Federal Communications Commission watchers everywhere, gird thy loins. However frenetic you thought it was in FCC-land back during the media ownership, Comcast P2P, or Sirius XM merger wars, forget it. The Commission has just laid out the road map and schedule for implementing its National Broadband Plan, and it looks pretty relentless—crucial rulemakings lined up back to back through the rest of the year and into 2011.

And to heck with that court decision invalidating the FCC's sanctions against Comcast for BitTorrent throttling, proclaimed FCC Chair Julius Genachowski on Thursday. "The court did not question the FCC’s goals," he declared. "It merely invalidated one technical, legal mechanism for broadband policy chosen by prior Commissions."

So full speed ahead. Here's the schedule. Don't blink and don't sneeze.

Q2: April to June

Any day now the FCC is expected make good on one of the key commitments of the NBP: new proposed rules for the CableCARD—that little digital card that was supposed to make it easy for consumers to use third-party set-top boxes to access cable TV. Hardly anybody accesses them for said purpose at this point, but the agency sees the concept as crucial for getting consumers to migrate their video watching habits to all those yummy hybrid devices like the TiVo, Roku box, AppleTV, Xbox 360, and PS3. So expect this proceeding to happen soon, plus a Notice of Inquiry on Smart Video Devices that will lead to an Order by the end of the year.

Next, get ready for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on mobile roaming. It's unclear precisely what the FCC plans to tackle in this NPRM, but smaller wireless companies are peeved that they can't get roaming access to their bigger neighbors once they've bought some spectrum. They say it still takes time to build out a network after the purchase, and economists warn that the rule creates disincentives for smaller carriers to buy and develop license property.

Then there's the dreaded D Block—that 10 MHz chunk of spectrum reserved for public safety use that failed to sell in the agency's massive 700 MHz auction of 2008. The FCC will propose rules to try the sell-off again in early 2011, this time with fewer requirements imposed on the commercial entity that would share the license with public safety agencies.

And Sirius XM fans will be paying close attention when the FCC releases its Order creating (hopefully) non-interference rules between the Wireless Communications Services and Satellite Digital Audio Radio services bands in the 2.3 GHz zone. The Commission sees this move as a crucial first step towards freeing up the spectrum the wireless industry says it needs to satisfy the public's lust for smartphones. But Sirius insists that the non-interference solutions the agency has come up with so far won't work.

Add to this a proceeding on cybersecurity, broadband survivability, the spectrum holdings on Native American tribal lands, about seven other items, and you've got a very busy Q2 for the FCC.

Q3: July through September

Continuing the agency's effort to find more spectrum for the wireless industry, sometime during this quarter the Commission will propose rules to "promote innovative use of broadcast TV spectrum while preserving free, over-the-air broadcasting." This is a polite way of saying that the FCC wants to figure out ways to convince TV station owners to relinquish a big portion of their licenses. CTIA - the Wireless Association has proposed a plan that involves an extensive makeover of over-the-air TV. We won't know until Q3 how much of that scheme the government wants to adopt.

Meanwhile, the FCC's campaign to get unlicensed broadband or "white space" devices out the door should be topped and tailed during this quarter, with an Order setting up final rules and appointing a company to administer the databases designed to assure non-interference between broadcasters and white space broadband transmitters.

The FCC's special access rules will also be reviewed during these months. These are the conditions and rates under which businesses and smaller wireless companies buy wholesale line access from the big telcos—a huge issue for Sprint, T-Mobile, tw-telecom, Clearwire, cbeyond, and a boatload of other small- to medium-sized telcos. Expect them to loudly make their case for less onerous prices.

Q4: October to December

Perhaps the most important aspect of this final quarter will be the conclusion of the agency's efforts to revamp its Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes low income phone service, rural carriers, and the computer needs of schools, libraries, and rural health care centers.

The plan is to move the USF from subsidizing phone service to funding broadband. In Q2 the FCC will take on the centerpiece of this challenge, the USF's "High Cost" Fund, proposing ways to get the transition started for carriers that receive high cost fund cash.

Then in Q3 the agency will propose rules for a Mobility Fund to help states that lag behind the country in 3G wireless access and suggest ways to cut red tape out of the FCC's notoriously complicated E-Rate program, which subsidizes libraries and schools. Finally, in Q4, the FCC will launch rules for its Connect America Fund, designed to subsidize rural and low income area broadband services.

These are only a few of the proceedings, inquiries, workshops, and conferences the Commission has planned for the next nine months. And none of these events deal with the issue that has drawn headlines over the last few days: how the agency will revamp its Open Internet (net neutrality) rules in light of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rebuke. That problem, however, will hover closely over all this as the FCC considers its options.