The Senate sent telecom legislation to President Bush on Wed. evening in a literal 11th-hour vote. By approving HR-5419, the Senate approved 3 legislative measures and ended weeks of political infighting about everything from Congressional Budget Office scoring to appropriators’ authority and boxing regulation. Sources said the White House would sign the act, which includes the spectrum relocation trust fund, E-911 funding and a temporary fix to accounting problems in the E-rate program. The junk fax bill, HR-4600, was the only legislation that had a reasonable chance to pass and didn’t. “The legislation brings needed changes that will promote homeland security and increase wireless broadband opportunities,” FCC Chmn. Powell said.
At our deadline, Congress had taken no action on pending telecom legislation and appeared unlikely to do so. Conflicting stories and behind-the-scenes finger pointing highlighted the debate this week, but congressional and industry sources attributed the collapse of legislation to one central theme: Political infighting and retaliation.
Rep. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) urged the FCC not to raise phone rates for U.S. military personnel. The FCC had considered applying Universal Service Fund and access charges to AT&T prepaid phone cards, but the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Act prohibited the FCC from taking any actions that could lead to an increase in rates for military personnel. Sweeney reminded FCC Chmn. Powell of the provision and said the Commission shouldn’t take any action that would lead to a rise in rates.
A new grassroots group called the Washington Bureau for Internet Advocacy (WBIA) has sprung up to fight Bell moves to deregulate wholesale Internet pricing. The organization said its members include ISPs, CLECs and individual customers who fear the incumbent carriers will raise their rates and destroy the independent Internet provision industry.
Technology experts expressed doubts Fri. about broadband over power lines (BPL) ever reaching large-scale deployment. Niche applications may be possible, but “if the question is whether it will be competitive with DSL and cable, I doubt it,” Dale Hatfield, dir. of the U. of Colo.’s Interdisciplinary Telecom Program, said at the FCBA-Practising Law Institute conference. “I look at the capability [of BPL], at the condition of the power lines and I think it’s unlikely to deliver what cable or fiber is capable of delivering,” said Verizon Wireless Exec. Vp Richard Lynch.
The draft TRO remand order circulating among commissioners doesn’t cover a wide area of issues, but rather is limited to concerns raised earlier this year by the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Jeffrey Carlisle said Thurs. at an FCBA-Practising Law Institute conference. Carlisle told the group that the court basically upheld the impairment standard set in the earlier TRO order “so we're using the upheld standard to review 3 elements” questioned by the court -- local switching, high-capacity loops and transport. “We're not starting from zero and building up an unbundling policy,” he said.
STANFORD, Cal. -- Regulatory pressures are converging with business and technology imperatives on regimenting communications and information technology, said Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Zittrain told a forum here late Mon. of the Stanford Center for Internet & Society that the same openness and wide availability that make the Internet a cornucopia of creativity and innovation also open it to hacker attacks, the free distribution of digital products and services and other crises that prompt restrictive reactions from powerful business and political forces.
Public TV stations are mostly ambivalent about PBS’s decision to lend its name to a commercial children’s channel being launched in partnership with Comcast, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop. Comcast and HIT would invest $75 million in the channel, set for launch in fall 2005. PBS and Sesame Workshop will put up no cash but will get 15% equity each for the PBS brand, broadcast cross-promotion and goodwill.
On November 19, 2004, the Senate passed the conference version of H.R. 1047, the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004. The House passed the conference version of H.R. 1047 on October 8, 2004. The conference version of H.R. 1047 has now been cleared for the White House.
As House and Senate staff closed offices for Thanksgiving, the prospects of several telecom bills seemed extremely bleak due to struggles over Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain’s (R-Ariz.) boxing bill. House, Senate and industry sources indicate there don’t appear to be negotiations on the issue. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) objects to moving the boxing legislation, and sources said McCain will let nothing else pass unless the boxing bill is passed.