Hance Haney, senior fellow of the Technology & Democracy Project at the Discovery Institute, took Rick Whitt, Google’s Washington telecom and media counsel, to task for comments he made on his blog after the 700 MHz auction. Whitt wrote that Google’s “top priority” heading into the auction “was to make sure that bidding on the so-called ‘C Block’ reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important ‘open applications’ and ‘open handsets’ license conditions.” Whitt also wrote that Google was ready to buy the nationwide C- block licenses “at a price somewhat higher than the reserve price” but wasn’t prepared to outbid Verizon Wireless. “This certainly isn’t consistent with the way Google presented the open access proposal to the Federal Communications Commission last summer,” Haney replied. “Google stressed that open access was for the purpose of leading to the introduction of new facilities-based providers of broadband services… Obviously, the idea that an open access requirement would facilitate a third ‘pipe’ was naive on the part of pliant regulators.” Whitt said in response that Haney had misread his company’s comments from last summer. “We consistently have argued that the open access license conditions adopted by the FCC would inject much-needed competition into the wireless apps and handset sectors, but would not by themselves lead to new wireless networks,” he said Monday. “Only if the commission had adopted the interconnection and resale license conditions we also had suggested -- which the agency ultimately did not do -- would we have seen the potential for new facilities-based competition.”
Department of Justice lawsuits against Fox and affiliates for not paying a combined $91,000 in FCC indecency fines (CD Feb 22 p1) are both unusual and perhaps ill-fated, broadcast attorneys said. Friday, DoJ sued in four U.S. District Courts against eight stations for not paying FCC fines levied for airing an April 7, 2003, Married by America episode. The suits came because station owners didn’t pay within 30 days of the fines’ Feb. 22 issuance.
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission refused to reconsider its February decision to create a new type of state certificate for competitive 911 providers and grant the first such certificate to Intrado Communications. The PUC in February concluded that Indrado is a telecom carrier as defined in federal law, but isn’t a full-fledged competitive provider because its scope is restricted to 911 services sold to state and local 911 authorities. The PUC said Intrado has the right to interconnect with existing telecom carriers for 911 services, and had to provide its services on a countywide basis (Case 7-1199-TP-ACE). But AT&T, Cincinnati Bell and the Ohio Telecom Association said the PUC violated their due process rights, its own administrative procedures, and state laws barring rate discrimination among providers of the same services. They also said the PUC was wrong in ruling Intrado had local interconnection rights. In refusing to reconsider, the PUC said it determined that Intrado was under its jurisdiction but wasn’t a conventional competitive carrier. It said its order established what kind of carrier Intrado was, and established entry regulations for such carriers. The PUC said it gave opponents many opportunities to be heard. The PUC also said the telecom carrier definition in the federal Telecom Act clearly covers specialized 911 carriers like Intrado, so it has interconnection rights. But the PUC said details of Intrado’s interconnections would be left to negotiation and arbitration. The PUC also said its order allowing Intrado flexibility to negotiate rates reflects its plans to provide enhanced E-911 services that are different from the existing 911 services.
A Comcast executive and others on a panel Thursday sought a broad revamp of FCC procedures to limit how long the agency has to consider a wide array of issues and to bring transparency to ex parte meetings. Comcast Senior Vice President Joe Waz said the text of orders should be made public within 30 days of approval by the commissioners, and orders shouldn’t be changed after last-minute lobbying. Some other speakers on the American Bar Association panel on FCC reform also sought changes, but two panelists said the commission does a good job. An FCC spokeswoman said Comcast’s complaints stem from the commission’s review of one of the company’s deals.
The New York Public Service Commission refused to stay an interim decision in an interconnection dispute over rates and terms between wholesale transport and termination provider Neutral Tandem and competitive retail carrier Level 3 Communications. Level 3 sought a state stay until a federal court rules on whether PSC action on this dispute is preempted by federal law. The PSC (Case 07-C-1332) ruled that staying its order would unfairly disadvantage Neutral Tandem. Level 3 had threatened to disconnect itself from Neutral Tandem, but the PSC told the companies to maintain interconnection under existing terms until they negotiated new rates and terms, or until the PSC ruled on the disputed issues. Level 3 in its January appeal to the federal courts asserted the PSC exceeded its authority under federal law. The PSC said denial of the stay fitted its established policy of pressing ahead with its own proceeding despite pending federal litigation. The PSC said a functional and effective telecom market requires prompt resolution of participants’ disputes.
FairPoint told Maine regulators that its privacy policy doesn’t permit it to give customer call records to government agencies unless an agency’s request “satisfies all procedural and substantive legal requirements and is otherwise proper.” FairPoint described its privacy policies in a filing with the Public Utilities Commission that fulfilled a condition for PUC approval of FairPoint’s purchase of Verizon landline assets. FairPoint said its privacy policy requires that court or agency subpoenas and other such orders seeking customer data be valid, properly issued and legally enforceable. FairPoint said its policy bars release of customer data in response to requests by private parties and requires “diligent” reviews to ensure that any governmental request or demand is an official act by an authorized agency. In testimony last week to the Maine legislature’s Joint Standing Utilities and Energy Committee, Walter Leach, FairPoint executive vice president for development, said his company never has given customer phone records to a federal agency. PUC concern over FairPoint privacy policies stemmed from its investigation into whether Verizon violated state laws by collaborating with a secret National Security Agency domestic phone surveillance project. That probe is on hold pending a final federal court ruling on whether states are preempted from investigating NSA-related privacy matters. FairPoint’s 10-page privacy policy also bars sharing information on individual customers with third parties unless needed to provide the customer telecom services. FairPoint’s policy says the company won’t share sensitive customer information with outside marketers, and commits the company to ensuring that customer information “is not used without the knowledge and permission of our customers.” According to FairPoint’s policy, the company never “intrudes upon, tampers with or discloses” any transmission or communication except to maintain its phone network or as required by law. The PUC said it may address FairPoint’s privacy policy filing at its March 24 meeting.
The FCC would need to exercise tough enforcement on manufacturers if the commission chooses to promote unlicensed spectrum deployment, Association for Maximum Service TV President David Donovan told a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch Tuesday. Spectrum efficiency will depend on the devices, he said. Without enforcement, manufacturers could ignore interference concerns as they try to outdo rivals with more powerful devices, he said. Manufacturers must have incentive to build non-interfering devices for unlicensed spectrum, agreed WilmerHale lawyer Jonathan Neuchterlein. But enforcement could prove tricky, Donovan said. “The entity you hold responsible may not even be within our shores.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau, acting on wireless carrier complaints, delayed for six months the deadline for carrier compliance with new E-911 location accuracy rules. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the order changing the deadline shows the commission’s original order to be flawed. Carriers said the stay provides little help.
The FCC would be more transparent, more responsive to consumers and less focused on “prescriptive” rulemaking under President John McCain, campaign advisors and former staffers said in interviews. The Arizona Republican senator would want a “nimbler” commission run more like the FTC to protect the public, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy advisor to the McCain campaign.
The FCC shouldn’t force strict channel placement and down-conversion rules on cable operators and phone companies carrying DTV must-carry stations, Verizon and NCTA said in comments this week. Wireline pay-TV operators have idiosyncratic systems and need flexibility that strict federal mandates would rule out, Verizon said. NCTA said the FCC should let cable operators, not broadcasters, decide how to reformat wide-screen DTV broadcast signals for analog TV sets. NCTA and Verizon said commission material degradation rules should apply only to must-carry broadcast signals, since stations electing retransmission consent can negotiate video quality. Separately, broadcasters asked the commission to reconsider the “all content bits” language dropped from its Sept. 11 carriage order after extensive cable-industry lobbying (CD Special Bulletin Sept 11 p1).