Industry and FCC attention has turned to the AllVid rulemaking for all pay-TV providers’ services to be accessible from consumer electronics devices, now that commissioners have approved an order making fixes in the interval until the gateway devices become available (CD Oct 15 p4). A rulemaking that could be voted on this year now becomes the focus of lobbying at the FCC concerning video devices, agency and industry officials said. No AllVid item is ready for a commission vote, and it’s unclear when such a rulemaking notice will circulate, commission officials said.

Media companies are working on new applications for Web browsers and other platforms as the popularity of mobile “apps” is spreading online and to the TV, Internet industry executives said. Some see the forthcoming Web application stores such as Google’s Chrome Web Store as a way to find more revenue from their online content, they said. “Publishers will be very keen to get involved in this,” said Alex Vlasto, vice president of marketing at Alot.com, which is developing a Web browser app bar, similar to a toolbar. “It will simply be another channel to distribute their content, and importantly a channel where … they can have an opportunity to charge for content,” he said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants more subscriber notice of contractual disputes between TV stations and subscription-video providers, he said as Cablevision and News Corp. continued to negotiate carriage rights for Fox’s TV stations set to expire Friday night. Cablevision said it would submit to binding arbitration, but Fox declined. Genachowski, Chief Bill Lake and others in the Media Bureau and the commissioners’ offices have been kept informed about the talks by Cablevision and Fox, agency officials said. They said it’s unclear whether the sides will reach a new deal before carriage of several New York and Philadelphia area stations is cut off. Talks remain stalled, company officials indicated.

Fiber use for content distribution by programmers and broadcast networks will continue to increase, executives said in a Satcon panel discussion. Satellite companies will need to embrace the technology instead of trying to fight it off, they said. The consolidation of cable headends is contributing to increased reliance on fiber, they said. Expect “fiber to play a role in distribution,” said Brent Stranathan, CBS vice president of broadcast distribution. While satellite distribution has been good, “when you look at what fiber has done, networks would be doing a disfavor if they didn’t look at that,” he said.

The FCC unanimously approved a wireless “bill shock” rulemaking notice Thursday. But Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker questioned how large a problem bill shock is and the wisdom of imposing additional regulations on carriers. The commission’s three Democrats, led by Chairman Julius Genachowski, were more enthusiastic, signaling carriers that additional regulation is likely.

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.