Florida’s oversight of telcos and other utilities would undergo significant change if legislators pass either of two rival bills, officials said. S-1034, by Sen. Mike Fasano, a Republican, would impose tighter controls on ex parte communications. A competing House measure, HB-7209 by GOP Rep. Steve Precourt, would address ex parte communications but also put the regulatory agency through a drastic reorganization that would include putting its staff under the control of the governor’s office. Fasano’s bill was passed March 3 by the Senate 39-1. Precourt’s bill got its final committee approval Wednesday.

The FCC is moving fast on the public safety network and quick actions in areas like interoperability and the emergency communications system are expected, Public Safety Bureau officials said during an FCBA lunch Friday. The agency is also seeking to increase its involvement with cybersecurity and critical infrastructure survivability where it doesn’t have much of a track record, they said.

The FCC Future of Media report shouldn’t be narrowed because of First Amendment restrictions or the commission’s lack of jurisdiction over subjects involved, the head of the effort said. Steve Waldman told skeptical fellow members on a panel Friday organized by the Free State Foundation that he shares concern about free speech. “It’s enough of an issue that you'll be sensitive to it” in putting together the study, he said. Former Republican Commissioner Deborah Tate and ex-Media Bureau Chief Donna Gregg, who worked under Kevin Martin, expressed worries that the project is overstepping the FCC’s authority and may lead to regulation.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz can promise advertisers he won’t regulate behavioral targeting under expanded authority in a House-passed financial bill (CD March 19 p4). But that’s not the same as locking down the wide-ranging commission’s authority in law, former FTC staffers told a Progress & Freedom Foundation event on the Hill Friday. The commission’s most successful rulemakings, from the Do Not Call list to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), came from specific legislative authorizations and that’s a good pattern to retain, they said.

The FCC paused its clock on consideration of Comcast’s agreement to buy control of NBC Universal, because staffers want additional information from the companies. Comment deadlines on the deal are on hold until Comcast, NBC Universal and NBCU’s parent, General Electric, provide the information, said a Media Bureau order released Friday. A report will take up “the claimed benefits from the transaction” and another its effect on video distribution online, said the ruling signed by bureau Chief Bill Lake.

The American Public Communications Council said the FCC should act with care on a seemingly “innocuous” request by Virgin Mobile to be allowed to sign customers up for the federal Lifeline program online or through automated voice response, without talking to a sales representative for the prepaid mobile provider. The District of Columbia’s Public Service Commission expressed similar concerns about risks of Universal Service Fund fraud. Comments on the petition were due at the FCC last week.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in the 14 states where they're legal are increasingly looking for advertising time on TV and radio stations, industry executives and marijuana advocates said in interviews. Some stations worry that accepting the ads could jeopardize their FCC licenses, because the businesses violate federal law. But they don’t want to pass up the revenue, said Greg MacDonald, president of the broadcasters association in Montana, where medical marijuana was recently legalized.

Smaller carriers have fought what appears to be a losing battle against “factors” included in an order eliminating the in-market exception approved as part of the commission’s automatic roaming rules in 2007. The order is a win for carriers other than Verizon Wireless and AT&T, because it removes the exclusion and creates a presumption in favor of roaming, FCC officials said. It does provide a list of nonexclusive factors to be considered by the FCC only when a formal complaint is filed. Some smaller carriers want the factors to be removed because of fears that they could be used by AT&T or Verizon to reject roaming requests. The factors are not the same as those sought by Verizon (CD April 12 p5).

A draft FCC media ownership inquiry asks questions on a wide array of areas including the touchstones of localism, diversity and competition without preliminary conclusions or recommendations, agency officials said. The notice of inquiry asks how to define various terms related to ownership in the congressionally-mandated 2010 review, they said. In so doing, it gives no sense of whether the commission ultimately will move toward tighter or looser rules, agency officials noted.

The U.S. State Department’s focus on keeping the Internet open is much bigger than just Google and China, said Alex Ross, senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, in an interview to be broadcast this weekend. But Ross also said he sees signs that Clinton’s stand in favor of Internet freedom made in a Jan. 21 speech is bearing fruit.