Carriers Oppose Duty to Send DTV Transition Notices to All Subscribers

The Rural Cellular Association noted that the mandate was based “the good intentions” of a few members of Congress, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the telecom subcommittee, that ETCs should send their customers notices about the transition. The FCC should at least resist expanding the notice requirement beyond Lifeline and Link-Up customers, the RCA said. “However, if it does, the Commission must first provide significantly more factual support for the expanded notification requirement, allow interested parties to comment on the specific facts provided by the Commission supporting the proposed expansion (other than a suggestion by one well-meaning Congressman), and support its decision with a cost-benefit analysis based upon its cost estimate for complying with the proposed expanded requirement,” the RCA said.

ETCs will face “undue cost and burden” if forced to notify customers about the DTV transition, said the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance. “Rough estimates of the cost of printing and mailing the inserts alone run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars over the duration of the program for certain of ITTA members,” it said. Members will incur additional costs when call centers receive a deluge of calls from customers confused about “why their local telecommunications provider is sending them information regarding DTV,” the ITTA said.

The CTIA said extending the mandate “however well intentioned, will do little to further the Commission’s goal of reaching those impacted by the DTV transition and will likely confuse more customers than it will inform.” CTIA added that “beyond a general statement in support of additional public education” the FCC “has not identified any reason as to why all of an ETC’s subscribers, particularly wireless subscribers, are in need of being notified of the DTV transition.”

Requiring ETCs to send notices would do little good, the CTIA said. “There is nothing to indicate that extending the existing DTV education requirement to all of an ETC’s customers in its designated service area will actually reach the Commission’s target audience better than the existing requirement,” the group said.

The FCC shouldn’t penalize telephone companies that are voluntarily notifying customers, said USTelecom, citing efforts by its members. Some rural incumbent carriers are already notifying their customers, said the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. But the costs could be too high for many small rural ILECs, they said. And smaller carriers that contract out billing services would likely face additional charges from billing vendors, they said.

The requirement raises “serious First Amendment concerns,” USTelecom said. “These proposals would have the government mandating private speech on a topic of public policy debate that has nothing to do with the relationship between these companies and their customers.”

If the FCC requires DTV notices, it should exempt prepaid wireless, AT&T said. “Because such customers prepay… AT&T and other wireless providers have had no need to establish detailed billing records for those customers, and consequently lack the information, systems, and methods and procedures to provide bills or other monthly notices to those customers,” it said.

Wireless carrier Alltel said it has taken “significant steps” to provide DTV transition information to Lifeline/Link-Up customers, but extending the requirement to all customers doesn’t make sense. “Non-Lifeline-Link-Up customers in ETC areas are no different than any other wireless customer in any other area of the country,” Alltel said. “Therefore, there is no reasonable basis for singling out these customers for the DTV notice simply because they live in areas where there is a wireless ETC.”

The cable industry shouldn’t have to do more than already envisioned under its $200 million education and PSA plan, the NCTA said. Spots that would be worth $94 million if the airtime was sold have already aired, it said. Apart from questions about whether it’s “legally sustainable” for the commission to require pay-TV companies to air PSAs, the requirements are “unnecessary and unwarranted” because Americans’ awareness of DTV has risen over the past six months and probably will keep rising, it said. “The Commission nonetheless seeks to impose further rules targeting people with sets connected to cable, a population that will largely need to take no action -- and who are already receiving extensive voluntary public service announcements.” If the FCC requires on-air education by operators, the American Cable Association said, it “must include an exception for small cable systems” that can’t take part because they lack the headend equipment needed.

In joint comments, DirecTV and Dish Network said forcing them to air spots could exceed the FCC’s authority and be barred by the Constitution. Their subscribers will keep getting the same TV service after Feb. 17 that they had before, so requiring the satellite providers and others to run ads “would subject us to a greater regulatory burden than the broadcasters themselves, a bizarre result,” they said. Dish Network has aired more than 4,000 PSAS, and DirecTV through May had run 3,500, their filing said. “The breadth and scope of these efforts make it both unnecessary and undesirable for the Commission to craft new additional regulations at this late stage, which will divert resources away from other more tailored consumer efforts.”