The FCC is mulling an extension to the filing deadline for the revised FCC Form 477, an FCC official told us Friday. The completed form, which will collect broadband availability data by census tract, is due from companies March 2 but isn’t yet accessible on the FCC Web site. Requests for delay were submitted by most major wireline and wireless industry groups this month, but the FCC has so far kept mum on the issue.
Broadband proponents are fearful further cuts to proposed funding could come during conference negotiations over the stimulus bill the Senate passed Wednesday 61-37. Republicans are fighting to rein in overall spending, and the broadband provisions were trimmed back to $7 billion from the Senate’s original call for $9 billion. The House proposes about $6 billion in a bill that sets slightly different rules and would divide the funding between two government agencies -- Commerce and Agriculture.
Congress should adopt a mix of targeted tax credits and grants to help small businesses in rural areas, TIA and USTelecom told the House Small Business Committee on Wednesday. The groups outlined ideas to extend broadband services in hard-to-reach areas, emphasizing programs that would create new jobs right away. Both recommended that Congress approve funding for the broadband mapping law passed last year, so policymakers can identify the parts of the country most in need.
A universal-service revamp and broadband are priorities for the House Commerce Communications Subcommittee, Chairman Rick Boucher of Virginia said in an interview. His official agenda awaits suggestions from Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Boucher said. The committee plans an organizational meeting Wednesday afternoon. Boucher said he also wants to gather the views of subcommittee members before creating a hearing schedule and legislative wish list.
As a Feature Group IP forbearance petition on VoIP access charges heads into its final week, the company is seeing little support and much opposition from the rest of the industry. Feature Group IP, a competitive local exchange carrier serving VoIP companies, wants the FCC to rule that VoIP providers need not pay access charges to interconnect with traditional public switched telephone network carriers. Chairman Kevin Martin has circulated two orders, one granting and one refusing relief. The FCC must issue a decision by Jan. 21.
USTelecom, CompTel and NCTA said the FCC shouldn’t decide if access charges apply to IP-PSTN traffic in the context of a forbearance petition. The commission looks set to do just that on Jan. 21, the agency’s statutory deadline to decide a forbearance petition on the subject by Feature Group IP. Feature Group, a competitive local exchange carrier serving VoIP companies, asked the commission to declare that switched-IP traffic isn’t subject to access charges applying to switched traffic. Chairman Kevin Martin has circulated two orders, one granting and one refusing relief (CD Jan 7 p9). In a joint letter to the FCC last week, USTelecom, CompTel and NCTA urged the FCC to deny the Feature Group petition, and tackle the issue in the intercarrier compensation rulemaking. “There are limits” to using forbearance for adjusting regulation, they said, citing a recent decision by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. “Forbearance petitions may be an appropriate vehicle for seeking the elimination of unnecessary regulatory obligations, but they are not the right mechanism for replacing one set of rules with another or creating new rules altogether.”
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., will take over as chairman of the renamed House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, Hill officials announced Thursday. He’s trading places with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who takes the chairmanship of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, they said. The switch is happening as Congress comes under increasing pressure to delay the Feb. 17 DTV switchover. (See the separate report in this issue.) With Boucher in the lead on communications legislation, rural communications interests could get a boost, industry officials said. Boucher is known for his open-door policy and ability to reach compromises, they said.
Lobbying spending by communications firms is likely to show a slight overall decline in 2008, once fourth-quarter figures are compiled, according to initial filings with Congress. Fourth-quarter filings are due June 20, but mid- year comparisons show slower spending in the first half of the year compared with 2007: $100.1 million compared with $173.1 million in last year’s mid-year report, according to computations by CQ Political Moneyline. The communications industry ranks third in lobbying spending, behind the health care and finance and insurance sectors, according to Moneyline’s 2008 rankings.
Internet service providers are getting cozier than ever with the recording industry, thanks in part to the involvement of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. RIAA confirmed that it’s phasing out its five-year-old campaign of lawsuits targeting end users suspected of P2P copyright infringement, and will instead send warnings through ISPs to their subscribers. Similar to some universities’ policies on repeated infringement, ISPs will at least briefly cut off Internet access to subscribers for which they receive repeated complaints from record labels. RIAA has “agreements in principle” with “leading ISPs,” a spokeswoman told us, declining to name them.
Rural phone companies met Tuesday with members of the Obama-Biden transition team to discuss proposals for broadband incentives in the economic recovery package, executives said. Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, and USTelecom met with the team last week to offer suggestions, company officials said. Documents from the meetings are starting to make their way to Change.gov, the transition team’s Web site. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to publicize meetings with business representatives, to post summary documents and solicit public commit.