With the FCC about to transition to a new chairman and all proceedings on hold for the government shutdown, it’s hard to know if cable industry efforts to free up unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi will be successful, said several communications attorneys and industry observers in interviews. Cable needs unlicensed spectrum to bridge the gap between consumer demand for mobile broadband and the available wireless spectrum, said New America Foundation Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese in a report sponsored by Time Warner Cable released last week (CD Oct 10 p14). “There’s no possible way the industry can meet consumer demand for movable data at affordable prices using only licensed spectrum,” he told us. “We need to have a second path.”
Lawyers and other communications industry officials hope acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and the rest of the commission will provide information quickly on what happens next, as soon as the partial government shutdown ends and the agency and the rest of federal Washington gets back to work. Industry officials we spoke with Wednesday expressed the same emotions, relief combined with anxiety as both the House and Senate move forward on votes on a bipartisan Senate agreement to end the shutdown. Another fight could loom because the agreement would fund the government only through Jan. 15.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill that would require a search warrant for government entities to obtain electronic communications from carriers. Within three days after a government entity receives such content from a service provider, it would be required to give the subscriber a copy of the warrant and a notice, under Senate Bill 467. Brown said Saturday he vetoed the bill because it requires “law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant when seeking access to electronic communications” (http://bit.ly/GWT01I). Federal law requires a search warrant, subpoena or court order. and this bill “imposes new notice requirements that go beyond those required by federal law and could impede ongoing criminal investigations,” said Brown. On Thursday, he vetoed two bills related to the state’s LifeLine program and the purchase of prepaid cellphone minutes. Assembly Bill 1409 would have limited some of the Public Utilities Commission’s powers to adopt new rules for its LifeLine program. Brown vetoed the bill because of an open PUC proceeding to revise the state’s LifeLine program to allow non-traditional carriers to participate in the program, he said in a written statement (http://bit.ly/16dP1DT). “The last minute amendments included in this bill would legislatively preempt the outcome of this proceeding that has taken public comment from hundreds of California citizens.” AB-300 would create an additional system for collecting and remitting fees, surcharges and taxes applicable to prepaid mobile phone services where these charges would be collected from prepaid customers and remitted to the Board of Equalization and the fees from postpaid customers continue to be collected by the PUC, State 911 Fund and local governments, said Brown. AB-300 is “duplicative, complex and will result in significant and unnecessary costs to the state,” he said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1gHWyCw).
The FCC shutdown affected another proceeding, starting last Tuesday. The closure meant the agency couldn’t act to grant or deny a May request by Amazon, Kobo and Sony that the commission find e-readers need not make advanced communications services accessible to the disabled, said those supporting the ACS waiver and petition foes in interviews last week. Some said the import is that as of Oct. 8, e-readers made by those makers of consumer electronics and other companies must, if they have a browser, contain a way for words to be read aloud. The agency’s shutdown, which also took fcc.gov mostly offline, has hit other proceedings on which stakeholders can’t submit comments (CD Oct 10 p3) and meant the agency can’t act on device certifications so CE companies can ship the products (CD Oct 9 p2).
With many filing deadlines already having passed since the partial federal shutdown began Oct. 1, and more looming as the closure enters its third week Tuesday, the FCC potentially faces a land rush of comments the day after the government reopens. Unlike many other government sites, the FCC’s website was shuttered the day the government closed, cutting off access to documents lawyers and others need to prepare filings at the commission, especially reply comments. Several industry officials told us Friday they expect the FCC to grant a blanket waiver for all filings that came due during the closure.
Fewer regulations are needed by states and the FCC to promote competition and to move the IP transition forward, said speakers at the Telecommunications Summit at Murray State University in Kentucky Wednesday. The deregulation of telecommunications services by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission helped to spread investment and innovation in the state by AT&T and Comcast, said Commissioner Larry Landis. State commissions have the opportunity to work with the FCC to change policies in the states, said Landis: “States have a unique perspective to bring to the process, and they understand the need to share a vision as well as each having their own.”
AT&T and T-Mobile executives are frustrated by government shutdown, now well into its second week, they said at the Telecommunications Industry Association conference. The FCC’s work on spectrum auctions, getting spectrum from the Department of Defense, the broadcaster incentive auction -- “all that work has stopped,” said Thomas Sugrue, senior vice president-government affairs for T-Mobile. “One week? Sure, we can all make that up,” he said. “But once it gets a second week, and if we're talking about a third, there could be some real negative impacts on the timing of that.” T-Mobile is “fortunate that we don’t have an intensive, major deal pending,” like AT&T’s bid to acquire Leap Wireless, Sugrue said.
The partial federal government shutdown, in its fourth day Friday, is raising varying levels of anxiety among members of the communications bar. The shutdown’s effects rippled through the Washington area last week, giving most federal workers an unexpected, possibly unpaid, vacation, and raising some fundamental questions for those whose business is dealing with the government. Further adding to problems lawyers face, the FCC unexpectedly took almost all filings and other documents offline for the duration of the shutdown, a much more draconian response than many federal agencies (CD Oct 3 p2).
The week’s government shutdown has yet to disrupt the day-to-day business of lobbying in any profound way, but industry officials are cautiously watching its effects on Congress, several lobbyists told us. Accessibility to Capitol Hill offices is limited for some, and short-term agendas are up in the air as congressional hearings and other events frequently end up postponed (CD Oct 2 p6), they said. None had any sense for how long the uncertainty would last.
Broadcasters provide the backbone of the emergency alert system, testified Barry Fraser, general manager of Maranatha Broadcasting’s WFMZ-TV Allentown, Pa., on Wednesday before the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. He spoke on behalf of NAB and advocated for two priorities in keeping the EAS system strong. “State and local safety officials should receive ongoing training to properly use and protect the integrity of the EAS,” Fraser said in written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/18QkldO). “We strongly urge the committee to incorporate training into any legislation considered.” Fraser also urged the committee to create a National Advisory Committee on Emergency Alerting to “bring all stakeholders together, to ensure continual improvements to the system.” CTIA has been active in its own wireless alerts, testified Executive Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe (http://1.usa.gov/1brISM4). He said the wireless emergency alerts system “went live in April 2012 and carriers serving 98 percent of U.S. wireless consumers have opted to participate in the program.” He urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help educate consumers with the use of such alerts. “FEMA has worked over the past four years with emergency managers and public safety officials at all levels of government, the private sector, NOAA, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop and deploy the [Integrated Public Alert and Warning System] capabilities that are being used across the nation today to send citizens alerts and warnings quickly,” FEMA said in its written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1brJuBw). It was a joint submission from Damon Penn, assistant administrator of the National Continuity Programs, and Fred Endrikat, Urban Search and Rescue branch chief for FEMA.