Two southern locations -- one rural and one suburban -- will be the first wire centers AT&T attempts to transition to all-IP technology, the telco said Friday. AT&T’s long-awaited wire center proposal singled out Carbon Hill, Ala., and Kings Point, Fla., as the guinea pigs for what it hopes will be the start of a transition with a “potential to improve American lives,” AT&T said (http://bit.ly/1khuf1p). The FCC will seek comment on all proposals before approving them, it has said. AT&T hopes to transition all 4,700 of its wire centers nationwide to IP technology by 2020, said Hank Hultquist, vice president-federal regulatory, in a blog post Friday (http://bit.ly/1fOTPYa).
Patent assertion entity Intellectual Ventures (IV) filed with the Federal Elections Commission last week to organize its own political action committee, Intellectual Ventures PAC, according to documents the FEC released Friday (http://1.usa.gov/Nj8CiR). IV has not commented on what Intellectual Ventures PAC’s political agenda will be, but the company has been highly critical of many provisions in legislation under consideration on Capitol Hill that would curb abusive patent litigation. The House passed the Innovation Act (HR-3309) in December, and the Senate is considering the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) and several other bills. Advocates of that legislation told us it isn’t surprising that IV has formed its own PAC, citing IV’s history of lobbying on patent legislation.
The FCC’s potential foray into preemption of state laws blocking municipal broadband has industry watchers split. Some say there’s no question the agency has the authority to step in; others point to a Supreme Court case they say ties the agency’s hands. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday the agency would explore its authority to remove the state restrictions (CD Feb 20 p1). Wheeler’s announcement was part of the FCC’s plan to revamp its net neutrality rules in the wake of the Verizon v. FCC decision (CD Jan 16 p1).
A top House Republican will likely introduce a bill Friday to stop the FCC from reinstating net neutrality rules. House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is going to reintroduce a new version of her Internet Freedom Act, which she introduced as HR-96 in 2011. Blackburn’s proposed bill directly counters legislation that Democrats in the House and Senate introduced in early February, the Open Internet Preservation Act, which would reinstate the FCC net neutrality rules. A wide swath of lobbyists have said no net neutrality legislation of any kind is likely to move (CD Feb 3 p5), a point observers reiterated Thursday.
Chairman Tom Wheeler made clear Wednesday the FCC would take what is essentially a middle ground following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s Jan. 14 decision (CD Jan 15 p1) largely rejecting the agency’s 2010 net neutrality rules. The FCC won’t appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Instead, Wheeler said he would propose net neutrality rules aimed at enforcing and enhancing the order’s transparency rule, upheld by the court, and also preventing blocking and assuring nondiscrimination. Wheeler indicated if all else fails, the FCC could still reclassify broadband as a Title II common carrier service as a last resort. Wheeler’s approach accomplishes some key objectives of net neutrality while giving him wiggle room on how to proceed, former FCC officials said in interviews Wednesday.
The FCC under new Chairman Tom Wheeler is making cybersecurity a much bigger part of its public safety focus, said David Simpson, new chief of the Public Safety Bureau, during a Tuesday brown-bag lunch with members of the Federal Communications Bar Association. Industry should not fear that the FCC wants to be a cybersecurity cop, Simpson said.
CTIA members support use of mobile devices on commercial flights, but question whether the FCC has studies in hand to show there is no danger from the use of these devices in-flight, CTIA said in comments filed at the FCC. CTIA and other commenters responded to a December notice on rules that would permit airlines to choose whether to allow voice calls and other mobile communications in-flight. CEA said the FCC “correctly notes” that the airlines, working with the Federal Aviation Administration, “are the appropriate entities to decide whether or not to permit in-flight voice communication in addition to broadband data access."
Raising fears it would pave the way for AT&T to eliminate landlines in three years, a controversial bill is expected to come to a vote in the Michigan House any day, said advocates involved in the debates, in interviews Tuesday. SB-636 (http://1.usa.gov/1feaIv2), which passed the Michigan Senate 32-3 in December, would allow ILECs including AT&T to stop providing landline service as of Jan. 1, 2017, without necessarily getting approval from the Public Service Commission.
Comcast’s proposed $45.2 billion dollar deal to buy Time Warner Cable is likely to face serious regulatory hurdles but could still be approved, said analysts and attorneys Thursday. “There will be those who fear the sky is falling,” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen Thursday in a media conference call on the regulatory implications of the proposed deal. Cohen said Comcast and TWC’s businesses don’t overlap, and the deal isn’t substantially different from other cable transactions. “This merger is pro consumer and pro competition,” Cohen said.
As state regulators fret over their role during the IP transition, representatives from Sprint and Time Warner Cable said this week there’s a need for the bodies to police IP interconnection agreements just as they did with old time-division multiplexing connections. Speaking on a panel Wednesday on IP interconnection at NARUC’s Winter Committee Meetings, Charles McKee, Sprint vice president-government affairs, federal and state regulatory, said “incumbents have an incentive and the ability to suppress” new competitors. They may not refuse to interconnect, he said, but they could set prices exorbitantly high without a requirement to negotiate in good faith. IP promises improvements to customers, including HD Voice, he said. “But both sides need to have access to it,” he said.