Struggling videogame publisher Acclaim Entertainment said in an SEC filing Tues. that it had to file yet another fiscal report late -- this time its 10-K report for the fiscal year ended March 31. Acclaim said it needed “additional time to complete the disclosures associated with various events” in the period and said its auditors -- KPMG -- hasn’t completed an audit of its financial statements yet. The company declined comment Wed. on what might be holding up the auditors and exactly when it now expects to file the report.

Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wed. he didn’t know if the Senate could complete action this year on Sen. Sununu’s (R-N.H.) VoIP bill, but he hoped at least to mark it up in committee “to give us the opportunity to amend and debate and improve Mr. Sununu’s bill.” Speaking at the committee’s first hearing on the bill, McCain said he’s aware there are “difficult issues” associated with VoIP technology, such as universal service, public safety and CALEA, but Sununu “has introduced a very important, comprehensive piece of legislation.” McCain said he thought VoIP was a “technological breakthrough that will fundamentally change and simplify the ability of Americans to communicate,” but “since it is a breakthrough technology, there’s going to be a lot of china broken.”

Any FCC action that heeds the RIAA’s call for content protection on in-band on-channel (IBOC) radio would be unjustified and outside the Commission’s legal jurisdiction, CEA said in comments on the FCC’s notice of inquiry (NOI) on the copyright implications of digital radio.

House Commerce Committee leaders on Tues. said they were eager to pass a bill to soften FCC fax regulations but questioned whether the Senate would follow suit. House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) said the “Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004” could be introduced as early as today (Wed.) with strong bipartisan support and have Subcommittee and full Committee markups by the end of next week. The bill has been pushed for by businesses and associations, who say the FCC’s new fax rules would place heavy burdens on sending faxes to customers or members (CD May 26 p1).

In a move reportedly encouraged by the White House, the Bell companies have promised the FCC they will retain current UNE-P wholesale prices for several months. In letters sent to FCC Chmn. Powell, Verizon promised a 5-month period of price stability while the other 3 Bells said they would keep the current prices until the end of the year. Powell released the letters to the news media late Mon., saying the agency’s “top priority is to ensure that consumers don’t experience any disruption in services” as a result of the decision by the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to vacate the FCC’s UNE rules. The court’s ruling becomes effective today (Wed.).

BOSTON -- FCC Chmn. Powell Wed. opened a major international meeting here on ultra wideband with a plea for the group to move forward with an international agreement. In coming days, ITU’s Task Group 1/8 will try to hammer out a consensus on UWB in a rare meeting outside Geneva. Powell told delegates that while balancing interests presents major “challenges” for regulators “the promise of UWB technology is simply too great to do otherwise.”

The U.S. Solicitor Gen. (SG) announced Wed. he won’t appeal the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling that vacated a significant part of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO) -- raising questions about whether the high court will take the case and what will happen to the telecom market. The appeals court decision, effective June 15, would nullify key FCC UNE rules, including those that permit competitors to gain UNE-P access to Bell facilities at TELRIC-based prices.

FCC Wireline Bureau Chief William Maher said the bureau is looking at possible “default rules” for carriers if the FCC’s UNE regime is vacated as a result of the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C.’s, ruling on the agency’s Triennial Review Order (TRO). At a media breakfast Tues., Maher said UNE relationships among carriers are governed by interconnection agreements, and most of those agreements have “change of law” provisions that determine what happens if FCC rules or laws change. However, terms vary among carriers and from agreement to agreement, so the agency is looking at whether there should be a “backup set of provisions,” he said.

The FCC’s Inspector Gen. Office (OIG) has become “increasingly concerned” about slowness in resolving audit findings and recovering funds in investigations of e-rate malfeasance, it said in its latest report for the 6 months ended March 31: “We have observed that findings from audits conducted by USAC [the Universal Service Administrative Co.] are not being resolved in a timely manner and that, as a result, timely action is not being taken to recover inappropriately disbursed funds. In some cases, it appears that the delay is caused by USAC. In other cases, findings are not being resolved because USAC is not receiving necessary guidance from the Commission in a timely manner.”

The FCC should require all carriers to participate in the exchange of customer data, known as Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE), the Bell companies said in comments filed Thurs. BellSouth said the Commission should replace the current voluntary industry standard CARE process with a mandatory process applicable to all LECs and IXCs. SBC urged the Commission to adopt minimum data exchange obligations and apply them equally to IXCs, CLECs and ILECs. But Verizon said the FCC shouldn’t require the ILECs to “make up for the failure of other carriers to provide customer information to the long distance carriers in the CARE format.” Rather, it said the Commission should require the CLECs that don’t support CARE to do so.