The Fairfax County, Va., Board of Supervisors didn’t effectively prohibit wireless services contrary to the Communications Act when it rejected an AT&T application to build an 88-foot tower in a residential neighborhood, the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Monday (http://xrl.us/bmyweg). AT&T had requested an exception to a Fairfax ordinance prohibiting telecom facilities in residential zoning districts, arguing it could only provide limited in-building and in-vehicle wireless services in the county’s Fort Hunt area absent the exception. The zoning board denied the request, saying AT&T’s proposal didn’t meet the standards for approval of a special use exception under the zoning ordinance. AT&T challenged the decision, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said the board’s determination was reasonable. The 4th Circuit affirmed, saying the proposed wireless facility “would not be in harmony with the zoning objectives” for the area, holding that the board’s denial was supported by substantial evidence. The court also said AT&T failed to provide evidence to establish a lack of reasonable alternative sites. “The entirety of AT&T’s argument on this point is its bare assertion, based on nothing but the speculation of a consultant,” that national park officials were “loathe” to approve similar wireless facilities on park property. “A plaintiff’s mere reference to a competitor’s prior experience seeking to locate undescribed and unknown facilities in different parks, without more, is insufficient evidence on which to establish a lack of reasonable alternative sites,” wrote Judge Steven Agee for the unanimous three-judge panel. Judge Andre Davis concurred, saying the 4th Circuit has yet to determine “whether a particular level of coverage in a particular geographic area constitutes an effective absence of coverage."
Aereo counter-sued the second set of broadcasters who sued it for copyright infringement. Aereo filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Fox, the Public Broadcasting Service, Univision Communications and WPIX and WNET New York (CD March 14 p9). Aereo had recently filed a counter-claim against ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal and Telemundo, which had also sued Aereo for allegedly retransmitting TV programming to wireless devices without permission.
China International Communication Co. (CICC) said all Chinese TV channels broadcast overseas must be evaluated and approved by China’s State Administration of Radio Film and TV (SARFT). “It has come to CICC and SARFT attention that the overseas piracy of Chinese TV channels has worsened in recent years,” it said. Only five distributors are authorized to carry Chinese TV in North America -- Dish, KyLinTV, Rogers, Bell Canada and Telus, it said. “All other unauthorized operators or resellers distributing the Great Wall TV package or any of its channels by any means, or advertising the names and logos of any of its channels in any form are considered piracy."
Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., will provide updates in a teleconference Wednesday on HR-3596, which would ban federal grants and loans to companies that move call centers overseas. Bishop will be joined by legislators from three states with similar call center legislation pending, including Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego (D), Florida Sen. Chris Smith (D) and New Jersey Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D).
Roku doesn’t have a strong opinion about access to Clear QAM programming, CEO Anthony Wood told us. Only about 20 percent of Roku customers don’t also buy a traditional pay-TV service, he said. There’s probably a group of price-conscious consumers that would be interested in access to unencrypted basic tier programming, he said: “For us it’s not really core to our business.” Meanwhile, Roku is becoming the kind of open retail set-top box imagined when the CableCARD rules were adopted, Wood said. “The essence of what was wanted with CableCARD is starting to happen,” he said. As more pay-TV programmers and distributors deliver IP video to Roku boxes, it begins to resemble a cable box, he said. But in all of Roku’s conversations with distributors, there’s no interest in adding a CableCARD slot to the device, he said. “CableCARD has never come up in our conversations,” he said. “It’s about putting the Xfinities of the world as an app on our box."
House Democrats picked Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., to rejoin the Commerce Committee and replace Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who resigned. The House approved the assignment Tuesday afternoon on the floor by unanimous consent after the Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee approved Sarbanes in the morning. The choice of Sarbanes was expected since he has the highest seniority among those Democrats who lost seats on the committee after the 2010 election (CD March 13 p12). Inslee resigned earlier this month to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.
The FCC should explain why it proposes requiring only broadcasters to post political files online, said Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, and John Dingell, D-Mich. In a letter Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmywai) to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the members said they supported increased disclosure but don’t understand why the rule shouldn’t apply to other MVPDs (multichannel video programming distributors). “This puzzles us because we believe uniform and fair disclosure requirements will best serve the public interest.” Green and Dingell asked the FCC to respond by March 30.
Unions and consumer groups condemned the Verizon/SpectrumCo deal in advance of a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee. Without incentive to compete with cable, Verizon will halt buildout of FiOS, killing jobs, said the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers. “We need wireline and wireless buildout,” CWA President Larry Cohen said. “This deal will freeze then diminish wireline buildout.” Meanwhile, Consumers Union sent the subcommittee a letter Tuesday criticizing the agreement. “Consumers could suffer an increase in prices and face diminished competitive alternatives in the video, broadband, and wireless markets,” the group wrote. Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said in a blog post that “the spectrum license transfers are consistent with the Communications Act, FCC rules, and the antitrust laws.” The license assignment and commercial agreements do not “reduce or harm competition in any product or geographic market,” and in fact create competition, he said. Unlike AT&T/T-Mobile’s failed deal, “this transaction involves no consolidation of customers, jobs, assets or operating businesses,” Cohen said. “It will take spectrum not currently being used and get it to a company that wants to quickly deploy it to consumers."
Connect America Fund resources can be more efficiently used by cable providers to provide high-speed broadband service to rural areas, counsel for the American Cable Association reported telling FCC officials at a meeting Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmyv8k). Barring pole-attachment or right-of-way disputes, broadband projects can generally be completed within less than a year, and it should take no longer than two years to build out any census tract, the ex parte filing said. Therefore, the commission “should not inefficiently allocate its limited CAF resources to providers that require three years to deploy 4 Mbps/1 Mbps broadband service and five years to deploy 6 Mbps/1.5 Mbps service to some locations when there are other providers ready, willing and able to deploy in less than two years networks with much faster speeds which meet actual customer demands,” the ACA said.
The GAO should review broadband adoption projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. He requested the report in a March 16 letter his office released Tuesday. The agency should “identify what kind of efforts have been most effective at increasing broadband adoption and digital proficiency,” Rockefeller said. Seeking to develop a record beyond the GAO request, Rockefeller also sent letters March 16 to Comcast, AT&T and nine other ISPs. He asked them for information “about the forces that impede broadband adoption, as well as the kind of efforts that produce sustainable broadband adoption.” Rockefeller sought information on any broadband adoption initiatives under way. Comcast looks forward “to detailing our strong efforts to help solve America’s broadband adoption challenges,” said Executive Vice President David Cohen. “Since launching Comcast’s Internet Essentials program last Fall, we've signed up over 41,000 families and growing -- that’s about 160,000 low income Americans, most of whom didn’t have broadband access before.” Comcast has learned that cultural issues and not just price must be addressed to improve adoption, Cohen said. “We're working on all of these areas, and are introducing program enhancements, including broadening eligibility for the program, making it easier to sign up, and doubling the speed of the service."