House and Senate sponsors of Internet accessibility bills hope to pass the legislation this year. At a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said he aims to have S-3304, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., ready for President Barack Obama’s signature this year. Kerry said he hopes to address concerns raised by USTelecom “in the next few days.” Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has a similar bill in the House (HR-3101), agreed in testimony that the bill should be passed this year.

A new FCC survey shows that “bill shock” is a major concern to wireless customers, said Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The commission will consider imposing rules on carriers, but no decision has been made, Gurin said. CTIA went on the attack immediately, asking why the FCC seems intent on micro-managing a competitive industry.

The broadband reclassification proposal that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will circulate Thursday makes clear the agency won’t forebear from its responsibilities under Section 257 of the Telecom Act to file reports on reducing market barriers to small and minority-owned companies, a commission official said. Genachowski’s proposal is for the agency to reclassify broadband transport from a lightly regulated information service to a common carrier service under Title II and forbear from all but six of its 48 sections. Concerns have been raised that the commission would forgo enforcement of the civil rights provision.

Verizon Wireless completed LTE field trials and is moving onto the pre-commercial stage, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said at the Barclays investor conference Wednesday. The carrier plans to showcase its LTE offerings at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “I think you will be surprised at the number and variety of (LTE) devices that we bring to the table,” McAdam said. The carrier also plans to expand LTE to rural areas.

The FCC’s Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act report will likely include reference to the accusations of anticompetitive behavior against Intelsat as part of an historical overview of the proceeding, an FCC official said. The overview will include all filings on the matter as past reports have, the official said. Globecomm, Artel, CapRock, and Spacenet filed complaints about the structure of the fixed satellite services market and accused Intelsat of anticompetitive behavior in the ORBIT Act docket. The ORBIT Act requires the FCC to provide annual reports to the House and Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees on the effect of the privatization of Intelsat and Inmarsat.

The three legislators most likely to be the next House Commerce Committee Republican leader have been active on telecom in the Communications Subcommittee. Current Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, could have to relinquish his post after the November election due to a House GOP caucus rule limiting Republicans to three two-year terms at the top of committees, whether the party is in the majority or minority. Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., wants the job, his spokesman said. Telecom industry lobbyists said Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and John Shimkus, R-Ill., may have a better shot.

SAN FRANCISCO -- “The fall is the target” for the Federal Trade Commission to release a report based on its three privacy roundtables in Washington and Berkeley, Calif., from December to March, an official said. Commission officials had been quoted as saying they were aiming for June or July. But the FTC is still reviewing the comments, which have taken a long time to transcribe, said Loretta Garrison of the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection late Tuesday at a Practising Law Institute seminar. The commission is still trying to decide what kind of report to produce, she said.

Any conditions that regulators could impose as part of approving the CenturyLink-Qwest merger would be nominal, said CenturyLink Executive Vice Chairman Tom Gerke in an interview. The combined company plans to stay focused on the core telecom market and more video-based services are expected as a result of the deal, he said. The deal is likely to be approved by regulators with attached conditions like obligations to expand broadband access or to provide it at certain prices, some analysts have said (CD April 23 p1).

In an order Tuesday, the FCC extended the jurisdictional separations freeze for another year to June 30, 2011. This is the third time the commission has ordered a freeze on Part 36 category relationships and jurisdictional cost allocation factors adopted by the FCC in the 2001 Separations Freeze Order. The extension will “provide stability to carriers that must comply with the commission’s jurisdictional separations rules while the commission and the joint board undertake reform,” the order said. The FCC said lifting the freeze would “create undue instability and administrative burdens” while the commission considers an overhaul.

Though time is quickly running out for the 111th Congress, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told us Tuesday he intends to push forward with a proposal to examine whether the Telecom Act needs to be rewritten. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., conceded in a separate interview that time is short.