Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.) wrote FCC Chmn. Powell to urge the FCC to more quickly develop broadband policy that will encourage investment. Lugar said Ind. telecom companies were ready to deploy new technology but hesitant because of a uncertainty about federal regulations. Lugar said universal deployment of broadband in Ind. would raise the state’s gross economic product by 8%. “I am concerned that the Federal Communications Commission may not be moving quickly enough in issuing workable rules for telephone companies to provide broadband services,” Lugar wrote. In the Feb. 13 letter, Lugar cited the positions of both the National Assn. of Mfrs. and the High Tech Broadband Coalition, which both support “minimal regulations” on broadband services, which Lugar said are already “highly competitive.”

In its triennial report to Congress on entry barriers for entrepreneurs and small businesses, the FCC outlined 5 legislative proposals: (1) Create a new tax incentive program benefiting small businesses. (2) Establish a spectrum relocation fund for federal incumbents. (3) Clarify the FCC’s authority to conduct innovative spectrum auction designs and to ease the relocation of incumbent licensees. (4) Expand Commission authority to authorize operation of radio stations without individual station licenses. (5) Amend the Telecom Act to address potentially anticompetitive pricing practices used by incumbent cable operators that might impede market entry by competitors. The report also outlined each bureau’s work toward the goal of easing barriers. For example, the Media Bureau has developed procedures to allow small businesses to acquire existing radio and TV stations from other combinations that exceeded the new media ownership limits. The bureau also relaxed initial DTV build-out requirements for smaller-market broadcasters in view of financial concerns, the report said. The Wireless Bureau adopted rules to implement a framework for the development of secondary markets in spectrum usage rights. Comr. Copps dissented from the Commission’s 2003 Small Business Report, calling it a “slapdash catalog of miscellaneous Commission actions” rather than a serious effort to improve the communications climate for small business. He also said the Commission failed to address the challenges faced by small businesses as telecom consumers.” Comr. Martin, who approved in part and concurred in part, said that although the legislative proposals might have merit, he reserved judgment on them because the commissioners “were provided with only limited time to consider” them. Comr. Adelstein, who approved in part and dissented in part, said he supported most of the report but disagreed with suggestions that the Commission’s new broadcast ownership rules would promote diversity of media voices or eliminate entry barriers for newcomers. “Entrepreneurs and small businesses, as well as the general public, are in no way better served by slashing media ownership protections,” he said.

Taking its first step into the murky issue of how to treat IP services for regulatory purposes, the FCC ruled Thurs. that an IP-based service offered by Pulver.com was a generally unregulated information service subject to federal jurisdiction. FCC commissioners and staff said the Pulver decision was a start in providing regulatory clarity for IP- based services.

FCC opted to retain existing emission limits as it proposed changes Thurs. in its Part 15 rules to foster broadband over power line (BPL) deployment. The nascent BPL industry welcomed the Commission’s proposals as a step toward lending regulatory certainty for investment and rapid deployment. While Chmn. Powell and 3 other commissioners expressed hope the proposed changes would balance the benefits of broadband deployment with the need to protect against harmful interference, Comr. Copps dissented in part for its failure to deal with policy issues.

Public safety officials voiced concerns to top brass at NTIA and the FCC Wed. about spectrum policies under consideration, including band sharing and the “interference temperature” concept. At an NTIA public safety forum, officials grappled with balancing the rollout of new technologies against public safety considerations such as funding constraints.

Cable and telecom executives said VoIP had the potential to displace the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) as it operated today. Speaking at a Precursor Group investors conference Tues., Vonage CFO John Rego said he believed VoIP would completely replace PSTN within 20 years. No one on the panel disagreed with his assessment. Verizon Pres.-Network Services Paul Lacouture said he believed traditional circuit switches would be traded out and replaced over the next 2 decades. Consumers already are beginning to make their phone calls over VoIP, but they “just don’t know it” because the technology is invisible to them, he said.

Public safety officials have pushed for streamlining federal spectrum decision-making in talks under President Bush’s call for recommendations on promoting efficient spectrum use. But groups have warned against merging the duties of NTIA and the FCC to accomplish that. At an NTIA forum on public safety spectrum Tues., issues debated as part of the year-long process included simplifying federal frequency coordination, spelling out spectrum requirements of agencies and improving interference analysis.

Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron warned Fri. that “premature regulations could kill the nascent VoIP industry.” Speaking at a policy lunch sponsored by the Progress & Freedom Foundation in Washington, Citron said regulations could slow broadband deployment, undermine the U.S. position as a technological leader and force service providers offshore. He urged legislators to “bring clarity to the VoIP regulatory framework to protect competition. New laws are needed to ensure Internet applications remain free from regulation.”

Local govts. have expressed concerns over Comcast’s revised privacy policy for cable subscribers in the use of personally identifiable information -- even as they acknowledged improvements over last year’s version in readability and customer comprehension. Comcast for the first time worked with a National Assn. of Telecom Officers & Advisors (NATOA)special committee to revise its privacy policy, and the new policy is going out to customers (CD Jan 27 p2). Saying the company had made improvements, NATOA said its Privacy Policy Committee believed the document was “still written with too broad an interpretation of the federal law, particularly relating to the use of personally identifiable information.” Local govt. officials we spoke with said they had “indications” Comcast’s actual practices were less worrisome, but they wanted the company to codify the practices to prevent future misuse.

The FCC late Thurs. announced its VoIP proceeding would be on the agenda for its Feb. 12 open meeting, along with a petition by Pulver.com for a ruling that its VoIP offering wasn’t a telecom service. The Pulver item was surprising because the FBI had expressed concern about the FCC’s acting on VoIP classification issues before handling a related CALEA issue (CD Feb 5 p4). The more general VoIP notice of proposed rulemaking is expected to ask for comment on several questions about how VoIP should be treated, but probably won’t make any conclusions.