A waiver requested by Cablevision to encrypt channels on its all-digital systems in New York City (CD Sept 24 p12) - the first request of its kind -- should be limited in time or have other conditions, several commenters said. Others, including the CEA and Association for Maximum Service Television, opposed a waiver outright because it would require subscribers to use set-top boxes or CableCARDs to receive TV channels. Commenters, and communications lawyers not involved in the proceeding, called Cablevision’s request unique, though others could follow as the cable industry goes all-digital.
Mexican agencies authorized Iridium to operate and sell mobile satellite services in the country, the company said Wednesday. The Ministry of Communications and Transportation and the Federal Telecommunications Commission gave Iridium permission. The company said it’s working with Spacenet Communications Services of Mexico to help meet “customized communications needs.” Iridium said it plans to add new service providers in the country.
The FCC said Thursday an internal study had found “a number of areas” in which ex parte rules could be “improved or updated.” A workshop Wednesday will examine how rules and processes might be changed to increase openness and will consider matters related to increasing communication online including on blogs, the commission said. The speakers will be Christopher Bjornson of the Federal Communications Bar Association, Diane Cornell of Inmarsat, Jane Mago of the NAB, Amy Mehlman of Mehlman Capitol, John Muleta of M2Z, Jef Pearlman of Public Knowledge, Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project and David Solomon of Wilkinson Barker. Shortly before Commissioner Michael Copps stepped down as interim chairman, he circulated a rulemaking notice seeking comment on requiring that ex parte filings provide greater detail than who attended a meeting and which rulemaking was discussed (CD July 15 p5). The notice remains on circulation, according to the FCC’s Web site.
FCC commissioners gave little reason at Thursday’s meeting to believe that compromise is likely on net neutrality rules. The Democrats, led by Chairman Julius Genachowski, enthusiastically endorsed a rulemaking notice, which was published by the commission in near-record time. Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, as expected, dissented on the substance of the notice. Genachowski had lobbied the two Republicans to endorse the notice, at least in part, or at least not criticize it sharply at the meeting.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he has grown increasingly convinced that disabilities access must be a critical part of the National Broadband Plan. He said the FCC commissioners have been invited to a commission hearing Nov. 6 at Gallaudet University on disability issues. Copps spoke at a daylong broadband staff workshop Tuesday on the topic, the second the commission has held on disability matters as it develops the plan.
Federal judges at oral arguments Friday didn’t appear inclined to overturn an FCC order that maintained the agency’s rate cap on telco intercarrier payments for ISP- bound dial-up traffic and a related “mirroring” cap/rule that helps keep wireless intercarrier payments low, a Stifel Nicolaus report said. If the FCC is upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia panel, it would be good news for parties including incumbent local exchange carriers and wireless carriers, the research firm said. Verizon, AT&T, Level 3, Sprint, CenturyLink/Embarq and MetroPCS filed in support of the FCC’s order. Upholding the order would be a setback for competitive local exchange carriers and others, including petitioner Core Communications and intervenors Pac-West and EarthLink, the report said. But Stifel noted that oral arguments are sometimes a “shaky indicator” of a court’s ultimate ruling, and this case presents particularly complex statutory intricacies about the FCC’s authority to regulate compensation between phone companies. However, none of the three judges seemed skeptical of the FCC’s reasoning, the report said. Judge Stephen Williams was openly unsympathetic to the arguments of Core and state petitioners, while Judge Raymond Randolph also appeared to push back harder against petitioner arguments than against the FCC’s and those of their telco interveners. Judge David Sentelle made a few comments, but didn’t make negative comments about the regulator’s case, the report said. If the FCC wins, it would preserve current payment arrangements, which would be good for the incumbents, it said. The FCC attorney noted that Level 3 had entered evidence that dial-up still constituted 10 percent of the Internet access market and had been 20 percent as recently as 2007, the report said. If Core were to win, it and others could argue that they were due higher payments, including retroactively. A FCC victory would also remove one potential pressure point for quick regulatory action on intercarrier compensation in general and related universal service funding, giving the commission a little more breathing room to craft an overhaul, though other pressures remain, including from the Bells, the report said.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn believes the development of broadband and energy policies have similarities, since both involve technology and communicating with consumers, she told us. The convergence of different types of technology in the communications sector is similar to what has happened in energy -- an industry she oversaw as a South Carolina regulator for 11 years -- Clyburn said in one of her first interviews since joining the FCC Aug. 3: “The common denominator oftentimes is technology, and in this case broadband technology.”
Six consumer groups called for additional rules on wireless-billing disclosures, responding to an FCC notice (docket No. 09-158). Some industry groups opposed new rules and supported an extension of current ones.
Protecting the digital rights of the entertainment industry is critical to speeding broadband deployment, the key focus of the FCC as it develops a National Broadband Plan, Commissioner Meredith Baker said Monday at a Silicon Flatirons conference in Boulder, Colo. Baker also said she gives the FCC’s massive broadband outreach program high marks so far.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The FCC plans to seek more information on the Universal Service Fund (USF) as part of its development of a national broadband plan, said Jennifer McKee, acting chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau’s telecommunication access policy division. On a panel Tuesday at the CompTel show, she said she expects an FCC public notice on how USF fits into the plan to surface in “the next couple of weeks.”