A week after the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., rejected a challenge to an FCC decision to retain wireless local number portability (LNP), both sides argued the technical details of implementation in comments to the FCC. AT&T Wireless said if the Commission couldn’t resolve issues “immediately” on porting obligations and roles, the FCC should again extend a Nov. 24 deadline to ensure operators could make changes in both wireless-to-wireless and wireline-to-wireless porting. Echoing concerns of other wireline carriers, Verizon opposed the CTIA petition, saying it marked an effort to blame LECS for the “supposed difficulties” faced by wireless operators on LNP. Some state regulators charged CTIA was undertaking a last-min. effort to delay LNP.

The FTC used reauthorization hearings in the House and Senate Wed. to push a sweeping proposal that, among other things, would end the 70-year exemption of telecom common carriers from FTC deceptive practices and unfair competition rules. The proposal prompted wariness from some House lawmakers, who worried about potential clashes between that agency and the FCC. Others questioned whether recommendations aimed at stepping up the FTC’s ability to fight cross-border fraud and spam via more extensive information-gathering and sharing powers raised privacy concerns.

The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) should have the limited role of only setting up general logistical aspects of the Media Security & Reliability Council’s (MSRC) plans to improve emergency warning systems, council members were told at the group’s 3rd biannual meeting May 28 (CD May 29 p3). Media executives said in interviews after the meeting that federal govt. involvement of some sort was necessary, and many even suggested the Council would agree to work with any conditions DHS proposed.

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. turned down a wireless industry challenge to the FCC’s decision to retain the number portability requirement on wireless providers. CTIA and Verizon Wireless had challenged the Commission’s order last year that denied permanent forbearance from enforcement of the 1996 wireless portability rules.

President Bush signed an executive memorandum Thurs. that created a task force to recommend how to stimulate more efficient spectrum use by govt. users. NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory said the initiative would complement govt. efforts such as the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force with a single interagency group directed to examine how ideas such as receiver standards and secondary markets could apply to govt. users.

On the day after the FCC established new broadcast ownership regulations, companies, Wall St. analysts, consumer groups and others were picking apart the decision, and while some said they saw opportunities for deal-making, others said legal challenges to the decision might threaten those deals. All predicted increased consolidation, but there was some debate over whether the deal-making would begin immediately or would happen over time. Meanwhile, all 5 FCC commissioners were preparing to answer questions before the Senate Commerce Committee today (Wed.), where ranking Democrat Sen. Hollings (S.C.) was expected to be especially tough on the FCC’s 3-Republican majority.

The 3-2 vote by the FCC Mon. to ease some of its media ownership rules lay bare a deep ideological split at the Commission, evoking strong emotions and lofty rhetoric on both sides of the debate. Although Chmn. Powell described the Commission’s action as resulting from the most exhaustive and comprehensive review of broadcast ownership rules ever undertaken, he said the end product was a modest, though “very significant” change. On the other side, Comr. Adelstein called the decision “the most sweeping and destructive rollback of consumer protection rules in the history of American broadcasting.” As expected (CD June 2 p1) Republicans Powell, Abernathy and Martin voted for the changes in the Report and Order, and Democrats Copps and Adelstein voted against them.

Holding out little hope that the Republican majority of the FCC will have a sudden conversion on June 2, activists in favor of retaining limits on media ownership are formulating new strategies on how to challenge the FCC’s expected vote. Meanwhile, Commission sources said those activists probably were accurate in their assumptions that the Commission would adopt the proposals sent to the 8th floor in their original form. “All the cuts that [FCC Chmn.] Powell wanted are sticking,” one source said. Our sources say the Commission is likely to push the national ownership cap to 45% from 35%, that duopoly rules will be loosened considerably, that the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban will be eliminated in most markets and that the TV/radio cross-ownership rule will be similarly loosened.

Northrop Grumman said its Information Technology (IT) sector had petitioned the FCC to make an additional 10 MHz of public safety spectrum available to allow the deployment of advanced broadband wireless applications by first responders. It said that additional capacity would allow federal, state and local govts. to roll out advanced broadband wireless and high-speed data applications and would meet key interoperability requirements. Northrop Grumman asked the Commission to seek comment on making spectrum available for those applications at 747-752 MHz, 777-782 MHz or elsewhere at 700 MHz. “Any new allocation of public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band must enable use of advanced, next-generation broadband technologies that are available today that Congress may not have envisioned when it allocated public safety spectrum in 1997,” Chief Technology Officer Michael Grady said. The company is seeking identification of spectrum for a national, IP-based interoperable communications network to support broadband services for public safety.

The Canadian govt. should create a $30 million-per-year fund to stop the loss of Canadian-made TV dramas to more popular U.S. productions, a report released Fri. by the Canadian Radio-TV & Telecom Commission said: “Despite every evidence of the power of drama, Canadian policy-makers have been more or less happy to leave it to the Americans. Of the drama we watch, 91% is American and 9% Canadian,” former CTV Pres. Trina McQueen wrote in the report. McQueen said Canadian broadcasters lost money on domestic drama they air because advertising didn’t recoup production costs. It’s cheaper, she said, to purchase ready-made U.S. series, which attract more viewers and therefore higher ad revenue. She said spending statistics on Canadian drama showed an “alarming picture,” with spending by CBC, the country’s national broadcaster, declining 26% in 2002 from the previous year and private stations 10%. Broadcasters had called on the federal regulator to ensure TV networks broadcast a minimum number of hours of Canadian dramatic programming, but McQueen said that would be “horrible public policy and against the interests of drama.” She recommended that instead of increasing the number of hours, broadcasters focus on attracting larger audiences, with the help of $30-million- per-year over the next 5 years in govt. funding and other incentives. The fund would replace the $25-million annual Canadian TV Fund that was cut in Feb. The media union blasted McQueens’s report as failing to tackle the real issue that public policy should require Canadian broadcasters to spend money on Canadian culture: “In the long run, it is our political leaders who must decide that culture is central to our nationhood and is worth funding appropriately both from the private sector which benefits from our public airwaves and from public coffers,” said Peter Murdoch, vp of the Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union of Canada. Without that commitment, “it is unlikely Canadians can begin to get as excited about the future of their TV drama as they are about their hockey teams,” he said. Instead of regulating broadcasters, McQueen recommended the govt. direct the funds to script development and producing pilots for series, “to put more horses in the race for audience success.” She said U.S. networks commissioned one new show our of roughly every 100 scripts and 10 pilots, while Canadian networks usually chose from among 3 or 4 scripts and couldn’t afford failed pilots. McQueen also suggested encouraging specialty channels to show dramas, giving broadcasters an extra minute of advertising for every hour of domestic drama aired and reducing their Canadian content quota by an hour per week if they had a hit drama with more than a million viewers. The investment would be rewarded with larger audiences, new jobs and increased tax revenue, McQueen said, and building Canadian drama would benefit the country culturally and economically: “If the audience- building strategy succeeds, the government’s investment would be well rewarded in public benefits.” Ian Morrison, spokesman for the Friends of Canadian Bcstg., noted that the report was released while Canadian broadcasters were in L.A. buying U.S. programming for the upcoming season.