The FCC Enforcement Bureau adopted a consent decree with KSBJ Educational Foundation for the apparent unauthorized operation of a fixed earth station. Last year, the International Bureau dismissed KSBJ’s request for special temporary authority to operate an earth station because the request was defective, the Enforcement Bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1bT6PsE). The International Bureau later granted a second request but because it appeared that KSBJ, based in Humble, Texas, may have operated its earth station after the station license expired, “the International Bureau referred this matter to the Enforcement Bureau for investigation and possible enforcement action,” the order said. KSBJ agreed to make a voluntary contribution of $16,000 to the U.S. Treasury, the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau fined Billy Ray Locklear Evangelical Association $7,200 for failing to file children’s television programming reports on time and filing incorrect Class A certifications for its station WLPS Lumberton-Pembroke, N.C., said a Media Bureau forfeiture order (http://fcc.us/18Ueq7a). The fine was reduced from $9,000 because of the association’s history of compliance. The bureau also fined Central Ohio Association of Christian Broadcasters $3,000 for late children’s television reports and failing to report the violations on a renewal application for its station WGCT Columbus, Ohio, said a forfeiture order (http://fcc.us/1fIOPmo). Campbellsville University, licensee of WLCU Campbellsville, Ky., was also fined $3,000 for late children’s TV reports, said a forfeiture order (http://fcc.us/1beZmkq).

Gannett may get a retransmission consent and cost-savings boost from buying Belo Corp. after the Department of Justice OK'd it with a divestiture (CD Dec 17 p6), a stock analyst wrote to investors Wednesday. The acquirer “could see modest multiple expansion, benefiting from ramping retrans and increased synergies along with strong political inflows helping boost total cash flow and offsetting ongoing weakness in print,” said Ed Atorino of Benchmark. He said Belo means “higher margin revenue streams” for Gannett, which also owns daily newspapers including USA Today.

Gray Television agreed to buy KEVN-TV (Fox) Rapid City, S.D., from Mission TV for $7.75 million, Gray said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1jiJxDj). The transaction also includes KEVN’s satellite station KIVV-TV Lead. KEVN is the No. 2-ranked TV station in the Rapid City market, and Gray’s first “stand-alone full-power Fox affiliate,” said the acquirer. Gray has recently announced deals to buy other stations in the region from Hoak Media: An ABC affiliate in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the NBC affiliates in Fargo and MinotBismarck, N.D. The KEVN deal needs regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q1 or Q2, said the acquirer.

Iridium’s petition for reallocating Globalstar’s Big low-earth orbit spectrum will ensure sufficient spectrum to promote continued development and innovation in essential mobile satellite service (MSS), Iridium said in FCC RM-11685 (http://bit.ly/18z3Bwu). The petition is neither anticompetitive “nor would it hinder Globalstar in pursuing its MSS or TLPS business plans,” Iridium said of Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service. Iridium’s growth is expected to continue, “driven by the introduction of new products and services enabled by upgrades in Iridium’s constellation and its innovative vendor partnerships,” it said. As Iridium prepares for the launch of Iridium Next, its next-generation network, “it will be increasingly important to ensure that it has sufficient spectrum available to support this expansion as well as sustain its core business,” it said. “Iridium offers nothing new in its response and nothing supports its request to take almost 3 MHz of Globalstar’s L-band spectrum,” said Barbee Ponder, Globalstar general counsel.

Update the E-rate program now, 26 members of the House told all five FCC commissioners in a letter dated Wednesday. The House sponsors of the letter -- Reps. Jared Polis, D-Colo.; Chris Gibson, R-N.Y.; Jared Huffman, D-Calif.; Don Young, R-Alaska; and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. -- sought colleagues’ signatures for a draft of the letter earlier in December (CD Dec 10 p10). “We ask the Commission for swift action to bring high-speed broadband to our students on an expedited basis,” said the final copy of the letter, advocating for school broadband speeds of 100 Mbps now and 1 Gbps by 2017. The letter included several recommendations, such as that the FCC should create an “update fund within the E-rate program to connect every school and library, particularly those in rural areas, to high-speed broadband.” The FCC should up its transparency and accountability and simplify its paperwork, the letter said. The agency has been in the process of updating the E-rate program in recent months, and President Barack Obama has also voiced support for updates, calling the initiative ConnectEd. A spokeswoman for DelBene told us the letter would have been sent to the agency Wednesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld an International Trade Commission determination that some Motorola Mobility smartphones are infringing patents held by Microsoft, in violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act (http://1.usa.gov/1gGAUAq). The ITC findings had resulted in imposition of a limited exclusion order in June 2012 banning imports of certain Motorola smartphones. Customs and Border Protection ruled in April that a design-around by Motorola allowed entry of products formerly subject to the exclusion order, which provoked an ongoing lawsuit from Microsoft at the U.S. District Court in Washington. Motorola Mobility is “disappointed with this decision but pleased with the overall outcome,” said a spokesman for the company that’s now a unit of Google. “Microsoft lost on 8 of its ‘best’ patents, and this lone opinion does not impact our ability to build great products that people love.” The ITC had no comment on the Federal Circuit’s ruling, decided Monday. “Even after a closer look by the Federal Circuit, it’s clear Google is using patented technology Microsoft worked hard to invent,” said Microsoft Deputy General Counsel David Howard.

Even after completion of the IP transition, the wholesale wireline provisions of the Communications Act will continue to be necessary and important, Comptel told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Regardless of the technology used, “access to consumers is required” to ensure competition isn’t stifled, Comptel said. “It is not economically viable for competitors to replicate the ILEC network in its entirety,” the association of competitive providers said. “Competitors must supplement their reach” by “purchasing from large ILECs wholesale last mile access,” it said. The commission could speed the IP transition by “confirming that IP interconnection for voice services falls under Sections 251 and 252 of the Act,” Comptel said.

The California Public Utilities Commission asked the FCC for an extension of time to implement a third-party identification verification process for its Lifeline program (http://bit.ly/JIdsVK). An extension to May 1 would help the PUC comply with an FCC requirement that the state implement the verification process, it said. The FCC had made the verification requirement a condition on the PUC’s being able to opt out of the National Lifeline Accountability Database, said the PUC’s Tuesday petition.

AT&T’s $2 billion sale of its Connecticut wireline operations to Frontier Communications (CD Dec 18 p9) shouldn’t have a “material impact” on AT&T’s free cash flow, Credit Suisse said in a research note Tuesday. The assets being sold generate roughly $1.2 billion of AT&T’s annual revenue, which is less than 1 percent of the telco’s total sales, the report said. “While the deal in itself has little impact on AT&T’s financials, we view the move to monetize these fixed line assets as a small positive, as we believe the capital could be used to ramp Project VIP.” Project Velocity IP is AT&T’s plan to invest $14 billion in upgrades to its wireless and fiber network (CD Nov 8/12 p11). The transaction is “attractive” for Frontier, said Andrew Spinola, analyst at Wells Fargo, in a research note Tuesday. “This is a significant transaction, but FTR has experience with these types of transactions and should be well-positioned to manage the process,” Spinola said. “The transaction is also financially attractive as it improves the payout ratio, creates $200MM in synergy opportunities, and increases the scale of the business,” he said. UBS expects Frontier to implement its “local engagement and simplified pricing plans” in Connecticut to drive penetration higher in residential and small and medium enterprises, said analysts Batya Levi and John Hodulik in a research note Tuesday. “We believe wireless backhaul will be a growth driver” of revenue and free cash flow, “as most of the towers had already been upgraded,” while regulatory revenue remains relatively stable, said the UBS analysts.