OMAHA, Neb. -- The FCC shouldn’t fall for the “misperception” that satellite can’t provide effective voice and broadband service, WildBlue Vice President Lisa Scalpone said late Wednesday at a commission workshop on changing the Universal Service Fund to pay for Internet service. “We don’t want to be foreclosed,” she told federal and state regulators, including FCC members Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn. ViaSat, WildBlue’s parent, is scheduled to launch ViaSat-1 in July. Scalpone said that once that satellite is operational, WildBlue will go from download speeds of 2 Mbps to 12 Mbps. “At least let satellite perform in pilot programs,” she said. “We'll have the programs up and running."

OMAHA, Neb. -- Industry and public interest advocates have yet to devise a comprehensive proposal addressing all the problems of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a commission roundtable. “We want to see more from stakeholders in this program, and we want to see it quickly.” The chairman led a public forum on the pending overhaul late Wednesday at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to close a day-long set of discussions. He reiterated the four corners of his reform program: Moving to a broadband fund and phasing down intercarrier comp rates, (including intrastate revenues); “controlling costs and constraining the size of the fund;” “demanding accountability;” and “market-driven and incentive-based policies to maximize the impact of scarce program resources.”

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Comcast’s top lawyer hopes people will take a “deep breath” about Meredith Baker’s hiring by the cable operator, after the FCC member’s decision last week to leave the agency resulted in what he called unsubstantiated innuendo. Executive Vice President David Cohen spent much of the Q-and-A after a Wednesday speech to industry executives, lobbyists and FCC staffers fielding questions about Baker. He said he hopes it will be the last word on the topic (CD May 18 p1), as the company, fresh off its purchase of control in NBCUniversal, seeks to make broadband more affordable for the poor, part of a commitment it made to the commission in the deal.

A wireless industry coalition warned that the FCC could be on the wrong track as it moves forward on its Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) of the Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) process. CTIA, NAB, PCIA and the National Association of Tower Erectors said the FCC appears to being giving too much weight to a study by Travis Longcore of the Urban Wildlands Group in Los Angeles and other scientists who want quick action imposing new rules for tower construction.

Panelists at an FCBA lunch Wednesday debated states’ role in determining Lifeline eligibility as the FCC seeks to revamp the program. They agreed that a database should be created to improve efficiency of the program, differing on how the process should be conducted.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Using application programming interfaces to achieve the goals laid out in the FCC’s AllVid notice of inquiry won’t work, said Robin Wilson, vice president at Nagravision. Such an API structure would still lock in service providers to the CableCARD and the proprietary security systems of Motorola and Cisco, he said Wednesday. “Without a license or an onerous sublicense from one of those companies, that API is useless,” he said during a panel discussion at the TV of Tomorrow conference. “The APIs for security are cryptographically locked into one of two systems.” APIs are also problematic because so many of them will be needed to make sure all devices work with every service provider, he said.

DALLAS -- The volume of U.S. mobile traffic will explode by a factor of 8-10 by 2015, creating an environment “characterized by chaos,” AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson said in a TIA convention keynote. He said the developments will depend on “getting regulatory and tax policy right,” especially providing additional spectrum for wireless. “We are on the cusp of something very different” in telecom, Stephenson said. He cited especially the broad deployment of LTE combined with use of the cloud. “Think about the delivery of high definition video to a wide range of devices” and the impact that will have on network demand, he said.

OMAHA -- The FCC should take an active role in creating and enforcing broadband guidelines in its Universal Service Fund reform, T-Mobile Corporate Counsel Teri Ohta said at an FCC workshop Wednesday. “We do feel that the federal government ultimately has the responsibility to make sure those funds are distributed properly.” T-Mobile is worried that giving states authority over broadband regulations will lead to a confusing patchwork of regulations that will make it difficult to deploy broadband, Ohta said.

Public safety officials should be very concerned about potential interference to their communications systems if LightSquared is authorized to launch its broadband service in the L-band, Jim Kirkland, general counsel of positioning vendor Trimble Navigation Limited, told a National Public Safety Telecom Council meeting Tuesday. Kirkland questioned whether the GPS interference tests under way at the behest of the FCC will provide any certainty interference isn’t a major concern.