Big phone companies urged the FCC to reject a petition on broadband data collection by state regulators. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners had asked the commission to decide that federal rules don’t limit states’ collecting information from broadband service or infrastructure providers (CD Sept 30 p10). But in comments this week, AT&T, Verizon and USTelecom said the proposed rule would represent an unwarranted expansion of state authority.
The FCC’s National Broadband Plan should promote universal wireless broadband and “establish a city-wide pervasive computing test bed,” said the Wireless Communications Association. Pervasive computing harnesses wireless technology to collect and distribute real-time data about people’s health, home energy usage, and smart classrooms, among other things, the association said in an ex parte filing at the commission. The collaborative test bed should be federally funded and use requests for proposal to select community and public institutions, network operators, vendors and software developers to participate, it said. The test bed would require interconnected wireless and wireline networks, and “could be combined with existing or new spectrum technology test beds,” the association said. “Pervasive computing could be tested alongside spectrum sharing technologies intended for use with the existing joint FCC-NTIA spectrum test bed,” or “along with other new spectrum technologies in the 40-42 GHz V-Band spectrum … or in other lightly-used bands.”
ViaSat and WildBlue Communications were granted early termination of a mandatory waiting period by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, ViaSat said Friday. The $568 million acquisition of WildBlue, announced last month, still needs approvals from the FCC and SEC (CD Oct 2 p11).
The FCC should require ads by broadband, cable and phone service providers to tell consumers how much the services cost inclusive of taxes, fees and other charges, the Federal Trade Commission said last week. The FTC voted 4-0 to make that suggestion and others in response to an FCC inquiry. The FCC should “adopt a policy requiring prices of competing communications services to reflect the price the consumer actually pays,” the FTC said. It should “consider whether certain standardized information disclosures would help consumers understand competing offers,” the FTC added. “FTC complaint data shows that consumers complained that providers had advertised an introductory or teaser price but did not indicate the price the consumer would pay once the introductory period ended.”
The state Public Utilities Commission gave conditional approval for California Advanced Services Fund grants to two broadband projects. The commission approved Thursday nearly $2.5 million for a last-mile project by Inyo Networks and almost $226,000 for a middle-mile project by Citizens Telecommunications. The construction grants represent 10 percent of the projects’ total costs. They are conditioned on the sponsors’ getting federal grants for 80 percent of the projects’ budgets. The Inyo project will bring fiber-to-the- premises and WiMAX broadband along U.S. Highway 395 and will improve broadband speeds to more than 6,200 underserved households in rural east-central and southeastern California, the commission said. For the communities of Independence, Big Pine and Lone Pine in Inyo County, Inyo Networks proposes fiber-to-the premises construction reaching more than 1,600 residences, for broadband service up to 100 Mbps download and up to 38 Mbps upload. Elsewhere in the region, Inyo proposes WiMAX wireless technology providing service at up to 10 Mbps. “This area has been historically underserved because of the high cost of broadband infrastructure construction and small market population,” the state commission said. “Economic development has suffered, and where available, its residents pay some of the highest prices in the state for broadband services.” The Citizens Communications project will bring broadband to unserved areas and raise broadband speeds in northern Lassen and Modoc counties. The plan is to extend a fiber cable 74 miles along Highway 299 from Fall River Mills to Alturas. The project will reinforce broadband capabilities and replace a radio link that can’t be expanded and is at 85 percent of capacity, the commission said. The project will provide a high-speed connection to telephone central offices and allow for an increase in broadband speeds to current customers and an extension of service to unserved areas next door.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell hopes for a briefing soon from commission staff on proposals to shift TV spectrum to use for mobile broadband, he said at a conference Thursday on economist Ronald Coase’s legacy on communications policy at George Mason University. “I think all ideas should be on the table,” he said. “I'm not going to rule out or rule in any ideas yet,” McDowell replied to a question about how the change could be carried out. “Certainly the 50th anniversary of the Coase paper is very relevant and timely,” he said. In the paper, “The Federal Communications Commission,” Coase argued for a market-based framework for spectrum allocation. But the U.S. probably won’t move to liberalize spectrum allocations as fast as some others, said Thomas Hazlett, a law professor at the university who has argued for clearing broadcasters from the TV band. “I think our chances are not high to step ahead of the crowd,” he said. Meanwhile, the progressive policies that Coase argued against in his 1959 paper are back at the fore of American politics, said Jeffery Eisanach, the chairman of Empiris economics consulting. “I don’t think the short-term prospects are good for moving in a direction that Coase would like,” he said. It’s easy to envision rhetoric like that about health care and the public option being used about wireless telecommunications if a large block of spectrum becomes available, he said. “Just substitute ‘health care’ and ‘insurance’ with ’telecom’ and ‘network operator,'” he said.
States that prohibit distracted driving would qualify for grants under a bill (S-1938) introduced Wednesday by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. Rockefeller condemned the practice passionately at a spirited hearing, calling it a “lethal weapon” that legislation alone may not be solve. “We need to think bigger,” he said, challenging federal officials to consider technological solutions, such as a device that could disable texting when people drive: “I don’t think we have time to waste on this.”
The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) plans to survey members about the FCC’s ex parte filing process, an official told a commission workshop on the subject. (See related report in this issue.) The survey likely will be sent to FCBA members by e-mail and responses will be anonymous, said Christopher Bjornson of Steptoe & Johnson, co-chairman of the association’s access to government committee. The bar association plans to encourage members to provide formal and informal comments to the commission, he said. Bjornson hopes all filings to the FCC will be made electronically, not sent to the agency in paper form, he said: “The greater reliance we can give to ECFS will improve the process.”
FairPoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said Monday. Though experts saw the move as bad news for Verizon-Frontier review, Verizon and Frontier executives expressed confidence about closing the deal as scheduled.
The Telecommunications Industry Association urged the FCC to “create a 21st-century band plan” for spectrum, identifying federal and nonfederal spectrum that can be allocated for wireless broadband. Comments were due Friday on National Broadband Plan Public Notice #6, on spectrum for broadband. “The time is right to recognize that terrestrial wireless broadband deployment and innovations are deeply impacted by spectrum availability,” TIA said. “Without making more spectrum available in high usage areas, the U.S. risks losing its leadership position in technology for networks, devices, and applications. TIA urges the Commission to continue its technology-neutral spectrum allocations and create a new and innovative spectrum band plan.” TIA cited the same numbers on spectrum need cited in a recent report by CTIA -- International Telecommunications Union estimates that the United States will need approximately 840 MHz of spectrum to satisfy demand for broadband in 2010, and some 1,720 MHz by 2020. “As FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has made clear, mobile broadband is rapidly becoming a central part of how Americans communicate, stay informed, learn, and benefit from improved health care and energy resource management,” said TIA Vice President for Government Affairs Danielle Coffey.