The Media Bureau denied a request by Sky Angel that the FCC let it keep carrying some Discovery Communications networks while its program-access complaint is considered. At the center of the complaint is the question of whether Sky Angel, which distributes pay-TV programming online, qualifies as a multichannel video programming distributor under federal rules.

The FCC’s scramble to find authority for ambitious programs after the Comcast decision doesn’t mean its authority over wireless services and devices should be doubted, advocates told the State of the Mobile Net conference in Washington late Wednesday. The FTC can keep its existing limited authority in wireless, mostly concerning data’s trip “back to the mother ship” from devices, without butting into crucial FCC authority over standards-oriented practices, said Harold Feld, legal director at Public Knowledge.

Recent claims from Artel, Globecomm Systems, CapRock and Spacenet that Intelsat engages in anticompetitive behavior were filed in the wrong FCC proceeding and should be dismissed, Intelsat said. Intelsat’s comments to the FCC responded to those filed there as part of the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act, which requires the agency to provide annual reports to the House and Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees on the effect of the privatization of Intelsat and Inmarsat. CapRock, Artel, Globecomm and Spacenet complained Intelsat was using its size and access to its satellites to win contracts while stunting competition (CD April 12 p6). The FCC ORBIT Act report is due to Congress by June 15.

Verizon Q1 profit plunged 75 percent from a year earlier to $409 million due to a $970 million one-time health care charge. The carrier added fewer postpaid customers but still expects growth in the postpaid market, Chief Financial Officer John Killian said on a conference call Thursday.

The Illinois Commerce Commission conditionally approved the Frontier/Verizon wireline transaction, voting 5-0 Wednesday. Regulators demanded that Frontier improve service quality and expand broadband throughout its territory. “This grant of authority to Frontier will help to close the gap that still exists for many Illinoisans by giving them access to essential 21st century technologies,” Commissioner Erin O'Connell-Diaz said. West Virginia is the lone state where approval remains pending. The FCC also must approve.

The FCC made a long-expected change to its automatic roaming rules Wednesday, eliminating the home roaming exclusion that had been approved as a surprise feature of the commission’s automatic roaming rules in 2007. The new order creates a presumption in favor of roaming even when a carrier owns a spectrum license in a market but has yet to build out its network there. A commission rulemaking also posed a series of questions on data roaming as recommended in the National Broadband Plan.

The FCC issued a notice of inquiry and a notice of proposed rulemaking for a Universal Service Fund overhaul. The action at the commission meeting Wednesday jump starts the switch from the high-cost fund to the Connect America fund, said Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey. The commission will seek comment on an analytical framework and cost model aimed at containing the cost of USF and identifying the places with the greatest need, said Amy Bender, a Wireline Bureau deputy division chief. “A model that identifies efficient levels of support could be an important tool even if the commission ultimately adopts market-based mechanisms to identify supported entities and support levels,” she said.

CableCARDs didn’t meet the goal of Congress in Section 629 of the Telecom Act because they failed to create much of a market for consumers to buy devices from retailers that they could use to get pay TV, all five FCC members agreed Wednesday. Some expressed hope that newer gateway devices letting cable, telco-TV and DBS subscribers get online and subscription video using devices other than set-top boxes will gin up the retail market while boosting broadband use. A rulemaking on fixes to CableCARDs and an inquiry on setting standards for gateway devices to be used by all pay-TV providers was approved at Wednesday’s meeting, where Commissioner Meredith Baker voted remotely to approve all six items because of a death in her family. (See obituary in this issue.)

Net neutrality advocates pointed to a class-action lawsuit settlement in Sabrina Chin v. RCN Corp. announced this week in which the cable operator agreed to stop manipulating its broadband subscribers’ peer-to-peer file transfers and be more transparent about network management practices. “This is yet another example showing why the Federal Communications Commission needs to be given the authority over Internet access service,” said President Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge. RCN denies it violated any laws and said it settled to avoid the cost of litigation. The episode will probably find its way into reply comments that net neutrality advocates plan to file with the FCC before Monday’s deadline.

It’s “somewhat optimistic” to say 95 percent of the U.S. is served by broadband, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. Boucher said at a hearing Wednesday he had “serious concerns about the accuracy of that number” in the National Broadband Plan “and the methodology that was employed in order to derive it.” Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said the figure may show the U.S. can get ubiquitous broadband without government intervention. FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett cautioned that availability estimates in the plan may paint a rosier-than-reality portrait of broadband access.