Judicial Watch sued the FCC over a Freedom of Information Act request seeking communications between the White House and the commission about the delay in the DTV switchover. Judicial Watch sought “any records concerning the decision to delay” the switch and “any and all records of communication” between the White House and commission about putting off the switch, it said in a lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court in Washington. The FCC fulfilled the first part of the request with volumes of heavily blacked-out material, but it told Judicial Watch it would need to check with the White House before releasing the documents, the lawsuit said. Judicial Watch is concerned that political motivations besides protecting consumers affected by the switch were at play in the decision to delay, said President Tom Fritton. “We're not pursuing the FOIA necessarily just to get more information about the DTV transition, but to uncover whether or not there was any corruption behind the decision to delay the transition,” he said. Judicial Watch is concerned the delay may have given a leg up to Clearwire by delaying Verizon and AT&T’s access to 700 MHz spectrum. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., raised those concerns in February and questioned Clearwire Executive Vice President Gerard Salemme’s involvement with federal DTV policy (CED Feb 4 p6). The FCC declined to comment.

An intercarrier compensation overhaul would prevent disputes regarding access fees charged for VoIP traffic, said AT&T and other wireline carriers in comments filed Wednesday at the FCC. AT&T urged the FCC to reject a petition by Texas competitive local exchange carrier UTex asking the FCC to arbitrate a dispute with AT&T over $7.5 million in access fees charged by AT&T for VoIP traffic terminating on the public switched telephone network (CD July 29 p8). The dispute isn’t the right context to make rules, but FCC guidance on the switched-IP access charge issue is needed, the carrier said.

Must-pass satellite legislation likely won’t get a floor debate in the Senate due to direction from Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., numerous Hill and industry officials told us. The no-floor time marching orders have been communicated to the Commerce and Judiciary committees overseeing the legislation, which covers a wide array of intersecting and complex industry and policy issues. A basic bill that gets dropped into an appropriations measure may be the end product the Senate passes at year’s end, many predicted.

CenturyLink asked the FCC to reject calls by state consumer advocates to allow additional state oversight of the takeover of Embarq by CenturyTel that created CenturyLink (CD July 29 p8). The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel said the FCC should require that state public service commissions and state advocates be given access to CenturyTel wholesale reports and receive quarterly updates about how broadband commitments are being carried out. The consumer advocates “have not met the standards for reconsideration,” because they failed to identify errors or raise new facts, CenturyLink said in an opposition filing last week. “Modifying the commitments, after the fact, is also unnecessary and entirely inappropriate.” Competitive local exchange carriers are “more than capable of monitoring the wholesale performance they receive to ensure the merger” doesn’t disrupt their service, the carrier said. And the FCC already has a duty under the Broadband Data Improvement Act to develop a system to get information to state commissions about high-speed access, it said.

Letters that the FCC Wireless Bureau sent to Apple, Google and AT&T -- on the blocking of Google Voice service over the iPhone -- put in question some revenue of wireless carriers, financial analysts said Monday. Various public interest groups welcomed the inquiry. Meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from the Apple board.

Letters that the FCC Wireless Bureau sent to Apple, Google and AT&T -- on the blocking of the Google Voice service over the iPhone -- put in question some revenue of wireless carriers, financial analysts said Monday. Various public interest groups welcomed the inquiry. Meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from the Apple board.

Legislation (S-251) allowing targeted jamming of cellphone signals in prisons is scheduled for markup at an Aug. 5 Senate Commerce Committee meeting. The bill has been revised several times to address concerns raised at a July 15 hearing (CED July 16 p5) over interference with emergency communications and commercial calls in locales that use jamming technology. The bill calls for a study not only to gauge interference likelihood, but also a review of other blocking technologies preventing inmates’ illegal use of phones inside prisons.

Legislation (S-251) allowing targeted jamming of cellphone signals in prisons is scheduled for markup at an Aug. 5 Senate Commerce Committee meeting. The bill has been revised several times to address concerns raised at a July 15 hearing (CD July 16 p2) over interference with emergency communications and commercial calls in an area that would use jamming technology. The bill calls for a study not only to gauge interference likelihood, but also a review of other blocking technologies preventing inmates’ illegal use of phones inside prisons.

A group representing small telecom companies fears that exclusive online deals between programmers and large pay-TV companies for subscription programming could make it harder for its members to remain competitive as content continues moving to broadband. The worry was spelled out in a filing Wednesday by the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies in the FCC’s review of the video programming market. OPASTCO wants to make sure that new projects including Time Warner and Comcast’s TV Everywhere -- which has already draw concern that access will be restricted (WID June 25 p4) -- are “open and non-exclusive,” the filing said.

A group representing small telecom companies fears that exclusive online deals between programmers and large pay-TV companies for subscription programming could make it harder for its members to remain competitive as content continues moving to broadband. The worry was spelled out in a filing Wednesday by the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies in the FCC’s review of the video programming market. OPASTCO wants to make sure that new projects including Time Warner and Comcast’s TV Everywhere -- which has already draw concern that access will be restricted (CD June 25 p2) -- are “open and non-exclusive,” the filing said.