The wireless prepaid price war is extending to the 13-19 million older Americans who either don’t currently own a cellphone or no longer use one, said officials with Alliance for Generational Equity (AGE) in a press briefing Tuesday. Seniors can now purchase a senior-friendly prepaid phone for less than $15 and get service starting at $7 a month, they said, citing a study by AGE’s Senior Advocate Health & Safety Project.

A continuing resolution approved Tuesday by the Senate includes broadband oversight money sought by the NTIA. It also prevents a spike in Universal Service Fund contributions by extending an exemption of the USF from a Civil War-era law. The resolution keeps the government running until March 4. The drama over broadband funding and the last-minute, temporary nature of the fix raised concerns about whether the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program can work long term.

U.K. Business Secretary Vincent Cable was removed from his role as overseer of media and telecom policy after he was caught by reporters saying he had declared war on News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. Cable recently initiated Ofcom’s review of the company’s proposed purchase of the rest of British Sky Broadcasting it doesn’t already own. Jeremy Hunt, a conservative secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, will take over for Cable in handling media and telecom policy, though Prime Minister David Cameron will keep Cable on as business secretary. Also Tuesday, the European Commission gave its blessing to News Corp.-BSkyB, saying it wouldn’t harm competition.

The FCC’s net neutrality order under Title I leaves room for argument on states’ authority over broadband services, experts said in interviews. Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to get the votes needed to approve his net neutrality proposal Tuesday. (See separate story in this issue.)

Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn won’t stand in the way of FCC rules on net neutrality proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski, the two Democratic commissioners said Monday. Copps said he'll concur with the order at Tuesday’s commission meeting. Clyburn said she'll vote to approve the rules in part and concur in part. The full order won’t be published for several days, but the commission will release excerpts along with the text of the rules, a senior FCC official said Monday.

Senate passage of the House version of the Local Community Radio Act Saturday puts implementation in the hands of the FCC, said agency officials and advocates for full-power stations and the low-power ones targeted by the legislation. The bill means the commission must develop a sensible structure to strike a balance between protecting full-power FM stations from interference and creating opportunities for LPFM stations, low- and full-power station advocates said.

AT&T agreed to buy lower 700 MHz D and E block spectrum from Qualcomm for $1.93 billion, $0.87 per MHz/pop. Small carriers were quick to criticize the deal. Qualcomm said that with the sale, it will shutter its FLO TV service in March. The company had been considering selling the mobile DTV service (CD July 23 p15) .

The Mexican government will pay Boeing $1.31 billion to deliver an “end-to-end satellite communications system,” the company said Monday. The delivery consists of three satellites: One fixed satellite services satellite and two mobile satellite services satellite. Boeing said it will contract out construction of the FSS satellite to Orbital Sciences. The system will also include two ground sites, associated network operations systems and user terminals, said Boeing. The contract is Boeing’s second $1 billion, three-satellite contract within five months, after a major deal with Inmarsat (CD Aug 9 p9).

The Universal Service Administrative Co. overestimated “improper” payments for high-cost universal service by almost 700 percent, it acknowledged in a follow-up audit. A November 2008 report by the FCC’s inspector general found about $472 million in improper payments. The actual amount was $54.5 million, USAC said.

Career FCC staff review of Comcast’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal appears to be moving closer to an end (CD Dec 14 p3), so that an initial draft order on the multibillion dollar deal can circulate, said commission and industry officials. The order hadn’t circulated as of midday Monday, agency said. The order may circulate soon, perhaps this week, though timing isn’t certain, commission and industry officials said. A spokeswoman for the Media Bureau, whose staff is reviewing the deal, declined to comment.