The Va. Supreme Court ruled the state Corporation Commission acted lawfully late last year when it denied Level 3 Communications of Va. retroactive state operating authority needed to secure network facilities previously built by its corporate parent. The state’s highest court (Case 04-0481) said the commission acted consistently with state and federal law and its own rules when it rejected Level 3’s certification request. The commission in its Nov. 2003 ruling said the facilities were built without obtaining state construction authority and the company showed disregard for concerns raised by property owners along the route. The commission had concluded the construction project didn’t serve the public convenience and necessity. The Level 3 operating unit said the commission’s issues with its parent’s construction project didn’t constitute a lawful reason for denying its request to provide telecom services. But the court said the commission had acted in a manner consistent with statutes and hadn’t improperly applied the legal public interest standard. As to the claim that the commission had violated its own rules, the court said it generally gives deference to an agency’s interpretation of how its rules apply to a specific situation and that Level 3 hadn’t raised any issues to cause the court to deny that deference in this case.
Vonage’s DigitalVoice VoIP service is interstate so it can’t be regulated by state PUCs, the FCC ruled Tues. The ruling, which asserts federal jurisdiction over Vonage-like services, came in response to a preemption petition filed last year by Vonage. Although referring to Vonage service, the decision applies to other types of IP- enabled services, the Commission said.
Nearly 5 months after it was adopted, the FCC is about to publish in the Federal Register its long-awaited order promoting provision of wireless broadband on spectrum previously set aside for educational channels. The FCC approved the ITFS-MDS rebanding order June 10 amid much fanfare. The Commission last week approved an erratum sought by the Wireless Communications Assn. making clarifications and launching the rebanding process.
NAB renewed its push at the FCC to craft emergency alert system (EAS) regulation that would make cable operators better protect local broadcasters’ emergency signals. In comments filed with the FCC on EAS, NAB proposed a selective override in which the FCC mandates that cable operators use a filter system enabling a cable operator to replace certain channels selectively during an EAS interruption.
CableCARD-ready TV products are “indispensable” to a successful conclusion of the DTV transition, and thus “the proper function of CableCARDs is critical,” Thomson and Mitsubishi executives told the FCC in meetings last week. Consumers are experiencing “numerous technical implementation problems with CableCARDs “resulting in improper operation or failed operation,” they said. “These include persistent problems with CableCARDs or their headend support, erroneous software or firmware fixes, inability of authorized subscribers to acquire some channels that offer encrypted content and erroneous and overly restrictive copy protection outcomes.” They urged the Commission to resist cable industry pressure to eliminate or extend the established July 1, 2006, date by which cable operators no longer will be permitted to sell or lease integrated cable set-tops “and therefore must rely on the same security solution made available to competitive entrants.” Keeping the July 1, 2006, deadline “is absolutely essential” to ensuring that the CableCARD problems that have emerged in the field “would be rectified and would not multiply,” Thomson and Mitsubishi said. “The necessary level of commercial and user confidence in CableCARD-reliant products depends on the cable industry having the same level of commitment to such products as consumer electronics manufacturers. Absent a requirement that the cable industry also rely on CableCARDs for system security, there is simply insufficient incentive to ensure a robust market for integrated digital cable-ready television products as envisioned” when the Commission adopted its plug-&-play rules, they said. David Arland, Thomson vp- communications, who participated in the meetings, told us “our point in going in was not to say, ‘Oh my God, it’s a disaster.’ Our point in going in was to say there are these issues, A, you need to be aware of it, B, we're managing it, but C, it would be great if cable had the same interest in solving them on their own boxes as we have on our own products.” The filing was meant to convey the point “let’s play by the same rule, which by the way, is the federal rule today.”
The FCC released the text of its BPL order Thurs., and Bruce Romano, assoc. chief of the Office of Engineering & Technology, said “there are no surprises.” The FCC had provided outlines of the BPL order at the Oct. 14 Commission meeting. While the industry welcomed the thrust of the announcement, it still harbored apprehensions, saying the devil remained in the details. At a Power Line Communications Assn. (PLCA) conference in Alexandria, Va., Romano told utility executives “clouds” of uncertainty had been removed. He said BPL would continue to operate as an unlicensed device under Part 15 rules and emission limits would remain intact. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) had lobbied heavily at the last minute for reducing the emission limits. Besides requirements for minimizing interference to amateur radio and certain exclusion zones and frequencies, the order sets new rules for certification of BPL equipment. Under the rules, Romano said, “certification has to be achieved at the FCC” before equipment is widely manufactured and distributed. In the short term, he said, the FCC will be in full control of the process. The rules will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register in 2-3 weeks, he added. There will be an 18 month “transition period” for certification of equipment, unless there are interference problems, Romano said. BPL providers will have to coordinate with public safety and other federal agencies 45 days after the rules take effect. The BPL public database, listing the operator, location, frequencies used and contacts, will have to be set up within 180 days, he said. One of the remaining concerns with BPL is use of high frequencies (HF), said Tom Sullivan, chief of NTIA Spectrum Engineering Branch. HF is a very important part of the spectrum for radio users, he added, so there’s reluctance to adopt BPL widely in Europe. He said unlike the FCC, Europe doesn’t have a track record of working with unlicensed devices or counterparts to the Commission’s Part 15 rules. The U.S., which ranks 11th in broadband deployment worldwide, has a lot of pent-up demand, unlike many Asian countries, Sullivan said. Pointing out that federal regulators have widely supported BPL, he said he wouldn’t be surprised if some states required utilities to roll out BPL. PLCA Pres. Alan Shark said 2005 would be a “pivotal year” for BPL, with a lot of utilities moving from trials to commercial deployments. He said lack of standards is a challenge for the industry. The order is available at www.fcc.gov.
The FCC released an order early Tues. conditionally approving the merger of Cingular and AT&T Wireless. However, Comrs. Copps and Adelstein issued vigorous partial dissents, saying the order fails to address the effect on intermodal competition between wireline and wireless markets.
State regulators are weighing open access for both ISPs and BPL providers as they grapple with the regulatory issues for the broadband over power line (BPL) industry. That became evident at a NARUC BPL task force meeting Sun. in Washington, where state regulators sought views from the FCC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), industry officials and others on how they should balance spurring BPL deployment against handling issues specific to legacy electric infrastructure.
FCC Chmn. Powell said the Commission examines the “totality” of a station’s performance, in evaluating whether the public interest has been served at license renewal time. “Chairman Powell’s response is a warning to broadcasters. It explicitly recognizes that licensees like Sinclair have an obligation to serve the public interest and that if questions are raised about their failure to do so, the FCC is prepared to expeditiously investigate the matter and take action,” said House Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.). Powell was responding to a letter from Dingell and House Telecom Subcommittee ranking Democrat Markey (Mass) asking Powell if Sinclair Bcst.’s plan to run an anti-Kerry documentary violated the broadcaster’s public interest obligations (CD Oct 14 p11).
The FCC is likely only days away from a public notice (PN) seeking comments from the industry on issues that have been raised by Nextel as part of the 800 MHz rebanding order. The wireless advisors received the PN Tues. afternoon. A Commission source said release was “imminent.”