ViaSat will acquire WildBlue Communications for about $568 million, dramatically changing ViaSat’s role in the satellite broadband industry and presenting an immediate use for its newest satellite, ViaSat 1, when it launches in 2011. The acquisition allows ViaSat to quickly join satellite broadband providers without investing a great deal of money in infrastructure, the company said Thursday.
The FCC is asking a battery of questions about the need for more carrier spectrum, in light of testimony at various commission workshops on the topics as part of development of a National Broadband Plan. Wireless industry officials said the FCC seems to be asking most of the right questions in the inquiry.
CTIA went on the attack, in a filing about telework, against FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s call to extend net- neutrality rules to wireless. The commission had sought comment about telework for its national broadband plan. CTIA’s filing is in line with predictions by FCC and industry officials that the network-neutrality proposal will dominate many discussions on the plan -- even though the nondiscrimination proposal probably will be handled in a separate proceeding before the commission considers the broadband plan early next year (CD Sept 22 p1).
Coincidental to Monday’s final ruling by the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) upholding a Qwest complaint about traffic pumping by a group of local exchange carriers, telcos and other parties filed related comments to the FCC. The federal agency had asked in August for input on a petition by alleged pumpers Great Lakes Communications and Superior Telephone for a declaratory ruling that state regulators lack standing to bring action in such matters. That bid for federal pre-emption is “another in a long series of misguided filings and presentations by traffic pumping local exchange carriers,” AT&T said. “Even a cursory review of the IUB’s written order indicates that the Petition’s predictions that the IUB’s written order would be ‘extraordinarily expansive’ and ‘flatly inconsistent with the rulings and policies of this Commission’ were wrong.” The Iowa board sees the LECs’ petition as “premature, based upon incorrect speculation, and without basis,” it said in a filing. USTelecom agreed in its filing, which urged the FCC to dismiss. International VoIP provider Futurephone wants the FCC to use its ruling on the matter to clarify “that domestic terminating access tariffs apply to services such as Futurephone’s, that Futurephone is an ISP or an ‘Enhanced Service Provider,’ and that inbound calls to Futurephone’s portal terminate in the U.S.,” its filing said. “Absent clear guidance from the FCC on this legal matter, we may be facing a long series of inappropriate rulings from various state regulatory entities as well as from state and federal courts.” Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in a joint filing that the FCC should “put an end to these disingenuous arguments by issuing an order or a declaratory ruling in its existing Access Stimulation NPRM proceeding holding that it is an unjust and unreasonable practice … for LECs to assess terminating interstate switched access charges on traffic that is subject to a revenue-sharing arrangement.” The alleged pumpers’ case for preemption is “patently absurd” and shows “contempt” for the agency’s integrity, Sprint said in its filing. Iowa-based RLECs Farmers Mutual Telephone, Interstate 35 Telephone and Dixon Telephone, which are parties to the utility board proceeding, filed joint comments saying the FCC should set ground rules for service to conference bridge companies and the associated access charges to interexchange companies. “It is imperative that the Commission provide the necessary guidance and determination which have formed the basis for the IXCs’ continuous refusal to pay the terminating access charges” they're due, the companies said.
Some high-profile members of the FCC’s most significant advisory panels could be barred from further service under an Obama administration policy reportedly under consideration at the White House. The proposal was first reported in Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. Craig Holman, Capitol Hill lobbyist for Public Citizen, said in an interview Tuesday the administration appears to be sending up a “trial balloon” as it looks at further tightening lobbyist restrictions. Holman said the restrictions would likely be consistent with the ethics order President Barack Obama released his first day in office.
The FCC will start a rulemaking abou tadding two net neutrality principles to the original four, Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a speech Monday at the Brookings Institution. The announcement sent ripples through Washington, drawing skepticism from broadband providers and Republicans and enthusiasm from longtime advocates of neutrality rules. The FCC’s two Republican members raised strong concerns about the proposal, in their biggest break yet with the chairman.
Representatives of the American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society met with FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick and other commission officials last week to discuss the groups’ petition for expedited rulemaking by the agency, they said in an ex parte filing. The groups said they want the FCC to help reduce bird deaths through steps including amending its rules in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, preparing a programmatic environmental impact statement on the effects of communications towers on migratory birds, and clarifying the “roles, responsibilities and obligations” of the FCC, tower applicants and non-federal representatives in complying with the Endangered Species Act.
Carrier wireless networks are growing rapidly and technological advances are not a substitute for allocating more spectrum for commercial use, Rajiv Laroia, Qualcomm senior vice president of technology, warned at an FCC workshop on spectrum Thursday. FCC staff heard the same message from other panelists as they explored what’s expected to be a key focus of the FCC over the next year, especially with no major spectrum auctions on the FCC horizon.
The FCC’s “reform play book” includes reviews of data, internal processes and public communication, senior commission staffers told reporters Wednesday. They gave the update a day before Chairman Julius Genachowski’s first appearance at an oversight hearing by the House Commerce Committee and two days before the FCC is set to complete an internal data review. “We have a chairman here who knows this stuff, cares about this stuff, and has charged us with transforming the agency into something that is going to be amazing,” said Mary Beth Richards, special counsel to the chairman on FCC reform.
FCC Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd, who drew heat from groups for past stances they say could lead him to support the fairness doctrine, was defended by more than 50 public interest groups Wednesday. In a letter to commissioners and congressional leaders, the groups asked recipients to “speak out against the falsehoods and misinformation that are threatening to derail important work” by the FCC and Congress “on media and technology policies that would benefit all Americans.” Lloyd has told us he doesn’t support the fairness doctrine and never has (CD Aug 17 p6). His work at the commission “should not be hindered by lies and innuendo,” wrote the American Federation of Musicians, Communications Workers of America, Free Press, National Organization for Women, Public Knowledge and others. In an August letter, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski of concerns about Lloyd. An FCC spokesman didn’t reply to a message Wednesday asking for the agency’s response to Grassley. Also in August, publisher Brad O'Leary criticized Lloyd by citing his work while at the Center for American Progress, where he helped write a 2007 report that found most talk-radio programming is politically conservative.