Whether Europe has a net neutrality problem, and if so what the European Commission should do about it, remains far from resolved, judging from several responses to an EC public consultation on the issues. The inquiry closed Sept. 30 and comments haven’t yet been posted. The position taken by telecom companies and ISPs -- which say brisk competition among providers precludes a need for regulation -- is clearly at odds with that of digital rights activists and public broadcasters that say rules may be necessary to keep the Internet open.

White House aide Phil Weiser told the 4G Americas conference Wednesday he agrees with industry concerns that the U.S. has fallen behind other countries on the amount of spectrum available for mobile broadband. Weiser cited carrier complaints that the German government recently auctioned an additional 300 MHz of spectrum, while the next big U.S. auction could be years away.

The FCC may consider revising a draft CableCARD order in areas such as what information cable operators must put on subscribers’ monthly bills, if all operators must let customers install on their own plug-and-play devices, and whether one-way HD boxes without the cards need IP connections, agency and industry officials said Wednesday. Lobbying by the cable and consumer electronics industries on the item continued at what some at the commission described as a fervent pace in preparation for the end of such discussions Thursday night (CD Oct 6 p10). The item isn’t generally controversial within the FCC, agency officials said.

The FCC remains on the sidelines of a carriage contract dispute between Dish Network and News Corp.’s Fox pay-TV programming unit, which has left the DBS provider’s customers without 19 regional sports networks, agency and industry officials said Wednesday. Last week the RSN programming and that of the FX and National Geographic national pay-TV channels no longer was available to any of Dish’s 14 million customers after Dish and Fox couldn’t agree to a new deal (CD Oct 4 p5). The continued lack of carriage has fueled requests of some groups seeking changes to retransmission consent and RSN carriage rules to press the FCC to act.

SAN FRANCISCO - Verizon executives shared few product details about the company’s pending LTE service with reporters Wednesday at CTIA, where they announced an aggressive deployment plan for the faster wireless data service. Verizon’s new LTE network will replicate its 3G network coverage within three years and by the end of this year, it will turn up LTE service in 38 U.S. markets using C-block 700 MHz spectrum, Verizon President Lowell McAdam said. Verizon is still working out how the service will be priced and marketed, he said. “We think there is a place for unlimited plans, but we think that over time … our customers are going to shift their consumption to more of a pay as you use plan,” he said. “I expect we will evolve to that, but I don’t think LTE necessarily forces us to that model."

There are lucrative opportunities in communications for companies looking beyond the regulatory impasse on Capitol Hill, speakers said Wednesday at a summit sponsored by the Institute for Policy Innovation. “2010 is about mobilizing voice, data, music, you name it,” said Veronica Bloodworth, a vice president at AT&T. “Customer usage is driving development and we see this in the growth of netbooks and mobility Internet devices.” With plans for more than $18 billion in capital expenditures by the end of 2010, Bloodworth said wireless expansion is AT&T’s number one investment priority.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said Wednesday he will seek the chairmanship of the House Commerce Committee if Republicans retake the House in the November elections. Barton’s top priority: stopping the FCC from reclassifying broadband and regulating the Internet, he said.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on the consummation of DBSD’s bankruptcy reorganization plan Tuesday, preventing the company from emerging from bankruptcy as planned. If the court rules against the bankruptcy plan, approved by the Southern District of New York, DBSD may have to start the reorganization planning all over again, said an executive familiar with the case. Both Sprint Nextel’s and Dish Network’s motions for stays were granted by the court and neither company was required to post bond. The court didn’t offer any more information on the decision.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Republican gains wouldn’t have much effect on National Broadband Plan follow-through by Congress on matters such as spectrum allocation and the Universal Service Fund that don’t depend on how net neutrality and broadband reclassification play out, said the former official who led the FCC’s work on the project and industry lobbyists.

SAN FRANCISCO -- It’s more important that Internet users get useful information, in timely, digestible ways, that they can act on about behavioral advertising than for policymakers to choose between an opt-in or opt-out regulatory system, agreed an FTC lawyer, a privacy advocate and an executive of a location-based services company. The current policy thrust is all toward “simplified, meaningful notice,” FTC lawyer Laura Berger said late Tuesday at the FCBA Seminar West. A privacy report coming from the FTC will stress getting notices to users as they engage in related activities.