Opposition to the sale of non-commercial station WMFE-TV Orlando isn’t likely to have an effect on the FCC’s approval of the deal, broadcast lawyers said in interviews. The filings, mainly from the general public, oppose selling the station to religious broadcaster Daystar. The FCC won’t involve itself in choosing one form of programming over another, the lawyers said.

The FCC is expected to let Sirius XM’s merger condition price cap expire, industry executives said. The commission is still reviewing its options, said an agency official. The condition caps the satellite radio company’s price at $12.95 per month, and is set to expire July 28. The FCC is looking at the cap to determine if it should be allowed to expire. The agency approved XM’s purchase by Sirius with conditions including the price cap in 2008.

FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker faces potential conflicts of interest, even if she is recusing herself from any proceeding involving her future employer Comcast (CD May 12 p1), critics of agency procedures and those seeking more government transparency said in interviews Thursday. Baker surprised many by saying Wednesday she'd leave the FCC. She’s restricted in what she can do until she departs June 3 to lobby for Comcast’s NBCUniversal in Washington, and other restrictions will take effect after she starts work for the cable and broadcast programmer. Baker’s office and representatives of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski aren’t saying what, if any, proceedings she has sat out of since she began talks for the job last month.

LightSquared is on track to address GPS interference issues within the timeframe laid out by the FCC, CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said Thursday. Other speakers at a New America Foundation discussion of satellite spectrum and wireless competition said the 59 MHz of spectrum LightSquared plans to make available will be significant for the wireless market.

The FCC unanimously (4-0) approved a rulemaking notice during its open meeting Thursday that asks whether and how the commission should apply 911 outage reporting rules to voice over Internet protocol and broadband networks. Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell approved the rulemaking, but concurred, “narrowly,” on the section that asks whether the FCC has the power to mandate data collection. “All Americans rightly expect their calls to go through,” he said, but “we do not have Congress’s authority to act as suggested.”

The White House released its cybersecurity plan Thursday, and urged lawmakers to fortify the nation’s cybersecurity, critical infrastructure and federal networks. Notably absent from the proposal was any “kill switch” authority for the president to shut down Internet traffic during a cyberattack. Lawmakers applauded the White House move, but some said it was long overdue and made clear they wanted changes or provisions added from their own legislation. The plan was more than two years in development.

An Augusta, Ga., Fox affiliate’s request to keep the DTV channel it’s using was opposed by the CTIA, on the grounds that staying on channel 51 goes against the wireless association’s petition for the FCC to try to discourage use of that slot (CD April 29 p2). The request by WFXG to permanently substitute that channel for 31, assigned by the commission for its use after the 2009 DTV transition, was backed by another station there. WRDW’s new request to vacate the VHF band, where its viewers have had trouble getting the signal, to move to 31 from 12 is contingent on WFXG’s petition being granted. Filings were posted Wednesday to rulemaking 11624.

The New York City Police Department urged the FCC to adopt rules that allow multiple regional public networks to develop in the 700 MHz band, in reply comments on a Jan. 25 rulemaking by the commission. The Utilities Telecom Council said there is broad support to expanding the definition of public safety under the Communications Act to include utilities and other critical infrastructure industries (CII).

The House Communications Subcommittee is eying a wide array of FCC reforms, according to a majority staff memo that circulated among lobbyists this week. The subcommittee has a hearing Friday morning. All five commissioners were scheduled to testify. A subcommittee spokeswoman told us that departing Commissioner Meredith Baker has cancelled. Some of the GOP proposals would limit the FCC’s ability to make new regulations, while others are said to be designed to speed up and make more transparent FCC rulemaking. In a separate memo, subcommittee Democrats warned that some proposals could be problematic.

The GAO slammed NTIA’s spectrum planning and management of federal spectrum as lacking “governmentwide focus and accountability.” In a report released Thursday, the GAO urged NTIA to develop an updated strategic plan for management of federal spectrum. “Lacking an overall strategic vision, NTIA cannot ensure that spectrum is being used efficiently by federal agencies,” it said. “The GAO report underlines the urgency for Congress to focus immediately on spectrum policy,” said House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif.