The FCC is making “great progress” complying with an executive order asking independent agencies to submit regulatory lookback plans to review old regulations, an OMB spokeswoman said Tuesday. The White House on Tuesday posted final regulatory lookback plans by 26 federal departments and agencies, and preliminary plans from four independent agencies other than the FCC. House Commerce Committee Republicans applauded the commission Tuesday for recently removing the Fairness Doctrine and 82 other rules from its books (CD Aug 23 p1) but said process reform legislation is still necessary.
AT&T will no longer offer 1,000 text messages for $10 per month, a move it said would streamline its offerings. But Free Press said the move is “simply another example of AT&T passing off a price increase for consumers as a benefit.” “This should serve as a warning to the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission -- if AT&T is already able to unilaterally increase prices, allowing the company to eliminate low-cost competitor T-Mobile will only make things worse,” said Free Press Research Director Derek Turner. “By now, everyone should be used to how Free Press twists, manipulates, or makes up facts,” an AT&T spokeswoman said. The group “has no expertise in any of the matters on which they routinely opine,” she said. “In short, this is not a group whose views should carry any weight with policymakers.”
Verizon and Verizon Wireless told the FCC a declaratory order remains the appropriate mechanism for addressing their concerns that the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) should be paid by the carriers seeking ports, not the carrier handing off numbers. Competitive carriers and cable operators disagreed. On June 1, the Wireline Bureau sought comment on Verizon’s May 20 petition and replies were due Monday (http://xrl.us/bk9qqm).
GAO was asked to provide a report on FCC actions on wireless medical devices by House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and subcommittee member Ed Markey, D-Mass. “With respect to wireless enabled medical devices, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for governing radio devices so as to provide for effective operation and communication, including allocating spectrum and specifying technical requirements to avoid harmful interference between users,” Eshoo and Markey told GAO in a Monday letter. GAO was asked to examine how well the FCC has identified challenges and risks posed by the wireless healthcare devices, improved efficiency of relevant regulatory processes, prevented harmful interference to other equipment, conducted oversight to keep devices “safe, reliable, and secure,” and coordinated with the Food and Drug Administration, Eshoo and Markey said.
California’s inquiry on the T-Mobile sale to AT&T is looking into an open-ended range of actions to reduce possible harms. A ruling late Thursday by Administrative Law Judge Jessica Hecht of the Public Utilities Commission asked participants to discuss several avenues for protecting competition, promoting innovation and supporting service quality. The filing disclaimed any assumption that the commission has authority to act on all the points mentioned, at least beyond making recommendations to the FCC.
Billions of dollars are at stake in WRC-12 negotiations aimed at creating new jobs, driving economic growth and pushing forward emerging U.S. industries as global leaders, officials said in a briefing. Spectrum for mobile broadband, unmanned aircraft systems, wireless avionics intra-communications and a framework for post-shuttle era communications are some of the top U.S. objectives for the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) and beyond, officials said. The U.S. is heavily engaged in bilateral and regional talks to solidify support, they said.
The Federal Aviation Administration voiced uncertainty in a July 12 document over how well LightSquared’s revised rollout plans would mitigate potential interference with some GPS services used by civil aircraft. The FAA responded to questions from the Executive Office of the President’s Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee’s National Coordination Office. Under LightSquared’s new plan, it would begin terrestrial broadband service only in the lower part of the L-band to help reduce interference problems with GPS devices. LightSquared still needs approval from the FCC on the plan and the agency is now reviewing the LightSquared proposal and has requested public comment.
Internet privacy policies are facing “challenges” as the world moves to mobile broadband, AT&T Senior Vice President Robert Quinn said Tuesday. “We believe the whole world is going wireless,” Quinn said, speaking on a panel hosted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. But that’s presenting a whole new set of problems, he said: First, the handsets are so small that even consolidated privacy policies are difficult to read. The other thing is that location technology, while it creates the potential for abuses, also “creates value” for subscribers, Quinn said. It’s possible that online coupon companies, for instance, could use handsets’ locators to plug deals at stores that the customer is passing. Computer and Communications Industry Association Public Policy Counsel Ross Schulman said he thinks not enough attention has been paid to the potential of government abuse of the lax privacy offered by mobile broadband. Current law says emails that are more than 180 days old aren’t protected by the Fourth Amendment. “Spam has greater protection than the email from your mom,” he said. Tuesday’s panels also included executives from the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Project to Get Older Adults online, Verizon, Microsoft, Georgetown University and staffers from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission and Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John Kerry, D-Mass., as well as U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.
Spectrum legislation to authorize voluntary FCC incentive auctions for broadcast spectrum appears to have become inextricably enmeshed with the debate over raising the debt ceiling. With no clear path in sight for compromise between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress, industry and government officials said Tuesday it’s unclear whether the debt reconciliation will emerge as the key lever for getting the commission the auction authority it seeks as part of the National Broadband Plan. Broadcasters said a debt limit amendment unveiled late Monday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., could hurt the industry.
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom released a highly redacted version of a revised economic analysis of their proposed merger, offering regulators a detailed analysis of synergies they say would result from the deal in 15 markets. Merger opponents were quick to criticize the revised model. Disclosure of the revised model led the Wireless Bureau last week to temporarily halt the 180-day shot clock on its review of the deal.