FCC Wireline Bureau Chief William Maher has resigned but doesn’t plan to leave until the end of Aug. at the earliest, knowledgeable sources inside and outside the Commission said Tues. Maher didn’t return a phone call to confirm the reports. “We don’t comment on individual personnel items,” said Christopher Libertelli, FCC Chmn. Powell’s wireline adviser. Maher reportedly doesn’t have a new job lined up, although many top FCC people leave without one because of ethical questions raised by interviewing for jobs while at the FCC. Sources said Maher handed his resignation to Powell on Fri. One insider, who wouldn’t discuss the resignation in detail, did emphasize that Maher “was not told he had to go.”

Wireless carriers and IXCs railed against a NASUCA filing at the FCC asking the Commission to order carriers to follow “truth-in-billing” requirements on customer bills. But a number of state interests agreed with consumer advocates that steps need to be taken to protect the interests of consumers.

The VSDA kicked off its usually upbeat annual conference in Las Vegas Wed. with a stark warning of financial peril facing its 12,000 chain and independent video store members. “Piracy is an attack on us all. We have seen what it has done to the music industry,” said VSDA Pres. Bo Andersen. “They did not see the threat coming. We do and we see it as the biggest threat to our business. We must confront it, now.”

STANFORD, Cal. -- FCC Chmn. Powell held out hope Congress would take VoIP decisions away from the Commission before recessing this summer. In a Q-&-A at the end of an appearance here Tues. night at AO2004: The Innovation Summit, Powell was asked when the questions of CALEA and 911 obligations on VoIP would be clarified. He emphasized that congressional bills reflect a “growing legislative debate” over VoIP policy “that’s real and alive.” AO2004 derives from the name of conference organizer AlwaysOn Network, which hosts Powell’s new Web log.

The new FCC all-or-nothing rule adopted last week (CD July 9 p3) is restricted to interconnection agreements approved under Sec. 252 of the Communications Act and doesn’t address how the new rule will apply to new commercial agreements, according to the text released Wed. One reason is that commercial agreements came under scrutiny after the Commission launched the further NPRM revising its interpretation of Sec. 252(i), we were told. The order will apply to all effective interconnection agreements, including those approved and in effect before the date the new rule goes into effect, the Commission said in the order, which will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The new rules will equally apply to arbitrated and negotiated agreements, the FCC said. It found that Sec. 252(i) did “not differentiate between negotiated and arbitrated agreements.” It said the primary purpose of Sec. 252(i) was to prevent discrimination, and in the context of arbitrated interconnection agreements, requesting carriers were “protected from discrimination primarily by the arbitration process itself. Continuing to apply the pick- and-choose rule to arbitrated agreements, therefore, is an overly broad means of fulfilling the statutory purpose of protecting against discrimination.” Moreover, the Commission said, maintaining separate regimes for negotiated and arbitrated agreements would be difficult to administer. It stressed, however, that “parties are under a statutory obligation to negotiate in good faith.” The FCC also concluded in the order that it “does indeed have the legal authority” to reinterpret Sec. 252(i). Specifically, it said Congress hadn’t directly addressed the degree to which interconnection, service or network element provisions from a state-approved interconnection agreement must be made available to other requesting carriers. “We reach this conclusion because the plain meaning of the section’s text gives rise to 2 different, reasonable interpretations, and because the Supreme Court expressly recognized that the Commission has leeway to reinterpret section 252(i),” the order said. It also said the language in Sec. 252(i) didn’t limit the Commission to a single construction. On another issue raised by the competitive industry, the FCC said it found that Sec. 252(i) was “ambiguous” from the Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T v. Iowa Utilities Board, which, it said, held that the Commission had the expertise to determine a reasonable interpretation of Sec. 252(i). Several competitors had argued the Commission shouldn’t eliminate its pick-and-choose rule, which according to the Supreme Court “tracks the pertinent language almost exactly,” and is the “most readily apparent reading.” Comr. Copps, who dissented on the order, has also pointed at the highest court pronouncement, saying “this is a strong stuff for a Commission whose policy pronouncements do not always pass muster with the courts of land.” But the FCC said in the order the Supreme Court “did not hold that the Commission’s current interpretation of section 252(i) is compelled by the statute.” It said the Supreme Court had “routinely recognized that government agencies have discretion to change interpretations of ambiguous statutes, and that an agency is not stopped from changing its view.” The Commission also said “the order does not take a position on any issue outside the scope of the FNPRM.” Several parties participating in the proceeding have asked the Commission to address issues beyond those raised in the FNPRM. For example, Verizon has asked for a declaration that agreements governing network elements no longer subject to mandatory unbundling aren’t subject to Sec. 252(i) or the pick-and-choose rule; Birch has proposed structural separation of ILECs into wholesale and retail operations; and T-Mobile has urged the Commission to adopt a procedure for federal arbitration of national interconnection agreements. Those issues weren’t addressed in the order.

T-Mobile is asking the FCC to use its order on pending interim UNE rules as a lever to reopen the issue of rates for wireless backhaul, an issue first raised in 2001 but never acted on. CLECs as well are starting to look more closely at the issue, which is a panel topic at CompTel’s fall meeting.

Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) will “shortly” introduce a bill to reauthorize the Corp. for Public Bcstg (CPB), an aide told us. The CPB was last reauthorized in 1992. Meanwhile, public broadcasters are bracing for the perennial assaults on issues such as objectivity and balance in their programs and local vs. national programming at a July 13 reauthorization hearing called by McCain, even as they hope that the reauthorization is straightforward. They also expect to be probed on proposals for a trust fund in exchange for early return of their analog spectrum. Differences have cropped up over the voluntary nature of the proposal by the Assn. of Public TV Stations and suggestions from PBS that a $5-$10 billion payment into the trust fund from spectrum auctions replace annual appropriations.

FCC Chmn. Powell is proposing an 800 MHz rebanding plan that would require Nextel to pay for public safety retuning, but not the value of the spectrum itself, unlike an earlier proposal that had been floated, sources said Wed. The order also would require Nextel to provide an additional 2 MHz at 800 MHz as a buffer for public safety communications, a proposal made by the carrier in June.

The markup of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) in the House Judiciary Committee scheduled for today (Wed.) could include an amendment to speed local-into-local distribution through an antitrust exemption. Sources said Reps. Boucher (D-Va.) and Goodlatte (R-Va.) could propose the exemption. Industry sources said while DBS providers haven’t lobbied for the amendment, they won’t oppose it.

Vice-presidential hopeful and retiring Sen. Edwards (D-N.C.) has received many donations from prominent figures in the broadcasting and entertainment industry, as well as some in high- technology. But he has been all but ignored by telecom donors. Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, selected his chief primary rival, Edwards, to join his ticket Mon. Kerry also was strongly favored by mass media donors in his primary campaign. Edwards was a prolific fund-raiser in the primaries, drawing in over $33 million. He closed his campaign in the black -- a rarity for presidential candidates -- and now vows to raise funds for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Initially most of Edwards’ money came from lawyers and law firms, particularly trial lawyers, but his donor list diversified somewhat as he saw success in the polls and early primaries. Still, a breakdown by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) found the vast majority of the money that went into his Senate coffers in the 108th Congress -- more than $10.7 million out of $11.5 million -- came from his attorney base. Communications -- which includes telecom, mass media and high-tech -- totaled $584,586. Most of that money was from mass media donors, according to both CRP and a study of online donation records kept by the Federal Election Commission. Donors from the broadcast, movie and music industries gave $318,047 to Edwards in the 108th Congress, ranking them 9th among sectors and comprising more than 1/2 his communications total. Computer and Internet companies came in 18th with $88,589 and telecom companies didn’t make the top 20. In fact, in all 3 Congresses in which Edwards has served, telecom -- a sector that gives generously on the Hill -- has never made Edwards’ top 20. Mass media was 11th in the 107th and 106th Congresses. In the 106th Congress, Edwards’ first after upsetting Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), he was on committees not of high interest to communications companies -- Banking, Governmental Affairs and Small Business. In the 107th Congress, however, when Democrats held the Senate majority, Edwards was on 2 choice committees, Commerce and Judiciary. The reduced number of Democrats in the 108th Congress cost Edwards his Commerce seat, but he still is on Judiciary. He’s not running for re-election. Edwards has eschewed PAC money in his Senate account and his presidential run, so virtually all donations have come in personal hard-money form. Among the $2,000 donors to Edwards’ presidential campaign from the broadcast industry are NBC Exec. Producer Neil Baer, Capital Bcstg. Pres. Barbara Goodmon and Muirfield Bcstg.’s Charles Morris. Sky Radio CEO Marc Holland gave $1,000. Cable donors giving the federal maximum $2,000 primary donation include HBO CEO Christopher Albrecht, while music industry officials giving the maximum include Universal Music Pres. Zach Horowitz and BMG Entertainment’s Strauss Zelnick. Studio executives giving $2,000 include Walt Disney Studios Pres. Nina Jacobson, DreamWorks SKG co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, Universal Studios Pres. Ronald Meyer and Saban Capital CEO Haim Saban. Many lower-level employees of broadcasting, music and studio companies also gave, some as much as $1,000, $250-$500 was more common. Among entities represented were ABC, AOL Time Warner, BET, Granite Bcstg., Imagine Entertainment, Lucasfilm, MTV, NAB, NBC Studios, Paramount, Studios USA TV, TiVo, Universal Studios, Vivendi Universal, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. Despite the largess from mass media employees, Edwards didn’t directly address in his campaign the contentious issue of media ownership. He and Kerry missed a Sept. 2003 Senate floor vote that would have nullified the FCC rules allowing more media consolidation. That motion of disapproval passed 55-40. Kerry and Edwards in 2002 voted in favor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), opposed by some in the bcstg. community because of its restrictions on ads. Kerry received donations from employees of high-tech companies, including Cisco Systems, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, as well as the industry advocacy group TechNet. More than a dozen Microsoft employees gave to Edwards, topped by Senior Vp Janet Levinger with $2,000. Some nonexecutive telecom employees -- from companies such as Nextel, Qwest, Sprint, Verizon and Verizon Wireless -- contributed to Edwards. So did employees at satellite players including Boeing and Lockheed Martin.