A wide array of subscription-video companies will seek changes in how the FCC handles disputes that the providers have with broadcasters, industry executives said. Cable operators, DBS providers and at least one major telco will file a petition for rulemaking this week asking for binding arbitration in carriage disputes, they said. Cablevision subscribers lost Disney’s WABC-TV New York for 20 hours Sunday before service was restored. Broadcast and cable executives expect additional disputes, though most deals are successfully negotiated (CD March 9 p2).

CTIA urged the FCC to act promptly on its 2007 petition for declaratory ruling and affirm that a FCC license, or express consent from a licensee, is required to operate a signal booster and also affirm that the sale and marketing of these devices to unauthorized parties is illegal, in reply comments. But several booster manufacturers said carrier complaints are overblown and wireless subscribers clearly want to use boosters to improve wireless coverage.

Cisco publicized Tuesday its next Internet backbone router. The company described its coming CRS-3 as having enormous capacity and laying the foundation for the future of the Internet with combinations of video, cloud computing, collaboration and mobile use. With the National Broadband Plan due out in a week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski issued a written statement saying new “technologies like Cisco’s and investments by broadband providers are important steps” toward his “goal of connecting every community to a 1 GB network, through anchor institutions like schools and libraries."

GENEVA - Civil aviation interests are pressing for more influence in coordinating mobile satellite networks that carry certain aeronautical telecom traffic, sources said. Mobile satellite interests and some countries oppose a new mechanism, while other countries appear to support it, a satellite executive said.

Support is growing in Congress to pass legislation to ban texting while driving. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is said to be planning a bill to that effect, possibly to be released Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the effort. The committee has rescheduled a hearing that was planned Wednesday on the matter to Oct. 28, the committee said Tuesday. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski are scheduled to testify.