The FCC waived a rule requiring video programming distributors (VPD) to put into phone directories contact information for viewers to file complaints about closed captioning. “Some VPDs do not use telephone directories to communicate with the public,” said a commission summary of a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau action published in Monday’s Federal Register. The waiver is good “so long as the VPD makes the contact information available on its Web site or on billing statements,” the notice said. Dish Network had sought an exemption from the phone-directory rule.
The FCC’s Diversity Federal Advisory Committee is expected to take up a new “overcoming disadvantages” category for designated entities at an Oct. 14 meeting. The proposal comes as the agency takes a wider look at its DE rules after an August decision by the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which sent part of the rules back to the commission for further consideration. David Honig, executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, said in an interview that members of the advisory committee have spent many hours looking at ways to make the DE rules work better.
The Senate passed the CALM Act by unanimous consent Wednesday. The bill aims to turn the volume on loud commercials down to the level of regular programming. S-8247 would direct the FCC to adopt and enforce a volume limit within one year of the law’s enactment. The bill would allow the agency to grant waivers to TV providers that demonstrate hardship complying. The version of the measure that passed included new language on compliance: “Any broadcast television operator, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor that installs, utilizes, and maintains in a commercially reasonable manner the equipment and associated software in compliance with the regulations issued by the Federal Communications Commission in accordance with subsection (a) shall be deemed to be in compliance with such regulations.” The bill is to protect consumers, said Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., of the Senate Commerce Committee. “This common sense bill will make sure advertisers can’t just blast advertisements at consumers at unbearable volume levels.” The bill now goes to the House for consideration.
The FCC should immediately reclassify broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said Thursday after a House effort at a net neutrality compromise failed (CD Sept 30 p1). “Now that it is clear that Congress is unlikely to legislate in this area this year, the FCC should move forward to implement this vitally important proposal,” said Markey. Dorgan praised work in the House but still thinks “the best way to preserve the free and open Internet is for the FCC to act now to reclassify broadband under Title II,” he said. “All of us who believe in an Internet without gatekeepers or tollbooths should be calling on” Chairman Julius “Genachowski to reclassify broadband in a manner that re-imposes the nondiscrimination rules on the large internet providers.” Dish Network, Public Knowledge, Free Press and the Consumer Federation of America urged the same. “Given that Congress was not able to reach a compromise, it is essential that the FCC act now under its ‘Third Way’ approach,” Dish said late Wednesday. “The FCC needs a sound jurisdictional foundation to implement sensible rules of the road for the protection of consumers and competition.” But economist Ev Ehrlich, Commerce Department undersecretary during the Clinton administration, said Congress should still act. “Sooner or later, the Congress will have to act to ensure that broadband providers are not subject to the FCC’s burdensome Title II regulations.” The end of the House’s bipartisan talks makes reclassification by the commission more likely, Concept Capital analyst Paul Gallant said in a note Thursday. But it’s not a sure thing, he said: “Once the dust settles following yesterday’s drama, we would not underestimate the possibility that the progress from the FCC’s stakeholder talks over the summer, along with this recent congressional effort, could drive some type of Hill-FCC compromise that avoids broadband reclassification.” AT&T still wants Congress to act. “We are mindful that these issues are important and complex and that there was insufficient time to consider and act on our efforts,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, said Thursday. “We remain convinced that the proper course is for Congress to decide the scope of authority it wishes the FCC to have in this area.” The Communications Workers of America said Waxman’s draft bill “can provide the consensus we need to move” broadband “build-out forward."
The threat from use of contraband cellphones in prisons is “deadly serious,” and finding a technical solution is a top FCC priority, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett said Thursday at a commission workshop on the topic. Wireless carriers, led by CTIA, used the forum to make the case that cellphone jamming is not the answer. But mostly those who testified described a problem that could elude easy solution.
The FCC wants to know if it should require VoIP providers to update their customers’ locations automatically to make it easier for emergency services responders to find the customers. In a notice of inquiry, approved at Thursday’s FCC meeting (Sept 24 p6) and released later, the commission also asked whether 911 and E-911 requirements ought to be imposed on nomadic VoIP providers. The commission has already “tentatively concluded” that VoIP providers ought to provide locators with or without customers’ awareness. That provisional conclusion was backed by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and others, but there is resistance from the Telecommunications Industry Association, Nokia and others. Comments are due 60 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, replies 30 days later.
The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission approved Hawaiian Telcom’s restructuring plan. The reorganization plan would reduce the company’s debt from $1.15 billion to $300 million. Hawaiian Telcom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2008. The operator, which was formed in 2005 by the Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaii assets of Verizon Communications, had applied for federal stimulus grants in the first round but didn’t get funded. Since breaking off from Verizon, it has been coping with the transition to its own systems.
The FCC seeks comment on ways to move customers who are deaf from toll-free to local numbers when they use Internet-based telecommunications relay services. The commission said it wants to find a way to let businesses that need toll-free numbers for iTRS keep them but at the same time prevent relay services from automatically assigning 800 numbers for their clients. The commission has also suggested a one-year transition period to make the switch to local service and suggested that TRS fund no longer support toll-free numbers.
The federal government should “dissolve the FCC and go away,” Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said Wednesday at a Bank of America conference in California when asked what the commission should do about regulating broadband service. He said the U.S. political system is “for all practical purposes broken,” and he blamed the FCC for endowing the country with what he called the world’s worst cellular system. “The problem is, you can’t separate politics from the regulatory environment and it always becomes a short-term misallocation of assets,” he said. On broadband regulations, “I would much prefer the FCC stay out if it and allow competitive forces to evolve,” Malone said. “The cable industry is now back to where the only thing it has to worry about is regulation."
The FCC is asking more academics for more help on a wider array of issues under Chairman Julius Genachowski than under predecessors, though the relationship between the agency and academia is inconsistent, said many professors we asked. Systematic and wide-ranging efforts were made in summer 2009, after Genachowski took over in late June, some researchers said. Outreach continues, but not in any way that appears coordinated, and deadlines to contribute to the development of some policies were too short to accommodate academics, they said. There was ample time to respond and there’s “mutual benefit” to the agency and academia when they work together, said FCC Chief Deputy Economist Jonathan Levy.