Revisions to CableCARD rules will take effect over the next two years, FCC officials said Thursday as the commission approved an order making changes to the rules that largely were as expected. On one point of last-minute discussion at the regulator (CD Oct 7 p6), commissioners decided not to require cable operators to put information in monthly customer bills on how much CableCARDs would cost if leased separately. The mandate remained largely unchanged in the final order from the original draft circulated by Chairman Julius Genachowski, which he and colleagues said will help promote broadband by paving the way for people without computers to access online content from their TVs.

Lawmakers should incentivize U.S. telework adoption and dismantle barriers, said broadband proponents. Three teleworking supporters touted the economic and domestic benefits of alternative working environments Thursday at a USTelecom event in Washington. Among the projected benefits were reduced city traffic, lower carbon emissions, reduced dependence on foreign oil, increased personal freedom for employees and increased potential for those with disabilities.

The FCC approved 5-0 a rulemaking notice on a mobility fund to become part of the Universal Service Fund. The NPRM also seeks comments on reverse auctions to select carriers to build out 3G networks in unserved areas at a competitive cost. The program would not expand the size of the USF, and it would be paid for from funds that Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel voluntarily surrendered as merger commitments. The fund will be small, FCC officials acknowledged, offering as little as $100 million -- about 1/40th the amount already handed out by the federal government through Recovery Act programs.

An FCC victory in the MetroPCS case wouldn’t open the floodgates to wireless-LEC litigation in the states, commission lawyer Nick Bourne assured a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Responding to concerns expressed during oral argument Thursday by Judge Janice Rogers Brown that an FCC victory would force wireless companies to litigate separately in all 50 states, Bourne said the lengthy litigation stemming from a dispute between commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) company MetroPCS and CLEC North County Communications (CD Oct 13 p5) resulted mainly from North County’s “idiosyncratic business model” and was only likely to be replicated for the few LECs that don’t use two-way calls.

ITU member countries sidestepped jurisdictional troubles by tentatively agreeing to take no action beyond discussing further the idea of labeling Intelsat orbital slots and frequency assignments seen as crucial for broadband in remote regions and developing countries. Most countries whose representatives spoke in meetings at the ITU policy setting conference said the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization is already working on better protecting the resources. An African group of countries belonging to ITSO wants a proposal on the matter floated at the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference, Zambia said on behalf of the group. A tentative compromise proposal emerged to continue dialogue between countries, the ITU secretary general and in ITU-R, but no decision has been made on that.

Enterprise satellite communications are becoming more intertwined with terrestrial services, said Spacenet CEO Andreas Georgiou. “As alternative technology companies provide more competitive technologies for the enterprise world” the satellite-based market “has to contract,” he said on a panel at Satcon in New York. Very small aperture terminal network deployment has fallen as a result and Spacenet has started combining services, he said. The company uses hybrid networks to accommodate the terrestrial and satellite needs for customers.

The Open Internet Coalition (OIC) said the time has come for the FCC to finalize net neutrality rules and provide certainty for industry. OIC was one of the main parties during failed negotiations on net neutrality rules hosted by the FCC (CD Aug 6 p1). The comments came in response to a Sept. 1 FCC public notice seeking input on “two underdeveloped” issues -- application of the rules to mobile wireless and the impact of emerging specialized services offered by carriers.

The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security made an agreement to let the two agencies share staff and intelligence to protect U.S. cyber networks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said they signed a memorandum of agreement that will send Pentagon analysts to Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. DHS, in turn, will send a full-time executive and a support team to the National Security Agency.

Wireless “bill shock” is not a small matter and many consumers have been hit with massive charges they didn’t expect when they opened their monthly bills, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a Center for American Progress event Wednesday. On the eve of an FCC vote on a rulemaking notice on whether the FCC should impose warning requirements on carriers, Genachowski took the agency’s stand against bill surprises directly to the public.

A group of Arab and other countries are pushing to extend ITU work on ways to apportion revenue for providing international telecommunication services into the Internet. The U.S. and Europe want the work stopped. Arab countries want ITU to put on seminars to highlight the problems they're encountering. The proposals were made during a quadrennial ITU policy setting conference.