The proposed Universal Service Fund contribution increase to 15.3 percent for the 2010 second quarter is no surprise, but continues to show the need for reform, said Steve Berry, CEO of Rural Cellular Association. “We knew it was coming,” he said in an interview. “But the commission has to reform the current process and restructure USF.” Berry said wireless carriers, whose contributions are capped, are not to blame: “The issue is you have a wireline component that loses subscribers every year but their contributions increase every year.” There’s “an antiquated system that supports an antiquated technology and we haven’t figured out a way to reduce that support as people choose to go with different technologies."

Advances in ad technology and Internet connectivity could within years bring more money into targeted advertising from major brand marketers, a category that has kept most of its major outlays with mass media outlets, a panelist said at the Media Summit in New York Thursday. “With everything IP-enabled, everything is addressable,” said Brandon Berger, vice president of digital innovation for MDC Partners, a holding company for marketing firms. “We as marketers will be able to deliver our message to the right customer in the right mindset that will get them to be an advocate and extend the brand’s value."

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to allow at least 10 more months of study on a proposal to impose toll-free calling intrastate, citing the need for accurate communication and as much public involvement as possible. It’s key that all stakeholders address issues that could affect the availability of phone service throughout the state, the commission said. The proposal, previously in line to be forwarded to the Legislature April 1 (CD Mar 11 p12), won’t see action before Jan. 19.

The children’s media and Internet agenda of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski ranges from connecting all kids to broadband, starting an interagency working group on Internet safety and combating texting while driving. Other priorities are reducing the number of ads for junk food during kids’ TV shows and establishing “a framework of online norms and values,” Genachowski said at the National Museum of American History. Friday’s event where Genachowski touched on traditional and new media was one of the last to disclose part of the National Broadband Plan before it’s released Tuesday. “A clear and non-negotiable goal [is] every child should be connected to broadband,” with a quarter lacking it now, he said: “As a country we're falling behind."

Media venture capital and private equity investors are still looking for deals in ad-supported media, though they're also increasingly eying investments in gaming and mobile technology, executive told a conference Thursday. “I'm a big believer in advertising-supported companies,” said Richard Bressler, managing director of Thomas H. Lee Partners, which owns part of Univision and Clear Channel. Interactive ad technology companies are also catching investors attention, Allison Goldberg, managing director of Time Warner Investments, said at the Media Summit in New York.

Google’s proposed acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob appeared to be drawing more regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, experts said. The agency was reportedly looking for declarations from Google rivals.

The FCC is reviewing what changes might make sense for the agency’s retransmission consent dispute policies (CD March 11 p8), Chairman Julius Genachowski told the Senate Commerce Committee. “The events of the last two or three months confirmed that this is a subject that should be looked at seriously,” he said in a hearing Thursday. He and Christine Varney, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department Antitrust Division, pledged to narrowly review on the merits Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal.

New online tools allowing consumers to measure their broadband speeds and latency are aimed at educating consumers, supplying the FCC with data and encouraging better transparency in the industry, said FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin. Broadband service providers advertise certain speeds “and most people don’t have any intuitive sense of what that performance is. [The tools] can help people really make a connection between the numerical speed and the experience their getting with broadband,” he said.

Industry heeded his complaints, voiced in July, that the first filings on the National Broadband Plan were a sign the FCC could be in trouble, National Broadband Plan Executive Director Blair Levin said Thursday at a conference. In the end, groups came though with filings that helped shape the plan, Levin said in what’s expected to be his last speech before release of the plan Tuesday.

The House Commerce Committee unanimously approved an amended spectrum inventory bill (HR-3125) with stronger national security protection. The panel also Wednesday unanimously approved a bill (HR-3019) by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., that would streamline moving federal users off bands to be reviewed by a three-member technical panel reporting to the agencies. And the committee approved without objection an amended Caller ID spoofing bill (HR-1258) by Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., that would ban manipulation of Caller ID information. All three bills were reported to the full House.