The posting of about 3,000 pages of documents in the FCC net neutrality docket, days before a vote on an order set for Tuesday, is unusual and not a good practice for any agency, said administrative law professors and former commissioners not involved in the policy debate. The Wireline Bureau posted about 2,000 pages Dec. 10 (CD Dec 11 p1) and 1,000 more Tuesday (CD Dec 15 p8). The documents contain information that was publicly available, but not all of it had been filed in docket 09-191.
The CALM Act to quiet loud TV commercials was signed Wednesday by President Barack Obama. The House passed the bill earlier this month (CD Dec 6 p8), and it passed the Senate in September. “The top consumer complaint to the Federal Communications Commission for over a half century is now addressed,” sponsor Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said. It will take time for the requirement, that ads not be noticeably louder than the programming they appear in, to be implemented. The FCC has a year to change its rules, and video providers get another year to comply.
The Commerce Department proposed adoption of fair information practice principles amounting to a “Privacy Bill of Rights” for online consumers, setting up a privacy policy office in the department, and reviewing the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in light of cloud computing, it announced Thursday.
The FCC won’t have an order ready on reverse auctions for the proposed mobility fund until mid-February at the earliest, Chief Margaret Wiener of the Wireless Bureau’s Auctions & Spectrum Access Division said Monday at a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch. In October, the commission opened a rulemaking on whether it should use between $100 million and $300 million left over in the high-cost Universal Service Fund to create a reverse auction in which wireless companies in underserved areas have a chance to win subsidies to build out 3G networks. The comment period for the current rulemaking closes Dec. 16, and replies are due Jan. 17, Wiener said, making it unlikely that an order will be ready to go out before mid-February.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski formally announced Wednesday that he'll bring a net neutrality order to a vote at the Dec. 21 meeting. The draft had been expected for several days. Genachowski and his staff said they have broad support from industry, public interest and other stakeholders. Senior officials said privately that they had secured no commitments not to challenge the proposed rules in court. Nonetheless, the chances of being sued by a major ISP are much lower if the commission doesn’t reclassify broadband and instead proceeds with net neutrality sticking with its Title 1 authority, industry executives and lawyers said.
The Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) in Louisiana won a legal battle against the National Cable Television Cooperative, of Kansas. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil in Kansas tossed out a lawsuit filed by the coop to block LUS Fiber from appealing to the FCC the group’s denial of membership to the provider. Membership would allow it to negotiate discounts in content agreements. LUS Fiber had said in an earlier lawsuit in the court that coop member Cox Communications leveraged its influence to prevent LUS from becoming a member. Cox denied the allegations. The NCTC later filed a countersuit against LUS to prevent its complaint from being heard by the FCC. But Vratil ruled that the commission, not a federal judge, should decide the matter.
The Swiss Federal Communications Commission will auction frequencies for mobile from the digital dividend, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz bands, an Ofcom press release said. The auction of digital dividend frequencies is one of Europe’s first, it said. The lower bands are for GSM, UMTS and 3GPP’s Long Term Evolution, it said. Existing GSM and UMTS licenses will expire as early as December 2013, it said. More than 600 MHz will be awarded, an official said. The frequencies will be awarded for 15 years next summer, it said. No special measures were taken to promote a new operator in the market, the press release said. A DotEcon, Ltd. electronic auction system will be used, it said. Ofcom in 2009 ran a consultation on the frequencies allocated to In&Phone, Orange, Sunrise and Swisscom.
Dish Network dropped Comcast SportsNet Bay Area from its channel lineup Tuesday night after an arbitrator sided with the cable operator in a dispute that began over carriage renewal terms last year. “After losing the arbitration that they themselves initiated, Dish Network decided to deny fans access to this network rather than accept the outcome of the arbitration,” said a Comcast SportsNet spokesman. By dropping the regional sports network, Dish has “disregarded the FCC arbitration process,” he said. Dish didn’t immediately respond to our query. Dish’s actions indicate it won’t act in good faith in other pending arbitrations over carriage of separate Comcast RSNs, Comcast said in a letter to Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake seeking a meeting. “If Dish is unhappy with any of the results in these related matters, the Commission should expect that Dish will likewise unilaterally terminate carriage of the networks.” Accepting Comcast’s demands would make Dish less competitive in the marketplace, a company spokeswoman said late Wednesday. “Comcast is our largest cable competitor, which we believe creates an inherent bias that prevents them from offering Dish Network a fair deal. If we accept Comcast’s onerous demands, customers nationwide will suffer, and it will embolden Comcast to continue to make outrageous demands for its other programming properties,” the spokeswoman said. “Because the demands by Comcast are egregious and ultimately detrimental to consumers, Dish Network is appealing to the Federal Communications Commission, as we respectfully believe that the arbitration decision was based upon significant legal and factual errors."
Industry players on all sides expressed general support for FCC efforts to add spectrum for wireless backhaul. But reply comments on proposals to change FCC rules (CD Aug 6 p5) expressed reservations about several of the measures, especially one to allow fixed service (FS) operations to share several spectrum bands now used by the Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) and the Cable TV Relay Service. Several of the proposals grew out of the National Broadband Plan.
Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke questioned whether FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will proceed with a vote on net neutrality rules at the commission’s December meeting. He spoke after giving a speech Saturday to a Federalist Society conference, where Commissioner Robert McDowell said he has no idea what will happen in December or what Genachowski’s next step will be. Discussions were continuing Monday on a possible compromise that could lead to a December vote.