The FCC twice refused to make staff available to Sen. Chuck Grassley, said the Republican senator from Iowa. Grassley said the commission denied him access first to former staffer Paul de Sa, and then to senior FCC aide Josh Gottheimer, to discuss LightSquared. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “wrote to me last October that he would ‘continue to make staff available to discuss this matter further’ with me or my staff at our ‘convenience,'” Grassley said. “That turned out to be an empty offer.” Calling the agency a “closed shop,” Grassley said it’s “good news” that the House Commerce Committee has requested documents about LightSquared. “Some transparency might be required of the agency after all,” he said. The FCC didn’t comment. Grassley has held up confirmation of commissioner nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel while he investigates FCC actions related to LightSquared (CD March 7 p3). Grassley also released the text of a Jan. 30 letter to the FCC. “Given the complicated technical issues at play, I was surprised that Mr. Gottheimer’s published qualifications did not include any telecommunications or broadband experience,” he wrote. Grassley questioned whether as former executive vice-president of Burson-Marsteller, Gottheimer had a conflict of interest at the commission. On his website, www.joshgottheimer.com, “Mr. Gottheimer … goes into greater detail and states that he served as Global Chair of Burson-Marsteller’s Corporate and Public Affairs Practices. This practice would likely include corporate clients such as LightSquared, which is still a current Burson-Marsteller client.”
A pleading cycle was established on CenturyLink’s petition for forbearance from “dominant carrier regulation and the Computer Inquiry tariffing requirement with respect to its packet-switched and optical transmission services,” said an FCC public notice released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmxejw). CenturyLink said that because of recent mergers, its enterprise broadband services are subject to different regulations depending on which affiliate -- Qwest, Embarq, or CenturyTel -- previously provided those services. Comments are due April 5, replies April 20.
Maryland will have the new area code 677 overlaid into areas with 410 and 433 area codes. The new code could be implemented March 24, and any customers requesting new service or additional lines will have the new code. Customers will have to dial the area code before dialing any phone number, even ones with the same area code, according to the Maryland Public Service Commission website (http://xrl.us/bmxekg).
The Universal Service Administrative Co.’s “unauthorized interpretation” of the covered locations rule has caused support to wireless communications provider Smith Bagley to be cut by more than $2.6 million, SBI attorneys told FCC officials, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmxeho). In July 2010, SBI requested review of USAC’s decision to cap its interstate access support. That review has not been completed. SBI counsel said Friday that the covered locations exception requires USAC “to ensure that a competitive eligible telecommunications provider receives the same per-line support amount as the incumbent LEC for the lines qualifying for the exception,” the filing said. SBI also described a need for increased wireless coverage on the five Native American lands it serves, “which is made more pressing by the fact that many households in those areas also lack access to telephone service.” If the commission grants SBI’s request for review, SBI will be able to construct cell sites there, the filing said.
The FCC proposed $52,000 in total fines to four Class A TV stations for not keeping up kids’ programming reports in their public files. Media Bureau notices of apparent liability were released Wednesday to Glen Iris Baptist School (http://xrl.us/bmxei3) for stations in Alabaster and Birmingham, Ala., to Joseph Earley for an Talledega, Ala., station (http://xrl.us/bmxei9) and to Belo for a New Orleans outlet (http://xrl.us/bmxejb).
Michael Copps will keep working on media and Internet issues. In his first monthly blog for the Benton Foundation, the ex-FCC member wrote about a commitment to net neutrality and public interest obligations for media. “Traditional media -- radio, TV and cable -- have by-and-large stripped themselves of the resources needed to inform the American people,” he wrote (http://xrl.us/bmxeh6). “It might not be so bad if new media could clean up the old media mess. But by now we should realize it’s not on auto-pilot to do this. While interesting innovation and entrepreneurship are taking place on the Internet, nowhere do I see the sustaining model or the deep-pocketed resources needed to fuel democracy’s news and information requirements. Business hasn’t found the models and government hasn’t bothered to articulate the vision.” New media “platforms are inherently, intrinsically and inevitably infused with public interest implications,” Copps wrote: On net neutrality, “hopefully the public and private sectors can work together on this, but in the end it won’t happen without rules,” and “government needs to lead."
General Communication Inc. supports the National Exchange Carrier Association’s petition for reconsideration with respect to the use, for NECA pool participants, of the actual 2011 interstate revenue requirement rather than “its projected interstate switched access revenue requirement associated with the NECA 2011 annual interstate switched access tariff filing,” according to an ex parte letter (http://xrl.us/bmxege). GCI counsel met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday to discuss the petition. “NECA projections are not accurate at the study area level, even when they are accurate at the pool level,” the filing said. “At a minimum, the Commission should, for NECA pool participants, true up to their 2011 actual revenue requirements with the NECA poolwide revenue requirement projection functioning as an overall cap.” GCI also said that, with respect to Alaska carriers in the Alaska Exchange Carrier Association pool, it would be “more appropriate” to use its actual intrastate access revenue requirement rather than 2011 revenue from Transitional Intrastate Access Service.
NCTA and two member companies lobbied for FCC approval of encrypting the basic-programming tier, as the Media Bureau works on an order (CD March 7 p13). There are “substantial consumer and other public interest benefits associated with the rule change,” executives of the association, Cablevision and Comcast told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a filing said. Benefits include “remote service connections and disconnections and reduced theft of service,” said the filing posted Tuesday to docket 11-169 (http://xrl.us/bmxefb). The visitors to the eighth floor back “reasonable transitional equipment measures for the small number of customers who receive digital basic service without a set-top box or retail CableCARD device,” the filing said. It asked the agency to OK scrambling “promptly."
Journal Communication’s broadcast group said it agreed to buy 2 FM radio stations in Tulsa, Okla., from Renda Broadcasting. The stations on 106.9 and 92.9 will bring to five the number of FM stations Journal will own in that market, it said.
LX.TV co-founders Joseph Varet and Morgan Hertzan said they agreed to buy Plum TV in a bankruptcy auction. Hertzan and Varet will run the company as co-presidents, they said. Plum TV has cable distribution in Miami, Fla.; Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Colo.; the Hamptons in New York State; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. “We plan to rapidly grow Plum TV’s distribution via digital, television and out-of-home media,” Varet said. Court documents show the winning bid in the bankruptcy auction was a $1.17 million cash payment and the assignment of about $14 million in debt.