Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke questioned whether FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will proceed with a vote on net neutrality rules at the commission’s December meeting. He spoke after giving a speech Saturday to a Federalist Society conference, where Commissioner Robert McDowell said he has no idea what will happen in December or what Genachowski’s next step will be. Discussions were continuing Monday on a possible compromise that could lead to a December vote.

A disconnect remains between what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in Comcast v. FCC and what the “headlines” said the court had decided, commission General Counsel Austin Schlick said at a Federalist Society conference. He also questioned whether Congress will be able to approve “technical” rules for the Internet or whether they would better be left to the FCC. Schlick’s remarks Saturday could be significant, since commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is reportedly weighing whether to push for net neutrality rules without reclassification of broadband as a Title II service (CD Nov 22 p1).

Cybersecurity legislation introduced Wednesday in the House Homeland Security Committee would give the Department of Homeland Security additional oversight of government and private infrastructure. The bill, sponsored by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is too bureaucratic and could have serious implications for business, some Internet advocates said.

The FCC “moved the goalposts back 20 yards” when it denied Qwest’s forbearance petition seeks permission to set its own rates and terms of service in Phoenix without permission from the FCC, the telco claimed in its appellate briefs. Qwest has “hemorrhaged market share to its rivals” and “easily meets” the standard for forbearance, the company claimed in its brief filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver late Friday. It said the commission ignored longstanding tradition and continues to treat Qwest as if it were a monopoly.

STANFORD, Calif. -- The “idea of a moratorium” on work toward a treaty to increase intellectual property protection of broadcasters is gaining momentum, said Richard Owens, director of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s copyright law division. The work “quite frankly has been languishing” on the agenda of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright “for quite a few years,” he said Friday at a Stanford Law School conference. There are many questions about the nature of the effort, not least why broadcasters’ protections should be expanded, Owens said. It’s difficult to get such a point off the agenda because of the organization’s procedures, he said. “Progress” may be made on the matter in the “next six to eight months,” Owens said.

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., plans “no changes” to his bill to revamp the Universal Service Fund, he said in an interview last week. He hopes the bill, six years in the making, can be reintroduced early next session, he said. After the election defeat of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., Terry is looking for a new Democratic co-sponsor.

NCTA CEO Kyle McSlarrow’s decision Friday to leave this spring was the culmination of months of his considering what he wanted to do next, cable industry officials said. Now he’s looking to work as an executive on the operational end of a company, perhaps in the media or telecom sector and as a CEO, industry executives said. They said McSlarrow seemed to face no pressure to leave from members of NCTA, where his contract runs until 2012 and was extended for four years in 2008. Though he'd been considering leaving NCTA for some time, the decision came as some surprise to industry insiders and came two hours after he spoke to a panel about online video. (See separate report in this issue.)

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to push back the Dec. 15 meeting to the 21st or 22nd, agency officials said Friday. That gives him an extra week to decide whether to schedule a vote on net neutrality rules, likely including provisions in legislation introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., plus wireless. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans took off their gloves and signaled they're ready for a fight should Genachowski push forward with net neutrality rules.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Advocates for stricter rules about the electromagnetic fields (EMF) created by wireless and electronic devices should seek rule changes at the municipal rather than federal level, said Lloyd Morgan, a senior science fellow at the Environmental Health Trust. San Francisco’s cellphone-specific absorption rate labeling ordinance could be a model for other cities, he said late Thursday. He was one of several EMF advocates who spoke to a standing-room only crowd about the public health and environmental risks associated with prolonged exposure to such electromagnetic radiation at an event co-organized by Electromagnetichealth.org. “Every city needs to start enacting legislation like San Francisco,” Morgan said. The wireless industry’s response -- a lawsuit and a decision to pull its conference from the city’s convention center -- could scare other cities off, he said.

Showtime Networks was an early supporter of HD but is “being a little bit more cautious” with 3D, CEO Matthew Blank said at the Future of Television conference in New York Friday. Blank sees 3D as more of “a theater experience” than a “living room experience” for now, he said, responding to our query about Showtime’s position on the technology and its 3D plans.