House Commerce Committee member Jay Inslee, D-Wash., resigned from Congress to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. Inslee announced his departure Saturday; he had revealed his run for governor in June (CD June 27 p8). Inslee worked on spectrum relocation, webcasting and other telecom issues on the Communications Subcommittee. Open committee seats typically go to the most senior member who was unable to return to the committee after the Democrats lost seats in the last election, a Democratic spokeswoman for the House Commerce Committee said. Democratic committee members in the 111th Congress who lost their Commerce seats this Congress, by seniority: John Sarbanes of Maryland, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Jerry McNerney of California, Betty Sutton of Ohio, Bruce Braley of Iowa and Peter Welch of Vermont.
The Web enhances Clear Channel Communications’ ability to serve the public interest, because broadband lets the largest U.S. owner of radio stations make “its content available to anyone, anywhere, at any time,” the company reported CEO Bob Pittman told the FCC’s three members. “Radio, therefore, can be an important part of the broadband age.” The meetings covered “several ways” the agency “can help radio” improve “its competitive position by increasing the flexibility that it has to enter into strategic partnerships that will enhance the listening experience, while ensuring that audiences receive sponsorship information appropriate to today’s digital environment,” the filing said. The ex parte report wasn’t more specific and was posted Friday in dockets 07-294 on media ownership and 08-90 on sponsorship identification (http://xrl.us/bmxvr3).
Preliminary findings that European telcos are blocking and throttling Internet access show the urgent need for EU net neutrality legislation, citizens’ advocacy group La Quadrature du Net said Monday. It responded to a March 6 report by the Body of European Regulators in Electronic Communications that said fixed and mobile operators are using a wide range of Internet traffic management practices and an equally broad variety of implementation methods and policy justifications for them. BEREC is compiling data for the European Commission on the extent to which net neutrality exists in Europe. The most frequently reported traffic management activities were blocking and/or throttling of peer-to-peer traffic on fixed and mobile networks, and blocking of VoIP traffic, mostly on mobile networks, it said. When blocking or throttling exists, it’s usually done via deep-packet inspection, it said. Around a quarter of the 400 operators who responded to BEREC justify their practices based on “what could be described as ’security and integrity’ concerns” such as fighting spam, though some of those measures are best described as congestion-management techniques, it said. Regarding congestion management, some providers use “application-agnostic” approaches such as active buffering, while others use “application specific” techniques to slow specific traffic such as video streaming, it said. Around one third of the fixed operators manage their networks in order to offer specialized services such as telephony or TV along with a public and best-efforts Internet access service, it said. This is the first time European regulators have tried to identify emerging trends in traffic management, it said. It’s now validating and categorizing the data and plans to publish its findings in Q2, BEREC said. The overview will feed into other BEREC work on net neutrality, it said. The widespread practices prove that Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ “laissez faire” stance on net neutrality is allowing operators to violate users’ freedoms, La Quadrature said.
The FCC ought to “encourage” cable operators and makers of consumer electronics to find a way to transition to all-digital systems with encrypted basic-programming packages “while protecting consumers that have purchased devices that operate on the basic tier,” Public Knowledge said. It said the encryptions issue “is highly relevant to the long-delayed Allvid proceeding ... despite the insistence of the [cable] industry that Allvid is unnecessary, the open basic tier has been the focus of CE innovation by independent CE manufacturers.” The Media Bureau is working on an order to let cable operators scramble broadcast and other basic channels but hasn’t proposed AllVid rules for all pay-TV providers to directly connect to CE devices (CD March 12 p6). “There is no doubt that if the Commission were to extend the historic accessibility of the basic tier under the existing rules to all programming tiers and services, that CE manufacturers would rush to seize the chance,” a Public Knowledge official reported telling FCC Chief of Staff Zac Katz. “Development of an approach to facilitate the cable digital transition while simultaneously protecting the innovation currently taking place on the basic tier should therefore be encouraged for all parties.” PK backed a transition to encryption that Hauppauge Computer Works, whose clear QAM products won’t get cable on scrambled systems, has unsuccessfully sought (CD March 7 p13), in Friday’s filing in docket 11-169 (http://xrl.us/bmxvpz).
A shortage of cheap HD set-top boxes without other advanced functions that lack separate security and navigation prompted a small cable operator to seek a one-year extension of an FCC CableCARD waiver. “Current deliveries are reserved for operators placing orders in quantities larger” than Baja Broadband can buy, the operator said in a Friday filing. “Deliveries of those high-volume orders are estimated to arrive in four to seven months. Smaller orders such as Baja’s for HD DTAs [digital tuning adapters] are not being provided with a committed delivery date.” Baja’s last CableCARD waiver was renewed by the Media Bureau until April 6, 2012, because of financial hardship, the company said. “Unfortunately, it is in worse position financially” now, said a filing in docket 97-80 (http://xrl.us/bmxvpg). “Baja’s negative free cash flow deficit more than doubled in 2011. The Bureau has found that free cash flow is critical to enable an operator to make the necessary investments to deliver next-generation broadband, HD, VOD, and other advanced services."
The FCC continued a spate of fines and show-cause orders to Class A TV stations (CD March 9 p18) that haven’t filed required reports. For not filing children’s programming reports, Omni Broadcasting, licensee of KOMI Woodward, Okla. (http://xrl.us/bmxvmm), and Centex TV’s KRHD Bryan, Texas (http://xrl.us/bmxvms), got Media Bureau notices of apparent liability for $3,000 each. The bureau required the owners of another 16 stations in three orders (http://xrl.us/bmxvna, http://xrl.us/bmxvnc and http://xrl.us/bmxvng) to show why they shouldn’t be downgraded to regular low-power status because they didn’t keep up required reports, broadcast the minimum number of required hours a day or adhere to other Class A obligations. Regular low-power status means the stations would lose Class A interference protections, which industry lawyers have said means the commission could change their channel locations without compensating them as part of a repacking before an incentive auction of TV stations’ spectrum.
Broadcasters won’t get postcards from the FCC anymore reminding them of when licenses must be renewed, the agency said Monday. “Instead, we will e-mail a courtesy notice to the licensee and contact representative for each station using information from the Commission’s Consolidated Database System.” A public notice asking licensees to make sure their information is up to date in CDBS said all commercial and non-commercial educational TV stations must file electronically Form 303-S renewal requests, even if the last renewal application is pending (http://xrl.us/bmxvk3).
Dish Network closed its buy of the reorganized DBSD North America and “substantially all of the assets of TerreStar Networks,” Dish said in a statement Monday. “DISH has invested more than $3 billion to secure the licenses for this 40 MHz of nationwide 2 GHz wireless spectrum,” the company said. Dish said it looks forward to the forthcoming FCC rulemaking on advanced wireless services in the 2 GHz band and “remains committed to using this spectrum to help the Administration and the FCC solve the nation’s spectrum crunch. In parallel, DISH will initiate efforts to enhance the performance and capabilities of handsets that utilize the terrestrial and satellite links while exploring its options for a broader market entry."
Arianespace will launch the jointly owned Eutelsat and Es'hailSat satellite next year on an Ariane 5 rocket, said Eutelsat. The satellite will add Ku-band and Ka-band capacity for the companies at 25.5 degrees east, the companies said.
Sea Launch will launch Intelsat’s Intelsat 27 satellite next year, said Sea Launch. The satellite will provide service to Europe and the Americas for media, network and government services from 304.5 degrees east, said Sea Launch. The company also said it would launch Eutelsat’s Eutelsat 70B satellite from the Pacific Ocean-based equatorial site later this year. That satellite will provide data and government services in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia from 70.5 degrees east, Sea Launch said.