Governmental plans for broadband deployment in the U.S. and other countries should emphasize universal connectivity rather than a limited population’s reaching the highest speeds, David McGlade, Intelsat’s said Tuesday on a panel at the Satellite 2010 conference in National Harbor, Md. Speeds as high as 100 Mbps, although reachable, make sense only for the densest regions, he said.

Utilities should be allowed to use the public safety wireless broadband network in the 700 MHz band to promote grid reliability and efficiency and Congress must consider amending the Communications Act to make it possible, the FCC said in a National Broadband Plan released Tuesday. The commission devoted an entire section to the “important” role broadband and advanced communications would play in achieving energy independence and efficiency.

Maine regulators will spend three months reviewing a petition by FairPoint Communications to accept the company’s bankruptcy reorganization plan and to grant it relief from performance requirements. FairPoint petitioned March 5 for commission approval of its plan and to revise a 2008 order granting it the right to acquire Verizon’s phone network, the commission said.

NASHVILLE -- Much of what’s in the National Broadband Plan has been well-known, FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett said as the CompTel convention got underway. FCC Strategic Planning Chief Paul de Sa said part of the plan’s value is “saying what’s part of our vision and what’s not part of our vision.” The commission will set a period to carry out the plan’s recommendations, to make the process open, Gillett said. The intent also is “to give the feeling of knowing when your stuff is going to be addressed,” she said. “People understand you can’t do everything on the first day of the National Broadband Plan.”

The significant time devoted by many FCC staffers to work on the National Broadband Plan the past year, and the commission’s attention to the subject, cut into the time and energy available for more routine matters, said broadcast and cable lawyers. That leaves some items languishing, causing some licensees regulatory confusion and leaving complaints unresolved, they said. “While the task Congress assigned to the FCC was enormous, all of the effort and energy the commission put into creating the plan will reap many benefits in the years to come,” said an agency spokesman.

The most connected societies aren’t the major sources of growth of the Internet economy, said a report (www.xrl.us/bgymnd) Monday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on the growth and future of the 25-year-old .com domain. The media fixation on social networking has obscured much more important growth mechanisms whose success can’t be reduced to universal broadband, foundation President Robert Atkinson told reporters Monday. “It’s a mistake to put so much emphasis on broadband” and less on the applications that make the Internet useful, as the FCC seems to be doing, he said.

House Democrats endorsed the FCC’s National Broadband Plan a day before its official release. House Republicans gave conditional praise, saying they're watching closely. In an interview, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he believes legislation will be required to satisfy the plan’s recommendations to revamp the Universal Service Fund, build a public safety wireless network, and identify lightly used spectrum.

Wireless carriers may get less in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan than meets the eye, commission officials indicated Monday. Although the plan recommends that 300 MHz of spectrum be made available for wireless broadband over the next five years and 500 MHz total over 10 years, FCC officials made clear Monday that not all will be dedicated to licensed use. The plan also provides substantial detail in its recommendations for the Universal Service Fund, including a phase-out of the high-cost fund. The plan will be presented to FCC commissioners Tuesday. They won’t vote on the plan, only on a mission statement setting out goals for U.S. broadband policy.

Innovations in online news media weren’t enough to offset financial losses, suggests a report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Although news media show tremendous energy toward digital journalism, cutbacks in traditional outlets dominate, the report suggested.

The city of Alexandria, Va., was told that all cable TV negotiations related to Verizon FiOS service have been suspended nationwide as the company does a review, the city’s director of communications, Tony Castrilli, told us. But Verizon said its FiOS expansion plans haven’t changed. Meanwhile, the city is hoping to become a site for the high-speed Internet testbed announced by Google, Castrilli said.