The U.S. needs to develop a “resilient power strategy” for telecom systems and the Internet “so that our ability to communicate when it’s most necessary is less vulnerable to disaster,” said a report released Monday by the president’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. The high-profile task force was chaired by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. The report, like Sandy, cuts a broad swath, mentioning telecom and the Internet intermittently as it assesses damage caused by what became known as a “superstorm.” “Hurricane Sandy devastated small businesses throughout the affected region,” the report said (http://1.usa.gov/14gPYhi). “Flooding damaged inventories, machinery, and other structures; high winds and falling trees caused structural damage; and failure of power, water, telecommunications, and fuel infrastructure shut businesses down for days, if not weeks.” The report stressed the interconnection of various systems, including the telephone system. “Examples from Sandy that illustrate the need for regional coordination of resilience investments were seen in many instances,” the report said. “The storm’s impact on fuel terminals in New Jersey and on pipelines caused a severe problem of fuel availability in New York City. A hospital is only functional when access routes to the facility are open and when availability of water, power, and telecommunications allow continuity of operations and the ability to absorb the additional demand for medical care.” Among its recommendations are that the Department of Energy, NTIA and the FCC work together on a resilient power structure to keep telecom and the Internet functioning during future disasters. They should “promote a programmatic approach to ensure that cellular towers (antennas), data centers, and other critical communications infrastructure are able to function regardless of the status of the electrical grid,” the report said. “In addition, encouraging stored power (i.e., batteries) for consumer level broadband equipment, through funding or other means, will improve impacted individuals’ ability to seek information, help with recovery needs, communicate with family members, and even work from home when transportation or business facilities are significantly compromised.” The FCC is considering whether it should impose backup power requirements for cell sites or other rules in light of the June 2012 derecho wind storm (CD Aug 20 p1). “The commission is reviewing the recommendations included in the report,” an FCC spokesman said. “We worked closely with other federal agencies in responding to Hurricane Sandy and plan to continue doing so, in addition to continuing the work already planned and underway by the agency to enhance the resiliency of our nation’s communications networks.”

The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology released an updated version of the TVStudy software proposed to be used for checking interference during the incentive auction repacking, said a public notice Monday (http://fcc.us/16sHm6U). The updated version 1.2.7 allows users to perform “pair-wise studies in countries other than the U.S., including crossborder studies of interference between U.S. and Canadian or Mexican stations on proxy channels,” the notice said. The update also improves the sorting of stations’ records in the user interface and corrects an issue that had been causing “spurious out-of-memory and SQL key errors,” it said. The update includes new source code and an updated instruction manual, but none of the software’s underlying data files needs to be replaced, OET said. “It is recommended that all TVStudy users apply this update so that results will match those obtained by the FCC.” The update is on the FCC website at http://bit.ly/1cYpyXe.

The FCC should deny Local TV’s request to transfer control of three TV stations to Dreamcatcher Broadcasting under shared service agreements (SSAs) as part of Local’s proposed $2.73 billion sale of 19 TV stations to Tribune (CD July 2 p2), said Free Press and Put People First in a petition to deny filed Monday (http://bit.ly/13Pfmaf). The stations are in Hampton Roads, Va., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., areas that have market overlaps with Tribune newspapers and thus a conflict with FCC cross-ownership rules, said the petition. Tribune “seeks to evade” the cross-ownership rules by using Dreamcatcher as a “shell corporation” to own the stations while Tribune provides them with services under SSAs, said the petition. Former Tribune President Ed Wilson owns Dreamcatcher, and the company was created shortly after the proposed merger was announced, the groups said. “For all intents and purposes, Tribune would control the Dreamcatcher stations and daily newspapers that serve the same communities as these stations, thereby violating” the commission’s cross-ownership rules, said the petition. Tribune disagreed with the groups’ characterization, and told us it’s preparing a response to their petition. “The transactions have been structured in compliance with FCC rules and precedent,” a Tribune spokesman told us in an email. “A transaction can be legal and still not be in the public interest,” responded Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Put People First in the petition and has opposed media consolidation for many years with the Media Access Project. “Any transaction that has the same result as a violation of the Commission’s local ownership rules is necessarily contrary to the public interest,” said the petition. If the commission does grant Local’s request to transfer the stations to Dreamcatcher, it should make the approval conditional on the outcome of any rulemaking related to the FCC’s 39 percent national television ownership cap, the groups said. The FCC is circulating a draft NPRM seeking comment on possible elimination of the UHF discount (CD Aug 14 p1). The Tribune/Local merger would put Tribune’s nationwide coverage at 44 percent if the discount didn’t exist, the groups said. “Absent the UHF discount, the proposed assignment of all Local TV stations including these three licenses to Tribune would violate the national television multiple ownership rule,” said the petition. The commission should also address the Local TV request as a full panel rather than through the delegated authority of its bureaus, said the petition. The matter merits the attention of the full commission because “the use of SSAs to evade the Commission’s ownership rules is an unresolved question,” the groups said, referring to a pending application for review in the Media Council Hawai'i ownership case (CD June 21 p20). Delaying a full commission ruling on SSAs and the ownership rules could lead to “additional litigation” or “harm parties to such SSAs because they will face the problem of unwinding them” if the commission grants the Media Council of Hawai'i Application for Review, the groups said. “These transactions raise novel questions of law, fact, and policy, and thus must be acted upon by the full Commission rather than the Media Bureau,” said the petition.

The Los Angeles Interoperable Communications System Authority (LA-RICS) awarded a contract to Motorola Solutions to design, construct, implement and maintain its land-mobile radio system, said LA-RICS in a press release Tuesday (http://yhoo.it/18I3UAJ). The radio system will provide “mission-critical communications” for the region’s more than 34,000 law enforcement, fire service and health service professionals and more than 80 public safety agencies, said LA-RICS. Motorola’s multi-year $280 million contract will use Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Project 25 (P25) standards-based technology to enable interoperable communications support, and the system will use both UHF and 700 MHz frequencies for “robust capacity and flexibility on current and future spectrum regulations,” said the company. “The Los Angeles County region’s enormous size and challenging terrain will benefit from a new interoperable P25 standards-based radio system,” said Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown. “We recognize the region places a high priority on supporting public safety agencies and helping them address their unique emergency preparedness and security needs."

The FCC Wireless Bureau signed off on AT&T’s buy of cellular, PCS, lower 700 MHz C block and microwave licenses in 17 markets from Cellular South. The licenses cover parts of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. AT&T also gets customers, network equipment and other assets, all from Cellular South’s Corr Wireless subsidiary. The deal covers one cellular license, eight PCS licenses, 14 Lower 700 MHz C-block licenses and nine common carrier fixed point-to-point microwave licenses. Only the Rural Telecommunications Group filed a comment raising questions when comments were due in March, the bureau said Tuesday. “Based on the record before us and our review of the proposed transaction, we find that this transaction is unlikely to cause competitive or other public interest harms, and that it is in the public interest to grant these applications,” the order said (http://fcc.us/170aIIJ). The bureau said AT&T won’t hold more than a third of the spectrum included in the commission’s screen in any of the markets where it’s buying licenses. Only one market presented possible competitive concerns, Cellular Market Area 307, covering a rural section of Alabama around Franklin. The bureau examined “this market more closely to determine whether the transaction would likely lead to anticompetitive effects,” the order said. “We conclude it would not."

The FCC is focused on issues of FirstNet and 700 MHz spectrum, FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth said at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Several issues have been “percolating” around the FCC’s 700 MHz narrowbanding push, including discussions of “even eliminating” that 2016 narrowbanding deadline, he said. The FCC released an NPRM earlier this year proposing to “overhaul” and update the rules on that, he said. “What is the long-term relationship going to be between narrowband and broadband?” Furth asked. “There is going to be an evolution toward broadband.” He wants spectrum policies to accommodate that shift, he said: “At the time that broadband becomes capable of supporting mission-critical voice … the 700 MHz narrowband spectrum could be used for that.” The 2016 deadline is “not so far away now” and is “a time-sensitive issue,” Furth said, expressing desire “to bring that rulemaking home and adopt a new set of rules for the 700 MHz spectrum.”

The FCC is looking at enforcement options against operators who disregarded the agency’s narrowbanding deadline. According to the FCC’s licensing data, about 85 percent of licensees have made it through the Jan. 1 VHF/UHF narrowbanding deadline with narrowbanded systems or waivers, said Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth. He briefed Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials members Monday in Anaheim, Calif. Licensees in the 25 kHz radio systems had to migrate to narrowband 12.5 kHz channels by the Jan. 1 deadline. The narrowbanding process was “very successful, but there is still some work to be done,” Furth said. Some licensees, “despite all the admonitions about the deadline,” ignored it and operate in wideband channels without a waiver, Furth said. “We are continuing to look at all available options for dealing with that … including enforcement mechanisms.” The FCC is looking for public safety’s help “in identifying where action needs to be taken,” he added.

LightSquared investor Harbinger Capital Partners and CEO Phil Falcone agreed to an $18 million SEC settlement on charges of illicit conduct. Under the settlement, Harbinger and Falcone agreed to admit to wrongdoing and “Falcone also agreed to be barred from the securities industry for at least five years,” the SEC said in a press release (http://1.usa.gov/19GP5Tz). The parties admitted to multiple acts of misconduct “that harmed investors and interfered with the normal functioning of the securities markets,” it said. Falcone also admitted to improperly borrowing $113.2 million from the Harbinger Capital Partners Special Situations Fund “at an interest rate less than SSF was paying to borrow money, to pay his personal tax obligation, at a time when Falcone had barred other SSF investors from making redemptions,” the SEC said. It filed the charges last year (CD June 28/12 p20). Harbinger is the largest investor in LightSquared, whose plans for a terrestrial satellite service were stalled due to opposition from the GPS industry. This month, Harbinger filed a $1.9 billion lawsuit against Deere, Trimble and other members of the GPS industry, claiming the defendants didn’t disclose potential interference problems between the spectrum and GPS equipment. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Telecommunications regulatory structures have failed to keep pace with the changing technology, said Randal Milch, Verizon executive vice president-public policy, in a Tuesday keynote address at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. “We are dealing with a pre-Internet in terms of the 1992 Cable Act and the 1996 Telecommunications Act,” he said. This structure ignores the creative destruction in the industry, which has led to “the rise in consumer control over technology,” he said, pointing to over-the-top services, which “now compete vigorously for consumer dollars and eyeballs.” For retransmission consent disputes, “ancient regulations” are having an “interesting” and sometimes limiting affect on consumer choice, Milch said. “The tit-for-tat has escalated,” he said, pointing to the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and CBS and the resulting blackout. If an ISP was keeping its content from another ISP’s subscribers due to an unrelated dispute -- as CBS is preventing Time Warner Cable subscribers from accessing its online content -- the FCC would get involved and invoke its net neutrality order, he said. But that kind of intervention isn’t deemed needed here, he said: “Consumers are being inconvenienced, yes, but no one is taking to the streets. They seem more than capable of finding the content they want … legally or otherwise.” The FCC shouldn’t get involved in peering, or Internet interconnection, agreements, Milch said. Those interconnection arrangements, both paid and unpaid, “have always been largely unencumbered by regulatory interference and driven instead by commercial negotiations,” he said. Bringing a regulatory presence into such negotiations will skew the market for interconnection and disincentivize investment into the networks, he said. “We need more network and not less. We should be finding ways to jumpstart investment, not hinder it.” It’s not cost effective to bring copper or fiber to Fire Island, N.Y., Milch said. Though the company cares about providing adequate services to its customers, “we also have to take account of the fact that it’s a very expensive place to build a lot of wires for a small population” he said. “The payback on wireline investment is -- let’s say it’s long.” Verizon is working to address the voice and broadband issues that Voice Link subscribers face, he said. “We created Voice Link … for the purpose of providing our customers with an option in instances where they had degraded copper” or wanted to move to a wireless product. “It’s a good innovative product. Then [Superstorm] Sandy came along,” he said.

NTIA awarded grants to Arizona ($2.9 million), California ($5.6 million), Iowa ($1.6 million) and Missouri ($2.4 million) to help in planning for FirstNet, said NTIA Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1akBAZ9). The grants were awarded under the State and Local Implementation Grant Program and all recipients are required to provide a matching contribution of at least 20 percent, said NTIA.