A year after former FCC Managing Director Steve VanRoekel left the agency to become federal chief information officer, questions remain about the FCC’s revised website. Frequent users of the site say they continue to rely on the old version, the old blue and gold site, still available as the transition website. Meanwhile, the FCC has markedly decreased the number of blog entries it posts each month. The blog averaged 25 posts per month in 2010, but only about a fifth as many per month so far this year.
The FCC’s plans for special access reform became a prominent issue during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday where members queried the commissioners on a broad spectrum of regulatory issues. Chairman Julius Genachowski conceded that the current framework for special access is “not working” but said the commission lacks the necessary data to determine how exactly it should be reformed.
Verizon Wireless’s proposed agreement with SpectrumCo and Cox to buy the cable operators’ AWS licenses, while entering into new business arrangements, marks a key development in “the sad history of the failure of competition in local service under the 1996 [Telecom] Act,” the Consumer Federation of America said in a new paper, which it submitted to the FCC. “The local market has been reduced to two dominant wireline broadband service providers, one of whom [Verizon] also dominates local wireless service,” CFA said (http://xrl.us/bngaox). “Against the background of this very highly concentrated market, Verizon and the cable companies have proposed to declare a competitive cease fire between the two broadband wireline networks. Verizon will not extend it high capacity broadband network, rather it will market cable’s network. Cable will not enter the wireless market or use smaller wireless carriers to build a bundle of wireless and wireline service, it will use Verizon’s wireless service. Both parties give up the single best product they had to compete, taking a commission on the sale of the competitor’s product.” Thirty-two members of the House, all Democrats, sent the FCC and the Department of Justice a letter raising similar concerns about the effect of the Verizon/SpectrumCo agreements on telecom/cable competition. The agreements “appear to turn the promise of the” Telecom Act “on its head,” the letter said. The letter (http://xrl.us/bngaq3) was circulated by the Communications Workers of America. “Today’s letter makes it clear that there is strong opposition to the cross-marketing agreements in the Verizon/Big Cable deal in its current form,” said Debbie Goldman, CWA telecom policy director. “As it stands, the proposal represents a serious threat to consumers, particularly those in urban centers already facing a widening digital divide. Elected officials are right to be concerned, and we urge the FCC to take their concerns into account as they consider this deal.” Verizon Wireless “is confident that we have made a persuasive case that purchasing and bringing unused spectrum into the marketplace to meet the communications needs of millions of consumers is strongly in the public interest,” a spokesman said in response.
Special access reform and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s initial push for a vote on an order rejecting AT&T and Windstream pricing flexibility petitions are expected to be key areas for questions July 10 when commissioners are scheduled to appear before the House Communications Subcommittee for an oversight hearing. Other likely topics include USF/intercarrier compensation reform, progress on a voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum and other spectrum issues, the Verizon Wireless/cable AWS deals and privacy regulations, said government and industry officials.
Communications carriers serving the broad area struck by a “derecho” Friday experienced widespread problems in its aftermath. The storm struck a large area, and millions of people lost power during the derecho that had damage-causing winds exceeding 60 miles per hour. In one of the more potentially troubling developments for the FCC, officials in Fairfax and Prince Williams counties in Virginia reported some in the area experienced problems calling 911. The commission is probing the 911 outages.
July 9 PLI seminar on copyright law, 9 a.m., PLI, 685 Market St., San Francisco -- http://xrl.us/bncms6
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission denied state USF money to Sacred Wind Communications in a 5-0 vote Tuesday. Sacred Wind had applied as a means to fund “the extension of high-speed telecom and Internet capabilities to underserved areas,” specifically in the rural Navajo Nation land, but the Commission said it was concerned these USF funds “might be used for things like investor profits instead of consumer benefits.” Sacred Wind “lacked the proof necessary to show that underserved consumers will be connected,” said Commissioner Theresa Becenti-Aguilar in prepared remarks. The commission held an extended hearing on the case in February. Sacred Wind serves “approximately 2,200 residential customers spread over 3,600 square miles of Navajo Reservation and near-reservation lands in remote, rural areas of New Mexico,” the company said earlier this year(http://xrl.us/bnc4pg).
T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless announced a spectrum swap Monday, for the purchase and exchange of AWS licenses in 218 markets. Some of the licenses T-Mobile will get are among those Verizon Wireless is buying from the SpectrumCo venture of three cable operators and from Leap Wireless. T-Mobile had been among the toughest critics of Verizon Wireless’s buy of the SpectrumCo licenses, but formally withdrew its FCC petition that had asked for denial of that deal as well as Verizon’s buy of Cox licenses. The Verizon Wireless/SpectrumCo transaction was already well on its way to approval by federal regulators, though likely with conditions, commission officials have said. The FCC and Department of Justice must also approve the Verizon/T-Mobile license transfer.
A California bill to bar state regulation of VoIP continues stirring controversy, as SB-1161 moves toward final passage. It would prohibit the California Public Utilities Commission from regulating VoIP and Internet Protocol-enabled service until 2020, unless federal law or state statute dictate otherwise. The bill’s sponsor describes it as hewing to the same regulatory approach the state has taken on VoIP and IP-enabled calls, while critics worry it may affect reliability of calls and the ability to get them in rural areas. On June 18, the California Assembly’s Committee on Utilities and Commerce voted the bill out of committee 13-1 after hearing hours of testimony. Senate approval 30-6 came May 30.
A 2010 administration order that the government make available 500 MHz of spectrum for broadband in 10 years is entirely consistent with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recent recommendation that sharing be the norm for making federal spectrum more available for commercial use, said Wireless Bureau Deputy Chief John Leibovitz. Also at an FCBA lunch Thursday, Renee Wentzel, wireless aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, took questions from the lawyers in attendance.