NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling was grilled by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., over allegations that broadband grants pay for expensive, unnecessary telecom equipment for small libraries and schools in West Virginia. Walden told a subcommittee hearing Wednesday that he has two primary concerns with the Rural Utilities Service programs: “They appear to fund the same aims as the Universal Service Fund … and I am concerned about [their] performance.” Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and full Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., hailed NTIA’s decision to partially suspend seven public safety grants following the creation of FirstNet.

LTE is becoming significantly more important as prepaid carriers like MetroPCS saw growth slow in Q1 due to competition and economic uncertainty, executives said. MetroPCS’s Q1 profit of $21 million was a 63 percent year-over-year decline, while another prepaid carrier, Leap, reported a widened Q1 loss of $98.4 million. Meanwhile, MetroPCS said it is interested in spectrum that could potentially be divested as part of the regulatory approval of the Verizon/cable deal.

Sprint Nextel reported a Q1 net loss of $863 million, up from a loss of $439 million in the year-ago period. Despite subscriber growth on the Sprint network, which includes CDMA, WiMAX and LTE, the carrier lost 455,000 postpaid customers on a net basis on its Nextel network iDEN from Q4, leading to a total postpaid subscriber loss of 192,000. The carrier’s prepaid brands, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, will gain access to WiMAX in Q2, executives said during an earnings call Wednesday.

Sprint Nextel won’t introduce any new WiMAX 4G smartphones this year as it shifts focus to LTE, the deployment of which will ramp up quickly after the initial six markets launch mid-year, Development Director Ryan Sullivan told us following a New York news conference for HTC’s new Evo 4G LTE model. Sprint’s Network Vision 4G LTE network, expected to be nationwide with 38,000 cell sites by late 2013, will debut in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Kansas City, Mo. In each of the markets, Sprint will install new multi-mode base stations supplied by Alcatel, Harris and Samsung. Field testing is being conducted in the first six markets consisting of internal Sprint trials and those with third-party companies, Sullivan said. The first multi-mode base station went on line in December.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell is questioning whether the time frame for a voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum laid out by a top FCC official last week is realistic. Amy Levine, a senior aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski, predicted an auction would occur in the next 18-24 months (CD March 7 p3). McDowell suspects it could take at least twice as long, given the complexities involved.

Verizon Wireless and cable companies shot back at critics of Verizon’s proposed buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox in a reply filed at the FCC. The companies said that by their calculations, in 98 percent of the counties covered the combinations will not push Verizon Wireless above the FCC’s spectrum screen, or the level at which the FCC would consider divestitures as part of any order approving the deals. Critics led by T-Mobile, small carriers, and public interest groups, took aim at the transaction last month, in various petitions to deny (CD Feb 23 p1). SpectrumCo is a joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

CTIA’s top priority is getting Congress to pass spectrum legislation, and the association thinks it’s not a question of if, but when a bill will be approved, CTIA President Steve Largent said during a press conference Wednesday. CTIA officials also said Universal Service Fund reform remains a significant issue for wireless carriers, with the FCC poised to take up an order at its Oct. 27 meeting. Largent said he’s confident the 1755-1780 MHz band will be reallocated for wireless broadband.

A fresh House bill to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety has the support of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., who serves on the Appropriations Committees, on Tuesday introduced the Help Emergency Responders Operate Emergency Systems (HEROES) Act. Using proceeds from spectrum auctions, the bill would provide $5.5 billion for construction, maintenance and operation of the national public safety network and $400 million to set up a grant program to help first responders upgrade their radios to comply with the FCC’s 2004 narrowband mandate.

Analog broadcast TV in the U.S. will be a thing of the past in late 2015 if the FCC succeeds in setting a low-power station digital deadline akin to the full-power DTV switch two years ago, commission officials said. They said a draft order would require all remaining low-power stations that haven’t already made the digital switch to do so by September 2015. That’s three years later than the commission last proposed (CD Sept 21 p2).

Sprint Nextel added Motorola to its roster of Google Android 4G smartphone suppliers, introducing the Photon as it continues to build its base of WiMAX-compatible products. Sprint’s lineup of 4G products now totals nearly 25 models including a half-dozen Android-based smartphones as well as modems and other devices. Also on the horizon is HTC’s 4G-based View tablet that is scheduled to launch June 24, featuring a seven-inch LCD with 1,024x600 resolution and a “Scribe” technology that allows user to take notes in their own handwriting with a stylus pen. Sprint also carries Samsung and LG Electronics 4G smartphones.