The new FCC Title I approach to net neutrality is likely to get widespread support and reduce the risk of legal battles, ex-FCC Chairman Michael Powell told an Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) panel Tuesday. The FCC seems to be moving toward a resolution that would remove the regulatory uncertainty over broadband, said Powell, who chaired the FCC 2001-2005. Open Internet has universal support and is a common vision shared by many major operators, Powell said. Broadband infrastructure is critical to solving national challenges, he said. But “we have been stuck in the never ending debate over net neutrality,” he said: Enormous amounts of time and money have been spent, but the gain is modest, and it’s time to move on.

Strong sales of iPads and e-readers will boost AT&T’s Q4 performance and the company expects continued growth in its broadband and U-verse product lines, said AT&T Chief Financial Officer Rick Linder Tuesday. Linder expects margins for AT&T’s wireless products to increase this quarter, he told a UBS investor conference. “Across the business I feel good about the momentum we are seeing.” Last quarter, AT&T added and retained more wireless customers than it had in any previous Q3, primarily due to the release of Apple’s iPhone4 handsets (CD Oct 22 p6), he said.

Over-the-top video represents only a modest threat to pay-TV subscription rates, DirecTV Chief Financial Officer Pat Doyle said Tuesday at a UBS investors conference. Only a marginal group of “outliers” will give up subscription to watch programming online, he said. The company will “certainly monitor” developments in over-the-top content but doesn’t consider it an immediate threat, he said. Still, DirecTV foresees a TV market that relies on both conventional delivery and Internet connections, he said.

Sprint Nextel will spend up to $5 billion to upgrade its network with a focus on improving speed and reducing operating costs, Steve Elfman, president of network operations and wholesale, said on a company conference call Monday. Phasing out the iDEN network and repurposing part of the 800 MHz spectrum for CDMA-based service are part of the plan.

The GOP Steering Committee soon will begin considering candidates to lead the House Commerce Committee, voting as soon as Tuesday, said industry lobbyists, lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides watching the vigorous competition to chair the committee. It’s likely to amount to a contest between Fred Upton of Michigan; Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas, a former Commerce chairman; and John Shimkus of Illinois, several communications industry lobbyists said. Upton is the senior-most committee member in contention for the top spot. Barton may need a waiver Republican caucus rules to again head the committee.

Some fundamental challenges in wireless come from the FCC’s decisions on matters other than spectrum that can hurt spectrum-specific steps and send the wrong signal to the commission’s foreign counterparts, said Commissioner Meredith Baker. They include the net neutrality proposal, the Harbinger restriction and findings on mobile market competitiveness, she said on a panel held Monday by the Georgetown Center for Business & Public Policy.

The FCC won’t have an order ready on reverse auctions for the proposed mobility fund until mid-February at the earliest, Chief Margaret Wiener of the Wireless Bureau’s Auctions & Spectrum Access Division said Monday at a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch. In October, the commission opened a rulemaking on whether it should use between $100 million and $300 million left over in the high-cost Universal Service Fund to create a reverse auction in which wireless companies in underserved areas have a chance to win subsidies to build out 3G networks. The comment period for the current rulemaking closes Dec. 16, and replies are due Jan. 17, Wiener said, making it unlikely that an order will be ready to go out before mid-February.

Cable operators will need to get bigger to remain competitive against large foes such as the phone companies, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt said at a UBS conference Monday. He said Time Warner Cable has the scale it needs now, but predicted a wave of consolidation in 10-15 years. The prospect of getting discounts on TV programming contracts had motivated past consolidation, he said. Now, companies need large engineering, product development and marketing departments to remain competitive, Britt said. “It’s about engineering and sophisticated marketing in a world where we're competing with larger enemies,” he said. “I think scale becomes more important."

Despite interest from distributors in the U.S. and around the world, 3D’s future “is hard to tell,” David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, said at the UBS conference in New York Monday. “It’s very expensive,” he said, adding that Discovery chose to work with Sony and Imax to minimize the costs of developing a 3D channel and to share information along the learning curve.

Other funding options for Clearwire, including spectrum sales and equity financing, are still on the table in addition to the $1.3 billion debt the company is trying to raise, Chief Financial Officer Erik Prusch said Friday. Sprint Nextel, which owns 54 percent of Clearwire, has about a month to decide if it plans to buy into $760 million of convertible debt Clearwire gave it rights to buy. Sprint declined to comment on whether it will participate.