Companies buying special access services are bracing for higher prices in areas where AT&T and Windstream’s pricing flexibility petitions were deemed granted by the FCC this week (CD June 26 p4). To CLECs and businesses that purchase the dedicated high-capacity circuits, the increased prices in price flex markets are an indication that those supposedly competitive areas are not competitive at all. After all, their thinking goes, competition should drive costs down. But ILECs maintain that the dynamic is more complicated than the other side claims.

The FCC’s recent revision of its program carriage rules was consistent with the First Amendment, the Cable Act and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), attorneys for the commission said in a brief filed this week with U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (http://xrl.us/bnc4pn). The commission is defending the rules against a petition from the NCTA and Time Warner Cable.

FCC options of scaling back program access rules drew no support from telcos, DBS providers and small cable operators, while operators that also own programming want the ban on exclusive deals for such content fully sunset. That’s according to initial comments on a rulemaking notice (CD March 22 p8). The document sought comment on whether to sunset the rules -- last extended for five years and expiring Oct. 5. Options the commission sought comment on other than keeping the rules or removing them in their entirety drew no support in docket 12-68. USTelecom and some others linked broadband service to keeping the rules, as cable rivals have in the past on video competition, saying subscription-video provider access to channels affiliated with operators helps them sell video and broadband.

The FCC’s Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) working groups were too heavily influenced by industry executives, who were over-represented on the panels, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) said in reply comments filed with the FCC this week (http://xrl.us/bncc9u). The group urged the FCC to be skeptical of the committee’s conclusions. It also complained that the companies and trade associations represented on the committee were not interested in reaching solutions. “The advisory reports are ultimately weak and unbalanced,” the ACB said. “We must urge, in the most strenuous terms, that the Commission look to the reports as mostly representing one side,” it said. FCC staff did a “commendable” job of raising potential solutions during VPAAC meetings, but few of those appeared to make it into the final reports, the ACB said.

The FCC’s Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) working groups were too heavily influenced by industry executives, who were over-represented on the panels, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) said in reply comments filed with the FCC this week (http://xrl.us/bncc9u). The group urged the FCC to be skeptical of the committee’s conclusions. It also complained that the companies and trade associations represented on the committee were not interested in reaching solutions. “The advisory reports are ultimately weak and unbalanced,” the ACB said. “We must urge, in the most strenuous terms, that the Commission look to the reports as mostly representing one side,” it said. FCC staff did a “commendable” job of raising potential solutions during VPAAC meetings, but few of those appeared to make it into the final reports, the ACB said.

The real challenge of creating the new FirstNet comes down to communications and coordination, said utility company leaders, public safety representatives and government officials Wednesday during a United Telecommunications Council (UTC) workshop. The workshop focused on how best to foster cooperation among the groups in anticipation of FirstNet’s rollout in the 700 MHz band, as authorized by February’s spectrum law. Government officials noted Tuesday at a UTC session (CD June 20 p5) that utilities often act as first responders in emergencies and should have access to this premium spectrum along with public safety officials. Chris Essid, director of the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Emergency Communications said developing an interoperable broadband network is only a 20 percent technical challenge and 80 percent coordination. “It’s that coordination that needs to improve,” he said.

Automated extraction of Facebook profile information by competing social networks or for integration on personal portals raises a bar exam’s worth of liability issues not only for the outside companies but also even for users who authorize their activity, legal experts said Tuesday. Many of the questions remain wide open, leaving the terrain uncertain for all the businesses involved, they said on an American Bar Association webcast. Companies are “facing very different and irreconcilable theories of what is going to make them liable,” said Sebastian Kaplan of the Fenwick & West law firm. A Senate measure would shift the terrain against Facebook and other sites that restrict data portability, he said.

GENEVA -- Revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) later this year should maintain a high-level focus on boosting investment and innovation, a group of 45 operators in Africa, the Middle East and Asia told an ITU Council working group in a submission to a meeting this week on conference preparations. Submissions variously called for boosting confidence and security in using networks, provisions to address cybersecurity, calling line identification, the availability of routing information, international Internet connectivity, naming and numbering, taxation of gear and services, and proposals to address fraud and cybercrime, which have raised past opposition. The submissions were made to a June 20-22 ITU Council meeting preparing for a December world conference, but they aren’t official conference proposals.

GENEVA -- Revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) later this year should maintain a high-level focus on boosting investment and innovation, a group of 45 operators in Africa, the Middle East and Asia told an ITU Council working group in a submission to a meeting this week on conference preparations. Submissions variously called for boosting confidence and security in using networks, provisions to address cybersecurity, calling line identification, the availability of routing information, international Internet connectivity, naming and numbering, taxation of gear and services, and proposals to address fraud and cybercrime, which have raised past opposition. The submissions were made to a June 20-22 ITU Council meeting preparing for a December world conference, but they aren’t official conference proposals.

BRUSSELS -- Europe must immediately start working on a policy for use of the 700 MHz band or risk isolation, said Radio Spectrum Policy Group Chairman Roberto Viola at a Forum Europe spectrum management conference Tuesday. The band was tentatively allocated at WRC-12 for global use for mobile broadband, and the question now is whether Europe can afford to lag behind in the debate, he said. Although the band in Europe is occupied by terrestrial broadcasters, it can’t be ignored, nor can the future of broadcasting, he said.