The FCC found a wide array of video captioning problems in a first-of-its-kind study of all complaints to the commission about broadcast-TV and subscription-video programming in the 52 weeks through May 7. Equipment from broadcasters, cable operators and DBS providers had technical problems, and so did set-top boxes, said a report on digital closed captions by the Office of Engineering and Technology and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. They studied 107 complaints to the FCC.

ATLANTA -- Cybersecurity is a key component of successful deployment of the smart grid, Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator, said in a keynote Tuesday at NARUC’s annual conference. State regulators need to be informed about potential threats and solutions, because states play an important role in smart grid expansion, he said.

The time still has not come to require Sprint Nextel to settle up with the government on unpaid 800 MHz rebanding costs, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) said in a recommendation to the FCC. The rebanding isn’t complete and Sprint continues to rack up costs, the TA said. When the commission approved its landmark 800 MHz rebanding order in 2004, it required Nextel, then an independent company, to pay the full value of the 10 MHz national spectrum license it got as part of the rebanding agreement. Other carriers insisted on the provision, arguing that as a matter of fairness Nextel should have to pay a kind of windfall charge.

ATLANTA -- The Rural Utilities Service will help the FCC carry out the National Broadband Plan, revamp the Universal Service Fund and accomplish other goals, Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said Tuesday at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners conference.

Some technology vendors say the next generation of wireless broadband networks will be robust enough for operators to provide wireless IPTV services that could compete with cable and DBS. Others said such services would require too much dedicated bandwidth and that 4G network operators will have to take other steps to handle a flood of video traffic that’s coming to their networks.

CEO Eric Schmidt said Google’s wireless net neutrality stance has been badly misunderstood, and company policies have drawn lines in the sand against some tracking and personal identification practices. Google opposes discriminatory practices in wireless as well as wired broadband, he said late Monday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The company’s August outline proposal with Verizon for federal legislation didn’t change that, Schmidt said.

ATLANTA -- The FCC is “moving forward strongly on implementation of the National Broadband Plan,” including fixing the spectrum, intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund systems, said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, speaking at a NARUC annual meeting for the first time. Two areas in which innovation is essential are broadband and the smart grid, said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. NTIA has identified government spectrum for commercial broadband, he said. (See separate story in this issue.)

Three draft FCC rulemaking items on spectrum that circulated Tuesday for a vote at this month’s meeting seem to hold few surprises for industry or commissioners, said agency and industry officials. The drafts from career agency staffers are consistent with public comments by Chairman Julius Genachowski on the items, which he has made the focus of the Nov. 30 meeting (CD Oct 21 p1), FCC officials said. The items haven’t become controversial within the agency, but commission staffers and lobbyists are just starting to focus on them, they said.

NTIA will propose legislation that would provide funding to help identify spectrum that might be ripe for commercial use, the agency said in its long-awaited “Plan and Timetable to Make Available 500 Megahertz of Spectrum for Wireless Broadband,” released Monday. NTIA laid out a schedule for identifying additional bands for reallocation over the next five years, committing to identify the first band for additional analysis in January. The agency also released a report on 115 MHz of spectrum already considered for fast-track reallocation.

Mediacom Chairman Rocco Commisso’s increased bid to take his company private will probably be approved by shareholders, cable analysts said. Mediacom’s board agreed to Commisso’s latest takeover bid of $8.75 a share, about $600 million total, the company said Monday. The board agreed after “extensive negotiations” between Commisso and a special committee of directors took place following Commisso’s initial $6 per-share bid in May, it said. Commisso already owns most of the company shares, but the deal requires approval by a majority of the other shareholders. The transaction won’t require FCC approval, and the company is reviewing its franchise agreements to determine whether any local approvals are needed, a spokesman said.