Streamlining the process for access and use of infrastructure, also part of the recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, could be a key positive for Distributed Antenna System (DAS) operators, some of them large tower companies, company officials told us. But hurdles remain as operators gear up for 4G, they said.

A new agreement on data protection standards for all data transfers between the EU and the U.S. is high on the agenda of the EU Commission, said Despina Vassiliadou from the EU Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security. Data transfers between the U.S. and the EU have led to heated debates in the European parliament for several years. Six different agreements have been negotiated between the EU and the U.S. since 2001 including for SWIFT banking data and the Passenger Name Record data transfers (PNR), which was challenged before the European Court and is being renegotiated, with a draft not well accepted by the EU Parliament.

The FCC Thursday put forward a list of 64 items for FCC action, along with time lines. The list includes most of what was recommended by the National Broadband Plan, released last month. The FCC had a similar list of items to work from when it implemented the 1996 Telecom Act, said a former FCC official. Eighth floor advisers were briefed on the plan Wednesday.

FCC International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre expects the bureau to move forward on several spectrum related issues in the coming months, she said at the Washington Space Business Roundtable in Washington Thursday. Broadband, as in the rest of the commission, is the focus for the bureau, and two items recommended in the National Broadband Plan will be acted on relatively quickly, she said.

Tribune and Schurz will share news content online under a deal to revamp Schurz’s websites using Tribune Interactive’s technology platform, the companies said. Combining content syndication with the technology platform helped convince Schurz of the deal said Kerry Oslund, vice president of digital. “There are lots of technology deals to be had out there, but none of them truly involve content,” he said. “When Tribune brought content to the table, along with technology, it was a differentiator that was just unmatchable."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski may lack a way to avoid reclassifying broadband while still requiring net neutrality, said numerous commission and industry officials not involved in internal deliberations on Comcast v. FCC. Losing the case at the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit on statutory grounds Tuesday (CD April 8 p1) leaves Genachowski with few choices that appear palatable to him, they said. One likely outcome if the FCC doesn’t appeal is deeming broadband a common carrier and not an information service.

The FCC announced Wednesday the launch of a small business broadband adoption public-private partnership, linking Score, the Small Business Administration’s volunteer arm and “private partners” including AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Best Buy, Constant Contact, HP, Intuit, Skype, and Time Warner Cable.

FCC staffers are thought to be reviewing two batches of program access complaints against cable operators in light of how a January order on the subject that became effective Friday affects the cases, industry and commission officials said. The Media Bureau seems to be taking the lead in reviewing complaints by AT&T (CD April 7 p12) and Verizon against Cablevision for withholding HD versions of two regional sports networks, they said. It’s also believed to be involved in reviewing an AT&T challenge to the bureau’s 2009 dismissal of the telco’s complaint against Cox Communications for withholding access to a channel featuring San Diego Padres baseball games.

The FCC is circulating a proposed order in response to a remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an FCC official said. In 2001 and 2005, the court called the commission’s current non-rural high cost support mechanism unlawful, and reversed and remanded the rules. The commissioners will vote on the order by April 16, the official said. The FCC agreed to the deadline after Qwest and three state regulators filed a mandamus petition last year, the FCC official said.

Ohio’s Public Utility Commission rejected telecom union demands to rescind an order approving Frontier’s proposed acquisition of Verizon landlines and convene a new set of hearings on the matter. Ruling Tuesday, the commission said it found no merit in arguments for a rehearing advanced by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The unions claimed the commission wrongly and unlawfully approved the proposed transactions.