Finishing the DTV transition is a step closer with release of an FCC rulemaking notice on setting deadlines for low-power broadcasters, about half of which already are going all-digital, to end all analog operations. Commissioners on Friday approved an item that proposed 2012 as the transition deadline for all low-power TV (LPTV) stations not operating in the 700 MHz band, as expected (CD Sept 14 p5). The regulator proposed LPTV outlets on channels 52-69, vacated in last year’s full-power analog transition, go all-digital by Dec. 31, 2011, in other slots, and submit an application picking another channel by June 30 of that year.

Regulators in Kansas and Nebraska amended a request to make retroactive their powers to assess nomadic voice over Internet providers for state universal service funds. This all but clears the way for a declaratory FCC ruling that states can make their own USF assessments, and an order could be coming within weeks, agency officials said.

"Regulatory holidays” for build-out of new fiber networks won’t be tolerated, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Monday, unveiling the European Commission’s proposed three-pronged approach to universal and high-speed broadband. The statements on broadband investment, regulation of access to new networks and establishing a five-year spectrum policy program make up a package of reforms the EC hopes will jump-start Europe’s digital economy. The proposals won general praise from the telecom sector, but a few niggling concerns remain, various sources said. The measures must be approved by the European Parliament and Council.

Siemens and Samsung are among the top five “global leaders” in carbon disclosure and performance in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) 2010 Global 500 index released Monday. The report said U.S. companies lag their global peers in the “numbers and types of action they are taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” Managing carbon is becoming a “strategic business priority and competitive driver” for the largest global companies, even though there’s a lack of international agreement on climate change, it said.

The FCC seeks comment on ways to move customers who are deaf from toll-free to local numbers when they use Internet-based telecommunications relay services. The commission said it wants to find a way to let businesses that need toll-free numbers for iTRS keep them but at the same time prevent relay services from automatically assigning 800 numbers for their clients. The commission has also suggested a one-year transition period to make the switch to local service and suggested that TRS fund no longer support toll-free numbers.

The FCC should approve TV white spaces rules that offer certainty and guarantee “assured access to adequate spectrum … on a long term basis” for the band to be commercially viable, the Communications Finance Association (CFA) said in an FCC filing. Numerous industry groups and companies trooped to the agency to make their final arguments on the order, before it was placed on the sunshine agenda Thursday night for the Sept. 23 meeting, cutting off further lobbying. Various parties made a total of more than 150 ex parte filings in 04-186, the main white spaces docket, last week alone.

Days before the FCC handed down its order denying a request by Globalstar for a 16-month extension so it could come into compliance with the commission’s Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) rules, Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein sent the FCC a letter warning of negative implications for Open Range Communications and the entire Rural Utilities Service Broadband Loan program. Adelstein asked the commission to give Open Range full use of the ATC spectrum throughout the term of the RUS loan. RUS previously lent Open Range $266 million to build its network.

Forthcoming rules on fixing CableCARDs as an interim step toward adoption of gateway devices that let plug-and-play devices connect with any pay-TV provider and get online video on set-top boxes may reflect agreement among industry players on perhaps all but two significant issues, executives said. There appears to be agreement among consumer electronics and pay-TV companies on many of the ways cable operators can make it easier for subscribers to use CableCARDs to connect devices, like DVRs, that they buy from retailers to cable systems, executives of both industries said. They expect the agency will OK use of digital terminal adapters for cable operators with systems of any size to use cheap set-top boxes without CableCARDs. That would let subscribers get HD without two-way services like interactivity.

The nascent online video distribution market could be good for content owners because it adds competition among distributors seeking access to their programming, studio and network executives said last week at a Bank of America investment conference. “Every day the value of content goes up,” said Joe Ianello, CBS chief financial officer. “I don’t see any way it can be viewed negatively to have new entrants and more demand in the market for content and people paying up.” A recent deal with Epix for Netflix to expand its online streaming catalog is evidence of how much new distributors value programming rights, said Tom Rothman, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. “Any time another company puts a billion-dollar valuation on something that’s less good than something that you have, it’s a good thing."

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- The long-sought system of immunity from liability for Internet intermediaries such as ISPs is under attack, not only in Third World countries, but also in nations that opted to protect intermediaries before, experts told the Internet Governance Forum. Several coalitions and organizations, including the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), are trying to come up with guidelines or principles against over-regulation.