LONDON -- The U.S. and U.K. see eye-to-eye on many telecom and Internet issues despite differences in their respective infrastructures, NTIA, FCC and State Dept. officials said Wed. “Technology doesn’t recognize any borders,” said NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher. Given their common heritage and common approach to difficult issues like spectrum and broadband, he said, it’s not surprising the countries’ positions are in alignment. Investment challenges associated with broadband deployment exist in every country, said FCC Comr. Kathleen Abernathy. Neither the U.S. nor the U.K. directly subsidizes deployment, she said, meaning “we're all looking at the same things to spur investment” through regulatory approaches. Their comments came during an interview with Communications Daily.
U.S. emergency first response agencies are at least 15-20 years away from fully interoperable communications, David Boyd, dir. of DHS’s SAFECOM program said Tues. Boyd and other panelists at a New Millennium Research Council discussion of interoperable communications agreed that getting better equipment by itself will not solve U.S. problems.
CTIA indicated it will likely take the FCC to court over the National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) on tower siting, which was released by the Commission Fri. (CD Sept 13 p1). Sources said CTIA has been looking for some time for an opportunity to file an appeal on the federal “undertaking issue” - which involves the ability of the govt. to assert authority over an issue, and has implications for other issues as well. The NPA case presents CTIA with the chance to raise the issue, they said.
Election year politics and the fight over intelligence reform could doom legislation introduced Tues. by Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senate Govt. Affairs ranking Democrat Lieberman (Conn.) that would clear 700 MHz spectrum for emergency communications by expediting the DTV transition, sources said Wed.
Rep. Barlett (R-Md.) introduced HR-3801 to repeal a provision in the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) to allow advocacy groups to place ads in the days leading up to an election, the congressman said Wed. Sen. Chambliss (R-Ga.) introduced a companion bill (S-2702). The First Amendment Restoration Act would repeal a section of BCRA that restricts broadcast ads by labor unions, interest groups and corporations that mention or depict federal candidates 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. Though few legislative days remain before the election, the measure has 76 co- sponsors.
The House Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 8 on Project SAFECOM and interoperable communications for local, state and federal first responders. “The report of the 9/11 Commission highlighted how the response capacity of emergency personnel was overwhelmed,” the subcommittee noted. “Beyond the issue of too many individuals trying to communicate at once thereby overloading their channels, there were also interoperability issues that hampered the joint rescue effort.” Witnesses include Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta and David Boyd, SAFECOM program manager.
Supported by CompTel/Ascent, the German Competitive Carriers Assn. (VATM) said regulators should “swiftly determine the regulatory framework that applies to VoIP.” In an unusual case of trans-Atlantic agreement, CompTel said VATM comments submitted in the European Commission (EC) proceeding on IP-enabled services were “very helpful,” because they addressed many issues of concern to CompTel members.
Echoing concerns expressed by VoIP providers in the U.S., parties told the European Commission (EC) in comments it shouldn’t harm the growth of IP-based communications by imposing unnecessary regulations. The EC -- which has generally kept the Internet free of traditional telecom regulations -- has launched a proceeding to examine issues related to IP-based communications, asking for comments on the appropriate regulatory framework for VoIP services that utilize numbering resources and provide access to or from the PSTN.
Comcast and NAB weighed in against DBS comments for the annual FCC assessment of competition in video programming delivery. Comcast said in reply comments “any fair-minded observer would have seen abundant additional evidence” of growing competition. It noted DirecTV and EchoStar reported 2nd quarter results that exceeded most analysts’ expectations. DirecTV said it added a record 944,000 gross operated subscribers and reduced its monthly churn to 1.4% to yield 455,000 net operated subscriber additions, Comcast said. EchoStar said it added about 340,000 net subscribers in the quarter.
U.K.’s telecom regulator published a final “margin rule” Thurs. setting out the price gap British Telecom (BT) must maintain between its IPStream and DataStream broadband products, to allow new players to compete with IPStream using DataStream. The regulator found that BT’s current DataStream and proposed IPStream prices comply with the country’s new regulatory framework for e- communications networks. Anticipating Ofcom’s move, BT this month raised wholesale prices on some IPStream broadband office products, prompting outrage from small- to-medium-sized ISPs afraid the “margin squeeze” would drive them out of business. This week, the U.K. Internet Federation (UKIF) said it was talking to legislators about Ofcom’s anticipated ruling and considering seeking help from the European Commission. The consultation also sparked concern from BT, which had issues about the workings of the margin squeeze test, a spokeswoman said. However, she said, BT now understands better how Ofcom intends to use the rule. The company will study Ofcom’s 151-page document and wait to see what other industry segments do, the spokeswoman said. UKIF’s response to Ofcom’s announcement was swift. Instead of promoting effective and sustainable competition, the group said, the decision will concentrate market control in a few large ISPs. The market-squeeze model is based on large ISPs, not smaller ones, which should be charged for the capacity they use instead of their customer numbers, UKIF said. It also panned Ofcom for admitting “its model might be wrong” but hoping it will correct itself in the coming 5 years. “This does not give industry much hope,” UKIF said. The ISPs called on Ofcom to reevaluate the nature of its wholesale broadband access regulation -- “and a parliamentary enquiry might help this process.” Also Thurs., Ofcom unveiled its final proposals for wholesale price cuts for local loop unbundling (LLU) services. In May, the regulator set out initial proposals from its market review on wholesale local access (which includes LLU), but didn’t specify LLU prices. It also announced proposals for the wholesale margin on BT’s DataStream broadband products. At the same time, BT cut prices for its LLU services. Given BT’s actions, Ofcom said, it could simply have relied on BT’s voluntary price reductions and the work of a newly created independent telecoms adjudicator. However, it said, many operators thought Ofcom should do its own price review to give new market entrants greater certainty. Thurs.’s proposals include: (1) A 68% decrease in shared access connection prices from those before the BT price cut. (2) A 76% reduction in rental fees. (3) A 42% drop in fully unbundled connection transfer fees. (4) A 27% decrease in fully unbundled new provide connections. The consultation doesn’t set a ceiling for fully-unbundled loops, the subject of a separate analysis. LLU “offers the greatest potential for downstream service and price differentiation and competition,” Ofcom said. However, given the substantial capital investment needed to enter the market, BT’s Datastream “will play an important transitory role.” The new pricing structure, industry participation in the telecom adjudication scheme and BT’s “fresh approach have the potential to add up to a faster broadband roll-out for Britain,” said Ofcom Chief Exec. Stephen Carter.