American TV-watchers have more choices among service providers, more programming and more services than at any time in history, the FCC said in a new report that examined competition in the video marketplace over the last year and the last decade. Chmn. Powell credited the cable industry’s $75 billion investment to upgrade its facilities with spurring innovations in 2-way video, broadband Internet, cable telephony and high-definition TV. He also hailed the emergence of DBS as sparking the intense competition that continued to benefit TV users. “The United States has the most competitive and diverse media marketplace the world has ever seen and we must continue to bring the benefits of that competition and diversity to our citizenry,” Powell said.
American TV-watchers have more choices among service providers, more programming and more services than at any time in history, the FCC said in a new report that examined competition in the video marketplace over the last year and the last decade. Chmn. Powell credited the cable industry’s $75 billion investment to upgrade its facilities with spurring innovations in 2-way video, broadband Internet, cable telephony and high-definition TV. He also hailed the emergence of DBS as sparking an intense competition that continued to benefit TV users. “The United States has the most competitive and diverse media marketplace the world has ever seen and we must continue to bring the benefits of that competition and diversity to our citizenry,” Powell said.
Public safety officials and rural carriers told a Capitol Hill round table Wed. they had serious concerns about funding, technology deployment and LEC readiness for Enhanced 911 deployment, especially in more sparsely populated rural areas. Several called for a greater federal role in standards, tax incentives and program funding.
In a significant departure from its earlier position, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has told the FCC it hasn’t concluded that “there is a material interference problem” from broadband over power line (BPL) operations. In a letter to Chmn. Powell, FEMA Undersecy. Michael Brown said his agency would like to clarify its earlier filing in the BPL proceeding to “ensure that our filing is not misunderstood or misconstrued.” He said that while “certain distinct approaches” to BPL may have the potential to cause interference to FEMA’s HF radio emergency communications, the agency as it continued to study BPL hadn’t “concluded that there is a material interference problem or that all of the distinct technological approaches to BPL pose risk of interference. We expect that there may be ways to provide the public with benefits of BPL without compromising the emergency communications capabilities available to FEMA.” In its filing in response to the FCC’s BPL inquiry, FEMA had said BPL systems used radio frequency energy “on unshielded, unbalanced transmission lines,” resulting in unavoidable interference that would severely impair FEMA’s mission-essential HF radio operations in areas where BPL was deployed. “The purported benefits of BPL in terms of expanded services in certain communications sectors do not appear to outweigh the benefit to overall public of HF radio capability as presently used by government, broadcasting and public safety users,” FEMA had said. However, Brown told Powell that FEMA was “supportive of our national goals of extensively deploying broadband facilities and of a more robust electrical utility infrastructure. FEMA appreciates that BPL could be a major factor in achieving these objectives.”
On January 15, 2004, President Bush issued Executive Order (EO) 13324, effective 12:01 a.m. EST on January 16, 2004. EO 13324 terminates the national emergency which was originally declared in EO 13194 (Sierra Leone) and the scope of which was expanded in EO 13213 (Liberia). (FR Pub 01/20/04, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-1322.pdf)
Moving toward Internet-based telephony lessens the need for a split federal-state jurisdiction, U. of Colo. Computer Science & Telecom Professor Douglas Sicker said in a paper released by the Progress & Freedom Foundation. He called for a “more uniform national policy” and greater deregulation of the communications sector, saying technological change was “delocalizing communications networks and services to such an extent that jurisdictional distinctions between state and federal governments are becoming less necessary, even counterproductive.” He said there were 6 key technology trends that affected the network: (1) The growing insensitivity of a call to distance. (2) The increasing modularity of the network. (3) The shift from circuit- switched to packet-routed networks. (4) The irrelevance of geographic boundaries to emerging technologies and the de- localization and de-emphasis of the central office. As voice has become “merely another application in the Internet Protocol space” that has “caused an appreciable regulatory quandary,” Sicker said “traditional notions of jurisdiction could inhibit the emergence and adoption of new technology and service models.” For example, he said regulating voice over broadband service as a traditional telecom, rather than a data service, “would force costly telecommunications obligations… onto a fledgling technology. Thus, an innovative service would be lost and an alternative provider eliminated… impeding network efficiency.” He said that while it could be “advantageous” to allow states to serve as “regulatory laboratories, the federal government must ensure that a uniform environment emerges that supports rapid technology adoption and deployment.”
AT&T said it had signed an agreement with Intrado, a provider of 911 infrastructure, systems and services, to develop an emergency calling solution for its residential broadband VoIP service. The feature, which would allow AT&T to route 911 dialed calls from its IP network to public safety answering points but wouldn’t be able to identify a caller’s location, will be available in spring when AT&T will begin to provide residential VoIP service in select metropolitan markets. “It’s not an absolute solution, it’s an interim step,” an AT&T spokesman said. He said AT&T would continue to work with Intrado and the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) to “upgrade 911 technology. The ultimate goal is to have no difference” between the regular 911 services and the ones provided by VoIP.
The Ala. PSC plans a Feb. 5 workshop session on whether it should require CLECs to file periodic reports on their collection and payment of E-911 fees to the Ala. National Emergency Number Assn. The PSC was acting on a May 2003 motion (Case 29017) by the 911 association, complaining of difficulties that its 64 member districts had encountered in collecting the E-911 surcharges billed and collected by CLECs. The 911 association asked that the PSC require that CLECs report on the number of access lines they served, broken out by month and by E-911 district, with duplicate copies to the PSC and the 911 association. Several CLECs objected, saying the requested reports would add an unnecessary administrative burden and would require them to reveal proprietary information. MCI suggested an alternative that would have all CLECs provide a single report and payment to a central 911 administrator that, in turn, would distribute the money to the appropriate localities.
Europe’s Competition Comr. Mario Monti praised a European Commission (EC)/European Regulators Group (ERG) proposal Mon. for setting antitrust remedies in the e- communications market, saying it would move economic analysis to the center stage. Speaking at a public hearing on the draft document on remedies under the new regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services, Monti called the document a “very substantial contribution to policymaking.” But while he agreed with Information Society Comr. Erkki Liikanen that the issue of remedies was of critical importance to the e-communications sector, he said remedies must be viewed not in isolation but in relation to the nature and aim of regulation and to competition policy in general. Monti stressed the difference between antitrust enforcement and regulatory intervention remedies. Regulatory remedies are imposed ahead of specific problems with the goal of creating a procompetitive environment in the long run, he said, while in the short term giving benefits to end users that the market would offer if it were truly competitive. Antitrust remedies, on the other hand, simply aim to punish behaviors that have occurred in the past and that are viewed as detrimental to the welfare of end users. “In a way,” Monti said, “the aim of regulatory remedies should be to allow antitrust remedies to be the only ones needed in the long term.” He pointed to the “fine balance” between short- term and longer term consideration, saying the issue of regulatory remedies under the new regulatory framework “seems to have sparked rather heated discussions.” One area of contention is between those who advocate a facilities-based competition model and those who favor an access-based model. Monti’s position -- as he made clear last month (CD Dec 11 p4) -- is that the 2 models don’t necessarily contradict one another, he said. “Access services are essential in opening up previously monopolistic market structures,” he said. “Even the ‘purists’ of facilities-based competition, who often happen to enjoy a satisfactory market position in at least one Member State, would probably admit that they would not be able to enter a new market… were it not for the availability of some type of access service.” However, he said, because new entrants must be given the right incentives, the regulatory framework must “privilege” operators that build their own infrastructure because they are more likely to increase competition in the market. To reconcile access- and facilities-based competition, Monti said, the “time dimension” must be taken into account. “National regulatory authorities should provide incentives for competitors to seek access from the incumbent in the shorter term, and to rely increasingly on building their own infrastructure in the longer term,” he said. Monti also said the EC would ensure the “crucial interplay” between infrastructure and content -- which is becoming increasingly blurred -- to prevent it from falling under the control of companies with a high degree of market power. Speaking at the same hearing, Liikanen said new entrants must be allowed access to incumbents’ infrastructure. But, he said, they also must “continually strive to reduce this dependence wherever feasible.” New entrants must be given incentives to make incremental investments in their own infrastructure, Liikanen said. However, he said, because competition between infrastructures sometimes isn’t feasible in the short term, national regulatory authorities will have to clarify the boundaries between replicable and nonreplicable infrastructure and subject the latter to regulation. Moreover, he said, because under the new e-communications regulatory framework regulation is to be imposed only in cases of “enduring market failure,” allowances must be made for emerging markets to develop according to market forces. Any potential abuse of position in an emerging market, Likkanan said, should be dealt with under competition law. Meanwhile, European telcos Mon. criticized the European Union consultation paper outlining how anticompetition remedies should be set under new e-communications regulations. The document, unveiled late last year by the European Commission (EC) and the European Regulators Group (ERG), aims to ensure that antimonopoly remedies are applied consistently across the European Union. But the European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO) called the draft “ill-defined” in many policy areas and said it must be clarified “to avoid the twin risks of perpetual regulations and discouraging investment in crucial e-communications technologies.” ETNO’s comments were part of a comprehensive review of the document. The group took part in Mon.’s public hearing in Brussels on the proposal. Because it’s the final piece in a comprehensive new telecom regulatory framework, one with key commercial implications for the sector, “it is critical that the remedy document’s wording is balanced, consistent and precise,” ETNO said. The group’s criticisms include: (1) The document didn’t define emerging markets, potentially opening the door to “endless regulation covering not only legacy networks but all other new products and services related to them.” (2) The paper’s theoretical approach was out of touch with the real issues governing the telecom sector. “It would have national regulators designing remedies for theoretical competition issues instead of first identifying market failures and then applying a proportionate and temporary remedy to them,” ETNO Dir. Michael Bartholomew said.
According to The Journal of Commerce, the submission to the Coast Guard of vessel and facility security plans by December 31, 2003 was only the first step as the crucial deadline is July 1, 2004, when vessels and shoreside facilities must have their security plans in operation. The article states that the Coast Guard plans to review the port security plans during the January-March 2003 time frame and by July 1, 2004, port facilities have to be operating in compliance. After that time, the Coast Guard will make unscheduled facility visits to make sure the plans are in operation. (JoC dated 01/12-18/04, www.joc.com.)