Public Knowledge cautioned against potential confusion that may accompany the transition away from the public switched telephone network, in an FCC ex parte filing Thursday (http://bit.ly/13dxg6G). Public Knowledge asked the FCC to expedite Verizon’s filing in suburban New York for a 214(a) request for “permission to permanently discontinue copper-based TDM service in portions of Fire Island and other areas impacted by Superstorm Sandy,” as the telco has said it’s in the process of requesting. The filing described a meeting between Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld and Dave Grimaldi, chief counsel to acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, focused on Verizon’s plans to replace some of its Fire Island copper landline service with the fixed-wireless offering of Voice Link, a decision made in the wake of Sandy’s damage. The confusion is “over whether the FCC requires providers of TDM service to file a 214(a) to permanently discontinue copper-based TDM service after a natural disaster destroys the lines,” Feld wrote. “This confusion is reflected by line staff informing members of the public that Verizon’s actions are ‘acceptable,’ without also informing the public of the procedures to file objections to Verizon’s 214(a) notice.” It “undermines” the transition and causes false beliefs in companies about their ability to “engage in self-help” rather than “participate in structured pilot programs,” he said. The FCC needs to offer more guidance on these filings, which should be required simultaneously with state filings, Public Knowledge said. It urged the FCC to “conduct a proceeding to adopt a special 214(a) process” on these issues and to “set standards for what constitutes an adequate replacement service, ensuring that consumers are adequately protected.” It asked the FCC to treat replacement services the same way as traditional ones to avoid any prejudgment of the transition outcome.
Representatives of Cisco discussed the role Wi-Fi can play in indoor 911 location accuracy, in a meeting with Henning Schulzrinne, chief technology officer of the FCC. “Cisco explained that its current efforts, and the efforts of many industry players, are to use existing network and existing client device technologies to make indoor location as much like outdoor cellular GPS location as possible,” the company said in a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/11ncX5g). “In Cisco’s view, this objective will best be achieved by harnessing the location data available in Wi-Fi networks, and Wi-Fi equipped client devices.” The potential is huge to make indoor 911 much more accurate, Cisco said. “Cisco indicated that significant work remains to be done by industry in this area, such as development of a plan to generate civic addresses (including floor numbers) and generating location data for a Wi-Fi enabled device that has not authenticated to the Wi-Fi access point,” the filing said. “However, if that work can be brought to completion, location accuracy of 5 meters, and even as accurate as 1 meter, is achievable."
The FCC Wireless Bureau asked a series of questions of AT&T and Atlantic Tele-Network on a spectrum sale unveiled in January, in which AT&T plans to buy former Alltel spectrum licenses from the latter company for $780 million. The letter was released by the bureau Tuesday (http://bit.ly/18Xg0bZ). “The Applicants state that the Proposed Transaction will ensure that the spectrum subject to the instant transaction will be ‘put to a significantly more valuable and efficient use than Allied has been, or would be, able to achieve on its own given the obstacles it faces,'” the letter asked AT&T in a typical question. “Explain the spectrum requirements of the Company in the relevant geographic areas, including a discussion of whether the Company can currently, and plans to, deploy 4G in each relevant area (and what technology would be used) and how the Company will put the spectrum subject to the transaction to a more valuable and efficient use.”
IEEE asked the FCC to extend by 30 days the reply comment deadline on a proposal to open more 5 GHz spectrum to unlicensed use. Comments are due June 24. The proposal has proved controversial, with opposition coming in particular from the automotive industry (CD May 31 p4). “IEEE 802 submitted comments in the subject proceeding and, in reviewing the record of comments to date, is concerned that there is insufficient time allocated to thoroughly review the record and provide reply comments in accordance with the Commission’s current deadline,” the group said (http://bit.ly/18P2VyX).
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt was expected urge the FCC to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule in a speech he was scheduled to give at UCLA Wednesday night, according to a Hundt spokeswoman, who provided a copy of the speech to us. In it, Hundt says the FCC’s enforcement of cross-ownership rules has become “an exercise in intellectual contortions that persuade on-lookers that the Commission is acting in an arbitrary fashion.” Hundt says the numerous other ways that consumers get access to media have made the rules outdated, and also said they don’t serve the goal of promoting minority media ownership. “Anyone who believes that a ban on print and broadcast combinations promotes minority ownership need only look to the bidding wars that arise among non-minority companies when a media property becomes available,” he said. Hundt says the rule has become “perverse” in denying struggling newspapers access to broadcaster capital. “If a profitable broadcaster wants to buy a newspaper in its city -- to expand the amount of attention it can obtain from an audience or just to have more impact on the way people think -- the FCC should welcome this extra support for the trouble-plagued newspaper industry.” In the speech, Hundt denounces the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch, but says he can’t imagine “any government in a truly free country” doing anything to stop them from buying “the Los Angeles Times, or any newspaper, or any media outlet of any kind.” Hundt says “the cure for awful speech is an awful lot of money,” and he advocates eliminating the cross-ownership rules as a way of increasing participation in the sale of newspapers like the Times. “I can imagine that some person as progressive in politics as I am, but of course vastly richer, might want to assemble a broadcast-TV combination that increased audiences for both, expanded news coverage on television, and built a better Web presence than either a newspaper or a TV station can do it on its own,” says Hundt. “One of the glories of the United States -- one of the many things that make our system better than the system in China or Russia -- is that we truly do believe in free speech,” he says in the speech. “When applied to media, that means we should honor the freedom to own the means of speech.”
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has voted in favor of an order approving Progeny’s E-911 locator service for commercial service on the 902-928 MHz band, agency officials said Wednesday. The vote makes FCC approval of the order unanimous. Pai voted for the order largely as circulated by former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski just prior to his departure from the agency (CD May 17 p1). Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel voted for the order late last month, agency officials had said.
The New York State Public Service Commission invites comments on making additional central office codes available in the 315 area code region, it said in a notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/11s9x4d). The PSC had considered an overlay option in the past but put it on hold. Forecasts showed that in the 315 region, the state would be “out of assignable central office codes by the first quarter of the 2015 calendar year at the latest,” the PSC said. “Accordingly, this proceeding is reinitiated in order to have timely and effective relief for the 315 NPA [numbering plan area] in place prior to code exhaust.” The PSC asked for any other comments on its earlier recommended overlay decision, saying it would benefit from “additional information concerning changes in technology or usage patterns.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a petition by Chariton Valley Telecom asking the commission to concur with a Missouri Public Service Commission decision redefining the service area of Spectra Communications Group (http://bit.ly/14x4UUe). Comments in docket 09-197 are due July 8, replies July 23.
Clarification: Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said (CD June 5 p5) Title II of the Communications Act is the most legally defensible way of ensuring the FCC has authority over broadband Internet access, and favors AllVid over the CableCARD rules.
In order to achieve a “seamless broadband cloud architecture,” governments need to take three policy approaches to accelerate the necessary investments, AT&T Senior Executive VP-External and Legislative Affairs Jim Cicconi told the Brussels Internet & Telecom Seminar Tuesday, according to a copy of his prepared remarks (http://bit.ly/14x1LUB). First, “smart spectrum policy” should encourage “bold” spectrum allocations that are “harmonized as globally as possible,” and that should be “evergreen, so that operators have every incentive to invest with confidence,” he said. Second, minimizing fragmentation and barriers among European member states, and between the EU and other regions, will help develop a “single market” with consistent regulation and economies of scale, he said. Third, “we need to craft modern regulatory frameworks that do not lock our customers into old technologies or extend monopoly-era regulations to next-generation technologies,” he said. Cicconi discussed AT&T’s $14 billion of planned investments in the U.S. (CD Nov 8 p11), which he called “something of a bet” about how to best meet customers’ needs while still dealing with a wireline regulatory regime that “seriously lags” behind. “It makes no sense to require AT&T and other historical telephone companies to maintain the old PSTN network and services, in parallel to building more capable fixed and wireless IP networks,” he said, referring to the public switched telephone network. “How much longer do we keep the old rules that mandate capital be spent every year propping up the technologies of the past before we unleash that spending for investment in our future?”