The threat from use of contraband cellphones in prisons is “deadly serious,” and finding a technical solution is a top FCC priority, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett said Thursday at a commission workshop on the topic. Wireless carriers, led by CTIA, used the forum to make the case that cellphone jamming is not the answer. But mostly those who testified described a problem that could elude easy solution.

There’s a window for broadcasters to come up with their own guidelines on indecency standards amid regulatory and judicial uncertainty over FCC enforcement of the current rules for radio and TV, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Thursday. Before the courts sort out the commission’s authority, “this is an opportunity for the broadcasters to step into the breach,” he told industry executives and lawyers at the NAB radio show. “So I would call upon you to do that."

Streaming radio stations’ music to Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, cellphones using Google’s Android operating system and other smartphones and wireless devices is a start for broadcasters to enter the mobile sector, executives said. To make money there and keep terrestrial listeners when they're not at a traditional receiver, the industry must also develop applications, radio executives from Canada, the U.K. and U.S. said Thursday. Some of the panelists at the NAB radio show in Washington said offering paid apps is an area that may bear fruit -- both financially and in keeping the attention of some of the most fervent listeners.

In what the European Commission called a “first step” toward a unified defense against cybercrime, it proposed tougher laws against attacks on information systems and a more visible role for Europe’s network security agency. Cybercriminality isn’t just a game for young hackers anymore but an activity increasingly activity under the sway of organized crime, said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. Protecting critical infrastructure such as electricity grids is the long-term goal, but that won’t happen unless current legal loopholes are plugged, she said at a news briefing. Both proposals must be approved by the EU Council and Parliament.

The U.S. is unlikely to have a government-required radio transition to digital from the analog broadcasts that still predominate -- or at least at no time in the foreseeable future, some FCC and industry-engineer panelists said Thursday. One reason there hasn’t been a rapid switch by stations to HD Radio and away from analog transmissions is that, unlike with last year’s digital transition for full-power TV stations, there’s never been a “date-certain” for radio to go digital-only, said Senior Vice President Glynn Walden of CBS Radio, with about 130 stations. “These things don’t happen overnight” as effectively occurred for TV, he said at the NAB Radio Show in Washington.

The FCC unanimously approved a declaratory ruling and a report and order that clarify rules on broadcast auxiliary spectrum (BAS) relocation expenses incurred by Sprint Nextel. The ruling probably will help Sprint go ahead with a lawsuit against MSS licensees in the 2 GHz band, where the carrier cleared the spectrum. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who partially concurred, said she wishes the order had gone further in deciding liability. “The Commission has a strong institutional interest in ensuring that its relocation and cost reimbursement policies are correctly applied to the specific factual issues in this case,” she said. “I believe that the public interest would have been better advanced by having the Commission decide the particular issue of whether ICO Global is liable to Sprint Nextel."

The FCC’s “shot clock” proceeding “has been a dismal failure,” telco lawyer Jonathan Kramer told the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors conference in Washington Thursday. The so-called “shot clock” limited the time communities could spend reviewing mobile tower applications. “It just has not, in my opinion, served the public or the carriers,” he said. Kramer was responding to angry questions from NATOA attendees who wanted to know why, if communities had allegedly been stalling on mobile companies’ applications, there had been no further litigation since the shot clock idea was approved last year.

A House deal on net neutrality suffered a major setback Wednesday when House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, opposed a legislative effort by Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman had been waiting for Republicans to sign off on his draft bill and didn’t introduce anything before our deadline. The House planned to adjourn Wednesday night, unless the Senate hadn’t wrapped up the continuing spending resolution, and it won’t return until after the November elections, a House leadership aide said. Committee members Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told us they don’t expect net neutrality action during the lame-duck session.

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling declared victory Wednesday in the agency’s effort to manage the huge number of applications for grants that came in to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and get the final awards out ahead of Thursday’s deadline. Strickling told us he regretted there wasn’t more money available for public safety networks but said the projects approved should help the government gather data for a national network. He said his agency will soon recommend the spectrum band to pair with the AWS-3 band for wireless broadband. Strickling was the keynoter at the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors annual meeting.

Requiring FM chips in cellphones is a “great idea,” Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., told the NAB radio show Wednesday. The retiring member of the House Commerce Committee also reemphasized his support for a commercial auction of the D-block and opposition to legislation imposing performance royalties on broadcasters. Earlier, departing Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said he doubted Congress would take up either the DISCLOSE Act or performance royalty legislation any time soon.