Allband got a three-year waiver of a new FCC rule limiting per-line USF support to $250 a month, in an order released by the Wireline Bureau Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bniaq3). The bureau said a limited waiver was necessary to ensure that consumers in the area would continue to receive voice service where there’s no terrestrial alternative. By granting Allband’s request, the bureau said it hoped “to provide it additional time to take cost-cutting and revenue-enhancing actions in order to improve its financial position and lessen its dependence on high-cost universal service support.” This is the first waiver granted in the “support reductions” category.

Broadcasters and carriers and wireless vendors are no closer on whether more types of mobile devices should have FM chips in them to get terrestrial radio transmissions, after the FCC convened a meeting on the subject, participants told us. They said commission staff and executives from the top four U.S. carriers, some makers of consumer electronics and a broadcast CEO and their trade groups met last Friday in an FCC-convened meeting (CD July 6 p9).

The meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization ended Thursday without a recommendation to the General Assembly to convene a diplomatic conference on limitations and exceptions for the visually impaired. SCCR members could only agree to return to the negotiating table in November. Representatives of non-government organizations were highly critical of what they called a missed opportunity.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Cable operators are starting to introduce small digital terminal adapters (DTAs) that can bring HD TV channels to analog subscribers’ homes, almost two years after the FCC approved the use of HD-DTAs with integrated security and navigation functions. BendBroadband, a small Oregon cable provider, is one of the operators leading the way, rolling out a new “universal” HD-DTA from Evolution Digital that can work on the digital video platforms of both Motorola Mobility and Cisco. Evolution and Motorola Mobility have emerged as the two winners of a request-for-proposal (RFP) from the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) to produce both standard-definition and HD-DTAs for small and mid-sized operators seeking to convert systems to all-digital video.

ICANN’s expensive and controversial generic top-level domain (gTLD) expansion program is not for naught as mobile applications and social media become more popular alternatives for developers and consumers, the group’s recently-departed CEO said. Rod Beckstrom, who joined ICANN from the Department of Homeland Security after a public spat with the National Security Agency (NSA), said in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators that the “netizens” of the world would rise to challenge future Internet regulation in the image of the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). His temporary successor, Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah, will be replaced by Fadi Chehade this fall.

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology’s controversial spectrum sharing report is about spurring economic growth and creating opportunities for making money, PCAST member Mark Gorenberg of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners told the International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) Thursday. Gorenberg, managing partner of the venture capital firm, acknowledged that he knew little about spectrum before he was named to chair the PCAST working group that wrote the report and leaned heavily on the expertise of industry experts. Tom Power, the federal government’s deputy chief technology officer for telecommunications, warned that making the report federal policy isn’t a slam dunk.

The Senate agreed Thursday to begin debate on the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (S-3414), but members were quick to trade barbs over the current bill’s ability to protect U.S. critical infrastructure systems from cyberattack. Sponsors of an alternative cybersecurity bill, the SECURE IT Act (S-2151), said they did not support the bill in its current form but agreed to move forward as long as there was an open amendment process.

SAN FRANCISCO -- FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel are visiting the Bay Area and Silicon Valley this week, meeting with prominent technology companies and some advocacy groups that are pushing technology policy at the agency. The two toured Verizon’s regional innovation center and AT&T’s Foundry -- each set up to liaise with the technology development community here. They met with Apple, Netflix, Google, Twitter and Facebook, Pai said. “Part of the reason we wanted to come to California was to get a sense of what drives innovation and investment growth in what I think most people would agree is the most dynamic part of our economy,” Pai told us.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Themes of outreach and consumer access rang loudly at the midyear meeting of NARUC commissioners and staff. Telecom industry officials, regulators and advocates are struggling to connect people with broadband and teach digital literary skills as an extension of traditional access concerns, and voiced those challenges extensively on panels. Panelists and observers weighed in on the barriers to broadband adoption and how to give access and teach the value and understanding to the rural, the elderly, the low-income and those with disabilities.

Wireless carriers must be protected from interference if the FCC allows more deployment of balloon-mounted systems and other aerial base stations that could be quickly deployed to temporarily replace communications destroyed in a disaster, CTIA, AT&T and Sprint Nextel responded to a notice of inquiry. The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials was more bullish on the benefits offered by deployable aerial communications architecture (DACA). APCO said the systems also pose risks. The commission approved the NOI at its May meeting (CD May 25 p 3), with Chairman Julius Genachowski comparing DACA to a “cell tower that’s floating or flying in the sky.” Agency officials said then they'd drawn no conclusions on whether DACA should see broad use.