said. Initial work among staffers reviewing the deal continues, commission officials said.