Atlantic City, N.J., will get a new DTV station (CD Feb 5 p12) because of an FCC ruling issued Wednesday. Channel 4 is being added to the Post-Transition Table of DTV Allotments, a Media Bureau order said. This is the first time the commission has authorized a new TV station in at least several years, said broadcast lawyers and an FCC official. Before last year’s analog cutoff, the commission had put a freeze on accepting applications for new DTV stations, they said.

The FCC National Broadband Plan recognizes the value of mobile satellite services (MSS) but calls out the ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) license holders for failing to deploy a functional service, said Iridium CEO Matt Desch Wednesday on a panel at the Satellite 2010 conference. Significant investment has been made in ATC, but nobody has made money from the terrestrial side, he said. Globalstar Chairman Jay Monroe disagreed, citing revenue that its ATC license brings in through an agreement with a wireless broadband provider, Open Range. Desch said he’s glad some companies will be able to recoup some of their investments in ATC while raising the value of Iridium’s spectrum: “This is about repurposing spectrum.” Monroe said the commission is right to try to make spectrum use as efficient as possible.

The National Broadband Plan proposes significant changes in the FCC’s rural health-care program, Mohit Kaushal, the commission’s digital health care director, said on a panel Wednesday held by the Health IT Now Coalition.

NASHVILLE -- The release of the National Broadband Plan signifies how “essential telecommunications is to our lives,” Jonathan Adelstein, the Rural Utilities Service administrator said in a CompTel keynote. “Broadband offers probably the greatest potential to advance our social and economic welfare since the rise of electricity. It’s that critical that everybody have it.” He credited the FCC and the White House with strong efforts toward broadband expansion. “It’s great to be part of an administration which has put broadband expansion at the very top of its agenda,” Adelstein said.

Mediacom and Time Warner Cable have decided to phase out Sprint’s wholesale VoIP services and take their IP voice service operations in-house, the companies said. Cost is the primary reason that cable operators plan their own IP voice operations, companies and analysts said.

The current FCC is more active in finding solutions to broadband issues than its predecessor under Chairman Kevin Martin, telco officials said on a CompTel panel. “I think there has been a change in tune with respect to competition since the Martin administration,” said Tony Hansel, Covad assistant general counsel. Martin said “you have to choose between competition and investment,” and current Chairman Julius Genachowski “has already acknowledged that’s a false choice.” Stephen Crawford, Alpheus senior vice president, said, “It is exciting that they realized they've got to have those long-term goals, but at the same time the FCC is saying tell us what we can do right now."

Maine regulators will spend three months reviewing a petition by FairPoint Communications to accept the company’s bankruptcy reorganization plan and to grant it relief from performance requirements. FairPoint petitioned March 5 for commission approval of its plan and to revise a 2008 order granting it the right to acquire Verizon’s phone network, the commission said.

The FCC approved Tuesday by a unanimous vote a brief statement of principles on broadband. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker were sharply critical of some aspects of the plan itself, which was not put up for a vote before being submitted to Congress. Both found lots to like in the plan but said it must not be used as a lever for imposing more regulation. Agency officials said the FCC will offer a list in coming days of more than 40 rulemakings that will be begun as a follow-up to the plan.

Some members of Congress may be wary of spending additional money on broadband, said Republican aides at a Broadband Breakfast event Tuesday morning. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan asks Congress for $16 billion for a national public-safety network and $9 billion for a new Universal Service Fund emphasizing high-speed access. Aides from both parties called the plan a step toward broadband for all.

Utilities should be allowed to use the public safety wireless broadband network in the 700 MHz band to promote grid reliability and efficiency and Congress must consider amending the Communications Act to make it possible, the FCC said in a National Broadband Plan released Tuesday. The commission devoted an entire section to the “important” role broadband and advanced communications would play in achieving energy independence and efficiency.