The U.S. Solicitor Gen. (SG) announced Wed. he won’t appeal the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling that vacated a significant part of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO) -- raising questions about whether the high court will take the case and what will happen to the telecom market. The appeals court decision, effective June 15, would nullify key FCC UNE rules, including those that permit competitors to gain UNE-P access to Bell facilities at TELRIC-based prices.

FCC Wireline Bureau Chief William Maher said the bureau is looking at possible “default rules” for carriers if the FCC’s UNE regime is vacated as a result of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C.’s, ruling on the agency’s Triennial Review Order (TRO). At a media breakfast Tues., Maher said UNE relationships among carriers are governed by interconnection agreements, and most of those agreements have “change of law” provisions that determine what happens if FCC rules or laws change. However, terms vary among carriers and from agreement to agreement, so the agency is looking at whether there should be a “backup set of provisions,” he said.

The FCC’s Inspector Gen. Office (OIG) has become “increasingly concerned” about slowness in resolving audit findings and recovering funds in investigations of e-rate malfeasance, it said in its latest report for the 6 months ended March 31: “We have observed that findings from audits conducted by USAC [the Universal Service Administrative Co.] are not being resolved in a timely manner and that, as a result, timely action is not being taken to recover inappropriately disbursed funds. In some cases, it appears that the delay is caused by USAC. In other cases, findings are not being resolved because USAC is not receiving necessary guidance from the Commission in a timely manner.”

The FCC should require all carriers to participate in the exchange of customer data, known as Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE), the Bell companies said in comments filed Thurs. BellSouth said the Commission should replace the current voluntary industry standard CARE process with a mandatory process applicable to all LECs and IXCs. SBC urged the Commission to adopt minimum data exchange obligations and apply them equally to IXCs, CLECs and ILECs. But Verizon said the FCC shouldn’t require the ILECs to “make up for the failure of other carriers to provide customer information to the long distance carriers in the CARE format.” Rather, it said the Commission should require the CLECs that don’t support CARE to do so.

The FCC’s IP rulemaking is so vague that it’s impossible to provide a regulatory analysis of its impact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The Dept. of Homeland Security, meanwhile, said the FCC may need to become even more active in regulating IP-enabled services, in comments on the FCC rulemaking (CD June 1 p1). Other commenters questioned the FCC’s authority to regulate IP services at all.

An inter-industry group seeking consensus on intercarrier compensation reform is still meeting frequently and plans to make a recommendation to the FCC soon, even though several key members have dropped out (CD May 21 p1). No one involved in the Intercarrier Compensation Forum (ICF) seemed certain about when the recommendation would be made. “A week or 2 maybe,” said one participant. “Weeks not months,” said another.

The FCC denied petitions by EchoStar, NAB and MSTV on the model for predicting broadcast TV field strength received at individual homes. The petitions for reconsideration challenged the process the FCC used to establish values for signal loss quantities in the Longley-Rice model, which is used to establish whether households are eligible to receive certain satellite services. The FCC said the predictive model was reasonably derived. The petitions also raised concern over the independence of people designated to conduct site reception tests and of test procedures. The NAB and MSTV were concerned that field testers would be inclined to act in the interest of the satellite carriers. But the FCC argued that the American Radio Relay League -- which it appointed as the independent and neutral entity to conduct tests -- will “designate qualified testers and we expect that the tester’s professionalism and any track record regarding their impartiality will be taken into consideration.” While the FCC didn’t adopt EchoStar’s suggestion on ways to speed the testing, it did agree that EchoStar raised a valid public interest concern. The Commission gets many subscriber complaints that requests for on-site signal tests are ignored or delayed. The FCC said Congress should address the timing procedures when it passes a new Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA): “In the interim, we are continuing to monitor the situation closely and expect that the satellite providers and local network affiliates will coordinate their efforts to implement the SHVIA provisions as Congress intended.”

The FCC denied petitions by EchoStar, NAB and MSTV on the model for predicting broadcast TV field strength received at individual homes. The petitions for reconsideration challenged the process the FCC used to establish values for signal loss quantities in the Longley-Rice model, which is used to establish whether households are eligible to receive certain satellite home viewing services. The FCC said the predictive model was reasonably derived. The petitions also raised concern over the independence of people designated to conduct site reception tests and of test procedures. The NAB and MSTV were concerned that field testers would be inclined to act in the interest of the satellite carriers. But the FCC argued that the American Radio Relay League, which it appointed as the independent and neutral entity to conduct tests, will “designate qualified testers and we expect that the tester’s professionalism and any track record regarding their impartiality will be taken into consideration.” While the FCC didn’t adopt EchoStar’s suggestion on ways to expedite the testing process, it did agree that EchoStar raised a valid public interest concern. The Commission’s call centers receives numerous subscriber complaints that their requests for on-site signal tests are being ignored or delayed. The FCC said Congress should address the timing procedures when it passes a new Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA): “In the interim, we are continuing to monitor the situation closely and expect that the satellite providers and local network affiliates will coordinate their efforts to implement the SHVIA provisions as Congress intended.”

House Commerce Committee leaders asked the FCC for an in-depth feasibility study of a la carte programming and what’s holding cable and satellite operators back from offering more choices to consumers. In a letter to FCC Chmn. Powell, Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.), ranking member Rep. Dingell (D-Mich.), Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R- Mich.), ranking subcommittee member Rep. Markey (D-Mass.), and Rep. Deal (R-Ga.) asked a series of questions and asked the FCC to submit a report to Commerce by Nov. 18. Barton said earlier in the week that they would be submitting the letter (CD May 19 p8).

Sens. Brownback (R-Kan.), Clinton (D-N.Y.)and Lieberman (D-Conn.) introduced legislation Wed. authorizing a $90 million federal grant program for research into the effects of electronic media on children’s physical and psychological development. The Children & Media Research Advancement Act (CAMRA) would establish a program within the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development to look at the impact of all forms of media, including TV, radio, videogames and the Internet, on children’s behavior at the early stages of brain development.