Carriers filing replies in the FCC Lifeline proceeding generally supported the creation of a national Lifeline eligibility database, and want to maintain the current monthly reimbursement of $9.25, or increase it to $10. Replies posted Wednesday in docket 11-42 discussed an array of lingering concerns, including reseller eligibility for Lifeline discounts and whether Lifeline should be applied to bundled offerings that include a voice component.
TV station groups will begin paying higher fees for network programming. The timing of when stations will begin paying so-called reverse network compensation will vary company to company, executives said this week during quarterly earnings teleconferences. “The networks are being pretty aggressive,” in seeking fees, said Robert Prather, president of Gray TV.
Low-power TV stations with full-service protections are challenging FCC orders saying the LPTVs face loss of the Class A status keeping frequencies safe from interference. In responses this month and last to Media Bureau orders to show cause why they shouldn’t become regular LPTVs, at least 17 stations have said the commission would violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the 1999 Community Broadcasters Protection Act and/or the Telecom Act by yanking the protection. Another four have said they plan to oppose the status loss, seeking more time to reply. The bureau in the last two weeks issued orders revoking the Class A status of eight stations that didn’t respond to the show-cause demands (CD April 30 p16).
The National Weather Service will start pushing out emergency alerts to cellphones “sometime in late May,” using the new Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), NWS Lead for Emerging Dissemination Technologies Michael Gerber said. Gerber said some questions remain as carriers begin to transmit the alerts, a step required by the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act, which was enacted in 2006. He spoke on a Federal Emergency Management Agency webcast Wednesday on FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
Several organizations supported the FCC’s proposal to allocate $50 million a year over four years for digital literacy training, they said in reply comments filed in WC docket 11-42. But some groups opposed the funding, arguing it could threaten the availability of E-rate funds for existing services.
The fight over a deregulation bill in Connecticut intensified as the state’s legislative session ends in a week. The bill, SB 447, would eliminate several reporting requirements and allow withdrawal of service without regulatory approval. It would also allow cell towers in state parks with the approval of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The bill, already passed by the Joint Committee on Energy & Technology, is awaiting action in the Senate.
Comcast continued to take broadband market share during Q1, adding about 439,000 net broadband accounts, the company said Wednesday. That’s about twice as many as Verizon and AT&T added during the same period combined, in a footprint of about half the size of the two largest phone companies’ service areas, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors. Comcast lost about 37,000 video customers during the quarter, worse than analysts expected. The company pointed to a rate hike it put in place during the quarter as one explanation.
The FCC Tuesday effectively suspended for 21 days the 180-day clock on its review of Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox. Opponents of the deals had asked the FCC to stop the clock because of problems they have had gaining access to documents and working their way through the massive record. Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan said in a letter posted on the FCC website he had little choice. The clock is non-binding, but still closely watched. Tuesday was officially day 103 of the commission’s 180-day review.
With 555 question marks, the 182-page further notice of proposed rulemaking on contribution reform, released late Monday, contains as many questions as there are feet in the Washington Monument. Throughout the further notice, after posing several dozen questions, the commission pauses to ask whether certain proposals are consistent with its fundamental goal of being efficient, fair, and sustainable.
Local governments want to work with wireless carriers and tower companies to make collocation easier, Anthony Perez, NATOA president-elect, said at an FCC workshop Tuesday. Industry speakers said collocation will only get more important as siting towers becomes more difficult. One provision of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, signed in February by President Barack Obama, streamlines collocation on and modification of an existing structure that doesn’t substantially change the physical dimensions of the structure.