LAS VEGAS -- AT&T is very optimistic about the direction the FCC is heading on the IP transition, with a rulemaking teed up for a vote at the commission’s January meeting, said Senior Vice President Bob Quinn. Speakers during a CES panel hosted by USTelecom said the transition to IP from a plain-old-telephone-service (POTS) world is one of the biggest issues facing the agency. “I'm pretty optimistic,” Quinn said. “One of the things they [at the FCC] really get is that this be voluntary. I don’t think they want to mandate people to participate in this trial. … They want telephone companies who are interested in conducting these test beds to come forward and say, ‘Where would [you] like to have these done and what is your timeframe, what is your plan.'"
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., demanded an end to sports blackouts, pointing to three games that recently faced the threat of blackout. “As a result of the NFL’s arcane blackout rules, thousands of Colts, Packers, and Bengals fans had no idea whether they would be able to see their home team play just hours before the playoffs kicked off,” Blumenthal said Friday in a statement, calling the uncertainty unacceptable and unfair. “The threat of a blackout is itself both injury and insult. The NFL and other sports leagues that enforce blackout policies should not be rewarded with special regulatory status, antitrust exemptions, and taxpayer subsidies.” Congress should back the Fans Act, which he introduced with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Blumenthal said. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., who introduced companion legislation in the House, also on Friday slammed sports blackouts. He asked colleagues to co-sponsor the bill earlier this week. “Recently the Federal Communications Commission announced plans to repeal federal policies that support sports blackouts calling the rules ‘Obsolete’ and ‘No Longer Necessary,'” Higgins said (http://1.usa.gov/1bE6hni). “With the clock ticking, it is apparent now more than ever that it is the time for an NFL to follow suit and once-and-for all turnover forced blackouts on fans."
Chris Nelson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, becomes chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Telecommunications Committee, succeeding John Burke, Vermont Public Service Board … at Wiley Rein: Robert Benton named partner in Corporate, Election Law & Government Ethics and Satellite practices; Maureen Thorson becomes partner in International Trade Practice; Colleen King becomes of counsel in Communications Practice; Brendan Morrissey becomes of counsel in Litigation, Appellate, Communications and Food & Drug Law practices; Kimberly Sikora Panza becomes of counsel in Franchise, Intellectual Property and Privacy practices … Wilkinson Barker attorney Neil Chilson joins staff of Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen as attorney-adviser … Richard Chernock, Triveni Digital, becomes chairman of ATSC’s Technology Group 3, the standards development group working on the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard, succeeding Jim Kutzner, who announced his Feb. 1 retirement from PBS … euNetworks Group names Neil Hobbs of Terrepact to its board … Huawei names Bill Gerski, ex-Dish Network and National Rural Telecom Coop, vice president-sales for Huawei Technologies USA … ZTE organizational changes: ZTE Mobile Devices to be headed by Zeng Xuezhong, executive vice president of ZTE; He Shiyou, former head of terminals, to remain as an executive director of ZTE; Pang Shengqing named head of ZTE’s enterprise business; Zhao Xianming promoted to chief technology officer of ZTE.
The spectrum access system (SAS) envisioned by the FCC for managing reallocated 3.5 GHz spectrum is highly complicated, offering “daunting technical and regulatory challenges” to get the rules right, AT&T warned the FCC. AT&T and others filed reply comments on a November Wireless Bureau public notice on alternative licensing proposals for the 3550-3650 MHz band, which is targeted for shared use and use by small cells.
After a perceived lack of goodwill between the FCC and broadcasters during Julius Genachowski’s tenure as chairman (CD March 5 p2), executives said there’s now guarded optimism that under Chairman Tom Wheeler the agency will have more open lines of communication with the industry. Wheeler’s comments on the importance of broadcasting and his decision a month into his tenure to delay the incentive auction of TV stations’ frequencies from 2014 to mid-2015 (CD Dec 9 p1) were among reasons for early hope cited by respondents to Communications Daily’s informal survey this month of station owners and associations. Under Genachowski, respondents said the agency had less goodwill than under previous chairmen like Kevin Martin from 2005-2009, so they hope opportunities resume for close communication between the agency and industry even when the two sides disagree.
Inmate calling service providers generally rejected in comments filed Friday the FCC’s proposed foray into regulating intrastate prison calls. They called it an impracticable plan to implement a uniform, national rate structure, in the face of complex security requirements that vary by location. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) was also against the plan, which it said overstepped agency authority. Public interest groups were for the idea, arguing unjust rates occur just as frequently within state borders as across them.
Comments on a further FCC rulemaking notice on matters left over from the commission’s rulemaking on accessibility rules for user interfaces and programming guides are due Feb. 18, and replies March 20, according to Friday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1chY9im). The accessibility rules for user interfaces and programming guides adopted by the commission in October (CD Nov 1 p2) take effect Jan. 14, said the same issue of the Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1l1PNLg). The FNPRM seeks comment on whether the commission should adopt a specific definition of the word “usable” for implementing user interface rules from the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, and how entities covered by those rules should be required to notify consumers of accessibility options. The FNPRM also asks for comments on whether the FCC has the authority to compel pay-TV providers to provide detailed channel and programming information, including symbols identifying accessibility options and whether manufacturers should make the secondary audio stream used for emergency information available through a single “button, key or icon."
State regulators want their values to be part of any Communications Act updates that the House Commerce Committee works on. In early December, Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., announced intentions for white papers and hearings on the broader Telecom Act updates in 2014 and legislation to be introduced in 2015 (CD Dec 4 p1). Two key NARUC telecom commissioners and its general counsel told us Friday it’s the right time to reexamine the Communications Act and they want states to be a part of the conversation.
A fatal Metro-North Railroad crash in New York City this month renewed public awareness about implementation of the positive train control safety system, but PTC stakeholders told us they don’t believe the crash will ultimately change the dynamics of the technology’s implementation at the FCC and other agencies. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which required railroads to implement PTC communications systems, gives nearly all responsibility for implementing PTC to the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, said an FCC official. But the FCC has been facilitating the deployment of some PTC technologies because they involve spectrum, said an official there.
January’s order on the IP transition will “invite, on a rolling basis, service-based experiments with short timelines for submission,” Jon Sallet, interim director of the FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force, told commissioners at Thursday’s agency meeting. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly have emphasized the need for speed, Sallet noted, so the deadline to submit experimental ideas will come up quickly. Later, companies can propose more experiments that the commission would process on a rolling basis, he said. By “service-based,” Sallet means trials where real customers with real services will see those services transition to IP, he said.