The House Judiciary Committee said Wed. it will hold a Feb. 28 hearing on the proposed XM-Sirius merger, with Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin testifying and other witnesses to be announced. Members need to examine whether the merger would improve choice and lower prices for consumers, said Judiciary Committee Chmn. Conyers (D-Mich.). Conyers is chairing a new bipartisan antitrust task force that will stay in session until Aug. -- its first order of business will be the proposed satellite merger.
The FCC agreed to ease regulation of Qwest long distance services, but with conditions including a requirement that it set up a “performance metrics” plan so the FCC can see if the company is providing nondiscriminatory special access service to competitors. A “forbearance” petition approved late Tues. lets Qwest combine its long distance operations with local services without triggering “dominant carrier” rules such as tariff filing. The vote was 4-0. Comr. McDowell didn’t participate because his former employer, CompTel, opposed the petition.
The House Judiciary Committee has set a Feb. 28 hearing on the proposed Sirius-XM merger (CED Feb 21 p1), with Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin scheduled to testify, the committee said late Wed. Additional witnesses will be announced, the committee said.
The CEA criticized a N. Mex. bill sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque) to charge a 1% excise tax onto TVs, videogames and videogame gear sold in N.M. A state treasury- run “healthy kids outdoor fund” would get 95% of revenue collected by the tax. “While this bill tackles a laudable goal of providing more outdoor programs for kids, it seeks to do so through misguided punitive taxation on a few targeted products,” a CEA spokeswoman said Tues.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice and request for comments on Canada's request for World Trade Organization (WTO) consultations with the U.S. regarding U.S. subsidies and other domestic support measures for corn and other agricultural products.
A federal appeals court indicated it may ask the FCC to reconsider parts of an order requiring VoIP providers to contribute to the Universal Service Fund. A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. questioned possible disparities in the FCC’s treatment of VoIP carriers in relation to other telecom carriers and asked the agency for legal justification for several sections of the order approved last summer (CD June 22 p1), during oral argument Fri.
A federal appeals court indicated it may ask the FCC to reconsider parts of an order requiring VoIP providers to contribute to the Universal Service Fund. A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. questioned possible disparities in the FCC’s treatment of VoIP carriers in relation to other telecom carriers and asked the agency for legal justification for several sections of the order approved last summer (WID June 22 p8), during oral argument Fri.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Govt. officials defended security-education campaigns against criticism by a technologist who called many consumers “stupid” and an inherent weak link in defense against Internet attacks. Marc Groman, FTC chief privacy officer, said it wasn’t “helpful” to characterize consumers that way -- as fellow panelist Ira Winkler just had. Winkler is Internet Security Advisors Group pres., an author and a former NSA employee. Later, Winkler softened his statement, calling many consumers “naive” and “uneducated” about security. The dispute arose in an RSA Security conference discussion here late Wed. sponsored by TechNet and the Business Software Alliance.
The RIAA got a qualified rebuke from an Okla. court for the “appearance” that the trade group initiated secondary infringement claims against an innocent defendant to spur a settlement, after RIAA went after her daughter as the “primary” infringer. U.S. Dist. Court, Oklahoma City, Judge Lee West granted the defense motion in Capitol v. Foster for attorney’s fees but left the exact amount to further discovery. Marilyn Barringer-Thomson, attorney for mother Debbie Foster, submitted an itemized bill for about $50,000 in attorney’s fees (WID Aug 28 p1), but West allowed her to “supplement” her request -- probably to account for the past several months of work on the case. An RIAA spokeswoman told us the group was reviewing the opinion and believed West “got it wrong,” but hadn’t decided how to proceed.
State laws banning or restricting municipal entry into the communications business and aggressive marketing by wireless have resulted in municipalities passing over BPL for broadband deployments, officials said. Only 8 of the 30 BPL trials or commercial deployments are being done by municipal utilities, according to the United Power Line Council (UPLC). This is despite the fact that it’s a lot easier for municipalities to move on BPL than investor-owned utilities, said UPLC Regulatory Dir. Brett Kilbourne.