A showdown over the billions of dollars traded in the dark underside of the telephone system was postponed on Monday. Kevin Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, had proposed a complex plan to restructure how long distance carriers pay local phone companies to complete calls. Facing opposition from the other four commissioners, Mr. Martin abandoned a vote on the plan scheduled for Tuesday.

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In what could be one of the final steps before the Federal Communications Commission approves their pending merger, XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) announced this morning that they are in talks with the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to settle outstanding “enforcement matters.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Republican FCC member Deborah Taylor Tate has agreed to vote to approve the deal after winning several concessions from the companies involving enforcement issues. She would break a deadlock among the commissioners, who would then have voted to approve the deal by a 3-2 margin. According to the Journal, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin disclosed the news this morning. “I think it’s fair to say an agreement in principle has been reached,” he said. “We’re still trying to work out the language.”

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Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein has voted to oppose the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), leaving the current tally tied at 2-2, with only Deborah Taylor Tate yet to decide. If she votes yes, the deal goes through. If she votes no, the deal dies.

According to Bloomberg, Adelstein said in a statement that the combination would create “a monopoly with window dressing.” Adelstein and Michael Copps, both Democrats, have voted no. Chairman Kevin Martin and Robert McDowell, both Republicans, have voted yes. That leaves the decision up to Tate–a Republican.

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I hate to break this to you and risk damaging the relationship of trust and faith that you have with your cable company, but according to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Comcast has not been totally forthright in describing its handling of bandwidth-sucking BitTorrent transfers of large media files. Ever since it was caught using surreptitious, hacker-like techniques to interrupt such activity, the cable giant has claimed that it was simply exercising sound network management practices to ensure decent service for all, and that the throttling was applied only in times of high network congestion. Tuesday, Martin told a Senate committee that his agency’s ongoing investigation indicated otherwise.

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With the clock ticking on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s tenure, his special friends in the phone business are asking him to give them the moon, the stars and the sun: In other words, a cable TV version of number portability. Verizon’s arguments and press release may seem consumer-friendly, but one has to take all of it with a barrel of salt. Now, as you well know, I am no fan of cable companies–who apparently want to watch what you are doing inside your living room–but it’s hard to believe Verizon.

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When a casual session with reporters following his appearance at the NBA Tech Summit turned to a la carte pricing and set-top box limitations, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin offered his usual example of what’s wrong: cable. But when he was reminded–OK, by me, since I have a DirecTV TiVo that’s functionally crippled–that cable isn’t alone when it comes to limiting services and access on set-tops or alone on programming prices, Martin insisted, “I’m not picking on cable. … Cable is the easiest analogy. You’re absolutely right; the same rules apply. Generically, our term is MVPD—multichannel video provider. It’s not just cable, it’s also satellite or telephone companies, whoever’s providing your multichannel video services. All these rules should be the same for all of them. … These are the rules that apply to everyone.” He also talked about the 700-MHz auction, bandwidth management, a la carte, competition and Sirius-XM.

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