FCC review of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile deal (CD Bulletin March 21) could take at least a year because the commission will review not only the deal’s impact on the national market but will go through individual markets around the country to assess the costs and benefits of the merger, an agency official said Monday. The commission is already trying to build up staff in the Wireless Bureau for the review, the official said. One name that has already surfaced is FCC economist Susan Singer, who had been detailed to the Office of Strategic Planning and may well be recalled to the Wireless Bureau to lead its review, the official said.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Regardless of what deals may be struck that reconfigure the wireless industry, carriers will need more spectrum, said Rick Kaplan, senior advisor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Kaplan declined to comment on AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile. (See separate story in this issue). The deal soon will be pending before commissioners. Genachowski did not release a statement on the merger after it was announced Sunday, but is slated to keynote at CTIA Tuesday.

The FCC went on the defensive Wednesday, saying it had implemented 80 percent of the National Broadband Plan, countering media reports that more than half of the plan’s recommendations were lingering in the agency’s backlog. Of the action items released in April, 80 percent have been completed, a commission spokesman said Wednesday. The broadband plan’s first anniversary is Thursday. The plan carried 218 recommendations with it, but only about half involved the FCC’s jurisdiction, the spokesman said. Another quarter involved Congress and the rest went to state and local regulators, the spokesman said.

The FCC’s order reducing high-cost Universal Service Fund support to competitive eligible telecommunications carriers violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the telcos’ Fifth Amendment protection against illegal takings, 13 of the CETCs said in a petition released Friday. In language that suggests the carriers are considering seeking an injunction, the telcos said they “are each adversely affected” by the Wireline Bureau’s “decision to retroactively modify the cap level.” The petition’s signers were AST Telecom, Bluegrass Cellular, Cellular South Licenses, Union Telephone, Corr Wireless, East Kentucky Networks, Illinois Valley Cellular, Cellular One, Commnet Wireless, MTPCS, PR Wireless, Georgia RSA #8 Partnership and Allied Wireless.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is undaunted by a likely presidential veto of any bill to overturn FCC net neutrality rules, he said in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators. The House Communications Subcommittee chairman isn’t worried about the lack of industry support either, he said. Walden outlined plans to aggressively pursue other communications issues once net neutrality is resolved.

National Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin said the speech by his old boss, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, announcing the plan was effective in winning short-term publicity but “muddied the waters for the universal service debate” because it focused on speed goals.

Sprint Nextel has lost its effort to stay an Iowa order requiring payment of intrastate access of interconnected VoIP. That may be the beginning of a series of battles over VoIP as the FCC moves ahead with its Universal Service Fund revamp, said state and industry officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently ruled that by refusing to pay access charges for VoIP traffic, Sprint Virginia is in violation of 19 interconnection agreements with CenturyLink business units.

Even historically nonpartisan telecom issues have become political in an increasingly divided Congress, and it’s become increasingly difficult to pass substantive legislation, former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said in an interview Thursday with Communications Daily. The Commerce Committee alum urged the FCC to complete what Congress couldn’t: an overhaul of the Universal Service Fund. Dorgan blamed radio talk show hosts for politicizing the net neutrality debate, but he predicted demise for Republicans’ effort to overturn the FCC’s December order using the Congressional Review Act.

The FCC Thursday unanimously approved three items aimed at improving communications and radio service on tribal lands. Commissioners also heard testimony from tribal leaders about the state of communications in Indian country. The meeting came as the White House held a follow up meeting on last year’s Tribal Nations Summit.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission should rule it has authority to require wireless carriers and VoIP providers to contribute to a proposed Universal Service Fund, AT&T North Carolina, the RLEC Coalition and the North Carolina Telephone Membership Corporations said. The commission has the authority to mandate such contributions and that “any fund that exempts these technologies will create a mechanism that is not technologically and competitively neutral and will impose a disproportionate burden on certain consumers, which is greater than necessary,” they said in a joint filing. The decision regarding whether certain parties can be legally required to participate in a USF that’s related to a comprehensive intrastate access revamp isn’t ripe for a decision and “must not be addressed at this time,” said the North Carolina Cable Telecom Association (NCCTA). Should the commission decide that the matter is “ripe,” NCCTA asked the commission to issue an order concluding that the agency doesn’t have the legal authority to establish a “revenue recovery” fund as commended by the Movants, the group said. Verizon agreed, saying “not only is this issue not ripe for review, but the requested ruling would violate North Carolina law, which exempts these categories of services from Commission regulation.” Even if the issue were ripe for decision, the commission doesn’t have the authority to require wireless carriers, VoIP providers and interexchange carriers to pay into a universal service fund, Verizon said. The state’s General Assembly has exempted wireless, VoIP and interexchange services from commission jurisdiction, the telco said. The commission initiated the proceeding in 2009 when Sprint Nextel petitioned to reduce intrastate access rates of ILECs, requesting that the commission reduce ILECs’ access rates to cost, or alternatively, to parity with the ILECs’ corresponding interstate access rates. Commission staff said in a filing that the issue of whether the commission has the authority to compel wireless carriers, interconnected VoIP providers, and IXCs to contribute to a state USF is ripe for adjudication. A decision by the commission on the issue would determine the parties to any further proceeding and frame and narrow the issues, the staff said.