A disconnect remains between what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in Comcast v. FCC and what the “headlines” said the court had decided, commission General Counsel Austin Schlick said at a Federalist Society conference. He also questioned whether Congress will be able to approve “technical” rules for the Internet or whether they would better be left to the FCC. Schlick’s remarks Saturday could be significant, since commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is reportedly weighing whether to push for net neutrality rules without reclassification of broadband as a Title II service (CD Nov 22 p1).
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) modernized the California Lifeline Telephone Program to make communications services in the state more affordable and available, the commission said. The changes include freezing the current Lifeline rate at $6.84 for two years for most customers and expanding the program to include data services for consumers who receive wireless equipment through the CPUC’s Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program (DDTP), clarifying that wireless, VoIP, and other non-traditional carriers are eligible for reimbursement by Lifeline for providing discounted service to customers and controlling the amount that non-Lifeline customers pay for the program by, among other things, eliminating extra payments to carriers for administration, bad debt, and to make up for forgone federal support. The CPUC will consider changes needed to facilitate participation in Lifeline for non-traditional carriers, including data services for DDTP-eligible consumers, wireless and other non-traditional carriers. The Lifeline rate will remain at its current level until Jan. 1, 2013, when a new “Specific Support Amount” methodology goes into full effect. The new methodology is expected to maintain the Lifeline rate well below the current cap. The Lifeline discount will be set annually at 55 percent of the highest basic rate of the state’s Uniform Regulatory Framework carriers of last resort. The initial Specific Support amount is set at $11.50, effective July 1, 2011. Each carrier’s Lifeline rate will be capped at no more than 50 percent of its basic service rate. Each carrier may reset its Lifeline rate on an annual basis and their rate will be calculated by subtracting the Specific Support Amount and any applicable Federal Lifefine and Link-Up subsidy from its basic rate. CPUC’s decision gives low-income customers certainty that their rates won’t explode in the next two years, and allows the CPUC, DRA (The California Division of Ratepayer Advocates) and other stakeholders time to develop a smart wireless option and to ensure the future of the essential public program, said DRA Acting Director Joe Como.
Industry, public interest advocates and telecom regulators shouldn’t wait for a new Telecommunications Act and should instead focus on incremental, data-driven reform of spectrum and intercarrier compensation, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker told a Federal Communications Bar Association luncheon in Washington Wednesday.
The FCC is moving into “a very active phase of consumer protection,” in which truth in billing will be “expanded into truth about just about everything,” Chief Joel Gurin of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said Wednesday, at what is expected to be the last meeting of the Consumer Advisory Committee under its current charter. The group is expected to be rechartered next year and work has started toward that, Gurin said.
African-Americans and Hispanics are still less likely to use broadband Internet in their homes even when they attain the same education and income levels as whites, a government report said. Nearly 87 percent of urban and nearly 76 percent of rural, college-educated white families used broadband in their homes in 2009. But for black families with the same education, the percentages were about 77 percent in cities and 56 percent in the countryside; for college-educated Hispanics, the percentages were almost 78 percent in cities and about 69 percent in the country, the Commerce Department said in a report released Monday.
Advanced metering and other smart grid technologies are continuing to be deployed on the strength of stimulus funding and numerous policy initiatives in some states, despite early-adopter difficulties, officials and researchers said. Privacy and security issues should be addressed before states move ahead with their deployment plans, they urged.
Expect an “activist” House Commerce Committee that does “aggressive oversight of the FCC,” if the GOP allows Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, to become chairman, he said Friday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. The committee would also be bipartisan and transparent, he said. Due to GOP committee term limit rules, Barton must get a waiver from the House Steering Committee to become chairman next year. Barton has been very public about his desire to become chairman (CD Nov 5 p1).
The FCC’s reconstituted Technological Advisory Committee (TAC) must focus on how to keep the commission relevant in an era of enormous change, committee Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday, as the group held the first of what are expected to be quarterly meetings. Wheeler, managing director of Core Capital Partners and a former president of CTIA and NCTA, said the TAC’s focus should be on things that the FCC can do to spur investment in the high-tech sector and create jobs.
Federal review of the Comcast-NBC Universal deal is intensifying and could lead to government approval with many conditions as soon as December, lobbyists and government officials said. They said the Department of Justice remains further along than the FCC in reviewing Comcast’s multibillion dollar agreement to buy control of NBC Universal. The DOJ may finish its work on the deal in December, while it’s less certain when FCC commissioners will get an order to vote on, said FCC, industry and nonprofit officials. Comcast executives have said they hope to get regulatory approval for the deal this year.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski faces tough oversight from the new Congress starting in January, after Republicans picked up as many as 70 seats in the House Tuesday. That was more than the 55-seat swing that gave Republicans control of the House in 1994. But it’s unclear whether Genachowski will face the kind of Commerce Committee investigation Kevin Martin faced when Republicans lost control of the House four years ago (CD Sept 14 p1). The Republican takeover of the House also could have a long-lasting effect on FCC policy, particularly Genachowski proposals on net neutrality and broadband reclassification. Genachowski was an adviser to former Chairman Reed Hundt when Democrats lost control of both the House and Senate in 1994.