MetroPCS is “solely focused” on its proposed combination with T-Mobile USA for now, though it remains open to other offers, CEO Roger Linquist said Wednesday at the UBS investor conference in New York.

The European Commission plans to deal with troublesome online content issues starting next year, it said Wednesday after an “orientation debate” called by President José Manuel Barroso. With Europe’s digital economy predicted to grow seven times faster than its overall gross domestic product in the next few years, the EC wants to ensure that copyright rules work in the digital context, it said. Parallel tracks will deal next year with several issues where quick progress is needed, with decisions coming in 2014, it said. The EC hasn’t really tackled those matters until now, focusing instead on studies and limited topics such as collective licensing and orphan works, EC sources said. But the Digital Agenda mid-term review, due Dec. 19, is expected to name copyright reform as a top priority, and government leaders want concrete acts to spur the digital single market. There wasn’t enough work being done on the critical issues, and then the polarized focus on enforcement in the context of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) made things worse, they said.

Russia submitted its proposal for a new “Internet chapter” in the future International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) on the second day of the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai. Russia said in its presentation by Victor Strelets of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications “the Internet system is an inalienable part of the telecommunications infrastructure.”

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is committed to ensuring media ownership diversity, she told members of the Senate Commerce Committee during a confirmation hearing Tuesday. If she’s confirmed, Clyburn could be in line to become acting FCC Chairman if Julius Genachowski decides to leave next year, as is expected by many (CD Nov 8 p1). The committee also heard testimony from FTC nominee Joshua Wright, an economist and law professor at George Mason University and former FTC Scholar in Residence. It questioned him on the balance between regulation and the ability of free markets to protect consumers, as well as his willingness to recuse himself in cases involving companies who have financially supported his academic work, such as Google. The committee plans to mark up the nominations next week, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., without specifying a date or time.

The FCC survived a critical challenge to its regulatory authority under Title III of the Communications Act, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholding the commission’s April 7, 2011, data roaming order over a challenge from Verizon Wireless. The case was widely viewed as a key test of FCC jurisdiction. Another big test awaits, with the D.C. Circuit slated to consider arguments on the commission’s 2010 net neutrality rules next year.

The FCC Wireless Bureau may consider a proposal from Dish Network aimed at allowing the H block to operate at full power, while avoiding higher stringent out-of-band emissions (OOBE) limits for the company to operate a ground-based service, an FCC official said. The bureau may be trying to figure out if the proposal makes sense or not, the official said.

Online video distributors (OVDs) who want access to NBCUniversal programming under conditions spelled out in the FCC’s January 2010 order approving Comcast’s takeover of that company will have to provide a copy of their contracts with other ‘peer’ media companies to Comcast’s outside counsel and experts, an order released by the Media Bureau Tuesday said. Comcast had asked the bureau to clarify what was required of OVDs who make use of the condition, known as the “Benchmark” condition to include sharing full, unredacted copies of such agreements with NBCU’s in-house counsel and executives (CD Feb 22 p4). The bureau declined to grant that aspect of Comcast’s requests, but it clarified the condition to make it explicit that OVDs must share their peer agreements with NBCU’s outside counsel (http://xrl.us/bn4twc).

The delay of a media ownership deregulation vote following FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s concerns about lack of action on diversity may lead to a slightly rejiggered order early next year addressing some minority issues, officials inside and outside the agency predicted. Clyburn apparently played a key role in getting Chairman Julius Genachowski to hold off on a decision until at least Jan. 4. That’s when replies are due on a public notice the Media Bureau issued Tuesday night for feedback on minority and female ownership of radio and TV stations (http://xrl.us/bn4tzh). Some industry officials who reviewed the notice and accompanying blog post (http://xrl.us/bn4tzm) by bureau Chief Bill Lake, titled “Going the Extra Mile for Transparency,” said they came off as defensive. They said that’s unusual especially for official staff decisions like a public notice.

The Edison Electric Institute and Utilities Telecom Council pushed the FCC to change its rules for the 4.9 GHz band to let utilities and others in the critical infrastructure industry (CII) use the spectrum set aside for public safety a decade ago. The commission in June approved a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on ways it could push more widespread use of the band, as it seeks to find ways to make more efficient use of all available spectrum (CD June 14 p2).

Redbox Instant by Verizon will beta test with 100,000 of the telco’s broadband customers in January, with a goal of starting the video streaming service by late Q1 or early Q2, CEO Lowell McAdams told us at the UBS investor conference in New York. Redbox Instant by Verizon, a joint venture between the telco and Coinstar, had planned to start in the second half of this year (CD Feb 7 p5), which the video-rental provider later said would be this quarter (CED April 30 p5). McAdams conceded Tuesday that “little glitches” in software were found during a 60-day internal test this fall that needed to be corrected.