Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Wednesday heralded the FCC's plans to rein in broadband providers and pursue tough net neutrality rules as a "real leadership moment" for the commission.

Shortly after news broke that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski planned to use his agency's rule-making authority to resume regulating broadband, an authority a federal court stripped from the commission in March, Kerry praised the FCC chief for taking reasonable steps to protect consumers and competition.

"In the wake of the Comcast decision, Chairman Genachowski was put in a difficult position and was presented a false choice between no regulation of broadband services and excessive regulation," Kerry said. "He has chosen to a measured middle path and I support it."

The FCC's new approach would apply only select portions of current rules that govern phone companies to broadband providers like Verizon and Comcast. The move begins the process of reversing a federal court order issued earlier this year that essentially left the commission only minimal power to regulate broadband.

The FCC's move, however, is sure to infuriate the broadband companies, which have long excoriated that approach and sometimes threatened legal action in response. But Kerry stressed late Wednesday that the FCC's decision was actually "a moderate, pragmatic step necessary to ensure that the FCC can keep faith with its core mission."

Kerry later promised to spearhead legislation that would grant the agency additional authority to implement portions of its National Broadband Plan -- a broadband agenda it introduced earlier this year that only until this week seemed jeopardized by the federal court decision in Comcast's favor.

"I also remain open to working with colleagues, the Commission, and interested parties on legislation necessary to fully implement the National Broadband Plan and encourage continued innovation and investment in the sector,” Kerry said.

What we're following on the morning of Thursday, May 6...

More details to come today, next week about the FCC's plans to regulate broadband providers and instate tough net neutrality rules. A "notice of proposed rulemaking" could even go out next week, some say, beginning a process that telecommunications groups are widely expected to challenge aggressively in court.

FROM YESTERDAY: FCC to take next step in net neutrality fight (Hillicon Valley) -- The FCC will announce on Thursday that it still plans to pursue tough net neutrality rules, opening a new front in an ongoing legal battle that could come to define the commission under Chairman Julius Genachowski. ... A senior FCC official said Wednesday that the chairman "will seek to restore the status quo as it existed" before a federal court stripped the commission of the authority to regulate broadband providers and set rules that mandate open Internet. 

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TOP STORIES TODAY ON HILLICON VALLEY:
FCC to make a move on net neutrality Thursday - The Hill
Rockefeller, Waxman ask FCC to consider reclassification - The Hill
Google-AdMob deal not competitive, company says - The Hill
Industry leaders, lawmakers look at ECPA upgrade - The Hill

AROUND THE TECH BLOGOSPHERE:
The future of net neutrality legislation - Nancy Scola, techPresident
Conyers: Patent talks appear stalled - Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose
Netroots groups flood White House on net neutrality - Cecilia Kang, Post Tech
Is there really a cyberwar? Term may be misused - Jordan Robertson, AP
Liberal groups worry about FCC on net neutrality - Declan McCullaugh, CNet

The FCC will announce on Thursday it plans to pursue a "third way" forward in the fight for tough rules.

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Microsoft and others on Wednesday called on lawmakers to update increasingly archaic rules that govern how law enforcement can solicit e-mail and cell phone records for their investigations.

Even as location-based cell phone technology grows more widespread, while e-mail and social networking become primary forms of communication for many, federal law does not say explicitly what kind of warrant law enforcement officials must seek to collect that information.

That uncertainty has worried consumer groups, who fear law enforcement could abuse GPS technology in most smartphones that could allow for the owner's location to be tracked. And it has frustrated industry leaders, too, who question why due process rules apply strictly to papers in a physical filing cabinet but not uniformly to documents stored in the "cloud" -- or on servers owned by third parties.

Consequently, those groups implored a House Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday to upgrade the law that chiefly addresses those issues -- the Electronic Communications Privacy Act -- so that it reflects two decades of tech advancements since it was passed.

"ECPA was passed in 1986, well before we commonly used the Internet for e-mail, much less for 'cloud computing' and remote storage, when cell phones were rare, often the size of small kitchen appliances, and included no tracking technologies capable of mapping our every movement," said Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

"Thus, we must consider whether ECPA still strikes the right balance between the interests and needs of law enforcement and the privacy interests of the American people," the congressman continued.

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A merged Comcast and NBC would benefit consumers and improve industry competition, the companies noted in two new filings to the FCC.

The new venture would also have no incentive to withhold NBC programming from online video sites, primarily because those services "largely complement -- rather than compete with -- Comcast's cable services," according to both Comcast and NBC.

Both companies offered those "procompetitive" assurances as part of documents filed to the FCC on Wednesday, after the commission halted its review of the proposed mega-merger to seek more input on its possible economic effects.

Consequently, that means the first leg of the commission's inquiry -- the period during which industry leaders may submit early thoughts on the merger -- will finish now by mid July, as FCC officials said Wednesday they would keep to their schedule and close the initial comment window 45 days after Comcast submitted its materials.

But the documents offer another glimpse into how a merged Comcast-NBC hopes to operate and compete in a broadcasting landscape in which the business model seems to be changing.

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The leaders of the House's and Senate's Commerce committees are now imploring FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski not to wait.

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Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee slammed their congressional appropriators on Wednesday for repeatedly diverting money away from the Patent and Trademark Office and leaving the team with a massive application backlog.

As the number of unreviewed applications continues to grow -- perhaps as large as 1.2 million, according to one estimate -- lawmakers said during a hearing Wednesday that reform to the office's funding structure would be crucial to ensure innovation. As many as 49 percent of all patents originate in Silicon Valley, noted Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).

"The enemy is not on this committee; the enemy is on the appropriations committee and on the other side of the Capitol," said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.). "However, fiscal 2010 is another story. We may have a fee diversion of as much as $160 million. This is completely unacceptable, because as the economy gets better we're going to have more patent applications..."

"You need the additional money to be able to cut the backlog," the congressman added.

One such idea would allow the office to set and collect fees on its own, in an attempt to discourage lawmakers from expropriating the office's money to areas totally unrelated to patents.

Many members of the House Judiciary Committee signaled they would be open to exploring that approach, especially while more robust patent reform makes it way through Congress.

"What if there was an invention sitting on the shelf at the PTO... that could help clean up oil spills?" asked Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) in his opening statement. "Fee-setting authority would no doubt give the PTO more flexibility, which I support, but I want to make sure any additional fees would go to worthwhile purposes."

[Update, 11:45 a.m.] -- Wednesday's hearing grew somewhat testy, after PTO Director David Kappos failed to answer clearly whether he would support a fee fix done seperately from robut patent reform.

As that legislation makes its way through Congress, lawmakers mused whether an independent bill granting the agency more fee authority would prove amenable. But Kappos repeatedly declined to say whether he would support it, stressing comprehensive reform is still possible. He ultimately backed down and noted, "I truly think it'd be preliminary to comment on that now."

That frustrated Rep. Lofgren, who described Kappos' remark as "stunningly disappointing" and stressed the tech community would likely be displeased.

As concerns about Google's proposed purchase of AdMob seem to grow in number and intensity, the search giant on Tuesday sought to assure skeptics that its new mobile-phone advertising venture would actually boost industry competition.

Google's latest guarantee, penned in a blog post by Group Product Manager Paul Feng, arrives as the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly readying a legal team to challenge some of the elements of the company's proposed $750-million buy.

At issue is whether Google could come to dominate the burgeoning mobile advertisement market by leveraging its current success in the Web-based ad world.

However, Google stressed on Tuesday that its entrance into mobile advertising would actually improve competition, not stunt its growth, and it cited a series of industry leaders and analysts who confirmed that for the FTC over the past month.

The selected insider opinions -- which included news editorials, industry analyst Greg Sterling and app developer Wertago -- agreed that Google's new venture would not raise rates for other mobile advertisers and consequently force competitors out of the market.

But whether those assurances satisfy the deal's skeptics -- including members of Congress, some of whom only last week questioned the proposed merger on anti-trust grounds -- remains to be seen. Google's earlier claims that Apple's entry into the mobile ad market illustrated a competitive industry did not seem to deter criticism.

"With Google and AdMob facing strong competition every day from businesses like Apple, JumpTap, Millennial Media, Microsoft, inMobi, Greystripe, Mobclix and many more, we agree that there’s vibrant competition in this space," Feng concluded in his post.