FCC’s Media Bureau created the Electioneering Communications Database to help users determine whether a communication sent by broadcast, cable or satellite could reach 50,000 or more people in a particular congressional district or state. If the communication can reach that number, it may qualify as an “electioneering communication,” which requires every person who spends more than $10,000 on an electioneering communication in any calender year to file a statement with the Federal Election Commission that includes certain information on the communication. The database, which goes live today (Tues.), is available at http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/ecd or http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/ecd. The database is current as of Nov. 2003 and will remain unchanged through the end of the 2004 election cycle. The database was required by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.
A program agreement that would streamline wireless and broadcast tower siting reviews ran into trouble last week when the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) raised concerns about how certain types of sites would be excluded, sources said. FCC and some industry officials said they remained bullish that differences could be worked out relatively quickly. But they said a key unresolved issue was one that had drawn recent Capitol Hill attention: Treatment of sites “potentially” eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
A program agreement that would streamline wireless and broadcast tower siting reviews ran into trouble last week when the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) raised concerns about how certain types of sites would be excluded, sources said. FCC and some industry officials said they remained bullish that differences could be worked out relatively quickly. But they said a key unresolved issue was one that had drawn recent Capitol Hill attention: Treatment of sites “potentially” eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Under pressure from the Irish Presidency, the European Parliament (EP) and Council are scurrying to find common ground internally and with each other on a controversial European Commission (EC) directive aimed at beefing up enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights. With a vote scheduled for the Feb. 10 EP plenary session -- but likely to be pushed back until later that month or March, we're told -- the Presidency is negotiating with both the rapporteur of the EP Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee and shadow rapporteurs from other political groups to find a way to reconcile opposing Council and EP views, a European Union (EU) diplomat said. The directive continues to be controversial, with telcos and ISPs contending it could subject them to massive liability and the consumer electronics industry saying its sanctions weren’t clear enough.
The broadband over power line (BPL) industry welcomed as helpful in the FCC’s BPL inquiry the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new position that not all BPL technologies posed interference problems (CD Jan 29 p11). “It’s nice to see that FEMA is backing away from what they have earlier stated,” Brett Kilbourne, regulatory dir. of the United Power Line Council, told us. He said it seemed from FEMA Undersecy. Michael Brown’s letter to FCC Chmn. Powell that “they are open minded about” BPL and the agency didn’t intend to say, as it did in its original filing with the Commission, that all approaches to BPL would cause interference. Jay Birnbaum, pres. of Current Technologies, said FEMA’s original filing with the FCC did seem to indicate that the agency didn’t have any homegrown data about interference potential and was relying on 3rd-party assessments and studies. “I don’t think that it would be fair to look at the first filing and say they found interference.” Brown’s letter was confirmation that the agency hadn’t done any research on interference potential and was conceding that BPL and emergency communications systems should be able to “peacefully coexist,” he said. Both Kilbourne and Birnbaum said the FEMA filing would make a big difference to the industry in the FCC’s inquiry into the technical aspects of BPL. The Commission is expected to come out with its conclusions in the first quarter. “If the earlier [FEMA] filing made the FCC think twice, then this is a positive development and it should help,” Birnbaum said: “But if the FCC hadn’t given the earlier filing too much weight, then this is a nice clarification.” At the very least, Brown’s letter would make the Commission look at the original FEMA filing in a different light, he said. Some industry sources found it unusual that FEMA had filed comments directly with the FCC instead of going through the NTIA as was the norm for govt. agencies that had spectrum issues.
Foreign telecom carriers vigorously disputed allegations CompTel/Ascent Alliance and AT&T filed in comments (CD Jan 8 p2) to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this month. The comments were part of USTR’s annual review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements on telecom products and services. The foreign operators complained U.S. commenters in many cases had used outdated data and hadn’t said anything new. “We do not feel that CompTel/Ascent has added new material arguments to its prior allegations,” Deutsche Telekom (DT) said.
The FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC) wrestled Fri. with how to move public safety operators more quickly toward IP-based systems, including Wi-Fi, while meeting local govt. money concerns. Sean O'Hara, research & communications engineer for the Syracuse Research Corp., said that in the last year public safety had had a greater voice on standards for 802.11 and beyond. But he warned that emergency responders still must be “sold” on the benefits of cognitive radio.
With Comr. Martin dissenting, the FCC voted 4-1 to grant eligible telecom carrier (ETC) status to Virginia Cellular for commercial mobile radio service operations in rural areas of that state. The FCC, in an order released Fri., filled in the details of a public interest standard it said would apply to all ETC designations for rural areas pending before the agency. Martin said he objected to parts of the order, including its decision to not require ETCs to: (1) Provide equal access, which rural ILECs already must offer. (2) Offer the same type and quality of service throughout a geographic area as a condition of receiving universal service funding.
FCC Comr. Abernathy called on the Commission to act on AT&T’s petition for exemption from paying access charges for calls that are routed primarily on Internet backbone “sooner rather than later.” In an interview with reporters after her speech at a conference on digital issues sponsored by the FCC and the Catholic U. Law School Thurs. in Washington, she said: “I have thought that maybe we can deal with that in a bigger proceeding, but the problem is… the present uncertainty may be distorting competition and the flow of capital… So, we should try to resolve that tension and provide at least some immediate clarity.”
The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service appears to be “very much divided” in its effort to seek improvements in the Universal Service Fund (USF)and, as a result, probably will present the FCC with some “conflicting views,” Western Wireless CEO John Stanton said Tues. in an interview with Communications Daily. Even in areas where there’s a majority view in the Joint Board’s recommendations, there probably will be an “active minority” view, perhaps leading to divisions at the FCC as well, Stanton predicted.