In the long transition toward bill-and-keep, a skirmish is building over how to handle intrastate originating access rates for calls that start over the public switched telephone network and terminate on the Internet. LECs like Windstream and Frontier are charging intrastate rates, while interexchange carriers like Verizon and AT&T argue that they should pay the lower interstate rate. In a series of meetings over the past several weeks, the industry has been appealing to the FCC for clarification.
Cable industry efforts to provide bargain-basement-priced broadband service to low-income consumers (CD Feb 2 p8) played to rave reviews from federal regulators. But the programs aren’t expected to make major contributions to company bottom lines, industry officials said. That’s because the aim of the program isn’t to make money for now but instead is to spur further consumer uptake of broadband, said companies participating in “Connect to Compete.”
The launch of ViaSat-1 gives Viasat a new chance to convince regulators of satellites of their usefulness in bringing broadband to hard-to-reach areas, said Tom Moore, ViaSat senior vice president, in an interview Friday. Satellite companies have increased the push in recent years for increased government recognition of them as broadband providers. The new satellite marks a shift for ViaSat, which has its origins as a satellite system components manufacturer, though the purchase of WildBlue in 2009 has helped with the transition, said Moore. Moore co-founded WildBlue.
Mobile communications technological innovation is not as world-changing as the industry would have us believe, panelists said at a New America Foundation event Thursday. Mobile solutions may benefit society in the long run but don’t offer any immediate solutions to longstanding human problems, said U.S. Agency for International Development Chief Innovation Officer Maura O'Neill. She said she’s hopeful about the future effects of mobile innovation, but current effects are being over-hyped. Solution providers should focus first on adoption rates, especially among minority groups, connectivity and affordability, she said.
The FCC has put off action on more than 30 waiver requests from local governments that have proposed public safety networks using 700 MHz spectrum (CD Sept 15 p1). Some officials at the FCC and industry say the reluctance to grant the waivers appears tied to the desire of Chairman Julius Genachowski not to muddy the waters as Congress pushes forward on broader spectrum legislation, which addresses a national wireless network for public safety.
As the FCC prepares to vote on an order on VoIP outage reporting at Wednesday’s meeting, carriers continued to characterize the proposed rules as unrealistic, unnecessary and burdensome. That’s even though they've been greatly curtailed from what was originally proposed.
The FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee met Friday for the first time since issuing a contested report last year on the future of emergency communications for people with disabilities. Industry representatives on the EAAC filed an addendum to the report questioning many of the findings (CD Dec 27 p4). Members of the EAAC representing the disabled said in an FCC filing they found it “very contradictory” that industry members “organized and jointly questioned nearly all the key recommendations.”
The record so far shows that commenters “overwhelmingly” support “voluntary, industry-led collaborative efforts” aimed at developing a mechanism allowing texting to 911, CTIA said in reply comments filed at the FCC. Carriers offered similar comments. But the National Emergency Number Association advised the FCC to act quickly and warned that any interim solution is likely to be in place for some time. Several commenters said the best short-term solution would be IP Relay, as identified by the ATIS Interim Nonvoice Emergency Services Incubator.
Work by career FCC lawyers is picking up steam on making all TV stations post almost all of their public inspection files online, agency and industry officials told us. They said staffers in the Media Bureau are intensifying work toward a final order to require the files now kept on paper in TV stations’ main studios to be given electronically to the FCC to put on its website. Commissioner Robert McDowell Friday slammed the agency for moving toward a fix to a problem that appears to be “non-existent,” by imposing unnecessary burdens on industry. Broadcasters, meanwhile, continued to oppose a notice of inquiry in another proceeding that would make them file quarterly standardized forms about the types of local programming they air.
An FCC committee won’t likely reach complete consensus on all items to be covered in three upcoming reports to the agency on implementing parts of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, participants said. Some areas where consumer electronics firms and other companies may not agree with advocates for those with vision or hearing problems were pointed out during Thursday’s meeting of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (http://xrl.us/bmhahx). One such area deals with the quality of video descriptions, describing aurally on-screen action sequences that aren’t captioned, when programming is transmitted by CE apparatus, industry and nonprofit officials said. A commission official discussed the limits on lobbyists’ participation in preparations for the forthcoming reports, and how VPAAC members could get input from those officials under current rules.