FCC Chairman Kevin Martin may still try to hold a quick December phone conference with the other commissioners to meet a Communications Act requirement that they hold a meeting every calendar month. Martin’s office sent around an e-mail Monday to his colleagues’ offices asking about their schedules the rest of the month, with an eye toward a meeting. No votes are expected if it takes place, FCC sources said Monday. A meeting may also be held Jan. 15, possibly to deal with proposed changes in the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation systems. Then again, the commission may not meet again until late January, after the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and after Martin’s expected departure. FCC officials expect to know more early next week. The three-week “white paper” deadline for document distribution for a Jan. 15 meeting would be Thursday. But that’s Christmas, and the FCC is closed, with the rest of the federal government. An FCC spokesman said Martin is willing to move on any items that other commissioners seek action on. “Several proposals and notices remain on circulation and any of the commissioners can act on those at any time,” the spokesman said.
The Public Safety Spectrum Trust asked President-elect Barack Obama to include $15 billion for a national public- safety broadband network in the economic stimulus package. Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen made the request by letter as the FCC remains stalled on the 700 MHz D block. Commission members of both parties have repeatedly said government money for a public-safety network would be better than a public- private partnership without federal money.
A federal court denied an appeal related to the timeliness of an FCC forbearance order. In a petition for review at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, competitive local exchange carrier Fones4All said the FCC improperly released a backdated forbearance order one day after the statutory clock ran out. Citing two decisions by the D.C. Circuit, the court said Fones4All couldn’t challenge the timeliness issue in court until it appealed at the FCC. The court also upheld the FCC’s order on the merits.
Concerns are growing that the FCC faces additional sanctions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unless it provides an additional response to that court on the ISP remand beyond its interim order released last month, FCC and industry officials said this week. The FCC on Nov. 5 issued an order responding to the court’s long-standing remand by providing additional justification for the original 2001 ISP-bound traffic rule, without changing compensation rules overall.
The Wyoming Public Utilities commission is to consider at its meeting Tuesday a Qwest filing for authority to enter into an agreement with QuantumShift Communications on unbundled network elements, ancillary services and resale interconnection (Docket 70000-1404-TK-08 and 70054-7-TK-08). The commission also is to decide on a TCT West filing for authority to make an interconnection agreement with Bresnan Broadband (Docket 70114-23-TK-08 and 70014-24- TK-08), a Qwest filing for continued waivers of some requirements of telecom service quality rules and request for confidential treatment (Docket 70000-1399-TA-08), and an Embarq tariff filing for authority to increase the federal Universal Service Fund debit applied to local service access line charges and to raise associated rates for consumer and business bundles (Docket 70009-316-TT-08).
Pay-TV companies -- seeking a ban on broadcasters’ pulling signals just before the switch to digital TV -- are unlikely to see a rulemaking notice issued in time for an order to be circulated in 2008, because of an impasse among the commissioners (CD Nov 17 p5). With FCC Chairman Kevin Martin yet to vote on a rulemaking he circulated in September, there’s almost certainly too little time for one to be issued, comments to be collected and an order to be drafted before Dec. 31, commission and industry officials said. That’s when the American Cable Association, the NCTA, Dish Network and others want the so-called quiet period to begin. Broadcasters say FCC action isn’t needed, because they have their own plan.
Four Michigan communities asked the FCC to find that Comcast violated agency rules and the Communications Act by planning to convert all public educational and governmental channels in that state to digital format. In a petition for declaratory ruling Tuesday, the towns said the FCC should answer all seven questions posed to it by a U.S. District Court in Detroit on the cable operator’s treatment of PEG channels. Judge Victoria Roberts had said she would refer queries in Dearborn v. Comcast to the commission (CD Oct 6 p12). “Congress intended PEG channels to be available to all subscribers on a non-discriminatory basis; the FCC should therefore find that Comcast’s actions are an unlawful evasion,” said Dearborn and others. “The court asked whether the federal obligation to provide PEG on the basic service tier applies in communities where an operator faces effective competition. The FCC should find that it does apply.” A Comcast spokeswoman didn’t reply to a message seeking comment.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin continues to stonewall House Democratic investigators, who released a report Tuesday alleging “egregious abuses of power” under his leadership, House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., told reporters. The FCC should fire its Homeland Security Chief Derek Poarch for “routinely violating” government travel regulations by flying first-class, renting “premium-class vehicles” and inflating expenses, Stupak said. “Mr. Poarch reportedly scoffed at advice from FCC staff that he was violating travel recommendations,” the report said.
The FCC should impose a wireless spectrum aggregation cap to curb consolidation and top national carriers’ dominance, regional carriers said in Tuesday comments. The small, rural companies backed a Rural Telecommunications Group proposal to impose a 110 MHz limit county-by-county on all commercial terrestrial wireless spectrum below 2.3 GHz. But big carriers and others warned that a cap could stunt the growth of the wireless broadband industry.
Staff at the Pennsylvania PUC is reviewing public comments as they develop final revised regulations on transfers of control and affiliate filings for telecom carriers, the PUC said in its autumn report. The rulemaking (Docket L 00070188) began in late 2007 when Level 3 Communications petitioned the commission to streamline Pennsylvania’s merger review process to make it more consistent with federal regulations, the agency said. The proposed regulations would revise standards on review of transfers of control for all classes of PUC-regulated telecommunications public utilities, the PUC said. Comments by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission and others generally support the need to update the regulations, with some reservations, it said. The PUC expects to complete its consideration of this rulemaking by spring 2009, it said.