Hill pressure on the idea of cellphone conversation on airplanes while in-flight escalated Thursday as all five FCC commissioners faced the House Communications Subcommittee, hours before the agency took up an item to propose allowing such conversation from a technical perspective (see separate report in this issue). At the hearing, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended the proposal and said he’s talked with others in government about what will happen next. Members of both houses of Congress have raised the controversial issue, and the U.S. Department of Transportation is kicking off a process that may ban voice calls on planes, officials said.
Rural ILECs urged the Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee to eliminate carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) obligations and revise the state Universal Service Fund, at a hearing Thursday. CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream were among the companies whose executives testified on House Bill 1608 at the hearing, sponsored by Rep. Warren Kampf (R). The committee also heard testimony from AT&T, AARP and the 60 Plus Association. This hearing was the continuation of one last month (CD Nov 22 p14) where Verizon, two Pennsylvania public utility commissioners and the state’s consumer advocate testified.
A draft rulemaking aimed at lifting the ban on cellphone calls on in-flight airplanes focuses on licensing airlines to use the spectrum, FCC officials said in interviews. Rules that prohibit certain uses on planes will be modified and the NPRM will put new rules into effect, an official said. Some rules would need to be in place for safety reasons, the official said. The NPRM is set for a vote at the FCC monthly meeting Thursday (CD Nov 27 p1).
The House Commerce Committee cleared two key telecom bills Wednesday, as expected (CD Dec 10 p3). The panel unanimously passed by voice vote the FCC Process Reform Act and the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act. Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., introduced the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act, HR-3674 (http://1.usa.gov/1gTEKmX), Monday to much initial acclaim, while the FCC Process Reform Act, HR-3675 (http://1.usa.gov/IBxQXF), introduced earlier this year, was revived as part of a bipartisan compromise between Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Industry welcomed the process revamp to come.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler backs a draft proposal to authorize cellphone use on airplanes in-flight, in prepared testimony for a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing. “I do not want the person in the seat next to me yapping at 35,000 feet any more than anyone else,” Wheeler plans to tell Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1bWwJOQ). “But we are not the Federal Courtesy Commission.”
The possibility of bidding restrictions remained a key part of the incentive auction debate as the Senate Commerce Committee quizzed witnesses Tuesday. The FCC has been urged to limit participation of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The hearing was less than a week after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he would delay the auction from potentially late 2014 to mid-2015 (CD Dec 9 p1).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made the broadcast incentive auction more feasible by delaying it Friday (CD Dec 9 p1), but the first-of-its-kind auction won’t be easy, according to interviews Monday with former chairmen of both parties, broadcast and wireless lawyers and public-interest officials. They said not holding the auction until mid-2015, later than the 2014 then-Chairman Julius Genachowski planned, gives Wheeler more time to resolve issues like limits on bidding for the top-two U.S. carriers and holding two other wireless spectrum auctions this year.
The House Commerce Committee now takes up and may well pass two major telecom bills this week, aides and members said Monday. Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., introduced the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act of 2013 Monday, with support of a top committee Republican and Democrats. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., also has revived the FCC Process Reform in amended form, and it is now expected to pass House Commerce due to compromise between Republicans and Democrats.
The FCC won’t hold its broadcast incentive auction until the middle of 2015, Chairman Tom Wheeler said Friday, amid some still hoping it might take place in 2014 as once planned. Observers have worried about the timeline and long suspected it would be a stretch to hold it in 2014. Wheeler has called holding a successful auction a top priority, and several stakeholders said in interviews and written statements delay reflected a realistic view of the auction challenges.
Return of Visitor Badges, Sending Data to GPO, Device Certification Self-Declaration Sought From FCC
Reinstating visitor badges, putting documents online more quickly and taking steps to prevent problems due to fcc.gov being offline during October’s partial government shutdown from reoccurring, were among requests of an FCC process review and in our followup interviews Thursday. Responses to a Nov. 18 “call for input” (CD Nov 19 p15) (http://fcc.us/1kg8Ela) from Diane Cornell, special counsel to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, were due Dec. 2 for her process review that she told us she still aims to finish in mid-January. Some would-be filers said they sat out the review, while others weren’t available because the commission hasn’t posted the responses online. The three filings we reviewed, from the Telecommunications Industry Association and two from a law clinic at the University of Colorado, both sought changes in the event fcc.gov goes on hiatus during any future government closure.