The FCC got its argument wrong, said petitioners in the Arlington, Texas, v. FCC Supreme Court case, defending what they see as the rights of municipalities against the possibility of federal encroachment. The case examines the Chevron doctrine, which dates to 1984 and concerns a federal agency’s ability to determine its own jurisdiction. The petitioners, NARUC, the State and Local Legal Center and other parties had argued that de novo review is appropriate in cases determining an agency’s jurisdiction (CD Nov 21 p1). The FCC and T-Mobile, the Competitive Carriers Association and PCIA have defended Chevron deference to agency authority (CD Dec 21 p1). The petitioners’ 31-page reply in docket 11-1545 (http://xrl.us/bn9xin) insisted on their original interpretation.
Oklatel Communications seeks a waiver of FCC rules requiring eligible telecom carriers to demonstrate annually that they have engaged tribal governments in their universal service supported areas. Oklatel is unable, “as a practical and logical matter,” to meet the tribal engagement obligations, it said, because “the Tribal population served by Oklatel is different than that of typical Tribal lands” (http://xrl.us/bn83tm). The obligations are “inappropriate” as applied to Oklatel because, although the telco serves consumers that are members of federally recognized tribes, it “serves no Tribal ’sovereign institutions,’ ‘Tribal governments,’ or ‘Tribal Councils,'” Oklatel said, quoting the rules. “With zero formal Tribal communities and Tribal governments in its service area, it will be exceedingly difficult for Oklatel to comply with the Commission’s Tribal engagement obligations in any meaningful fashion."
The FCC adopted a report and order Friday on rules to support the deployment of Internet services on airplanes. The action establishes earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA) as a licensed application for communication with fixed satellite service (FSS) stations, the FCC said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn8cbe). “Rather than have to license on-board systems on an ad hoc basis, airlines will be able to test systems that meet FCC standards, establish that they do not interfere with aircraft systems, and get FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] approval.” The decision also launched a rulemaking seeking comments on a proposal “to elevate the allocation status of ESAA in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band from secondary to primary,” making the ESAA allocation equal to the allocations of earth stations on board vessels (ESV) and vehicle-mounted earth stations (VMES), it said.
If the FCC ensures affordable prison phone rates, it could reduce recidivism, decrease the burden on taxpayers, and benefit society at large, commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday, as the agency released a notice of proposed rulemaking to address the expensive calls (http://xrl.us/bn8bz9). The FCC wants to know whether incentives, regulations or a combination of both will best ensure just and reasonable Inmate Calling Service (ICS) rates for end-users, while still dealing with the security concerns and expenses inherent to ICS, the NPRM said. Martha Wright petitioned for rules to address the high cost of telephone calls to her incarcerated grandson in 2003. He was released earlier this year (CD Dec 3 p16).
FairPoint Communications Missouri asked the FCC for a waiver of its rules to reinstate federal high-cost support that was denied from July through December “due to an apparent inconsistency between two of the Commission’s rate floor rules, and an error in complying with the Commission reporting requirements” (http://xrl.us/bn77t7). A waiver would help FairPoint and its customers “avoid the undue hardship” of losing six months of support, which the telco estimates at near $90,000. “This support represents a significant portion of the revenue on which FairPoint relies to continue to invest in its network serving rural Missouri,” the telco said. “Without it, customer service could be put at risk."
Colorado has adopted “a pretty arbitrary method” of determining high-cost support for telcos, said Pete Kirchhof, executive vice president of the Colorado Telecommunications Association (CTA), which represents 25 small companies. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission adopted a new set of telecom rules last Monday after months of deliberation (CD Dec 18 p9). They've already provoked concern from CenturyLink, smaller telcos and a 911 authority. The order, effective this Monday, will kill retail regulation in regions deemed effectively competitive, cap the state’s high-cost USF and assert that Internet Protocol-enabled service falls outside the PUC’s jurisdiction except in emergency communications. The order is “what we feared, to be honest,” Kirchhof told us, citing telcos’ worries about lower levels of support and burdensome processes of appealing effective competition rulings.
The FCC countered arguments by Arlington, Texas, and other parties seeking to overturn a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the commission’s 2009 wireless zoning shot-clock decision. The agency said the Supreme Court should follow precedent and not chip away at doctrine dating to a 1984 case, Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which requires federal courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute, as long as that interpretation is deemed “reasonable."
A request by Deutsche Telekom for regulatory permission to use vectoring on its copper network to make high-speed broadband available more quickly has encountered opposition from alternative providers and from fiber-to-the-home proponents worried about its impact on local loop unbundling. DT’s application to regulator BNetzA sparked an outcry earlier this month from three German telecom organizations, apparently leading the incumbent to offer concessions Wednesday. Advocates of vectoring say the technology, although transitional, may be the best solution for Europe, which has been slow to roll out fiber networks. Fiber proponents, however, say vectoring won’t offer the high broadband speeds promised and could hamper investment in new networks.
USTelecom asked the FCC Wednesday to declare that ILECs are no longer presumptively dominant in providing switched access services. The switched access rules were designed for a monopoly era, and are no longer needed in a world where consumers have myriad ways to communicate, the association said. If granted, the petition would relieve ILECs of certain tariffing requirements, and USTelecom President Walter McCormick said it would move ILECs “somewhat closer to regulatory equivalence with their closest competitors.” CLECs and others worried that eliminating the rules could limit consumer choice.
Multichannel video programming distributors and CEA urged the FCC not to require “video programming apparatus” to include text-to-speech technology to make emergency alert information provided in on-screen “crawls” and messages more accessible to the blind and visually impaired. In comments submitted to the agency this week, there was little support for a text-to-speech mandate. “Even if text-to-speech technologies were reliable, it is unnecessary to require an apparatus to make textual information through audible use of the text-to-speech software,” AT&T said (http://xrl.us/bn68by). But parties generally supported using the secondary audio programming (SAP) channel to provide accessible alert information.