Verizon, CompTel and XO Communications will intervene in Qwest’s appeal of an FCC decision denying the company a forbearance in Phoenix, court records show. The 10th U.S. Court of Appeals has extended the deadline to allow other intervenors to file briefs in the case, and lawyers for all three filed notices of intention to intervene. The new deadline is Sept. 20.
Direct broadcast satellite providers and broadcasters disagree about the antenna standard that the FCC should use in defining unserved households eligible to receive distant signals, they said in comments to the commission. The agency is following through on parts of the Satellite TV Localism and Extension Act (STELA), and both sides replied Tuesday to a rulemaking notice on the standard (CD July 29 p11) in docket 10-152. The proposed rule would continue to use the outdoor antenna standard, which classifies consumers who can’t receive broadcast signals by outdoor antenna as unserved and so eligible to get distant signals by DBS. STELA doesn’t specify the type of antenna to be used in the predictive model and on-site testing that determine distant signal eligibility. Under the law, the commission must act by Nov. 23 to implement the act.
The FCC is expected to take up an order on wireless 911 location accuracy at the Sept. 23 meeting, as well as notice of inquiry on 911 VoIP issues, agency and industry officials said Wednesday. A few other orders also may get a vote, including finalizing rules for the TV white spaces and an E-rate item. Odds appear slim at this point the commission will attempt to vote at next month’s meeting on a declaratory order reclassifying broadband transmission as a Title II service.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Civil liberties groups weren’t shy about airing publicly their dissatisfaction with the proposals of a sprawling coalition they've joined to seek a revamp of the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), members of the Digital Due Process Coalition, said they support its efforts but want to go considerably further in imposing probable cause and warrant requirements for government agents to get information about e-mail, cellphone calls and other newer forms of communications.
The U.S. must preserve network neutrality, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said at a broadband summit Tuesday at the University of Minnesota. Genachowski said he still feels “very strongly” about enforcing open Internet principles. He also urged Congress to speedily fund a nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband network for public safety.
Recent moves by wireless carriers to cuts prices, including Sprint Nextel’s likely move to a $40 pre-paid rate plan for unlimited wireless data, provide additional evidence that the industry is competitive, officials said this week. The topic has been a sore point since the FCC approved the latest version of its annual wireless competition report, which unlike previous reports does not find that the U.S. wireless market is competitive (CD May 21 p1).
Cellphone tax law, public safety, cybersecurity and universal service are among issues expected to get Congressional attention when members return from recess next month, Hill and industry officials said. But with elections in early November, Congress is quickly running out of time to finish pending legislation on those and other matters. “On telecom, the final few weeks will mostly be about laying the groundwork for a busy 2010-11 in areas like spectrum, privacy and broadband regulation,” said Concept Capital analyst Paul Gallant.
An appeals court’s recent reversal of an FCC finding that unscripted curse words aired during prime time broadcasts are indecent could be applied to another case involving the appearance of a woman’s buttocks, the U.S. government said. The case on fleeting swear words reversed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York (CD July 14 p1) wasn’t on the subject of scripted airing of nude adults, as occurred in the 2003 NYPD Blue episode now at issue. Yet the three-judge panel’s decision on Fox v. FCC “does not turn on such distinctions,” said the government’s brief.
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia tossed out two key provisions in rules for designated entities (DE) approved prior to the AWS-1 auction in 2006, which were also in effect during the 700 MHz auction that started the following year. Council Tree, which took the FCC to court, claimed victory Tuesday even though the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit did not invalidate the results of either auction.
The Google-Verizon deal takes wireless off the table in the FCC effort to reclassify broadband to be regulated under Title II of the Telecom Act because wireless is different, Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke explained in remarks at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. The exclusion of wireless, at least for now, was one of the most controversial aspects of the agreement when it was unveiled two weeks ago (CD Aug 10 p1).