The Senate passed legislation reauthorizing satellite TV providers’ distant signal licenses for five years Wednesday. It’s a significant step for what has proven to be a difficult piece of legislation to complete. The Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) was an amendment to a larger jobs bill (HR-4213), which passed 62-36. The bill will next move to the House, where leadership will decide to vote on the bill as-is, or make changes with the Senate through a conference, industry and Senate officials said.

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."

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.

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).

A “fundamental” recommendation of the National Broadband Plan will be creation of “partnerships” between the government and the private and nonprofit sectors to bring down the cost of computers and monthly broadband service for the poor and to provide free training and applications to help people access education and employment information online, said Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan Tuesday at the Digital Inclusion Summit, co-hosted by the FCC. “The government can’t do it alone,” Donovan said. Tuesday’s summit included four of the five FCC commissioners and members of Congress. It came a week before formal unveiling of the National Broadband Plan by the FCC. The Tuesday meeting was also hosted by the Knight Foundation.

Antitrust and public interest review of Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal is gaining momentum. The Justice Department last week asked the companies for more information on their deal while the FCC Media Bureau is close to seeking public comment on it, government and industry officials said.

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.