House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said there’s a “distinct possibility” that no broadcasters will participate in the incentive auction if the FCC fails to consider their concerns, according to a news release Wednesday. In order for the auction to be a success, the commission “must encourage as many broadcasters as possible to participate … and maximize the amount of money it raises,” he said. Walden referenced a recent FCC filing by the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, a group of owners and potential owners of more than 40 large-market TV stations (CD March 12 p13). “In one of the most important filings in the FCC proceeding to implement the law, the coalition listed three critical elements for a successful auction,” he said. First, the commission must not artificially limit the potential compensation to broadcasters; second, the Commission must not exclude potential wireless bidders; and third, the FCC must auction all the airwaves it clears rather than giving some away for unlicensed use, Walden said. “We have an unprecedented opportunity before us to help meet Americans’ growing thirst for mobile Internet service, advance the public safety network, and even raise needed federal revenue. Let’s not squander it.”
Several Senate Commerce Committee members want Congress to modernize rules that govern the communications market. From federal E-rate polices, to video regulations, lawmakers at Tuesday’s FCC oversight hearing said it’s time to take a hard look at what should be done to modernize the 20th century rules that govern the market now.
The FCC Wireless and International bureaus approved the combination of T-Mobile and MetroPCS. Tuesday’s order on a deal that will strengthen the No. 4 U.S. carrier wasn’t a close call in the bureaus’ view. The order doesn’t require T-Mobile to sell off any assets and it doesn’t impose a requirement that the combined company maintain its current employment levels, as sought by the Communications Workers of America and others. Unlike most orders on major transactions, but as expected (CD March 8 p3), commissioners didn’t vote on the deal. MetroPCS stockholders still have to vote to approve the transaction. They are slated to do so at a special meeting April 12.
The FCC’s Technological Advisory Committee will look closely at communications resiliency in a broadband world as a major focus over the next year, TAC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at the start of the advisory group’s meeting Monday, TAC’s first meeting of the year. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski stopped by the meeting to say the charter of the TAC had been renewed so it could continue its work.
Some newer video products would need to be capable of passing on to users video descriptions from TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors’ emergency on-screen crawls within two years of a draft FCC order taking effect, agency officials said. They said the draft Media Bureau order would require mobile DTV products and DVR and Blu-ray players to be able to pass on audio narratives of warnings originally rendered on the screens of TV station and MVPD programming viewers. The TV licensees would be responsible for converting what’s in the crawls into secondary audio programming channels, and the SAP content would need to be available to users of the consumer electronics, agency officials said. CEA, NAB and members have sought exclusions or more time for mobile DTV equipment (CD Feb 14 p18).
The operator of a trans-Pacific submarine cable is trying to stop or move a pilot tidal energy project at the mouth of Puget Sound in Washington state. Pacific Crossing and the association that represents undersea cable operators are pushing the FCC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to come up with a set of guidelines for how close oceanic energy projects can be to their cables. FERC is set to rule on a proposed permit for a pilot tidal energy project in Admiralty Inlet, a project that’s been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and is being managed by the Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) in Admiralty Inlet. Pacific Crossing worries the project is too close to its PC-1 cable connecting the U.S. to Japan, and could inadvertently damage its cable or impair its ability to maintain and repair it.
State and local support for prison phone rate reform remains strong, Public Knowledge and other public interest groups told aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/Zxr2fZ). Continued FCC leadership has “the salutary effect of mobilizing supports at all levels of government,” the groups said, urging the commission to move quickly to “alleviate the unjust” carrier practices. The commission has authority under sections 201 and 202 of the Communications Act to prohibit carriers from paying commissions to prison officials, the groups said. “Such a prohibition no more treads on federalism or intrastate communications than the prohibition on exclusive contracts with landlords trammels on the rights of landlords, or the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule treads on the rights of newspapers."
Two of three judges asked skeptical questions of WealthTV’s lawyer, in the independent programmer’s attempt (CD March 13 p5) to get the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an FCC denial of the indie’s program carriage complaint against four cable operators. At the oral argument Thursday in Pasadena, Calif., Judge Paul Watford asked almost all the questions of attorneys for WealthTV, the commission and the four operators. He also homed in on the FCC’s lawyer over whether there was a violation when the FCC administrative law judge, whose recommendation against the indie’s case was upheld by the full commission in 2011, didn’t consider some testimony as evidence.
The landmark order reforming the USF and intercarrier compensation system was a bastion of reasonableness, the FCC argued in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In two briefs totaling more than 130 pages -- one devoted to USF issues, the other to ICC issues -- the commission argued its 2011 USF/ICC order was lawful, necessary and well within the FCC’s authority. Challengers to the order are merely “seeking to preserve the status quo,” the FCC said, arguing the claims of overstepping jurisdiction and violating procedure are “baseless."
Cybersecurity measures are needed from government agencies originating emergency alert system messages in a newer Web format, and from all participants in the EAS system, after last month’s unauthorized access sparked fake warnings, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said. Manny Centeno from FEMA’s integrated public alert and warning system office showed participants in the agency’s webinar on IPAWS and that new format, Common Alerting Protocol, the FCC’s Feb. 13 “urgent advisory” to EAS participants. That warning on CAP was issued privately by commission staffers to associations that distributed them to EAS participants -- which include all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors (CD Feb 14 p8) . State and other officials involved in CAP recommended counterparts in other states start testing that format, and said shorter wireless emergency alerts on mobile devices won’t supplant EAS but complement it.