The wait for rules on aeronautical mobile satellite services (AMSS) hasn’t particularly hurt the in-flight satellite broadband industry, executives said. But the FCC proceeding, which began in 2005, deserves to be wrapped up to give regulatory certainty for such services, they said. The International Bureau is largely finished writing the rules, said an executive.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recommended Tuesday that AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile be set for hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). Genachowski recommended in a second order that the FCC approve with conditions AT&T’s purchase of 700 MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. He circulated the orders Tuesday morning — three weeks before the Dec. 13 FCC meeting — though they won’t necessarily be subject to a public vote by commissioners at the meeting, an FCC official said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski did not schedule a vote on broadband outage reporting requirements for the Dec. 13 meeting agenda, according to an announcement by the FCC late Tuesday. Instead of adopting mandatory outage reporting based on quality-of-service metrics (CD Nov 8 p1), the commission is now working on “voluntary” reporting requirements in the case of “hard down” broadband outages, according to telecom officials and an ex parte filing by AT&T. It’s unlikely that any order will be on the January agenda, either, telecom officials told us. FCC spokesman Neil Grace declined comment.

Pyramid Communications said in a filing at the agency that the FCC should begin a rulemaking on the use of 170-172 MHz spectrum, and possibly other bands, for vehicular repeater systems (VRS). VRS units, the size of a large textbook, have long been used by police, firefighters and other first responders to extend the reach of first responder radios inside buildings. But Pyramid, a VRS manufacturer, said there’s not enough spectrum available in many areas. In October, the Public Safety Bureau asked for general comments after Pyramid filed a petition for rulemaking.

Career FCC staffers are gearing up work toward a draft order to make TV station and subscription-video shows be captioned when they're transmitted using Internet Protocol. They're facing a Jan. 12 deadline to finish the rules on IP captioning. The forthcoming order has been the subject of debate among various industry stakeholders. Issues include whether video programming distributors (VPD) or video programming originators (VPO) should be responsible for captions, whether there should be technical standards, and the threshold for device size to require them to display IP captions, according to industry executives and agency officials.

The FCC will take on the contribution side of Universal Service Fund reform early next year, with an order likely by mid-year, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell predicted Monday during a question and answer session at an Federal Communications Bar Association lunch. McDowell said he has a commitment from Chairman Julius Genachowski to move forward quickly following the commission’s approval last month of an order reforming the distribution side of the USF (CD Oct 28 p1). “The chairman and I have talked,” he said. “Certainly, we have to do something."

Backed by a coalition of groups that includes the AARP, an alternate telecom deregulation bill in New Jersey was introduced Monday during the state legislature’s lame duck session. AARP claimed the bill (S-3062) offers better consumer protection than the Verizon-backed deregulation bill (S-2664) that stalled earlier this year. Calling the alternate bill “a giant leap backwards,” Verizon said it continued its communications with the legislature and the governor’s staff to address issues raised by critics of the earlier bill.

The Rural Cellular Association panned the FCC universal service overhaul (CD Nov 19 Bulletin). “I appreciate the FCC’s work to modernize USF, but unfortunately the Order confirms our previous concerns that wireless services are significantly underfunded,” RCA President Steve Berry said. “Adequately funding wireless services would have encouraged competitive carriers to participate -- needless to say, this was a missed opportunity for the FCC to promote industry competition and the build-out of advanced high-speed mobile services."

The extent TV stations can share newsrooms and other functions without being considered commonly owned is at play in the FCC’s media ownership review. Some at the FCC are considering whether to seek changes to a draft notice of proposed rulemaking on the quadrennial review that would probe further into shared services agreements, local marketing agreements and other deals that let separately owned stations in the same market share some operations. SSAs and LMAs aren’t attributable for ownership reasons, so two Big Four broadcast network affiliates can share operations without running afoul of local ownership limits. That’s all according to agency and industry officials.

Congress could still find a way to pass spectrum legislation this year without the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, telecom industry lobbyists said. The super committee’s co-chairs said late Monday that the panel had failed to reach a deal. The House and Senate have signaled that they hope to push spectrum auction legislation forward in December through regular order or by attaching it to a must-pass vehicle like an omnibus appropriations bill. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he'll press to get spectrum legislation passed. “Winning ideas like S.911 cannot keep falling victim to this partisan stubbornness,” he said Monday evening. “I will continue to pursue all avenues to get S.911 enacted this year."