Keep interconnected VoIP eligible for Universal Service Fund E-Rate schools and libraries support, a cross section of industry and E-Rate applicants said in Thursday comments on a rulemaking. But commenters differed on funding year 2009 eligibility for filtering software, dark fiber and other new services.
Keep interconnected VoIP eligible for Universal Service Fund E-Rate schools and libraries support, a cross section of industry and E-Rate applicants said in Thursday comments on a rulemaking. But commenters differed on funding year 2009 eligibility for filtering software, dark fiber and other new services.
Private submarine cable operators support a regulatory fee structure proposed by AT&T and Verizon for submarine cable systems, FCC and industry officials told us Wednesday. The two sides are working on language and implementation issues, but are near formal agreement, we're told. The FCC has promised to act by Sept. 29 on the issue (CD Sept 5 p8). Level 3 and the other submarine cable operators, which earlier pitched a collective proposal, now believe the AT&T- Verizon plan, while likely to mean higher fees, is more fair, said an industry official close to the proceeding.
Legislation requiring pre-paid calling card companies to accurately disclose terms of service unanimously passed the House Commerce consumer protection subcommittee Tuesday. Work on a package of amendments was deferred to the full committee at an afternoon markup session, giving lawmakers more time to resolve disagreements over sections of the bill. Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., suggested in comments he supports the FTC’s request to allow it authority over telecom carriers in policing pre-paid calling card fraud.
The Department of Homeland Security has no coherent structure for cybersecurity authority, members of the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency told the House Homeland Cybersecurity Subcommittee Tuesday. They recommended that authority be transferred to the White House as much as feasible. The group, founded by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is formally chaired by Subcommittee Chairman James Langevin, D-R.I., and Ranking Member Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Commission members criticized the White House as keeping government employees and business in the dark on the administration’s cybersecurity initiative, announced in January.
The FCC should require Cox to license a programming service that carries San Diego Padres baseball games to AT&T’s U-verse IPTV service -- although the network is delivered over fiber, AT&T said in a complaint filed Thursday. Typically, networks like Cox’s Channel 4 San Diego, and a handful of other cable-owned regional sports networks that don’t touch satellite transponders, aren’t covered by rules that call for vertically-integrated programmers to deal fairly with competing pay-TV operators. Critics call this the “terrestrial loophole.”
The public’s right to government-funded health research online was weighed against publishers’ intellectual-property rights at a House IP Subcommittee hearing Thursday. A fiscal 2008 appropriations bill gave the National Institutes of Health authority to require those getting federal research grants to provide their final manuscripts to NIH’s PubMed Central Web site, which offers free access, a year after publication. The hearing concentrated on publishers’ costs in arranging peer review for articles, in addition to publishers’ loss of subscriptions.
T-Mobile asked the FCC not to adopt new requirements for dual-mode CMRS-VoIP phones as the commission revises rules for VoIP E-911. The dual-mode phone issue loomed large last month as commissioners debated a rulemaking required by the NET 911 Improvement Act. Other commenters said the dual-mode issue appears unique to T-Mobile and asked the FCC to table the issue to focus on the Act’s main thrust: Ensuring that interconnected VoIP providers have access to E911 services.
“Skulduggery” in the prepaid calling card business must be stamped out, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said at a hearing he chaired Wednesday on his reform bill (S-2998). Consumer advocates and Federal Trade Commission Chairman William Kovacic agreed that stronger enforcement and better consumer education could keep many low-income consumers from unwittingly buying cards that don’t deliver promised services. Kovacic also made a plug for repealing the common carrier exemption from FTC enforcement, which he said blocks his commission from going after all bad actors.
Opinion on whether the Department of Justice’s approval of Sirius’ take over of XM will change the way mergers are scrutinized depends on whether you liked or disliked the outcome. At an American Bar Association panel Wednesday, proponents said they believe the merger won’t affect future merger analyses, while opponents believe it will.