Two top House Commerce Committee Republicans Thursday asked the leaders of the House Commerce Committee to join them in a letter insisting that the FCC put a stop to broadband reclassification before Congress has a chance to investigate more fully. Meanwhile, Reps. John Shimkus, R-Pa., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., members of the Telecom Subcommittee, said in a call with reporters the “vast majority” of members of Congress oppose reclassification.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee’s 3D planning team will meet for the first time next month as part of a process to determine the viability of developing a technical standard for terrestrial 3D broadcasts, ATSC President Mark Richer told us in an interview Thursday. The 3D planning team is one of three the organization has put together, along with those covering next-generation television broadcasting systems and Internet-connected TV technologies.

An employer’s search of text messages made during work hours didn’t violate an employee’s right to privacy because the search was reasonable and limited in scope, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in City of Ontario v. Quon Thursday. But the decision is limited and should not be viewed as a broad pronouncement on privacy rights and electronic communication, it said.

A backlog of more than a million indecency complaints pending at the FCC has the agency considering whether to dispose of some, and others have expired because the time for action elapsed, agency and industry officials said. Staffers such as those at the Office of General Counsel are aware of the need to act to trim the backlog, a commission official said. Another agency official said the regulator could dismiss complaints against non-broadcast shows, such as those on cable, that aren’t subject to indecency rules.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who was recently in New York to meet with analysts and investors, said the message emanating from Wall Street was clear: Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” broadband reclassification proposal is already having a chilling effect on investment. A divided commission is to take up the Genachowski proposal Thursday. McDowell also said in an interview Wednesday that the FCC should complete action on the stalled white spaces proceeding quickly, so devices can be on store shelves in time for the 2011 holiday buying season.

Putting video online has significant costs for old and new companies alike, NBC Universal told the FCC in response to the agency’s wide-ranging discovery request for information on the company’s deal with Comcast. NBC Universal, which Comcast plans to buy control of, discussed some of its strategy to gradually put its cable programming online and discussed some of the events leading up to the start of the Hulu site for its broadcast network and others to put shows on the Web.

Despite opposition from the cellphone industry, San Francisco could soon start requiring cellphone retailers to post notices at point of sale, showing the level of radiation each phone could generate. The city’s Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 Tuesday to give preliminary approval to a “Cell Phone Right-to-Know” ordinance. Final approval is expected next week.

Senate legislation to streamline spectrum relocation for federal users makes minor tweaks to a House bill by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash. The bipartisan Senate bill (S-3490) was introduced late Tuesday by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Both bills aim to establish a more orderly process for transitioning federal users off bands that would be reviewed by a three-member technical panel reporting to the FCC and NTIA.

The FCC left the door open to further action on complaints of a dysfunctional fixed-satellite services (FSS) marketplace, in its report to Congress on the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act. The report referenced Globecomm, Artel, CapRock, and Spacenet’s filings saying the FSS market is flawed and Intelsat uses anticompetitive behavior to win contracts and dictate leasing prices, but the report doesn’t propose any specific action. The ORBIT Act requires the FCC to provide annual reports to the House and Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees on the effect of the privatization of Intelsat and Inmarsat.

An FCC white paper released Tuesday builds a case against giving public safety direct access to the 10 MHz D-block, which the National Broadband Plan proposes be sold in an upcoming auction. Public safety groups have waged a ferocious battle against the NBP’s recommendations.