Worried about the new shape of the Universal Service Fund, rural telcos have said they're going to come up with a USF formula of their own, said a joint ex parte filing by the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and the Western Telecommunications Alliance.

Those lobbying the FCC would get more time to report most conversations in ex parte filings, which would need to have more details than some do now, under a draft order awaiting commissioner approval, agency officials said. They said the order sticks mainly sticks to what was proposed in a rulemaking notice on ex partes approved by commissioners in February. A twist is that the draft contains a rulemaking notice to seek further comment on the disclosure of financial ties to companies, groups and others lobbying the FCC, said agency officials. That subject isn’t now part of the draft order’s provisions, they said.

Verizon Wireless agreed to pay $25 million to the U.S. Treasury after charging more than 15 million Americans an estimated $52.8 million in unwarranted fees for data use, the FCC announced Thursday. The payment, agreed to by Verizon in a consent decree, comes as the commission considers wireless bill-shock rules. Only two companies had previously agreed to pay $10 million or more under a consent decree with the FCC, including in a $24 million 2007 settlement with Univision over company claims that soap operas for children satisfy the commission’s educational programming rules.

Motorola posted a Q3 profit of $109 million, up from $12 million a year earlier. Revenue jumped to $4.9 billion, in its first year-over-year revenue increase since 2006. The company and a few other iDEN players said they remain confident of the technology despite Sprint’s intention to phase out its network that uses it.

The introduction next year of a video gateway device that marries cable video networking technology with Internet Protocol could provide a big boost to Arris’s sales, executives told investors late Wednesday after it reported Q3 financial results. “This is a big thing,” said Bruce McClelland, president of Arris’s broadband communications systems unit. “Every single operator out there is looking at multiple strategies on how to offer more interactive services, more advanced services, and more IP-based services,” he said. The devices have such great potential for growth because Arris has never sold anything like them before, said CEO Bob Stanzione. “This is something that starts from zero and grows from there."

With lack of content cited as a major bump in the road to consumer adoption of 3D TV, the near-term picture doesn’t offer much relief, according to members of “The TV Story” panel at 3D Media Markets in New York Wednesday. CBS, for one, is looking for help in footing the bill, according to Ken Aagaard, executive vice president of operations and technology for CBS Sports, who said the network is moving “slowly and cautiously” toward 3D.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- All signs point to spam and malware becoming in the next few years threats in wireless comparable to what they are in the PC world, an officer of an industry security group led by carriers said Thursday. Economics have held down abuse in wireless, but that is changing rapidly with handsets spreading everywhere and financial transactions over them booming, greatly increasing the value of stealing information from them and hijacking them, said Alex Bobotek, co-vice chairman of the Message Anti-Abuse Working Group.

Cablevision will give subscribers a $10 credit to pay for the cost of viewing World Series games live on MLB.com, since customers lack cable access to the games on the Fox network. Cable subscribers who buy the website’s “Postseason.TV” packages will get the credit, applied within two billing cycles to their monthly bill, Cablevision said late Wednesday. Late the next day, the cable operator asked government entities and non profits to consider retransmitting the World Series online for free. That’s allowed under the Copyright Act of 1976, Cablevision said.

The cable set-top box isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, Comcast executives told investors Wednesday after the company reported Q3 financial results. “I think there will be set-top boxes for a long time,” said Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts. Though certain aspects of the industry are starting to move away from set-top boxes, “the most exciting products we're working on, that allow you to have tremendous functionality right on the TV, do have set-top boxes involved with them,” he said.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The five broadcast network entertainment presidents agreed that the proliferation of delivery platforms presents an opportunity and a risk. Speaking on a Hollywood Radio & TV Society panel, ABC’s Paul Lee said most of the emerging platforms are not yet “big businesses.” But he added: “We have to move into the new world with models that make money. We have to make sure those businesses are strong and give us dual revenue streams. Some of these technologies will survive and some won’t. … A new technology can come in and help us monetize. For example, when satellite came in, it drove up the price for cable."