The House was expected to pass FCC process reform legislation (HR-3309) that has little chance of moving this year in the Senate and is opposed by President Barack Obama. In debate Tuesday, members of the GOP-controlled chamber split by party, with Republicans supporting and Democrats condemning the bill by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The vote was expected to take place after our deadline.
New carrier obligations in the Lifeline order show that the FCC has “not taken seriously” its Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) obligations, lawyers for General Communication Inc. wrote the Office of Management and Budget (http://xrl.us/bmzhgs). The FCC told OMB the new regulations will increase the annual time burden from 60,000 hours to over 1.5 million, excluding the commission’s new estimate of 22 million hours to account for an increase in the estimated number of Lifeline subscribers (http://xrl.us/bmzi68). Chris Nierman, director-federal regulatory affairs at GCI, said that others feel similarly to the telco and are likely filing their own comments.
That video streamed to Xbox 360s through Comcast’s soon-to-launch Xfinity VOD app won’t count toward its broadband subscribers’ data usage raise net neutrality concerns, Public Knowledge said. Comcast said in FAQ about the forthcoming service that the video is streamed to the Xbox over its private IP network, not the public Internet, and therefore isn’t subject to bandwidth caps (http://xrl.us/bmzh6n). “This type of arrangement is exactly the type of situation the Federal Communication Commission’s rules on the Open Internet were designed to prevent,” Public Knowledge CEO Gigi Sohn said. “This is nothing less than a wake-up call to the Commission to show it is serious about protecting the Open Internet,” she said. “It also shows, once again, that the Commission should take the first steps toward understanding data caps.” Comcast said its policies for the Xbox 360 fully comply with the commission’s open Internet rules and the company’s own commitments to an open Internet. “Any XfinityTV service that travels over the public internet, including XfinityTV.com and our Xfinity TV app on mobile devices, counts toward our data usage threshold,” a spokeswoman said. On the other hand, the Xbox 360 service is delivered in a way that’s similar to typical VOD delivery, she said. “Your Xbox essentially acts as an additional cable box for your existing cable services ... as a result, our data caps do not apply.” Comcast may be right that the practice doesn’t violate FCC rules, Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said. “Unfortunately, such anti-competitive tricks may be allowed by loopholes in the FCC’s Open Internet rules, proving once again that the FCC failed to deliver on the promise of real Net Neutrality.”
House Democrats and the FCC are targeting cellphone theft, using efforts revealed Friday. Leading Democrats on the Commerce Committee sent letters Friday to wireless carriers, device and operating system makers, asking how they protect their customers after their cellphones are stolen. Separately, committee member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., proposed a law requiring carriers to track stolen devices. And FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the commission is working with industry and public safety officials to address the issue. CTIA promised to cooperate with the FCC and law enforcement. But the possibility that Congress could take on legislation raised red flags for groups that don’t often agree with each other.
DVRs, TVs and videogames with Internet access or other advanced communications services functions aren’t primarily ACS devices and shouldn’t be subject to new FCC disabilities accessibility rules, two trade associations said. The CEA sought a waiver from ACS rules under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act for models of Internet Protocol-enabled sets and IP-enabled digital video players that are first made anytime before July 1, 2016. The Entertainment Software Association wants an exemption under the same section of the CVAA covering at least eight years of videogames and services, under provisions of an October order (CD Oct 12 p8) from the agency implementing CVAA and setting up a waiver process.
An FCC advisory panel is the latest entity to back text-to-speech emergency alert system warnings (CD March 14 p8). All levels of government can trigger EAS in a format that starts June 30 without sending audio files that take bandwidth and time for broadcasters and pay-TV operators to download, the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council said. It voted unanimously Thursday to recommend the commission rework an order on the new Common Alerting Protocol format to OK text to speech.
The FCC is expected to propose getting rid of ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) rules for the S-band, potentially allowing Dish Network to provide terrestrial-only services in the 2 GHz spectrum allocated for mobile satellite services, industry and agency officials said of a rulemaking notice likely to be approved Wednesday. The agency will propose buildout conditions and leave related questions about the 2 GHz spectrum and advanced wireless service (AWS) band plans within a notice of inquiry, they said. The NOI will consider the future of the proposed 2 GHz expansion band, at 1695-1710 MHz, primarily used by NOAA, FCC officials said.
TV stations didn’t back down from their political ad file proposal, envisioning putting online some but not all information in that part of the public inspection file now kept on paper at broadcaster studios. Lawyers for the 11 owners of 200-plus stations that made an alternative proposal to what’s in a rulemaking notice answered Media Bureau staffers’ questions last week on whether they'd amend the plan. The broadcasters are willing to provide some additional information than what they proposed last month, though not as much as nonprofit groups that seek more disclosure want or as much as the rulemaking sought (CD March 2 p7).
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed AT&T and Verizon Wireless a loss in a dispute with incumbent LECs in North Carolina over a ruling on interconnection agreements by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. The wireless carriers challenged the NCUC’s ruling that they, the terminating wireless carriers, bear the responsibility of paying transit charges for calls that originate on the wireline company’s networks, cross an intermediate network operated by AT&T, and terminate with the wireless carriers. The NCUC also concluded that the wireless carriers could seek reimbursement from the rural LECs for these transit charges through reciprocal compensation arrangements. The NCUC determined that the obligation to pay transit charges depends on the location of the physical point of interconnection between and designated a single point located with the RLECs’ networks. The 4th Circuit asked the FCC for guidance. “No prior FCC order has addressed whether the originating carrier or the terminating carrier is responsible for paying transit charges to an intermediate carrier under the facts presented here,” the commission said in a brief (http://xrl.us/bmybsw). “Nor has the FCC clearly opined on whether the Communications Act authorizes state commissions to suspend or modify the application of federal pricing requirements to small rural telephone companies.” A lower court in North Carolina granted summary judgment in favor the ILECs and the state commission. The Richmond, Va.,-based appeals court agreed, in a decision by Judge Andre Davis. “Because we ultimately agree with the arguments advanced by the RLECs and the NCUC, we affirm the judgment of the district court,” Davis wrote (http://xrl.us/bmybtt). The NCUC’s decision “is worthy of some deference,” he said. “Although we review legal issues of a federal nature, the NCUC has ‘expertise and experience in applying [tenets of] communications law,'” the court said. “The NCUC proceedings involved evidence and argument, and the parties prefiled testimony, participated in an evidentiary hearing, and briefed the arguments.”
Clear federal/state jurisdiction on communications services is key for ensuring service quality and reliability, speakers said during a conference call organized by the National Regulatory Research Institute Thursday. They cited increasing product choice, consolidation and competition as well as reduced traditional state regulation and oversight as four key trends that have reshaped the telecom industry in recent years.