FCC said in U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., filing last week that “Commission staff is investigating the circumstances surrounding the filing” by SBC of inaccurate information on its long distance applications in Okla. and Kan. SBC had said last month that it informed regulators that it inappropriately had described way in which “our highly technical and complex computer systems provide loop qualification information to competitors interested in providing DSL service.” Information had been in support of carrier’s Sec. 271 applications for Kan. and Okla., which FCC already has granted. FCC’s statement that it “is investigating” circumstances of SBC affidavits appeared in footnote in Commission brief filed Thurs. Brief was agency’s response to challenge filed by Sprint appealing FCC order giving SBC Sec. 271 approval to enter long distance markets in Kan. and Okla. (CD Jan. 23 p2). AT&T and WorldCom also filed appeals, charging SBC didn’t offer cost-based pricing for network elements in violation of Telecom Act. Additional information provided by SBC that has inaccurate information isn’t connected to underlying issues of court case, FCC said. “We will keep the court apprised of further developments in this matter,” FCC said. Wall St. Journal reported Fri. that some misstatements by SBC emerged in recent Commission review of SBC’s application to offer long distance service in Mo. and that FCC was investigating information provided for Sec. 271 filings in several states. (On unrelated grounds, SBC earlier this month withdrew its Sec. 271 application to provide long distance in Mo., saying it would come back to Commission with additional information supporting its bid.) SBC spokesman declined to comment Fri. on investigation of Okla. and Kan., but said: “There is no investigation into our Missouri application, and any speculation otherwise is just wrong information.” CompTel Pres. Russell Frisby said: “If the allegations are correct, they represent a serious violation of the Commission’s rules.” CompTel had asked FCC last month to investigate SBC’s submission of information in Kan. and Okla. filings. Questions on accuracy of Sec. 271 fillings come as Commission is preparing to process larger volume of long distance applications this year as Bell companies step up pace of filings. “We expect that the Commission is going to have an increased workload,” Frisby said. “The Commission is not up to full staff. This means this creates a dilemma. That’s why it’s important to investigate the SBC allegations.” FCC spokesman declined to comment.
FCC rules requiring sponsorship identification are most needed if govt. is sponsor of programming, Media Access Project (MAP) said in comment on Ad Council request for waiver of rule (DA 01-1169): “While the American people will not be served by an attempt to hide the government’s attempt to persuade them, the American people will be served by maintaining the basic principles of democracy and accountability embodied in the sponsorship identification rules.” Case is based on White House Office of National Drug Control Policy effort to get antidrug messages embedded in programming. Ad Council wants FCC to say no sponsorship ID is needed, even though programmers benefit financially from deals, saying impact of messages would be diminished if true sponsorship were disclosed. MAP said it didn’t object to messages, but need for identification was “not changed by the prestigious nature of the organizations” providing financial benefit.
George Vradenburg, exec. vp-global & strategic policy, AOL Time Warner, is stepping down from his high-profile post to become full-time adviser to company. Vradenburg, who in more than 4 years at AOL bolstered company’s Washington lobbying efforts, spearheaded company’s original drive for open access mandates on cable operators and shepherded its takeover of Time Warner through FTC and FCC, said he would shift his focus to “Internet building activities beyond policy organization,” including elimination of digital divide and other technology and education issues. In particular, he said, he will concentrate on “the intersection of the Internet and health care” and extension of Internet benefits to developing nations. “We're seeing the existing inequalities being exacerbated,” he said. “That’s not productive.” Vradenburg, 2nd senior AOL Time Warner executive to take new post since companies completed merger in Jan., said switch occurred after several months of conversations with company Chmn. Steve Case. “It’s been a product of discussion,” he said. “It was something that Steve felt was good for the company and I felt was good for me.” AOL Time Warner announced late Thurs. that Vradenburg would be replaced by Robert Kimmitt, now pres.-vice chmn. of Commerce One and former U.S. ambassador to Germany, effective July 1. Company said Kimmitt, like Vradenburg, will oversee its worldwide public policy initiatives. Kimmitt, also former law partner in Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and ex-managing dir. of Lehman Bros., will report to Case and be member of company’s Exec. Committee. Vradenburg is former executive of both CBS and Fox.
Meeting in Washington Wed., NAB TV board voted to act favorably on several proposals presented by staff designed to “streamline and extend” waiver process at FCC on transition to digital, rather than seek overall deadline extension. Board reportedly had “a great deal of discussion on a whole range of digital activities” involving Commission, Congress, set-makers and cable industry before unanimously approving resolution designed to help facilitate transition (CD June 14 p11).
Citing changing TV industry dynamics and emergence of new competitive forces, NBC Chmn.-CEO Robert Wright believes TV networks’ current dispute with their affiliates couldn’t have been avoided. “There just are a number of people [large group TV station owners] who don’t want to see those rules [35% station ownership cap] change,” Wright told us in interview: “They're very fearful of losing their position in their market, and that’s really fundamentally what this is all about.”
FCC reported number utilization rates were “generally higher” in 2nd of new series of semiannual reports on telephone number utilization in U.S. Report is based on Dec. 2000 data telecom carriers submitted to N. American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA). Report series is first to examine telephone number utilization in U.S. since Commission enacted variety of number optimization measures such as assigning numbers in blocks of 1,000 (thousands block numbering) and delegated authority to states to implement other number optimization measures, it said. Among report highlights: (1) No telephone numbers had been returned voluntarily to NANPA in year preceding FCC’s adoption of resource optimization strategies. (2) Carriers in first 6 months of 2000 returned 17 million numbers to NANPA and in second half returned 20 million. (3) Overall utilization rate for ILECs increased to 59.3% from 58.1% and CLEC utilization to 10.5% from 8.9%. Overall utilization rate for cellular/PCS carriers jumped to 50.7% from 44.8%. (4) Reporting carriers have more than one billion telephone numbers, of which 440 million were assigned to customers, 580 million were available to be assigned and 100 million were used for other purposes. FCC said carriers had begun initiatives resulting from agency rulings including self-accessing numbering resource needs and inventories, grooming use of numbers and returning telephone numbers not needed immediately to NANPA so they could be assigned to other carriers. If thousands block number pooling were implemented in all top 100 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), 180,000 blocks of telephone numbers could be made available (180 million numbers), Commission said. If number pooling were implemented nationwide, 330,000 thousands blocks could be made available. Report will be updated twice yearly and is available at FCC Reference Information Center or www.fcc.gov/ccb/stats.
FCC shut down its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) until June 18, saying hardware failure June 13 “rendered the system unavailable.” Commission said comments still could be made on paper. Industry officials have been critical of ECFS system (CD May 22/00 p1), although FCC officials have said many of problems have been resolved. (Editor’s Note: Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Assn. recently gave Communications Daily an award in Best Spot News or Exclusive Story category for report on ECFS problems).
In rebuttal Thurs., MDS said Northpoint misrepresented spectrum data in June 7 letter to FCC (CD June 11 p9). MDS said Northpoint provided FCC inaccurate information on current international implementation of MDS technology in concerted effort to stop testing of its technology in U.S. “Northpoint seeks to block the testing of MDS technology to justify its claim that it is the only company with terrestrial technology capable of sharing the spectrum allocated to DBS satellites in 12Ghz band.” MDS America said Northpoint’s “blatantly false representations” were “disturbing” and FCC should deny attempt at free spectrum grab.
United Telecom Council (UTC), representing power companies, is latest group to urge U.S. Supreme Court to reject FCC’s interpretation of pole attachment requirements in Sec. 224 of Telecom Act. Filing amicus brief in FCC v. Gulf Power, UTC said Congress didn’t intend to allow unlimited access rights for utility poles, conduits and rights-of-way and gave FCC “limited” jurisdiction to require access. UTC also argued that: (1) Lower court’s exclusion of cable modem services from pole attachment requirements was consistent with Sec. 224. (2) Sec. 224 didn’t apply to attachments of wireless telecom equipment. Controversial case, which stemmed from cable issues, has drawn interest from such disparate groups as Real Access Alliance and building owners organization (CD June 7 p5).
National Telecom Coop Assn. (NTCA) asked FCC to reconsider its reciprocal compensation order (CC Docs. 96-98, 99-68) because agency “improperly” extended rules to include non-ISP traffic. “Rural carriers and other interested parties were neither provided proper notice nor an opportunity to comment on the new rules and rates and their negative impact on rural carrier non-ISP traffic revenues,” NTCA said. Assn. said rules were supposed to target only ISP traffic.