LAS VEGAS -- While lead off speakers at the CTIA convention praised the FCC for proposing in the National Broadband Plan that 500 MHz of additional spectrum be allocated to wireless broadband over the next 10 years, the prospect that wireless carriers will face new net neutrality requirements also loomed large as the conference began Tuesday. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said imposing new regulation on carriers could chill investment at what otherwise is a time of record growth for the industry.

TORONTO -- In a much-anticipated decision, the Canadian Radio-TV and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said the nation’s conventional TV networks can seek from cable operators and satellite-TV providers fees or other compensation for their signals. But the CRTC stopped short of imposing any fees or mandating “value for signal” negotiations between the parties, pending a judgment by the courts on the agency’s power to do so.

Allowing unlicensed wireless auxiliary devices on all TV band channels would run counter to the recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, AT&T said in reply comments to an FCC rulemaking. “The proposed rule would delay the implementation of the National Broadband Plan by requiring subsequent commercial broadband licensees to clear the broadcast spectrum of the very low-power auxiliary users this proposed rule would place there."

The National Broadband Plan sets the stage for increased broadband adoption, but hasn’t quelled the debate over Universal Service Fund, spectrum use and Title II reclassification, telecom officials said on panels Tuesday. The spectrum portion of the plan “really does push the ball forward to try to get more flexible use for spectrum,” said Gregory Rosston, deputy director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Spectrum is the “mother’s milk” of wireless, said Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke. The recommendations get the ball moving “in the development of additional spectrum resources for wireless. That’s a big positive for investment and innovation,” he said the event, held at the National Press Club.

The National Broadband Plan sets “an agenda for connecting all corners of the nation,” the FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett said Monday at a meeting of the Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council. It’s an “aggressive action plan to enhance the safety of the American people,” he said. In December, Chairman Julius Genachowski asked CSRIC to study how Americans communicate and how to promote cooperation among emergency communications (CD Dec 8 p1). The plan includes recommendations for a public safety broadband network and on cybersecurity and consumer matters, Deputy Bureau Chief Jennifer Manner said.

With the National Broadband Plan on the street and plans underway to try to find an additional 500 MHz of spectrum over the 10 years, questions remain about the actual spectrum needs of carriers. The broadband plan offered relatively little analysis on this critical issue. FCC officials said more is to come and the agency will release a technical paper offering more detail on the number crunching behind the plan’s spectrum chapter.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google defended its privacy practices at a session on setting policy for Californians to share detailed information about their power usage with online conservation companies and others. At a Public Utilities Commission workshop, Jeffrey Byron of the state Energy Commission told Google representative Ed Lu, advanced-projects program manager, late Friday that his company had been portrayed earlier at the event as a danger to privacy. The warning came from Zack Kaldveer, the communications director of the Consumer Federation of California, who cited privacy worries about Google Book Search and Google Buzz.

Passage of health care reform legislation over the weekend frees Congress to finish the oft-delayed satellite TV reauthorization and may also loosen bottlenecks that held back other legislation, industry officials said Monday. But Congress won’t necessarily intensify telecom legislation efforts, they said. An ongoing debate among Hill leadership is whether, in the wake of passing health care, they should lay low or come out swinging, said an industry lobbyist.

Consumer demand for the gateway devices sought last week by the FCC as part of the National Broadband Plan is untested because no product has been developed, agreed cable, satellite and consumer electronics executives we surveyed. Assessing manufacturing costs for a simple device to connect set-top boxes to cable systems, direct broadcast satellite, telco-TV and Internet content can’t readily be done because there’s no set specification, the eight executives agreed. The plan called for all pay-TV providers to offer gateway devices by 2013 (CD March 17 p9) .

FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett played defense to skeptical police and fire department officials on the agencies’ recommendations for establishing a nationwide, interoperable public safety network. At a conference Friday of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), Barnett urged public safety to back calls in the National Broadband Plan for $12 to $16 billion in additional funding. But officials said they care more about getting spectrum “real estate” than money. Many officials said they were worried they can’t rely on shared commercial networks in emergency situations.