Democrats and Republicans in Congress divided sharply on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to cement the commission’s broadband authority. (See separate story in this issue.) Democrats stood by the FCC chairman, while Republicans accused him of partisanship. The GOP called reclassification -- even lightly applied -- a mistake. House and Senate Commerce Committee Chairmen Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., urged Genachowski on Wednesday to pursue “all viable options,” including reclassification (CD May 6 p1).

Speakers expressed general support for an FCC proposal to move to a Consolidated Licensing System (CLS), during a workshop Thursday. Mary Beth Richards, special counsel to the chairman for FCC Reform, said the commission will release a rulemaking notice on the CLS and plans additional workshops. “The CLS system is really an ambitious project,” Richards said. “It’s part of our overall reform efforts to make the agency more efficient and effective, easier to use our systems.”

Subscription contributions for telecom companies that sell DirecTV services are slowing as TV competition intensifies and reliance on land lines declines, the company said in its Q1 earnings call. Generally sold as part of a bundle with telephone services and/or Internet, contributions have fallen to under 20 percent from about 25 percent, said DirecTV Chief Financial Officer Patrick Doyle. The continued roll out of Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s U-verse have contributed to the slide, he said.

Conservation and industry groups filed an agreement at the FCC Wednesday calling for the development of interim standards for the Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) program. The agreement came after six months of negotiations and offers recommendations on the types of towers for which an ASR is required, based on the height of a proposed tower or the specifications of a replacement tower, the groups said in a news release. The memorandum of understanding also asks the FCC to adopt a preferred lighting scheme for changes to existing towers.

Qwest’s Q1 profit fell 81 percent year-over-year to $38 million, but CenturyTel, which has agreed to buy that company for $22.4 billion, said quarterly earnings tripled to $252.6 million. The companies continued to lose landline customers.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski knows how to cement the commission’s authority over broadband without reclassifying it under Title II of the Communications Act, a senior commission official said late Wednesday in an e-mail sent to reporters by an agency spokeswoman. He won’t say what it is until Thursday, the spokeswoman told us. The e-mail came a few hours after Democratic Commerce Committee leaders urged the FCC to consider “all viable options,” including reclassifying broadband, in the wake of the Comcast decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

National ad sales at TV stations rebounded from the deep lows of the recent recession during the first quarter and seem to be continuing this quarter, TV executives told investors this week. “It’s a broad, healthy market with people feeling there’s going to be more competition for market share and awareness that if you want to try to be in the game and build a brand, you've got to market it,” Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey of News Corp. said late Tuesday.

Most of those who've expressed a view believe it’s a bad idea to allow outside parties to see data on local telephone competition and broadband connections that carriers must file using Form 477, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in a joint filing at the commission. But Free Press said it’s asking only that the data be available to parties that sign confidentiality agreements. Outside groups could provide important insights if allowed to analyze the information, it said.

The FCC restarted its 180-day clock on review of Comcast’s agreement to buy control of NBC Universal after the companies on Tuesday submitted economic studies requested by commission staff. In pausing the clock at 29 days elapsed last month (CD April 19 p1), the Media Bureau said it would restart after the studies, on the stated benefits of the deal and its impact on online video competition, were filed. A bureau public notice Wednesday afternoon set new deadlines for opposition to the deal and other comments.

Similarities between WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) would make migration from WiMAX to LTE or even convergence of the 4G technologies possible, Clearwire Chief Technology Officer John Saw said in an interview. The WiMAX operator is set to launch in many new markets this year.