Even though the FCC delayed until April 26 the deadline for filing reply comments on its net neutrality rules, dozens of commenters weighed in last week. The original comment round was one of the most active ever, with the FCC cataloging more than 100,000 comments (CD Jan 19 p1). The early replies were filed mostly by smaller players on both sides of the question of whether the FCC should codify its current rules and expand the rules to cover wireless. The FCC saw similar divisions among grassroots groups in its first comment round in January.

Verizon representatives opposed proposed changes to the FCC’s in-market roaming exclusion in a series of meetings at the FCC. AT&T has also asked the commission not to eliminate the exclusion, in a series of meetings with FCC officials. The FCC is expected to consider an order that would pull back the exclusion at its April 21 meeting.

Several Intelsat customers accused the company of anticompetitive behavior, ranging from refusing to provide capacity to companies directly competing for projects to retaliation and intimidation in FCC filings. Additional filings along the same lines are expected, said an industry executive. The companies making the allegations are Globecomm, Artel and CapRock. Spacenet also said it was concerned with the consolidation of satellite operators in the fixed satellite services (FSS) market.

The FCC Thursday put forward a list of 64 items for FCC action, along with time lines. The list includes most of what was recommended by the National Broadband Plan, released last month. The FCC had a similar list of items to work from when it implemented the 1996 Telecom Act, said a former FCC official. Eighth floor advisers were briefed on the plan Wednesday.

A new agreement on data protection standards for all data transfers between the EU and the U.S. is high on the agenda of the EU Commission, said Despina Vassiliadou from the EU Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security. Data transfers between the U.S. and the EU have led to heated debates in the European parliament for several years. Six different agreements have been negotiated between the EU and the U.S. since 2001 including for SWIFT banking data and the Passenger Name Record data transfers (PNR), which was challenged before the European Court and is being renegotiated, with a draft not well accepted by the EU Parliament.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski may lack a way to avoid reclassifying broadband while still requiring net neutrality, said numerous commission and industry officials not involved in internal deliberations on Comcast v. FCC. Losing the case at the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit on statutory grounds Tuesday (CD April 8 p1) leaves Genachowski with few choices that appear palatable to him, they said. One likely outcome if the FCC doesn’t appeal is deeming broadband a common carrier and not an information service.

Tribune and Schurz will share news content online under a deal to revamp Schurz’s websites using Tribune Interactive’s technology platform, the companies said. Combining content syndication with the technology platform helped convince Schurz of the deal said Kerry Oslund, vice president of digital. “There are lots of technology deals to be had out there, but none of them truly involve content,” he said. “When Tribune brought content to the table, along with technology, it was a differentiator that was just unmatchable."

FCC International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre expects the bureau to move forward on several spectrum related issues in the coming months, she said at the Washington Space Business Roundtable in Washington Thursday. Broadband, as in the rest of the commission, is the focus for the bureau, and two items recommended in the National Broadband Plan will be acted on relatively quickly, she said.

The FCC announced Wednesday the launch of a small business broadband adoption public-private partnership, linking Score, the Small Business Administration’s volunteer arm and “private partners” including AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Best Buy, Constant Contact, HP, Intuit, Skype, and Time Warner Cable.

The FCC is circulating a proposed order in response to a remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an FCC official said. In 2001 and 2005, the court called the commission’s current non-rural high cost support mechanism unlawful, and reversed and remanded the rules. The commissioners will vote on the order by April 16, the official said. The FCC agreed to the deadline after Qwest and three state regulators filed a mandamus petition last year, the FCC official said.