Prospects for passage of legislation requiring terrestrial radio stations to pay a royalty to performers for the music they broadcast seem little changed after the administration backed it (CD April 2 p10), said six broadcast industry officials we surveyed. Music label representatives said they're hopeful that the Performance Royalty Act (H-848 and S-379) will pass this Congress or that their industry and broadcasters will agree on a framework for royalties. Discussions have taken place between industry representatives, said people from both businesses. The Commerce Department Thursday offered “strong” support for performance royalties and said the Office of Management and Budget didn’t object to that view as reflecting the administration of President Barack Obama’s “program."

Observers questioned the cybersecurity and privacy recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, in a panel discussion at George Washington University Law School late Thursday. The plan calls for a larger cybersecurity role for the FCC, but that might be a reach for the commission, said Jim Harper, the Cato Institute’s director of information policy studies. Just because the FCC handles communications, that doesn’t mean it knows cybersecurity well, he said.

South Africa shouldn’t regulate Internet Protocol TV services, commentators told the country’s telecom regulator late last month. Although IPTV hasn’t taken off in there, there’s “considerable interest from stakeholders,” the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa said in a discussion paper. After reviewing how the EU, U.S., U.K., France, South Korea, India and Canada handle IPTV rules, ICASA said it will focus on content issues. Respondents urged it to stay out of content regulation.

Government intervention is a potential answer and not impediment to the U.S. effort to create a more vibrant wireless market with faster speeds, Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, said on a Friday panel sponsored by his group and Slate magazine. Tim Wu, professor of law at Columbia University and chairman of Free Press, said carriers have a natural interest in being a monopoly, and history suggests there’s a move back to a period of consolidation and monopoly control in wireless markets. The event was about “Why Your Cellphone is So Terrible."

A Thursday rally by CWA members at FCC headquarters in Washington protesting Frontier’s proposed acquisition of landlines from Verizon drew sharp words from a Frontier spokesman. The CWA said about 200 members, accompanied by supporters affiliated with the IBEW and the AFL-CIO, demonstrated. “This deal will pad the pockets of Wall Street executives while only deepening the digital divide,” CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins told rally participants. Afterwards, the union said, CWA President Larry Cohen, Collins and others met with Commissioner Michael Copps, FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus and other agency officials. Responding to the event, a Frontier spokesman evoked Ronald Reagan’s retort to Jimmy Carter during a 1980 presidential campaign debate.

Free conference call companies are rallying customers to urge lawmakers and the FCC to not stifle their ability to continue using free conference call services. “We let people know to contact their representatives in Congress that they use the service and don’t want it to go away,” FreeConference.com Chief Financial Officer Mike Placido said in an interview. The commission continues to get comments on a 2007 rulemaking notice concerning just and reasonable rates for terminating access charges by competitive local exchange carriers mainly located in rural areas. Bells have accused rural LECs of “traffic pumping,” and urged lawmakers and the FCC to look into ending the practice. The House Commerce Committee has collected information from CLECS and interexchange carriers to begin its inquiry (CD Feb 18 p 1).

The goal the FCC set to wrap up its media-ownership review this year will be tough to meet, said commission, industry and public-interest figures we surveyed. The FCC hasn’t issued notices of inquiry or rulemaking and must deal with a legal challenge to the previous review. Issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) soon with proposed rules, rather than starting with a notice of inquiry (NOI), would speed up the work, the officials agreed. They said time is tight for the commission to wrap it up this year, a goal apparently shared by Chairman Julius Genachowski, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and others. Congress mandated the reviews every four years, including 2010.

Motorola, Qualcomm and AT&T separately asked the FCC to reject the 700 MHz Block a Good Faith Purchaser Alliance’s calls for a notice of proposed rulemaking requiring all 700 MHz capable devices to operate on every paired 700 MHz band. The alliance also sought an immediate freeze on FCC authorization of mobile equipment that cannot operate on every band. U.S. Cellular and small carriers groups weighed in in support of the alliance.

The FCC should be careful as it takes up the Broadband Task Force’s recommendation that TV providers include a broadband gateway device to not ignore some of the unique features of direct broadcast satellite service providers’ technology, said DBS companies. The commission will begin to take up the issue April 21 (CD March 31 p10).

The FCC will vote at the April 21 meeting on an order that would pull back the in-market roaming exclusion, approved in 2007 as part of the commission’s automatic roaming rules. The same item calls for the FCC to put out a further rulemaking notice seeking additional comment on data roaming. The actions have been expected since December (CD Dec 9 p1).