STANFORD, Calif. -- A veteran FCC economist fleshed out alternatives for auctioning spectrum that broadcasters give up for reuse in mobile broadband. The commission could give out overlay licenses, hold separate auctions to clear and re-license the spectrum, or set up a process to make both changes at the same time, said Evan Kwerel, senior economic adviser to the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, saying he spoke only for himself.

A long-awaited cybersecurity bill introduced Thursday in the Senate Homeland Security Committee would give the president authority to declare a “national cyber emergency” and take emergency measures to fight it without further congressional approval. It would establish a national cybersecurity center and a formal cybersecurity czar appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The bill was introduced by committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking member Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.

BRUSSELS -- European and other countries have narrowed the list of frequencies for possible new mobile satellite service allocations at WRC-12 to six bands, an executive said at a conference preparatory workshop. European countries are also considering proposing changes to ITU satellite network filing and coordination procedures, said Samuel Blondeau, senior space development manager at SES Astra in Luxembourg. European countries will sign off on common proposals next year.

A pair of bills approved by the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday target separate activities many Americans take for granted -- loud TV ads and using cell phones while driving.

With a week to go before a June 17 FCC vote on a broadband reclassification notice of inquiry, leading broadband and high-tech companies said Wednesday they're starting the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (TAG). That gives reclassification opponents another potential arrow in their quiver. This new group is being chaired by former commission official Dale Hatfield, who logged time last year as a member of the Obama Administration’s FCC transition team. The move comes as some members of Congress pressure the FCC to rethink changing how broadband is regulated (CD June 9 p1). Members include AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Dish, EchoStar, Time Warner Cable and Level 3, said a news release.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, wants to use the appropriations process to stop the FCC from acting on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” broadband regulation proposal. At a hearing Wednesday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, Culberson said he would offer an amendment to FCC budget legislation prohibiting the agency from using any federal funds to “regulate the Internet,” including for reclassifying broadband transport under Title II of the Communications Act. Subcommittee Chairman Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said he doesn’t support the amendment and won’t work with Culberson to refine it.

The largest video relay service provider said it could go bankrupt if VRS rates proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association are adopted by the FCC, which is seeking comment on them. Sorenson Communications would have to lay off employees and keep customers waiting if the rates are adopted by the commission, Chief Marketing Officer Paul Kershisnik said. Large providers like the company now are paid under Tier 3, offering the lowest compensation rate at about $6.30 per minute. For the July 2010 to June 2011 fund year, NECA proposed new rates of $5.77 for Tier 1, $6.03 for Tier 2 and $3.89 for Tier 3.

An FCC draft rulemaking proposes a 2012 deadline for U.S. low-power stations to switch to all-digital broadcasts, agency and industry officials said. That deadline was proposed in 2008 by then-Chairman Kevin Martin, but scuttled by other commissioners (CD Feb 27 p4) , and now has been revived by current Chairman Julius Genachowski, agency and industry officials said. The draft asks whether a later date ought to be set, an official said. Low-power stations won’t likely be able to go all-digital in two years, said lawyer Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher Heald, who represents low-power broadcasters that have gone all-digital.

The Iowa Utilities Board issued rules on access stimulation, also called “traffic pumping” by some, that take effect Aug. 4. The amendments issued Monday could be rendered obsolete by intercarrier compensation reforms envisioned by the National Broadband Plan, commission staff said. Until that FCC program takes effect, the Iowa commission will focus “on situations in which a local exchange carrier’s rates for intrastate access services are based, indirectly, on relatively low traffic volumes, but the LEC then experiences a relatively large and rapid increase in those volumes, resulting in a substantial increase in revenues without a matching increase in the total cost of providing access service,” it said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to face increasing pressure from Congress this summer to back down from a proposal to partially reclassify broadband as a Title II service, in favor of seeking compromise with industry. Even members of Genachowski’s own party have expressed reservations about the “third way” reclassification plan he proposed a month ago (CD May 7 p1), which would reclassify broadband transport from a lightly regulated information service under Title I of the Communications Act, to a common carrier service under Title II and forbear from all but six of that title’s 48 sections.