The FCC isn’t at fault for delays in releasing NTIA’s 1755-1850 MHz report, an agency spokesman said Friday. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling NTIA put some of the blame on the FCC Thursday (CD Marc 2 p2) in remarks to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. “We have some slow readers at our sister agency and maybe now they will be able to pick up the pace a bit,” Strickling said. “NTIA has gotten ample feedback from the FCC since last fall, most recently weeks ago,” the FCC spokesman said. “They can release their report whenever they please."
The FCC should consider adopting new price regulations that apply only to incumbent LEC TDM-based and packet-switched special access services sold to wholesale carrier consumers, counsel for Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom and tw telecom told Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday, according to an ex parte letter (http://xrl.us/bmwpup). Such regulations would help remedy “unreasonably high” incumbent LEC prices for these services, the letter said.
Cablevision seeks a thirty day extension to file broadband data associated with the FCC’s Form 477 “Local Competition and Broadband Reporting Form,” according to a motion filed Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmwpuk). “The census tract files that Cablevision received from its third party vendor for use in the filing were based on 2000 census tract codes, instead of the 2010 census tract codes” that the commission had requested, the motion said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comments on a Midwestern Telecommunications application to discontinue certain domestic telecommunications services in multiple states, according to a public notice published Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmwpsz). MTI offers resold wireline local telephone services in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin. MTI seeks approval to discontinue these services and terminate operations in these areas. “MTI maintains that the impact of the proposed discontinuance on the public will be minimal because only approximately 2,380 customers currently use the services and because all affected customers have a wide range of choices for alternative local telephone services in the Service Areas,” the notice said. Comments are due March 16.
The FCC should consider adopting new price regulations that apply only to incumbent LEC TDM-based and packet-switched special access services sold to wholesale carrier consumers, counsel for Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom and tw telecom told Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday, according to an ex parte letter (http://xrl.us/bmwpup). Such regulations would help remedy “unreasonably high” incumbent LEC prices for these services, the letter said.
A cellphone with a Wilson ‘Sleek’ mobile signal booster installed in a vehicle “provides a 3 times increase in the overall coverage area of a single cell site for both voice and data service vs. a cell phone without a booster,” Wilson Electronics said in a report filed last week at the FCC. “A booster increases connectivity to distant cell sites that would normally be inaccessible without a booster.” Wilson submitted results from tests conducted in Utah, using signals from a single Verizon Wireless cell site. The tests found that in most cases, with the use of a booster, cellphones got data throughput rates of 200 kbps on the uplink side and 768 kbps for downlinks. “The booster enables vastly improved data throughput … while without the booster, there is no data throughput or very low throughput,” Wilson said.
Dish Networks got some but not all of what it was asking for from the FCC Friday. In an order, the FCC approved Dish’s purchase of TerreStar and DBSD, but denied its request for a waiver of the integrated services rules for the spectrum. The order was handed down by the International Bureau and did not require a vote by commissioners. On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a notice of proposed rulemaking asking questions about the service rules, which is set for a vote by the full commission at the FCC’s March 21 meeting.
Immediate reductions in intrastate originating access rates for public switched telephone network-VoIP traffic would have a negative financial impact not only on mid-sized incumbent LECs, but also on competitive LECs such as Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom and tw telecom, an attorney for the CLECs wrote the FCC (http://xrl.us/bmwpuz). That responded to a Frontier letter arguing a “flash cut” of intrastate originating access rates for such calls would financially harm the company. If such rates were cut, the CLECs said, they would experience “estimated losses in their gross annual originating access revenues” that would make it “more difficult for the Joint CLECs to adjust to the reductions in their terminating access revenues mandated by the ICC/USF Reform Order.” Time Warner Cable also weighed in on the dispute (http://xrl.us/bmwqga). When TWC decided to implement its current business model -- where its retail VoIP affiliate would purchase wholesale telecom services from an affiliated CLEC -- the company did so with the expectation that it would collect the higher intrastate origination fees for VoIP calls, it said. But “in the interest of advancing the Commission’s overall reform efforts, TWC and other cable operators were willing to support a compromise approach whereby they would be limited to charging reduced interstate rates for those calls,” the cable company said. “Thus, to the extent the ILECs’ proposal is premised on the notion that they alone will experience a revenue loss as a result of the Commission’s reforms, they are incorrect.” The ILECs’ proposal is “plainly unjustified” and will help give Frontier and Windstream a “competitive advantage,” Time Warner Cable said. Frontier and Windstream requested in December that the commission clarify its rules on origination fees for toll intrastate PSTN-VoIP traffic (CD Fe. 14 p13).
Data throttling is likely to remain a sore spot for some consumer and public interest groups. AT&T last week clarified its throttling policy, but what it offered didn’t satisfy all critics.
Recently enacted spectrum legislation is aimed at making sure, for the first time, public safety officials have access to “next-generation technologies, services, devices and a framework that enables them to continue to have that kind of innovation going into the future,” Verizon Vice President Donald Brittingham said on a webinar Friday sponsored by NATOA. Speakers offered an early review of the spectrum provisions, two weeks after they were enacted by Congress as part of the payroll tax extension. The legislation moves first responders away from “legacy, niche-types of technologies and frequency bands that are not compatible” which they had to rely on in the past, Brittingham said. It should mean more use of technologies already available in the commercial sphere, from machine-to-machine communications to cloud computing, he said. “Connecting public safety to commercial technology and making sure that they have the ability to move with the marketplace as technology evolves is in my view one of the most critical things about this framework.” The $7 billion dedicated to building a network wouldn’t “go very far if public safety were forced to do this one on its own” and public-private partnerships will be critical, he said. “Interconnecting this public safety network with commercial networks we think is a key part of making sure that everybody around the country, all first responders, can get the best access.” Verizon wants to work with first responders to develop commercial devices that will meet their unique needs, Brittingham said. “We know there are very specialized needs that first responders have that can’t be met with a smartphone or an iPad.” Greg Rohde, executive director of the NG911 Institute, said the $115 million dedicated to next-generation 911 in the legislation will be helpful. While less than some lawmakers sought, that amount is “still very significant,” he said. “It remains to be seen how exactly it will be distributed.” It’s “going to require some level of coordination of state call centers” and grants will likely be distributed on a statewide basis, Rohde said. The legislation also only allows funding for applicants that certify that the state where they're located does not spend 911 fees collected from customers on something other than 911, he said. “There’s lots of questions about exactly how is that defined, how is that going to be enforced, but the requirement nonetheless does exist. Congress’s clear intention is that money should not be available to states that are diverting 911 funds.” It is also significant that the act requires the GAO to take another look at state diversion of 911 funds, he said.