The Commerce Department will have made more than $4 billion in grants by September to help connect to broadband communities that are unserved or underserved, Secretary Gary Locke said at a briefing Thursday run by the Democratic Leadership Council. The department is funding “middle-mile highways of high-speed Internet” connecting community anchor institutions like colleges, hospitals and government institutions, Locke said.

Comcast’s deal to buy control of NBC Universal has been discussed by the Department of Justice with some of those likely to be affected, at this early stage of antitrust review (CD March 10 p2), said some following the transaction and an opponent. An Asian American group that wants Comcast to pay $1 billion into a media diversity fund to be run by the FCC was the first to say in a commission filing that it has met with Justice. Others probably have discussed the deal with the department or will, analysts and a deal opponent said.

LAS VEGAS -- Commissioners will next week get a calendar laying out basic timing of the rulemakings and other actions that follow up on the National Broadband Plan, FCC officials said at the spring CTIA meeting. Commissioners won’t vote on the schedule but it’s expected to be discussed at the April 22 meeting.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC will continue to make protection of spectrum incumbents a top priority, as pressure grows to squeeze more onto the radio waves as the commission implements the National Broadband Plan, Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julie Knapp said at the CTIA convention. The challenges are in many ways the same the FCC has long faced, though they're growing more complex, he said. “We take as a given that there’s a need to protect the incumbent services against harmful interference,” Knapp said. “At the same time we have an objective of both assuring that we provide the opportunity for new services to be introduced and to make sure that the spectrum is being used efficiently."

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- IPv6 is gaining momentum, said representatives of Comcast and Netflix on an Internet Society panel at the Internet Engineering Task Force meeting this week. But Geoff Huston, chief technology officer of the Asian Regional Internet Registry, APNIC, said uptake of IPv6 in the market is still much too slow, with IPv4 numbers (less than 10 percent of the 4.3 billion are unallocated) running out in 2012.

LAS VEGAS -- Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann Wednesday echoed concerns voiced by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson the day before (CD March 24 p1) at the CTIA show about the need for the U.S. to steer clear of imposing new regulations on the wireless industry. Obermann, whose company is the parent of T-Mobile USA, also called on the FCC to bring new spectrum online for wireless broadband as quickly as possible. Competition and a light-handed approach on regulation “have served the U.S. wireless customer very well,” he said. “I am optimistic that American policymakers will want to continue this trend to ensure continued growth and investments going forward. So far, the regulatory approach has paid off."

LAS VEGAS -- The U.S. may need regulatory action to fulfill the potential of the smart grid, suggested a panelist at a CTIA presentation. Kore Telematics CEO Alex Brisbourne said the lack of a clearcut standard was holding back efficient implementation.

The FCC is likely to stick close to its comment deadlines for Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal after a request for a 45-day delay backed by a many advocacy and industry groups, agency and industry officials predicted. That the groups cite no reasons specific to the deal structure to extend a May 3 deadline to file oppositions make it unlikely that the Media Access Project (MAP) and supporters will succeed in getting approval to have final comments due Aug. 1, they said. The Media Bureau built in extra time for comments (CD March 19 p2) in part to rebut time-constraint criticisms, an agency official said. Initial work among staffers reviewing the deal continues, commission officials said.

Critics of expanded federal authority over private networks came up short with an effort to draw bright-line restrictions in the Cybersecurity Act (S-773), approved by the Senate Commerce Committee with several amendments at a short markup Wednesday. Sponsors emphasized that the bill would keep changing as it moved out of committee and indicated they disagreed with each other on core provisions, including what kind of regulations to apply to network and infrastructure owners. Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., called the bill “preemptive” to protect the country but “basic,” lacking many details despite having gone through four drafts.

Intelsat is ramping up efforts to slow satellite interference, as growth in satellite services worldwide has led to increased problems for operators, company executives said. Customers are complaining of interference more than any other issue, and complaints will likely continue to increase as satellite device sales and fill rates move higher unless something is done, CEO Dave McGlade told reporters.