AT&T executives may have to accept concessions on two key issues of continuing interest to the FCC to win approval for its proposed buy of T-Mobile: Data roaming and wireless net neutrality. AT&T last week started a series of meetings at the agency to discuss likely concessions, and it placed both issues on the table. AT&T is also expected to have to sell off a big chunk of T-Mobile’s subscriber rolls (CD March 25 p1). Data roaming rules, poised for a vote at the April 7 FCC meeting, are already raising concerns with some House Republicans.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski plans to move forward on an ambitious agenda at the commission’s April 7 open meeting, he said Thursday, including a data roaming order that has strong support from many wireless carriers but is opposed by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The agency will also take on pole attachment rules and increased regulation of wireless signal boosters, among other orders scheduled for a vote at the meeting.

The U.S. government wants another extension to decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court a 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals indecency decision against the FCC. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal asked the high court for an additional 30 days, to April 21, to file a certiorari petition in the Fox case. That’s according to Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, who saw a copy of the filing. Requests like this aren’t unusual, and they're “invariably granted,” he said. Katyal previously received a 30-day delay to March 22 regarding an appeal of the 2010 ruling against an FCC policy allowing an indecency finding based on a single, unscripted curse word on broadcast TV.

The FCC should auction the 700 MHz D block if legislation isn’t soon passed about what to do with that spectrum, said Commissioner Robert McDowell, who has long supported selling that spectrum. He said the commission also should act on its own to further the development of white spaces devices, if Congress doesn’t soon pass legislation allowing the agency to hold an incentive auction. Speaking at an event sponsored by Catholic University, McDowell touched on another issue where he’s long been active at the FCC: Getting unlicensed devices on the market that use the spaces between TV channels.

The departure of Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver is expected to have little effect on advocacy by the group, which at times has been highly critical of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, especially on net neutrality. Silver, a MoveOn.org veteran, is leaving to form a new group, the Democracy Fund, and will be replaced by Managing Director Craig Aaron. “I don’t think it makes much difference,” said an FCC official. “Free Press serves a constituency and it’s a constituency that will remain the same.” An official at another public interest group said Free Press’s Washington, D.C., office operated largely independently of its Massachusetts headquarters. “Josh was very good at providing overall vision and direction, keeping the faithful pumped, and bringing in money -- basically what you want from an executive director,” the source said. Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project said that, “in organizing a mass constituency on media policy issues, Josh has accomplished something that many others had tried, and failed, to do.” Commissioner Michael Copps said that “many of the causes” Free Press “champions are causes for which I also have fought. Due in no small part to the efforts of Josh and the dedicated staff at Free Press, the voices of millions of Americans that would otherwise have gone unheard have been heard here at the FCC and in the halls of Congress.” Silver, who has been at Free Press since it was founded in 2002, said his new group will aim for “reforming the media and reducing the influence of the K Street lobbying juggernaut.”

The departure of Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver is expected to have little effect on advocacy by the group, which at times has been highly critical of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, especially on net neutrality. Silver, a MoveOn.org veteran, is leaving to form a new group, the Democracy Fund, and will be replaced by Managing Director Craig Aaron. “I don’t think it makes much difference,” said an FCC official. “Free Press serves a constituency and it’s a constituency that will remain the same.” An official at another public interest group said Free Press’s Washington, D.C., office operated largely independently of its Massachusetts headquarters. “Josh was very good at providing overall vision and direction, keeping the faithful pumped, and bringing in money -- basically what you want from an executive director,” the source said. Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project said that, “in organizing a mass constituency on media policy issues, Josh has accomplished something that many others had tried, and failed, to do.” Commissioner Michael Copps said that “many of the causes” Free Press “champions are causes for which I also have fought. Due in no small part to the efforts of Josh and the dedicated staff at Free Press, the voices of millions of Americans that would otherwise have gone unheard have been heard here at the FCC and in the halls of Congress.” Silver, who has been at Free Press since it was founded in 2002, said his new group will aim for “reforming the media and reducing the influence of the K Street lobbying juggernaut.”

Challenges to the FCC’s net neutrality order are “a sideshow” and should be dismissed, Media Access Project Senior Vice President Andrew Jay Schwartzman said Tuesday. MAP joined with Free Press, Media Mobilizing Project, Access Humboldt and the Mountain Area Information Network to intervene against Verizon and MetroPCS in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “Verizon adopted a bizarre legal theory to obtain a tactical legal advantage,” Schwartzman said. Free Press wasn’t happy with the FCC’s neutrality order, but “believes that the Verizon and MetroPCS suits were improperly brought,” the group said in its own news release.

Challenges to the FCC’s net neutrality order are “a sideshow” and should be dismissed, Media Access Project Senior Vice President Andrew Jay Schwartzman said Tuesday. MAP joined with Free Press, Media Mobilizing Project, Access Humboldt and the Mountain Area Information Network to intervene against Verizon and MetroPCS in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “Verizon adopted a bizarre legal theory to obtain a tactical legal advantage,” Schwartzman said. Free Press wasn’t happy with the FCC’s neutrality order, but “believes that the Verizon and MetroPCS suits were improperly brought,” the group said in its own news release.

The FCC is probing the representations of News Corp.’s Fox Television Stations in discussions it had with the agency over the pending and contested license renewal of WWOR-TV Secaucus, N.J. Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake on Thursday sent the a lawyer for the broadcast network a letter of inquiry saying it’s investigating whether Fox broke several rules by allegedly misrepresenting the extent of its news and operations. WWOR is the only full-power commercial station in New Jersey and is required to carry news serving the specific audience of the northern part of the state, rather than just its community of license, as is the case with all other U.S. TV stations.

The judge who dominated questions in oral argument on Cablevision v. FCC asked many questions that appeared skeptical of the cable operator’s challenge to program access rules at the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit. Judge David Tatel asked the vast majority of the questions of the cable operator and the commission Monday. He and Judge Thomas Griffith asked how Cablevision’s challenge could get around a ruling that the NCTA lost at the appeals court about exclusive arrangements between cable operators and apartment buildings.