The FCC International Bureau said it dismissed earth station-related applications from Christian Television Corp. and Antenna Technology Communications due to deficiencies and inconsistencies on FCC Form 312. In its application for a new fixed earth station, Christian Television didn’t submit the required radiation hazard study, the bureau’s Satellite Division said in a letter (http://fcc.us/15NM3Vv). Christian lists the 6425-9525 MHz band as “desired frequencies of operation,” the division said. Fixed satellite service isn’t authorized throughout that frequency, “and the requested space station point of communication, AMC-1, is only authorized to operate in the 5925-6425 MHz frequency band,” it said. ATC incorrectly stated in its application to modify its fixed earth station that a frequency coordination report isn’t required for the emission designator 5G00GIF, the division said in another letter (http://bit.ly/17HXpl2). Because the 5840-6425 MHz frequency band is shared with equal rights with terrestrial services, “the failure to provide a frequency coordination analysis renders Antenna Technology’s application incomplete,” it said.

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council will “shortly” release additional information about the respondents to its cross-ownership study to answer criticisms by public interest group Free Press, said MMTC President David Honig in an email to us Thursday. He responded to a Free Press FCC filing (CD June 28 p15) attacking the study for not adequately describing its sample or providing quantitative evidence on cross-ownership. Free Press is “profoundly misreading” the study, Honig told us. “As we explained when we filed the study with the Commission, the study is not intended to be dispositive. Rather, it is a piece of evidence to be weighed together with other evidence.” The small number of cross-ownership markets makes a fully empirical study “impossible,” Honig said. He disputed Free Press’s claim that the MMTC study doesn’t satisfy the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Prometheus II ruling that the commission must base ownership rule changes on hard data. “What courts do expect is that agencies rest their judgments on the best evidence available, even if the evidence is unavoidably imperfect,” said Honig. He didn’t give a date for the release of the additional information on the subjects of the study, and said the data would be “consistent with the confidentiality we promised our respondents."

Frontier received $21.8 million in escrowed money from the West Virginia Public Service Commission and the Oregon Public Utilities Commission, the telco said Thursday night (http://bit.ly/128Fyvw). “The funds were escrowed in connection with Frontier’s acquisition of wireline properties from Verizon Communications in July 2010.” The majority of the money was held up in two escrows of the West Virginia PSC, one related to service quality and another to broadband -- $21.4 million total. Frontier had asked for the release of the money and received the full amounts requested. “Just three years ago, Frontier took ownership of wireline assets that no longer met the needs of consumers in 14 states,” said Kathleen Abernathy, external affairs executive vice president, in a statement. “We have invested heavily since then to transform the broadband, voice and video experience of our customers. The latest escrow releases, all of which required commission approval, confirm that we did what we said we'd do to meet the expanding technology needs of our customers.” In approving the release of the service quality funds, the West Virginia PSC judged Frontier’s listed expenses to be “necessary improvements to the Frontier WV network,” according to its order earlier this month (http://bit.ly/10psy7k). The PSC made a similar judgment regarding the broadband account in another order (http://bit.ly/12qUCYA).

Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully launched the Interface Region Imaging Spectograph (IRIS) satellite for NASA. IRIS was launched into its polar, sun-synchronous earth orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on a Pegasus rocket, OSC said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1aUg0sR). It said the Pegasus launch history now includes 42 launches to orbit. ATK was the major propulsion provider for the Pegasus rocket, ATK said in a news release (http://bit.ly/124U9cZ). It also provided the composite structures and manufactured the flexseals “that facilitate movement of the second and third stage nozzles,” it said.

Dismiss the New York attorney general’s Voice Link concerns, Verizon told the New York State Public Service Commission in comments filed Thursday night (http://bit.ly/12qxKbC). Wednesday, the office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged Verizon is violating a May PSC order by deploying and promoting Voice Link beyond Fire Island, an area where the regulator had officially sanctioned the fixed wireless service as a sole offering (CD June 27 p6). “Despite its alarmist title and extravagant claims, the Attorney General’s ‘Emergency Petition’ fails to provide evidence of any violation of a ‘Commission directive,’ much less of any emergency,” the telco said, its comments signed by Verizon New York Counsel Joseph Post. Verizon acknowledged offering Voice Link in Monticello, N.Y., as the AG showed with an affidavit from a resident there, but the telco argued it was presented as an optional service, fully permissible and not at all forbidden by the May PSC order. “Indeed, the Order specifically excludes optional offerings from the limitations (including geographic ones) imposed on ‘Voice Link only’ offerings -- a fact that the Petition fails to mention, despite its detailed discussion of other provisions of the same tariff,” Verizon added. It said any balanced read of the situation or contacting Verizon could have avoided the filing of such a petition, lacking in “factual or legal support.” The AG’s attached affidavit indeed proves Verizon’s operating procedures in the Catskills, it argued, explaining that it has begun offering Voice Link to customers currently served by copper who encounter persistent trouble, but does not force the option.

July 1 Practising Law Institute event on cybersecurity risk management, 9 a.m., PLI, 810 7th Ave., New York -- bit.ly/12g1hR1

FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn circulated an order Thursday approving the SoftBank/Sprint Nextel/Clearwire deal, an agency spokesman said. “Softbank, Sprint, and Clearwire requested that the Federal Communications Commission approve their applications for transfer of control,” Clyburn said in a written statement. “At my direction, earlier today, staff circulated a proposed Order to the full Commission for a vote.” FCC approval has been one of the remaining hurdles to completing the larger transaction.

As the FCC Wireline Bureau works on reforming high prison phone rates, it’s trying to “strike a balance between the necessary security issues, what is a fair and reasonable rate for the providers, and what’s an affordable regime for the families,” Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn told reporters following the agency’s meeting Thursday. “It is simple to say, but it’s very complex to execute.” The July 10 Inmate Calling Service workshop at the FCC will “bring these and so many more issues to the table,” Clyburn said. Eight states and some other areas of the country “have a framework that’s affordable to those users, and still offers a reasonable rate of return and the proper security protocols,” she said. Clyburn said she hopes the workshop will let the FCC “see what is working in key parts of this country to bring ubiquitous affordability to those families.”

Free State Foundation President Randolph May said spectrum sharing is no substitute for government spectrum cleared and sold to carriers for exclusive use. “The right approach can be capsulized this way: ‘Don’t Equivocate -- Clear and Reallocate!'” he said on the foundation’s blog Thursday (http://bit.ly/12ttp31). “In fact, it might be useful for the Administration to print banners with this injunction.”

A handful of Republican members of the House Commerce Committee urged the FCC to safeguard against fraud in its oversight of the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service Fund and the Video Relay Service, in letters sent Thursday. “The purpose of our inquiry is … to find out whether the program, in its current form, is efficient, sustainable and sufficiently safeguarded against the possibility of fraud,” the letters said. “In light of concerns voiced by your agency in a June 28, 2010, Notice of Inquiry, that ’the [VRS] program is fraught with inefficiencies (at best) and opportunities for fraud and abuse (at worst)[,]’ we believe such oversight is warranted.” The letters were sent to FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and FCC Inspector General David Hunt by Republican Reps. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee; Joe Barton of Texas; Greg Walden of Oregon, chairman of the Communications Subcommittee; Michael Burgess of Texas; and Bob Latta of Ohio.