Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, wants to use the appropriations process to stop the FCC from acting on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” broadband regulation proposal. At a hearing Wednesday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, Culberson said he would offer an amendment to FCC budget legislation prohibiting the agency from using any federal funds to “regulate the Internet,” including for reclassifying broadband transport under Title II of the Communications Act. Subcommittee Chairman Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said he doesn’t support the amendment and won’t work with Culberson to refine it.
The Iowa Utilities Board issued rules on access stimulation, also called “traffic pumping” by some, that take effect Aug. 4. The amendments issued Monday could be rendered obsolete by intercarrier compensation reforms envisioned by the National Broadband Plan, commission staff said. Until that FCC program takes effect, the Iowa commission will focus “on situations in which a local exchange carrier’s rates for intrastate access services are based, indirectly, on relatively low traffic volumes, but the LEC then experiences a relatively large and rapid increase in those volumes, resulting in a substantial increase in revenues without a matching increase in the total cost of providing access service,” it said.
With a week to go before a June 17 FCC vote on a broadband reclassification notice of inquiry, leading broadband and high-tech companies said Wednesday they're starting the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (TAG). That gives reclassification opponents another potential arrow in their quiver. This new group is being chaired by former commission official Dale Hatfield, who logged time last year as a member of the Obama Administration’s FCC transition team. The move comes as some members of Congress pressure the FCC to rethink changing how broadband is regulated (CD June 9 p1). Members include AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Dish, EchoStar, Time Warner Cable and Level 3, said a news release.
ESPN 3D debuts Friday with the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa, armed only with carriage agreements from Comcast and DirecTV. But ESPN 3D is satisfied with its position at launch, senior executives said in an interview. That’s because ESPN is well ahead of where it was, in terms of coverage of homes, when it began ESPN HD in March 2003, the executives said.
ESPN 3D’s initial start on cable has been limited by some operators’ reluctance to carry the network as they weigh the costs associated with it against the limited number of 3D TV sets in the market and the technical challenges related to acquiring the programming, industry executives said. Comcast will carry the network, but others are still making up their minds.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to face increasing pressure from Congress this summer to back down from a proposal to partially reclassify broadband as a Title II service, in favor of seeking compromise with industry. Even members of Genachowski’s own party have expressed reservations about the “third way” reclassification plan he proposed a month ago (CD May 7 p1), which would reclassify broadband transport from a lightly regulated information service under Title I of the Communications Act, to a common carrier service under Title II and forbear from all but six of that title’s 48 sections.
Service providers need to simplify, automate and secure their networks as rising capital spending and operating cost have become a major issue, Pradeep Sindhu, Juniper Networks’ co-founder and chief technology officer, said in an interview. In light of the flurry of legislative activities on cybersecurity and broadband, he warned of unintended consequences of any government mandates.
Whether pay-TV providers ought to tell subscribers before carriage contracts expire is a hot-button issue, judging from responses to our question at a panel discussion Tuesday about retransmission consent. Broadcast representatives continued to support the idea, which has been floated in FCC filings (CD June 7 p5), and cable executives oppose it. A supporter of notice to subscribers is the New America Foundation, one of the public-interest groups that has joined 14 cable, satellite and telco-TV petitioners in seeking commission intervention in carriage disputes between TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). At several points during the Broadband Breakfast Club discussion, speakers interrupted each other and the moderator.
DirecTV’s launch of ESPN 3D Friday, and later additions of other 3D programming this month, will help differentiate the company from other TV providers as an early adopter of the technology, said Steven Roberts, senior vice president of new media and business development, who’s overseeing the 3D effort for DirecTV. Extensive work with TV manufacturers will allow the company to remain at the forefront of TV technology, as it did with HD, he said. Dish will also begin to offer 3D later this year, but opted not to sign up now for ESPN 3D, said a Dish executive.
The new Public Safety Alliance, representing leading public safety associations, unveiled a national advertising and grassroots campaign Monday urging Congress to reject an FCC move to auction the 700 MHz D-block rather than allocate it to public safety entities for a national broadband network. Ads are running in print and online this week in major Capitol Hill-focused publications. The group also put together a new website.