FairPoint Communications’ proposed Chapter 11 reorganization and a regulatory settlement with the state of New Hampshire got approval last week from New Hampshire’s Public Utilities Commission. The approval, while good news for FairPoint, couldn’t prevent postponement of a bankruptcy court hearing which the company hoped would result in the setting of a date for it to emerge from Chapter 11, a company spokesman said. For that to occur, all three of the affected New England states must approve the company’s reorganization plan and regulatory settlements tailored to each. Maine had previously accepted the company’s proposal. Last month the Vermont Public Service Board rejected FairPoint’s proposed settlement (CD June 30 p5).

The digital transition prompted many TV stations to jump ship from the formerly desirable VHF channels, and that reordering should affect the regulatory fee structure, commenters told the FCC. The commission agreed the changes will affect how much stations must pay and adjusted its assessment method, though not in the wholesale fashion some commenters wanted. The change is one of the issues noted in the commission’s report on assessment and collection of regulatory fees for 2010, released Friday. The commission said it must collect $335,794,000 in regulatory fees for 2010, down from $341,875,000 in 2009. The fees are meant to cover the cost of the commission’s enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information and international activities. The commission said it used the same assessment methodology it used last year.

U.S. telecom companies’ internal disaster and emergency response operations, preparedness and timely response are critical in recovery efforts in Haiti, companies said on a roundtable at the Department of State Friday. The Haiti earthquake, a major test for emergency response capabilities, underlined the need for better coordination, they said.

Cybersecurity is a legislative priority for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., his spokeswoman said. He and Senate committee chairmen hope to introduce and vote on a comprehensive bill this September, Senate staffers said. Challenges remain, including working out differences between two major bills by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and getting approval from Republicans and the House, said Senate and industry officials. Negotiations over the next three to four weeks will be critical, said an aide.

An impasse over FCC treatment of two types of FM stations whose representatives have been at odds was resolved late Thursday by the groups most active at the commission on the issue. That may resolve a standoff between owners of the two kinds of stations, because others are expected to support the agreement between the Educational Media Foundation, with hundreds of FM translators, and the Prometheus Radio Project, a low-power FM (LPFM) group, communications lawyers said. It may also get the commission to act on whether to cap at 10 the translator applications it will process from any filer in a 2003 window for which several thousands of requests remain pending, they said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate within the next few weeks a long-awaited order on location accuracy rules for wireless, based on proposals by AT&T and Verizon Wireless and incorporating changes sought in by T-Mobile, industry and FCC officials said. Last week, The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) filed a letter at the commission endorsing the tweaks sought in a June 16 letter by T-Mobile to AT&T’s proposal for GSM-based carriers. The Public Safety Bureau has started to brief eighth-floor officials on the order.

CTIA questioned whether the FCC can get complete, accurate data if it moves forward on a proposal to test mobile broadband speeds. AT&T called measuring the speeds a “daunting task” more difficult than testing fixed connections, as the commission plans to do in a study to be run by SamKnows. Verizon Wireless questioned what would be gained if the FCC “involves itself” in performance testing. But Google encouraged the FCC to push forward, saying accurate information is critical to consumers.

The Department of Justice has sent numerous demands for information about Comcast’s planned purchase of control in NBC Universal to companies in various sectors, asking many questions about programming seen on TV and over the Internet and set-top boxes and for several years’ worth of data, industry executives and lawyers said. They said the civil investigative demands (CIDs) appear to have been sent out in several batches, and some responses have recently been submitted to DOJ’s Antitrust Division. That office, with the FCC, is reviewing the multibillion dollar deal (CD July 9 p1) OR (CED June 17 p5) OR (WID May 6 p6). Some recipients said they regard the information demands as excessive because of the detail sought, sometimes down to the ZIP-code level, and the various years covered.

Borrowing money to finance purchases of broadcast assets remains difficult, but some in the industry see a wave of transactions coming. Meanwhile, broadcasters’ secured bank debt has proven popular with investors of all sorts, some of whom may view it as a path to owning broadcast properties, said brokers and others who work on and advise on deals. “There are a lot of people that are trying to buy debt,” said President Frank Kalil of broker Kalil & Co. “If you see a station that’s worth $30 million and it’s got $15 million worth of debt and you can buy that debt for, say, $10 million, that’s a pretty good deal,” he said. “You can do very well on an interest rate of return and perhaps end up with the asset."

House Commerce Committee Republicans criticized the high cost of subsidies under the Universal Service Fund, saying the FCC needs to forget about net neutrality and concentrate on fixing “antiquated voice service subsidies.” That came after the release of information provided to the committee by the commission in response to a June 15 request from Chairman Henry Waxman of California, Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher of Virginia and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns of Florida.