Broward County, Fla., regulators are in talks with AT&T and Comcast on settlement of open access dispute, giving rise to possibility that county would drop its appeal against U.S. Dist. Court, Miami, ruling overturning its open access ordinance (CD Nov 14 p1). “A draft agreement is in circulation,” Asst. County Attorney Anitra Lanczi told us. Declining to provide details or terms of talks, she said county would go forward with appeal in 11th U.S. Appeals Court, Atlanta, if settlement weren’t reached. Asked why county now favored settlement, she said: “Nobody wants to litigate. It’s expensive and time-consuming.” AT&T spokeswoman wouldn’t provide terms of talks, either, but confirmed that company was negotiating with county: “We are continuing to talk with them and hope to reach an amicable settlement.”

Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG) “adamantly” objected to request by Verizon Wireless to postpone start of 700 MHz auction scheduled for March 6. RTG argued carrier hadn’t provided FCC with “extraordinary or unforeseen reason to postpone” auction by at least 2 months, or ideally until Sept. 6. “The Commission should not establish auction deadlines that comport with the business plans of any private company; and, stripped to its essence, Verizon urges the Commission to delay the 700 MHz auction merely for Verizon’s business convenience,” RTG told agency.

WRAL-TV Raleigh will start newscasts in HDTV Jan. 28, with sponsorship by Panasonic, companies said. They said they were believed to be first regularly-scheduled newscasts in HDTV.

FCC ordered GE Americom Thurs. to disclose information to Pegasus Development on its contract with Harris Corp. involving construction of GE Star Ka-band satellite system. Pegasus requested information Oct. 13. GE Americom received license to launch and operate 5 satellites in fixed-satellite service (FSS) in Ka-band. It was required to begin construction of first bird by May 1998, but had asked that contract be exempt from Freedom of Information Act disclosure requirements and withheld from public inspection. Pegasus, which wants to launch its own Ka-band satellites, objected.

Wi-LAN signed 3-year agreement to supply T-Speed Broadband Communications with equipment for latter’s nationwide fixed wireless broadband network. T-Speed said it would offer symmetrical Internet connections at speeds of up to 8.5 Mbps.

FCC Chmn. Powell appointed Marsha MacBride chief of staff, and named his core transition team and his personal staff. MacBride, 10-year veteran of FCC, is returning to Commission after being vp at Disney’s Washington office. During years at FCC, MacBride has been Legal Advisor to then-Comr. Powell for mass media and cable and exec. dir. for FCC’s Y2K conversion effort. MacBride has been in Political Programming Branch of Mass Media Bureau, Cable Bureau, and Office of Engineering and Technology. She was also Legal Advisor to Comr. James Quello in 1997. Transition team includes Jane Mago, Enforcement Bureau, who will oversee the Office of Gen. Counsel, David Fiske, who will oversee Office of Media Relations, Paul Jackson, special asst. to chmn., who will oversee Office of Legislative and Inter-governmental Affairs. Powell’s current personal staff will move to Chairman’s Office -- Peter Tenhula continuing as senior legal advisor, Kyle Dixon and Susan Eid as legal advisors, Toni McGowan as confidential assistant and Dorothy Clingman as senior staff asst. Other staff appointed to Chairman’s Office include: Tommi Greely, Betty Freeman and Kim Anderson-Collins.

AT&T is seeking FCC permission to discuss sale of MSO’s minority stakes in several cable networks, including E! Entertainment, Digital Cable Radio, Sunshine Network, New England Cable News, In Demand, Fox Sports New England, National Cable Communications, Food Network. Spokeswoman for AT&T said move was part of company’s drive to cut its debt load and improve its prospects on Wall St. In Jan. 10 ex parte filing with Commission, AT&T, which inherited those programming interests from MediaOne, said it sought govt. approval to shed stakes because it “could be required to advise, or obtain permission from, its current partners in these services.” In addition, company said, “a potential purchaser could be AT&T’s current partners in these services.” AT&T promised it “would not be involved in discussions directly relating to the video programming activities of these entities,” as FCC stipulated in approving MSO’s purchase of MediaOne last year. AT&T previously gained Commission approval to sell its inherited stakes in Speedvision and Outdoor Life networks.

Ruling in cable’s favor on DTV must-carry again, FCC rejected effort by Paxson Communications to obtain mandatory cable carriage of its 6 digital multiplexed programming streams in Chicago area. In little-noticed 5-page ruling late Tues., Cable Bureau denied Paxson’s petition to force AT&T Broadband, Charter, Mediacom and 9 other cable operators and overbuilders to carry broadcaster’s 6 channels on its digital signal (Ch. 46) instead of its WCPX (Ch. 38) analog station. Paxson argued that its 6 digital channels were entitled to must-carry because company was seeking to replace its analog signal with its digital signal, not gain dual cable carriage of its analog and digital signals. Paxson also contended that 1992 Cable Act required cable carriage of all TV signals, including digital. Its plan called for cable operators to replace WCPX analog signal with downconverted analog version of WCPX-DT primary digital signal and put 5 other digital channels on their digital programming tiers. But cable operators and overbuilders said FCC hadn’t issued DTV must-carry rules, and carriage of Paxson’s digital signal was unnecessary because they already were carrying its analog signal. Cable interests also asserted that there was no statutory right for mandatory carriage of digital signal downconverted to analog and Cable Act required systems to carry only single video service. FCC Cable Bureau, noting Commission’s earlier order tentatively concluding that broadcasters weren’t entitled to dual carriage of their analog and digital signals (CD Jan 24 p3), said it found Paxson’s requests to be “inconsistent” with that order. While DTV-only stations “may immediately assert their digital cable carriage rights,” agency said, TV stations broadcasting in both analog and digital modes can’t assert such rights until broader DTV must-carry issue is resolved. “In this instance, although Paxson has requested its digital signal to be substituted for its analog signal, it still holds 12 MHz of spectrum and has given no indication that it intends to return its analog spectrum,” Commission said.

Comcast Corp. Pres. Brian Roberts predicted his company would end new year with 2 million digital cable subscribers, roll out video-on-demand (VoD) service commercially by July and integrate personal video recorder (PVR) technology into its digital set-tops by close of year. Speaking at Economic Club of Washington Wed., Roberts said Comcast, which ended 2000 installing 18,000 digital cable boxes per week, will add 650,000 digital customers this year. He said MSO, which ended last year with more than 400,000 high-speed data subscribers, averaged installation of 10,000 cable modems per week in Dec. Showing off Comcast’s new VoD service, Roberts termed it “the next big product coming” and predicted it would be “a huge, popular product.” He also said Comcast, which is testing joint PVR-cable services with TiVo and ReplayTV in 2 N.J. cable systems, aims to put PVR functionality into upgraded version of its digital cable set-tops by close of year. Roberts pledged that Comcast, which recently took over Washington’s trouble-plagued cable system from AT&T, would transform it into technological showcase in 18 months. He said Comcast, which has become Washington-Baltimore area’s dominant MSO with 80% market share and 20% of company’s nationwide customer base, would end up spending more than $250 million to upgrade its area systems.

Two Mo. state lawmakers called for legislature to oust Mo. PSC Chmn. Sheila Lumpe and Comrs. Connie Murray and Dianne Drainer, accusing regulators of incompetence and dereliction of duty for failing to protect utility ratepayers from “devastating” rate increases. Outcry was result of PSC’s 3-2 vote Wed. to approve 44% gas rate increase requested by state’s 2nd largest gas company, Mo. Gas Energy, for 492,000 customers in Kansas City area. State Rep. Dennis Bonner (D-Independence) and state Sen. Ronnie DePasco (D-Kansas City) said they expected PSC also would approve pending 38% gas boost for Laclede Energy, which could go into effect next week for 633,000 customers in St. Louis and southeastern Mo. State law allows legislature to remove PSC members from office on 2/3 vote in each chamber. Commissioners said they had little choice but to approve 44% increase because company had open-and-shut case that soaring wholesale gas prices justified significant retail boost and persuasive evidence supporting claim that it would lose $20 million each month without requested rate increase. PSC “can’t force the companies to sell gas to the consumer at less than they have to pay for the commodity,” and has no jurisdiction over wholesale gas prices, Murray said. Dissenting Comrs. Robert Schemenauer and Kelvin Simmons wanted more investigation of utility’s loss projections and phase-in of any rate increase over several months instead of single big jump. PSC majority also voted to review agency’s processes for handling cost-based energy rate increases because of predictions of even more volatility in wholesale energy markets.