Treating the purchase of what would have been a competitor as anti-competitive and warning of regulatory overreach were among suggestions groups made to DOJ and the FTC as the agencies consider new vertical merger guidelines. Comments on the draft were due Wednesday, and the agencies plan workshops March 11 and 18 (see 2002030052). The agencies didn't publicly post comment submissions.
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
The FCC will face big pushback from the mental health community to some telecom arguments for a longer phase-in of 988 for a national three-digit suicide hotline number or for looking at 211 in its place (see 2002180021). The significant publicity about the agency’s 988 direction (see 1911190054) also complicates the matter, we were told this week. Chairman Ajit Pai's office didn't comment.
Cable and local government interests remain far apart on required advance notices of potential blackouts during carriage talks and on required service or rate change updates for local franchise authorities (LFA) (see 2002070003), in docket 19-347 replies this week. NCTA and America's Communications Association said local governments wrongly suggest cable operators should notify subscribers about the possibility of programming blackouts during contract negotiations. ACA said a flood of such notices could make subscribers less likely to pay attention to notices of actual lost carriage. NCTA said if the agency keeps the LFA notification requirement -- which it and ACA called an anachronism from when LFAs regulated cable rates -- it should be limited to basic service tier rate increases. Local interests including the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Los Angeles, Boston and Portland, Oregon, said the FCC lacks legal authority to ax the 30-day notice requirement. They questioned whether ending notification will mean more carriage spats because of no pre-blackout incentive to negotiate. The municipalities asked the agency to end its 90-day LFA written request for notice distributions rule.
Seams are showing with the C-Band Alliance (CBA) that could affect selection of C-band relocation coordinator. Rather than as one alliance, the FCC's draft order should treat Intelsat, SES and Telesat as separate companies, Intelsat said in a docket 18-122 posting Wednesday. Meanwhile, Alaska carriers are pleased and Hawaii doesn't have concerns about being carved out of the FCC's C-band plan for the continental U.S.
Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) implementation is in its early days, with new rules taking effect last week, but it's generally assumed the number of transactions coming under Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) jurisdiction will quadruple, said David Plotinsky, DOJ National Security Division principal deputy chief, at an FCBA CLE event Wednesday. He said the number of telecom deals subject to CFIUS also likely will quadruple, though there's less concern about deals on "the pipes" of telecom than on data. CFIUS experts said prospective deals now have to take CFIUS issues and possible mitigation steps into consideration early in the planning.
Intelsat is getting shareholder pressure to hold out for sweeter terms with the FCC's C-band clearing plan, but it's considered unlikely to go that route. The FCC and Intelsat didn't comment. Competitive issues also continue to be raised in filings at the agency.
The FCC indicates it wants a nationwide 988 suicide crisis hotline implemented in 18 months (see 1912120044), but telecom interests want a longer phase-in. Some also are urging the FCC to take a second look at expanded use of 211 for the hotline instead, as was recommended by its North American Numbering Council advisory group (see 1905080020), according to recent comments in docket 18-336. The FCC didn't comment. Reply comments on the 988 designation NPRM adopted 5-0 in December (see 1912120044) are due March 16.
The FCC is likely to face a variety of suggested changes to its C-band clearing and auction order on the February agenda (see 2002050057), including arguments for limits on spectrum aggregation and trying to ensure earth station repacking isn't done in a slapdash fashion, we are told. Chairman Ajit Pai has support of the two Republican commissioners. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, a critic of the band plan, is seen as a likely no vote, but fellow Democrat Commissioner Geoffrey Starks may be undecided.
Big U.S. accomplishments at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference include getting various millimeter wave bands identified for 5G, rules allowing coordination of geostationary and non-geostationary orbit satellites in the V band, and setting up a regulatory framework for NGSO mega constellations, said WRC-19 U.S. Ambassador Grace Koh in a Technology Policy Institute podcast released Thursday. Koh said a disappointment was failure to get the world to go along with higher power usage for outdoor Wi-Fi. She said Russia, China and Europe raised climate change issues in discussions about 5G use in the 24 GHz band and possible impacts to weather satellites, with those regions championing stringent protection values for those scientific services. Ultimately, the out-of-band emission power level adopted was "a political decision [but still] a good outcome," splitting the difference between what the various parties were advocating, she said.
Extending truth-in-billing (TIB) rules to cover interconnected VoIP and requiring voice providers separate government-mandated charges from other charges on bills is needless and potentially confusing to consumers, telecom interests said in docket 98-170 comments posted through Thursday. Not everyone agreed. Replies on the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs public notice are due March 13. USTelecom argued against a "'one size fits all' requirement on how voice service providers display ... line-item fees" since the market is ensuring providers bill "in a transparent and customer-friendly way." It said TIB rules being extended to iVoIP would be justified only if there were evidence of consumer concerns with bills. Verizon said rules let providers provide clear and useful information even in different ways. Incompas said the market hasn't changed over the past 16 years to now warrant such iVoIP TIB rules, as did Voice on the Net Coalition (see here). Cable interests argued for a broader approach. NCTA said few providers offer only voice, and the agency should focus on setting up "high-level principles for all voice services" that line up with the principles applicable to other services it oversees. If the agency does voice-specific iVoIP billing rules, applying existing rules would be "a poor fit," it said. It suggested changes, such as only requiring identification of line-item fees to make clear what the total price of a package of services is, instead of requiring a specific form of separation of fees. First doing a comprehensive review of the voice services market would help ensure any steps result in fewer consumer complaints while avoiding imposition of new costs on providers, America’s Communications Association said. It said members generally don't bill separately for local and long-distance service iVoIP, so breaking out such charges on customer bills as wireline common carriers do would serve no purpose. Backing the line-item billing suggested rule, NTCA said it would allow consumers to equally compare different providers. It backed TIB rules applied to iVoIP providers as "a natural extension of [FCC] rules." Kansas Corporation Commission said the TIB expansion would ensure all consumers have the same basic bill information. It said wireless and iVoIP service features are similar so it's reasonable to apply TIB rules to both.