Members of the Communications Workers of America formally accepted contracts with two AT&T divisions and are considering “tentative” contracts with three others, CWA announced Friday. AT&T wireline employees represented by CWA have voted to accept three-year contracts with AT&T Midwest and AT&T Corp., AT&T said. The CWA reached a tentative agreement on the contracts July 21, the carrier said. The AT&T Midwest agreement covers more than 13,000 employees in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The AT&T Corp. agreement covers 5,700 employees across the country, AT&T said.

Lawmakers and rural telcos continued to protest the high costs and burdensome requirements of the FCC’s USF/intercarrier reform waiver requirements, which they say will curb broadband deployment in areas where people need it most. House and Senate members told us the FCC must do something to reduce the cost of waiver applications, which they said can exceed $100,000. A commission spokesman said it’s considering some changes to the waiver process, but emphasized that the waiver requirements are necessary to properly evaluate each company’s ability to use the money in a fiscally responsible way.

Open Range sued the Rural Utilities Service and FCC concerning an RUS-approved loan of $180 million for the company to build a wireless broadband network. Open Range filed a complaint Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware as part of its Chapter 7 proceeding (bit.ly/PuueHY). Open Range is seeking the remainder of the funds RUS agreed to pay, which is about $20 million, and other damages, it said.

New York state established a new high-cost universal service fund Thursday, the New York State Public Service Commission ruled. It said the fund will ensure state residents retain access to phone service in high-cost rural areas. The commission approved the phase 2 USF joint proposal in a 4-0 vote, with one commissioner recusing himself. The fund will provide $17 million to as many as 31 eligible telco recipients over a four-year period.

The Justice Department and FCC Thursday laid out terms for allowing Verizon Wireless to buy AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox, along with the marketing and other business agreements announced at the same time as the spectrum sales. As expected, DOJ’s focus was almost exclusively on the commercial agreements. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski concurrently circulated a draft order approving the Verizon/cable transactions as well as Verizon’s proposed spectrum swaps with T-Mobile and Leap Wireless. He said the T-Mobile deal removes many of the concerns about the spectrum sale. Opponents of the transactions were quick to say the conditions don’t go far enough. Jobs will be lost, the Communications Workers of America warned.

Broadcasters, record labels and artists will likely negotiate deals individually to address performance royalty and licensing issues, instead of crafting an industrywide solution that some members of Congress would favor, industry officials said in interviews. Absent a wide-ranging agreement, they said it’s likely there will be more deals like the one Clear Channel Communications and Big Machine Label recently negotiated that set new royalty rates for both Internet streaming and terrestrial broadcast (CD June 7 p11). Owners of terrestrial radio stations who responded to our informal survey said they're open to a negotiated solution with labels over a performance royalty, though they continue to think musicians’ promotion when their music’s played on-air is sufficient broadcaster compensation.

The primary defeat of Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., surprised many and left others wondering how his departure would affect the composition of the House Commerce Committee. The twelve-term congressman and chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee conceded to Ted Yoho Wednesday after a tightly fought primary race. Industry officials said Stearns’ defeat opens up some key spots on both the Oversight and Communications subcommittees.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology gave T-Mobile USA “special temporary authority” to launch tests of spectrum sharing with federal government users in the 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands. The move by OET could generate some of the first real-world data on how well sharing would work, industry executives said. The Obama administration has been increasingly focused on sharing as an alternative to clearing spectrum for commercial use (CD July 23 p1).

CTIA and carriers won a victory at the Federal Election Commission, which handed down an advisory order saying carriers are not responsible for enforcing election laws when they lease smart codes used to make contributions to a political campaign. Jan Baran, an election law expert at Wiley Rein who represented CTIA on the issue, called it a “good decision” that allows carriers to move forward on working with campaigns to process electronic contributions.

Several Virginia 911 directors met with Verizon officials Wednesday for a long closed-door meeting at the Alexandria Police Facility in northern Virginia. They discussed Verizon’s 911 failures during the June 29 derecho storm and reviewed a Verizon report on the outages at four 911 centers in northern Virginia as a result of two busted generators (CD Aug 15 p1). The telco remained contrite about the failure as the 911 directors emphasized the depth of the problem, participants told us just outside of the gathering and during interviews Tuesday.