Opposing disclosure of “highly confidential information” to agents of Comcast/NBCUniversal about online video distributor (OVD) peer programming contracts, Disney executives on its and ESPN’s behalf also lobbied an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on ensuring there’s sufficient wireless mic spectrum. Exchanging such highly confidential information as OVD contracts when an OVD invokes a benchmark condition in the FCC order letting Comcast buy control of NBCUniversal is “discouraged and prevented by competition and antitrust law,” said a Disney ex parte filing posted Monday to docket 10-56 (http://bit.ly/K07tLD). It noted an agency proceeding on a stay related to the deal condition, a delay which Disney and other content providers have backed (CD Dec 23 p16). The commission should ensure there’s sufficient spectrum for wireless mics after the incentive auction repacking, Disney said four executives also told Rosenworcel’s aide Dec. 18.
Vonage is modifying its VoIP service to comply with the FCC’s new rule banning false ringing tones, it said in a Thursday meeting with Wireline Bureau representatives (http://bit.ly/1eCDxmL). Currently, Vonage plays the rings on the small percentage of calls where it doesn’t receive a ring signal from an intermediate carrier within four seconds, it said. “It is not possible for Vonage to modify the analog terminal adapter to deliver a messaging solution consistent with the new ring signaling rules.” The VoIP provider said it’s “significantly modifying its service to deliver network-generated messages” to callers instead of the ringing tones.
The FCC should issue a declaratory ruling that “equivalent functionality” for end office switching does not require a CLEC or its VoIP partner to provide the loop facility to the called party under the VoIP symmetry rule, XO said in an ex parte filing Monday (http://bit.ly/1eCBTl6). “AT&T’s interpretation of access charges applicable to VoIP-PSTN traffic turns the VoIP symmetry rule on its head, increasing carrier disputes where AT&T has withheld payment of end office access charges that do not meet AT&T’s criteria,” XO said. XO agrees with other CLEC commenters that the core function of an end office local switch “cannot and should not rationally be defined by the lines to which it connects, but by the functions it actually performs on the network,” it said, quoting a letter by Level 3 and Bandwidth.com.
Open interconnection and a “healthy transit market” for Internet traffic are important, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and aides in what agency records show was a rare commission lobbying meeting for the company. Those two factors are “prerequisites to scaling the Internet as a global content distribution platform,” an ex parte filing, released Monday in docket 09-191 (http://bit.ly/1boC0ce), recounted Hastings as saying during the Dec. 18 meeting. Hastings cited the online video distributor’s Open Connect program and explained it to Wheeler and aides including Senior Counselor Phil Verveer, wireline aide Daniel Alvarez and media aide Maria Kirby. Open Connect is a content delivery network that locates Netflix’s content closer to ISPs, said a blog post that the ex parte filing referenced (http://nflx.it/1c3FPHa). Netflix last lobbied the FCC in an ex parte meeting 13 months ago, according to agency records (http://bit.ly/19e0bNM). A company spokesman declined to comment further.
Members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition made their case for unlicensed use of the TV bands following the incentive auction and channel repacking, in a meeting with Roger Sherman, FCC Wireless Bureau acting chief, and others from the bureau. PISC said the FCC should designate “an unlicensed and contiguous duplex gap (and/or guard band) of at least 20 MHz” and maintain two designated channels for wireless mics, opening “them for shared unlicensed use; shrinking the separation distances that limit wireless microphone use of locally-vacant, out-of-market TV co-channels; and requiring microphones to rely first on out-of-market TV co-channels that are not available to unlicensed devices,” said a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1eCAKdd). It said the FCC should also make Channel 37 available on a limited basis for unlicensed use and maintain “the status quo with respect to unlicensed access to 600 MHz spectrum, post-auction, in each local area until it is actually in use.” Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation, Harold Feld of Public Knowledge and Matt Wood of Free Press were at the meeting for PISC.
Two mid-size cable operators are integrating Wi-Fi hotspots, part of a nationwide effort by several operators to provide connections in regions served by their systems to broadband subscribers of any participating company. (See separate report above in this issue.) Most broadband subscribers of Bright House Networks and Cox Communications “can now enjoy even more access to CableWiFi, the nation’s largest WiFi network,” said the operators in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1cstWgA). It said “the new hotspots are strategically located to serve areas where customers are most likely to benefit from Internet access” out of their households, with thousands of hotspots in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and other markets.
NCTA asked the FCC to review the Wireline Bureau decision that model-based Connect America Fund Phase II support will be made available to ILECs in any area where an unsubsidized provider “does not comply with exactly the same service obligation requirements that would be imposed on the subsidized LEC” (http://bit.ly/1laLOMt). The “practical consequence” of the decision is that areas where cable providers have invested “significant private capital” to deploy broadband “erroneously will be treated as if they are unserved,” NCTA said Monday.
The FCC Wireless Bureau asked for comments on a waiver request by ClearRF, which manufactures cell-signal boosters. The company asked for six to 10 months to sell boosters that don’t conform to rules that take effect March 1. Comments are due Jan. 14, replies Jan. 21, said a Monday public notice (http://bit.ly/18Ip0Ds). “ClearRF’s Dual-Band Cellular Signal Amplifiers allow you to receive improved cellular signal on your phone, air card, laptop, cellular router, or any cellular device, wherever you happen to need it; your vehicle, boat, desktop workspace, or RV,” according to the company’s website (clearrf.com).
The Senate Commerce Committee sent S.Res. 157 to the full Senate Thursday. The bill, which the committee cleared in late July, would express the sense of the Senate that phone service must be improved in rural areas and that no entity may unreasonably discriminate against users in those areas. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who introduced S.Res. 157 with Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has expressed concerns that call completion issues persist despite FCC action (CD July 31 p1).
More than 223 million active numbers were registered on the Do Not Call Registry as of September, the FTC said in a biennial report to Congress Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1ienpbz). During fiscal year 2013, 2,875 businesses and other entities paid more than $14 million to access the registry, the FTC said. The agency cautioned that VoIP calls, Caller ID spoofing and automated dialing technology have “made it easier for individuals and companies who disregard the law to make high volumes of calls at very little cost.” That has led to an increase in illegal robocalls, peaking at about 200,000 complaints per month to the FTC by the end of FY 2012, it said.