The effective date of an order authorizing the use of the 78-81 GHz band by foreign object debris (FOD) detection radar equipment at airports is Aug. 26. The FCC published a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1brP5Hv). “The presence of FOD on airport runways, taxiways, aprons, and ramps poses a significant threat to the safety of air travel,” the notice said. “FOD detection radar equipment will be authorized on a licensed basis.”

"Significant steps must still be taken” to fix the quantile regression analysis caps on high-cost USF support, NTCA told an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/13aMufO). The commission will need to incorporate high-cost data updates and correct study area boundaries in any revision, NTCA said. The commission could also consider using the caps only as a “trigger for review of carrier operations,” it said. The association spoke of the uncertainty resulting from “threats of additional cuts”; the harm caused by some carriers’ loss of safety net additive support; and the need for improvement of waiver mechanisms.

Charter Communications doesn’t need to acquire Time Warner Cable to improve its credit profile or create value for Liberty Media, a 27 percent owner of Charter, said Moody’s Investors Service in a report released Friday. Unless the companies combine, “we believe there are few other opportunities for transformative M&A [mergers and acquisitions] over the next couple of years as most suitable targets come with constraints,” it said. Charter can continue targeting the 7 million homes within its footprint that it doesn’t serve and expand its commercial business, which represents about 10 percent of total revenue, the report said. Other possible mid-sized targets would be tough to pull off, it said. Charter would likely have a tough time convincing attractive targets like Mediacom and Cox Communications to strike a deal, “unless it were willing to pay a high price,” the report said.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet plans a hearing on technology innovation Aug. 1 at 9:30 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. Witnesses haven’t been announced.

SES revenue grew to $1.2 billion the six months ended June 30, up more than 2 percent from the same period last year. Infrastructure and services activities contributed to revenue growth, SES said in a press release (http://bit.ly/11jKjVY). European revenue decreased 3 percent to $603.5 million, due to Germany’s analog switchoff, it said. Revenue increased to $269.4 million in North America, up nearly 6 percent, SES said. Operating profit fell by less than 1 percent to $542 million compared to the same period last year, it said. Overall revenue from emerging markets in Brazil, the Philippines, Indonesia and Africa increased by 9.3 percent, it said. SES has three more satellite launches scheduled this year, SES said.

The FCC should deny effective competition petitions submitted by Comcast for 37 Massachusetts communities because the data on which they're based is unreliable, said the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable in opposition comments filed with the FCC Friday (http://bit.ly/15RloJ9). “If the FCC does not deny the Petitions outright, it should at least require Comcast to submit more accurate data prior to allowing the Petitions,” said MDTC. The petitions it’s disputing are for communities all over the state, including Dover, Foxborough, Mendon and Bellingham. “Comcast’s data show total multichannel video penetration rates of over 100 percent” in 21 of the communities named in its petitions, which has caused the FCC to reject other effective competition petitions, MDTC said. “The FCC stated that data yielding penetration rates that exceed 100 percent of the households in a franchise area are ‘obviously inaccurate,'” MDTC said. The commission should deny Comcast’s petitions, or at least the 21 that show more than 100 percent MVPD penetration, MDTC said. Comcast didn’t comment.

USTelecom “generally supports adjustments” to the Connect America Cost Model to “better reflect the special characteristics of particular insular areas,” the association told the FCC Friday (http://bit.ly/13aJ2Sq). The letter was in response to Alaska Communications Systems proposals of several Alaska-specific adjustments to the model, currently under development by the FCC Wireline Bureau. “USTelecom agrees with ACS that the CAM [cost model] currently does not fully reflect Alaska-specific cost inputs, and produces an unreasonably low amount of support for the ACS price cap LECs, which provide service only in Alaska,” the association said. “Adjustments to the areas of the CAM that ACS proposes to modify, together with an extension of the CAF Phase II build-out period, are necessary to bring the results of the CAM more closely in line with a sufficient level of support to provide broadband to locations in its service territory that qualify for support under CAF Phase II.” USTelecom also expressed its opposition to a “hold-harmless” approach that would give certain insular carriers model-based support while others receive frozen support. “Such an approach raises the concern that some support levels would not be fully justified by the cost characteristics of the recipient carrier’s service area,” it said.

The FCC ordered a $9,000 forfeiture for Texas Soaring Association (TSA) over its Midlothian, Texas, aeronautical and fixed aviation support station KSC8, which failed to file a timely renewal application and was operated without FCC authority for five years between 2003 and 2008, said a forfeiture order Friday (http://bit.ly/1c9sU6O). Although TSA asked the commission to reduce the forfeiture because KSC8 was used infrequently and the failure to renew was an oversight, the commission rejected those arguments and ordered the full $9,000 fine originally proposed, the order said. The commission also rejected a request for a forfeiture reduction from Augusta, Ga., station WAGT-TV, which was assessed and paid in full a $10,000 fine for violations of children’s TV filing requirements, the order said. WAGT-TV’s request for a reduction was denied because it came after the 30-day period for a response to a notice of apparent liability ended, the order said (http://bit.ly/1e0w9eS). The FCC also proposed a total of $23,000 in fines for other TV stations missing deadlines to file children’s programming reports. Media Bureau notices of apparent liability in the cases were released Friday. Price Media faces a proposed $3,000 penalty because KWBJ-CD Morgan City, La., missed filing deadlines and didn’t include the violations in its license renewal application (http://bit.ly/19mX477). Korean American TV Broadcasting faces a proposed $20,000 fine for failing to file the station’s quarterly program list for 15 quarters and failing to file kids’ programming reports for 20 quarters, the order said (http://bit.ly/169V6DW).

The House Commerce Committee plans to mark up an FCC reporting bill beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday and resuming at 10 a.m. Wednesday. HR-2844, the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act (http://1.usa.gov/1e0uGp8), would require the commission to file quarterly reports to Congress on the state of the telecom marketplace, describe the commission’s two-year agenda to address challenges in the marketplace, and consolidate many of the commission’s other reporting requirements. The House Communications Subcommittee voted to pass the legislation last week along with a revised version of the FCC Process Reform Act (CD July 26 p1). A markup for that bill hasn’t been scheduled. Both bills are similar to FCC reform legislation (HR-3310, HR-3309) that failed to advance last session (CD March 27/12 p1).

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council has given the FCC additional information about the respondents in its study of the impacts of cross-ownership on minority and women media owners at the commission’s request, MMTC President David Honig told us Friday. The commission asked for more information about the sampling methodology used, the stations and owners surveyed, and about the peer reviewing process for the study, which came under fire from Free Press earlier this week (CD July 24 p8). The peer reviewing process was done through two conference calls with the three peer reviewers, which took place during the design phase of the study and before final publication, Honig said. Free Press had asked to see written peer reviews in their filed comments on the study. “They had questions about [the study] but at the end of the day we agreed that the study was useful,” Honig said of the peer review process. Most of the information requested by the commission has been submitted (http://bit.ly/13ieRnv) and specific information about the identities of the respondents and the station call letters will be submitted under a protective order, to preserve anonymity, Honig said. The Media Bureau issued the protective order Friday. The MMTC will soon be releasing an erratum that will correct some non-material errors in the study and discuss the peer review process, Honig said.