The Obama administration deserves high marks for the speed and aplomb with which it doled out Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grants, but BTOP was too narrow and conservative in the kinds of projects it picked to fund, said two speakers on a panel Tuesday at the monthly Broadband Breakfast in Washington.
Operators who want to offer service in the 3.65 GHz band have yet to ask the FCC to change its rules, two attorneys active in wireless issues said late Monday, at the Wireless Communications Association show. Until operators come forward, the FCC won’t have anything to act on even if it chose to make changes, said Steve Coran, who represents WISPs among his clients, and Paul Sinderbrand, longtime counsel to the WCA.
CHICAGO -- The 3.65 GHz band, which the FCC allocated for use on a hybrid, semi-licensed basis in 2005, is proving to be a “success story,” said Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp. The band rules have been seen as offering a new way for the commission to regulate spectrum, with a model that could possibly be used in other bands as well. Knapp spoke Monday at a special one-day session at a Wireless Communications Association conference.
The FCC should be “vigilant” in its oversight of middle-mile prices and access, seek public comment on whether its rules on retirement of copper-wire networks let ILECs keep small carriers out of the market, consider a rulemaking on access to and device interoperability on the newly auctioned 700 MHz spectrum and “examine the impact” on CLECs before increasing rates on pole attachments, the Small Business Administration’s advocacy office said. The comments came in response to last month’s public notice from the Wireline Bureau, which asked for input on how broadband affects small and medium-sized businesses. SBA said its comments reflect the views of leaders from small broadband companies who participated in an Oct. 5 agency roundtable.
Congress could move on spectrum legislation next year no matter which political party is in control, a telecom aide to Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told a Law Seminars International conference Monday. A package of noncontroversial spectrum items could be attached to a reauthorization of the FCC’s auction authority, said the aide, Matthew Hussey. FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman urged Congress to quickly authorize incentive auctions to free up broadcaster spectrum.
Cablevision was refusing to let Verizon carry the first New York gubernatorial debate to its FiOS pay-TV customers, the telco said. Cablevision was sponsoring the 90-minute faceoff among gubernatorial candidates Andrew Cuomo, Carl Paladino and five other smaller-party contenders from 7 to and 8:30 Monday night.
Online content accessibility was raised for the first time in a continuing dispute (CD Oct 15 p2) between a broadcaster and cable operator when News Corp. wouldn’t let Cablevision subscribers access the Internet programming from its Fox network because of a linear content blackout, communications lawyers said. A retransmission consent impasse begun around 12:01 a.m. Saturday means all 3 million of the cable operators’ video subscribers can’t see Fox’s three New York and Philadelphia TV stations via Cablevision, and a quick resolution may not occur, industry and government officials said. For more than half the day Saturday, all of Cablevision’s 2.6 million Internet service subscribers couldn’t access any Fox content on Hulu, the video website partly owned by News Corp.
FCC commissioners soon will consider whether to reverse course from a staff ruling, an independent arbitrator’s decision and a draft Media Bureau order from early 2009 that until recently was circulating in a case involving Time Warner Cable and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, agency and industry officials said last week. They said agency officials will begin more-serious consideration of a new bureau draft order on whether the cable operator must distribute telecasts of Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles baseball games to its approximately 1.5 million subscribers in North Carolina. The new draft started circulating Oct. 5, replacing one that was circulated by Kevin Martin on his last business day as chairman and that would have forced carriage, agency officials said.
Media companies are working on new applications for Web browsers and other platforms as the popularity of mobile “apps” is spreading online and to the TV, Internet industry executives said. Some see the forthcoming Web application stores such as Google’s Chrome Web Store as a way to find more revenue from their online content, they said. “Publishers will be very keen to get involved in this,” said Alex Vlasto, vice president of marketing at Alot.com, which is developing a Web browser app bar, similar to a toolbar. “It will simply be another channel to distribute their content, and importantly a channel where … they can have an opportunity to charge for content,” he said.
Industry and FCC attention has turned to the AllVid rulemaking for all pay-TV providers’ services to be accessible from consumer electronics devices, now that commissioners have approved an order making fixes in the interval until the gateway devices become available (CD Oct 15 p4). A rulemaking that could be voted on this year now becomes the focus of lobbying at the FCC concerning video devices, agency and industry officials said. No AllVid item is ready for a commission vote, and it’s unclear when such a rulemaking notice will circulate, commission officials said.