Congress will develop proposals to update the Communications Act, Democratic Commerce Committee leaders in both houses said Monday. The process will be headed by House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and their Senate counterparts Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and John Kerry, D-Mass. Telcos, broadcasters and Public Knowledge were among those who backed the effort at our deadline.

The FCC’s wireless competition report cites a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) increase as a clear warning sign that the industry has grown less competitive. But the CTIA questions the commission’s reliance on the index as one of the key measures in the report, the first in years that didn’t find the industry competitive (CD May 21 p1). CTIA also questioned how the measure was calculated for the report.

Tribune and MGM expanded their distribution agreement for MGM’s This TV multicast network, the companies are expected to say Tuesday. The network, a 24/7 programming feed of old MGM-produced movies and TV shows, has been attracting a growing audience despite its lack of pay-TV carriage in some markets, said Jim Packer, co-president of MGM Worldwide TV.

Many of the 122 questions total the FCC posed to Comcast and NBC Universal on their deal to combine broadcast, cable and online programming assets signal a keen interest by the agency and Chairman Julius Genachowski in Internet video, experts observing the review said. The queries, many with sub-questions, were released by the commission Friday afternoon (CD May 24 p13). They cover VOD, online video distribution, set-top boxes and Internet video that can be seen using the devices. Queries on carriage deals show an interest in program access, industry lawyers who reviewed the data requests said.

STANFORD, Calif. -- The actions that made Microsoft the target of antitrust authorities internationally didn’t compare with some of the practices of dominant technology players today, said General Counsel Brad Smith. “One can only imagine the volcanic uproar if we had” run an app store in which the company “alone would control” the software accepted for distribution and from which applications that competed with offerings by the company had been excluded, he said late Friday at an antitrust symposium hosted by Stanford Law School and the American Bar Association.

The FCC approved the 4.8 million-line transfer from Frontier to Verizon. The transaction, approved Friday, will bring “broadband to millions of consumers and small businesses and anchor institutions in 14 states,” the commission said in a news release. Frontier’s voluntary commitments include offering new broadband deployment with actual speeds of at least 1 Mbps upstream and providing the FCC with data on its deployment progress “at an unprecedented level of detail,” the commission said.

Intel is “putting all our energy” into “working with Google on enabling” Sony and Logitech TV products based on the Android operating system (CED May 21 p5) to be sold at retail this year, Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager for Intel’s Digital Home Group, said in a phone briefing Friday. But he said, “We are also very deeply engaged with many other major CE OEMs, so you could expect there to be many additional CE products -- TVs, set-top boxes, media players -- hitting the retail shelves in spring of 2011.” He declined to name other OEMs, citing “very strict confidentiality” deals, but said Intel is “definitely putting a huge amount of energy to scale this out very, very rapidly."

Tech and advertising groups prefer the Senate financial overhaul bill passed late Thursday to the House version, they said Friday. The groups have voiced concerns about the FTC expansion envisioned by the House bill, among other things (CD May 5 p6). But so far, few Capitol Hill legislators have commented directly on the tech community’s concerns.

CE makers are seeking a blanket waiver to exempt mobile DTV devices from FCC Part 15 requirements that all TV devices include analog and legacy ATSC DTV tuners. Dell and LG filed a joint petition, seeking a waiver for battery-operated mobile devices. Separately, Hauppauge Computer Works sought a broader waiver to cover any “television receivers capable of mobile use by consumers” that has a mobile DTV receiver. Comments on both requests, which the commission will consider together, are due June 4 under an accelerated process. Replies are due June 11.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third way” regulation of broadband is already having a “dampening effect” on investment in telecommunications equipment, former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said Friday during a webinar sponsored by TIA. The FCC is expected to vote on a notice of inquiry and notice of proposed forbearance on the reclassification proposal at its June 17 meeting.