The FCC lawfully denied USTelecom’s “across-the-board forbearance request” regarding the Uniform System of Accounts (USOA), the agency told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a brief filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1i2E6Cd). USTelecom unsuccessfully petitioned (CD Feb 17/12 p14) the agency to use its Communications Act Section 10 authority to forbear from applying the requirement that price cap carriers maintain the USOA as required by the law. The FCC asked the court to deny USTelecom’s petition for review, and not order the FCC to forbear. “The FCC reasonably determined that USTelecom failed to prove that its across-the-board USOA forbearance request satisfied the section 10 forbearance standard,” it wrote. “The central premise underlying the USOA forbearance request -- i.e., that price cap carriers’ rates are not based upon costs, and therefore Part 32 no longer is necessary to ensure that those carriers’ rates are just and reasonable -- is factually incorrect."

Satellite broadband could be the solution for building out broadband and IP services to low-density rural areas, satellite providers and others said in interviews. There’s a perception among satellite providers and some others that the technology hasn’t been given the attention it deserves. Satellite tech has advanced tremendously in the past couple of years, proponents said, pointing to higher speeds, lower costs and a stamp of approval from the FCC’s most recent broadband speed measurement report. But satellite broadband wasn’t eligible for Connect America Fund Phase I money, and the FCC hasn’t made any decisions on the Phase II competitive process. The satellite industry wants to be a part of the discussion.

USTelecom hires Meagan Foster, ex-NTCA, as vice president-government affairs, effective April 7 … EWTN Global Catholic Network promotes to vice presidents John Manos, overseeing legal and regulatory activities and remaining general counsel, Enrique Duprat for Spanish language production and marketing, new position, and Peter Gagnon for programming and production … Saffron Digital over-the-top services company hires Malachi Bierstein, ex-Rovi, as senior vice president-sales and marketing, Americas … Entravision hires Hilda Garcia, ex-impreMedia, as vice president-multimedia content and community development, new position, to be effective April 1 … David Smith, ITK Vector, joins International Datacasting Corp. board.

Several industry associations asked congressional leaders to reinstate bonus depreciation provisions, which ended last year. Renewing bonus depreciation and potentially “the comparable Alternative Minimum Tax credit in lieu of bonus depreciation for 2014” would give “immediate incentive for businesses to make additional capital investments, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and job creation,” said the Monday letter, signed by CTIA, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, NCTA, the Telecommunications Industry Association and USTelecom, among associations in other sectors. “We are united in the belief that immediate renewal of bonus depreciation for 2014 will make an important difference in sustaining and expanding necessary capital investment and its resultant job creation. Bonus depreciation makes such investment a much more certain and attractive business proposition, and it encourages investment and job growth in America right now.”

USTelecom urged the FCC to address the significant problems that occur when multichannel video programming distributors “are required to negotiate retransmission consent rights for multiple local stations as a single package,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/1kQvpyL). USTelecom supports further inquiries on how to address current imbalances in the retransmission consent process, “and move instead to true and free negotiations between broadcasters and MVPDs,” it said. The filing pertains to a meeting with staff from FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s office.

The current retransmission consent regime is broken and in need of congressional fixing, USTelecom told Senate Commerce Committee Democratic and Republican leaders in comments submitted about the reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. STELA reauthorization “presents a unique opportunity for Congress to address acute problems in the legal framework governing the retransmission consent process,” USTelecom said (http://bit.ly/1l7SCiB). It criticized broadcasters for their negotiating strategy and urged Congress to “eliminate broadcaster preferences and take government’s thumbs off the scale in the retransmission consent process by moving instead to true and free negotiations between broadcasters and” multichannel video programming distributors, and also criticized the rules surrounding must-buy and basic tier placement, suggesting they bring “imbalance” to retrans negotiations. It urged Congress to forbid joint broadcaster negotiation, to allow distant-signal importation and to adjust or kill the sweeps week rule. NAB has defended its retrans negotiations and in its own comments backed clean reauthorization of STELA that doesn’t include provisions on retrans. Coalitions of broadcast and pay-TV stakeholders, meanwhile, continued to pummel each other in blog posts about what provisions should or shouldn’t go into STELA. “If pay-TV is granted its ‘wish-list’ of regulatory add-ons as part of the STELA reauthorization process, it would ultimately tilt the regulatory playing field in their favor over TV broadcasters in retransmission consent negotiations,” a spokesman for TVFreedom, a coalition of broadcast interests, wrote in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1duhnNT) Thursday, calling for a clean STELA reauthorization. “What will the excuse be to consumers if pay-TV operators get the legislative add-ons and lopsided policy changes they are seeking on retransmission consent and no longer have the luxury of blaming broadcast TV for rising monthly bills?” The American Television Alliance, which represents many pay-TV industry interests, is planning to post another blog post soon, its spokesman told us. That post attacks broadcaster claims about the basic tier, bundling and sidecar agreements as illustrative of what ATVA calls dishonesty. “Broadcasters are lobbying to keep negotiations heavily in their favor,” the ATVA post will say. “When they lobby to keep ‘basic tier’ mandates, protect bundling, and prevent any rules that would prohibit ’sidecar’ ownership arrangements, their hypocrisy is exposed. They don’t want a free market; their business depends on decades-old government regulations in their favor.” Both NAB and NCTA have endorsed the one STELA draft bill that has been introduced so far in the House.

The FCC Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council formally launched a new working group, Working Group 4, to take on cybersecurity, with a focus on best practices. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler opened Thursday’s CSRIC meeting with brief remarks, stressing the importance of cybersecurity and calling for the council to develop a new “regulatory paradigm” for the future.

The special access market is “in the midst of a major transition in terms of technology, consumer demand and competition,” USTelecom told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1qMGILO). It’s “essential” that cable companies be required to provide “the same detailed market data as other competitors in this marketplace,” since cable’s role in the market “has been one of the most debated questions” in connection with the pending data request, USTelecom said. CLECs have argued that cable companies don’t offer competitive alternatives to business customers due to technological inadequacy or lack of “business acumen,” yet “somehow, the cable industry will exceed $10 billion in business services revenues this year,” USTelecom said. Cable network capabilities have also “long been able to deliver the equivalent of ILEC TDM-based dedicated connections,” the association of ILECs said. It’s crucial that the commission analyze “cable’s highly successful participation in the business services marketplace,” it said.

USTelecom hires Galen Roehl, leaving Senate Republican Policy Committee, as vice president-government affairs, effective March 21 … TNCI U.S. telecom provider hires Bill Farwell, ex-Total Call International, as chief financial officer … AMC Networks hires Peter Aronson, ex-Alloy Digital, as executive vice president-original programming and production, IFC … Discovery Communications promotes Jane Latman to general manager-Discovery Fit & Health, and she remains senior vice president-development, Investigation Discovery … Time Warner hires Puja Vohra, ex-Oxygen Media, as senior vice president-marketing and digital, truTV.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., introduced a bill addressing rural call completion problems Thursday, much to the satisfaction of some rural telco advocates. The five-page bill, called the Public Safety and Economic Security Communications Act, would target intermediate providers and push the FCC to outline service quality standards. Johnson’s office consulted with the FCC in crafting the legislation, his spokesman said.