Both broadband and wireless should be in the mix for high-cost Universal Service Fund reform, the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service said Thursday in a brief statement. The board adopted the statement in July, but it took the FCC two months to release it, sources said Friday.
Net neutrality rules could harm competition by blocking service providers from offering premium services and prioritizing “latency-sensitive content” such as streaming video, the Justice Department told the FCC in an ex parte filing on a commission inquiry into broadband industry practices. Justice warned against “prophylactic” controls that could require providers to ignore demand and avoid investing in network upgrades. Critics panned the agency’s filing as a sop to the Bells, and some warned that warrantless surveillance would only grow without neutrality rules.
Commissioners may split over franchise and DTV orders set for votes Tuesday (CD Aug 23 p1) because of concern that the rulemakings may overstep the FCC’s authority, agency officials said. They said resistance is greatest to an order that would prevent cable operators from immediately taking advantage of franchising changes that are benefiting Bells. The order seems likely to get a 3-2 vote at the meeting.
A federal court in Illinois declined to grant three rural incumbent telcos an injunction blocking an Illinois Commerce Commission order requiring them to negotiate interconnection agreements with Sprint Communications for wholesale VoIP service. Harrisonville Telephone, Marseilles Telephone and Metamora Telephone told the U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Ill., that Sprint isn’t entitled to interconnection. They asserted Sprint isn’t a common carrier under federal law because it isn’t providing retail service, so Illinois regulators’ order is in clear violation of federal law, and they will suffer immediate and irreparable harm from the state’s unlawful order. Sprint sought interconnection so it could provide VoIP service to its retail partner, cable company Mediacom Communications, which would sell the phone service and handle billing and customer relations. The court (Case 3:06-CV-00073-GPM-DGW) said FCC rulings have held wholesale providers can be considered common carriers, Sprint provides indiscriminate service to the public through its retail partner Mediacom, and the service would not be possible without Mediacom’s participation. The court also said the rural telcos had failed to show a reasonable likelihood of winning the case on the merits.
The FCC caught flak from within for its handling of a Comcast CableCARD waiver request, whose denial by the full commission finally was made public late Tuesday (CD Sept 5 p12). In a rare joint concurrence, Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Robert McDowell said the Media Bureau should have been more consistent in its treatment of many waiver requests. Commissioner Michael Copps said the FCC took too long to issue the denial, which came a month and a half after votes were tallied. With the wait over, Comcast said it will sue the agency. Bureau Chief Monica Desai said that contrary to Comcast claims the bureau handled its petition no differently than others.
The communications industry spent about $122 million on federal lobbying the first half of 2007, about 30 percent less than its $174.5 million outlay a year earlier, according to reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate and CQ’s Political Moneyline. The 2007 numbers aren’t final. The secretary’s office still is compiling reports, which were due Aug. 14, a Senate staffer said Wed. The interim tally shows telecom companies falling to third place, behind finance and health care, in spending.
The FCC cleared the way for oral argument on a video franchise order to be heard shortly after Nov. 1, when all documents in Alliance for Community Media v. FCC are due to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The commission, NCTA, USTelecom and other parties likely to file in the case said they won’t oppose municipalities’ request to put oral arguments on a fast track, according to court papers and a lawyer involved in the case. The 6th Circuit hasn’t decided on that. Municipal groups claim a March 5 FCC order streamlining video franchising usurped city and county oversight over Bell and other pay-TV providers. The FCC and carriers claim Communications Act authority for the FCC move. The sides expect the court to hear oral arguments because the case raises questions of federal versus local oversight (CD April 9 p3). The next deadline is Sept. 17, when respondents’ briefs are due from the FCC after a delay of about a month that the agency got. USTelecom and members including AT&T and Verizon likely will file briefs supporting the FCC, said Alan Fishel, attorney for the Alliance. Final briefs are due Nov. 1, and his client wants arguments to occur as soon as possible after that, he said. The alliance wants speedy oral arguments due to the FCC order’s potentially wide impact. “The breadth and scope of this order is staggering,” said an Aug. 13 court filing by the group. “The order preempts local laws and practices throughout the country.”
The coming months may see an accord between broadcasters and public interest advocates on how to translate emergency warnings into Spanish and other languages, said participants in meetings at the FCC on the alerts. Tuesday, the commission released a summary of the June 14 first round of negotiations brokered by the Public Safety Bureau. The minutes show some common ground between industry and public interest groups (CD Aug 15 p11). Parties on either side acknowledge a shared sense of urgency about clarifying the protocol under which broadcasters warn listeners in languages other than English when foreign-language stations are knocked off the air.
The FCC has no legal authority to review the automatic grant of a Verizon forbearance petition that took effect more than a year ago, that company told the agency in comments filed earlier this week. The proceeding is over and “the Commission lacks authority to issue a belated order,” Verizon said. In July three rival phone companies asked the agency to take a new vote and end broadband deregulation that Verizon won in March 2006 when the FCC couldn’t reach agreement by a statutory deadline (CD July 26 p10).
Telephone companies gave $147,000 to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the top recipient of industry contributions in the first six months of the 2008 presidential fundraising season, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But the industry was divided over which Democrat to back, giving Sens. Hillary Clinton, N.Y., $82,050 and Barack Obama, Ill., $79,865, the group said. GOP contender Rudolph Giuliani received $34,600 and Democratic contender John Edwards $16,500, the report showed. McCain and Guiliani are strong proponents of telecom policies that would help improve emergency communications for first responders. Clinton and Obama support net neutrality and all three leading Democrats urge policies expanding broadband into rural areas. The 17 presidential candidates raised over $265 million, more than in any other season, the group said. The center projects that nominees may need to raise $500 million each to finish the race. The next quarterly campaign finance reports for congressional and presidential candidates must be filed by Oct. 15 with the Federal Election Commission.