An FCC staffer asked Charter Communications for more information about its carriage of KJLA Ventura, Calif., which wants the Media Bureau to require the operator’s Los Angeles-area systems to resume carrying it on analog tiers (CD March 7 p20). What’s the “exact date” the outlet was “transitioned to digital-only on the Charter systems where KJLA is carried,” Senior Deputy Chief Steven Broeckaert of the bureau’s Policy Division asked a lawyer for Charter. Other questions in Friday’s letter (http://bit.ly/109Gnlr) in docket 13-63 are how many Charter L.A.-market subscribers got free digital equipment since must-carry stations including KJLA were transitioned to all-digital, and whether any customers didn’t get the gear. The lawyer was asked to provide information on how Charter customer service representatives handle queries about free digital equipment. Answers are due May 9, and KJLA has 10 days after the operator’s response to file a supplement. Charter has opposed KJLA’s request to the bureau, saying it properly notified the station and the operator’s subscribers that it was ending analog delivery of the broadcaster and that it provides free digital equipment to see the programming (http://bit.ly/YGZCn5).
CTIA, tw telecom and Netflix increased lobbying expenditures in Q1 2013 from the same period a year prior, according to lobbying forms made available Friday. CTIA spent $2.95 million on lobbying in Q1 2013, an 11 percent jump from Q1 2012. Tw telecom spent $200,000, a 4 percent increase. Netflix spent $300,000 in the first quarter, a 15 percent increase from the same period last year. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance decreased its lobbying spend to $19,000, a 44 percent drop.
Financial institutions are creating new mobile payment options as consumers grow increasingly accustomed to using cellphones for transactions, said e-commerce platform provider Powa Technologies in a release Monday. In a marked increase from the previous year, 28 percent of all mobile phone users and 48 percent of smartphone users used mobile banking between November 2011 and November 2012, the Federal Reserve noted in an April 2013 study (http://1.usa.gov/11O33Lm). Consumers “are becoming much more used to the technology, which is great because there is so much potential for their devices to serve a number of purposes,” said Powa CEO Dan Wagner.
TVMax insisted Friday in an FCC filing that it is not carrying multiple Texas TV stations without their permission, and that as of June 7 it had ceased carrying on its fiber ring (http://bit.ly/14K0AHh) the Univision, Fox and ABC affiliates and the Post-Newsweek station that filed complaints against it in December (CD April 4 p13). However, in a filing with the Media Bureau Monday (http://bit.ly/11yxmoR), the broadcasters said their stations are still being carried without consent by an affiliate of TVMax. “The [TVMax] response does not disclose that June 7, 2012 is the exact same date that a commonly controlled corporate affiliate of TV Max began to lease TV Max’s fiber ring,” said the broadcasters’ filing, which calls the TVMax response “a shell game.” In their filing, the broadcasters cited documents on file with the Texas Public Utility Commission and the Texas secretary of state to show that TVMax, Broadband Ventures Six and Broadband Fiber are all commonly controlled corporate entities, sharing some executives and mailing addresses, and owning shares of each other’s stock. “TV Max’s focus on ‘its’ fiber ring, and its attempt to hide behind the purported transfer of control of the fiber ring to commonly controlled alter egos, is a transparent attempt to evade” questions about its apparent violations of the retransmission consent rules, said the broadcasters. An attorney for TVMax declined to comment, and a request for comment from the company itself received no response.
Comments are due June 18, replies July 18, on an April 1 NPRM seeking comment on proposals to amend FCC rules to promote spectrum efficiency, interoperability, and flexibility in operation of 700 MHz public safety narrowband systems, the commission’s Public Safety Bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/11f0nFA). The NPRM asks whether the FCC should extend or eliminate a Dec. 31, 2016, deadline requiring 700 MHz public safety narrowband licensees to change over from a 12.5 kilohertz voice efficiency standard to a 6.25 kilohertz standard (CD April 2 p4).
The FCC Media Bureau said Educational Community Radio is apparently liable for a $3,000 fine for airing commercial announcements on a noncommercial educational station. The licensee aired three promotional underwriting announcements on WOBO(FM) Batavia, Ohio, “for for-profit organizations for which it received consideration,” the bureau said in notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/14K04ZX). It said ECR acted to improve its underwriting compliance, but did so only after being alerted of its transgressions by a former officer of the licensee.
Lawmakers must create online privacy standards for companies because industry self-regulation efforts have “stalled,” said six consumer groups in a joint news release Monday. “We'll need legislation to get this done,” said the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Watchdog, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and U.S. PIRG, in a joint statement. “Industry has had no real incentive to agree to a meaningful standard. … We've spent 18 months and self-regulation is not working.” The groups stumped for the Do-Not-Track Online Act (S-418), introduced in March by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. (CD March 1 p11). “Now is the time for legislative action and we welcome the senators’ commitment to getting Do Not Track done.” The bill would require all online companies to minimize data collection about citizens’ browsing habits once requested by the consumer, require online companies to destroy or anonymize individual browsing data once it’s no longer needed and enable the FTC to pursue enforcement actions against any violators. The consumer groups also said legislation is needed to implement a consumer privacy bill of rights. The remarks came ahead of the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in 253 Russell to examine the status of the industry’s work on do-not-track standards. Scheduled to testify at the hearing are: Harvey Anderson, Mozilla senior vice president-business and legal affairs; Justin Brookman, director-Center for Democracy and Technology’s project on consumer privacy; Luigi Mastria, managing director of the Digital Advertising Alliance; and Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at George Mason University.
Hughes urged the FCC to avoid constraining non-federal earth station operations if it decides to grant NTIA’s request to amend the national table of frequency allocations. NTIA wants an NPRM opened to change FCC rules on operation of federal earth stations with commercial satellites (http://bit.ly/XRBqBo). Hughes asked the commission to ensure that federal earth stations are fully subject to its interference-prevention and coordination obligations for non-federal earth stations, Hughes said in an ex parte filing in docket RM-11341 (http://bit.ly/Y099e1). The filing recounted a meeting among a Hughes official, an attorney for the company and staff from Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s office. The FCC should confirm that “a clear enforcement process is identified by NTIA to compel federal earth station compliance with these rules,” it said. Approval of the NTIA proposal should be subject to the principle that any non-governmental earth station application “that today would be acted upon without any review or involvement by NTIA must not require NTIA review or involvement if filed after federal earth stations are granted co-primary status in the Table of Frequency Allocations” in the FCC’s rules, it said.
PCIA’s DAS Forum is being renamed the HetNet Forum, PCIA said Monday. The name change -- referring to “heterogeneous network” -- reflects that the forum is focusing on not just distributed antenna systems (DAS), but microcells, picocells, Wi-Fi and remote radio units as well, PCIA said (http://bit.ly/15AT1lm). “This is a key transition at the right time for our industry,” said PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein. “HetNet Forum members are using every tool in their toolbox to deliver wireless broadband to consumers everywhere -- indoors and outdoors, urban and rural. This unique organization provides an excellent forum for members to further develop their businesses and deploy urgently needed wireless capacity to meet the exploding demand for wireless data to be available at any time, and in any place.” More than 60 companies are members of the former DAS Forum, the group said. The HetNet Forum will host an annual event, HetNet Expo, starting next year.
A special committee of Sprint Nextel’s board will examine Dish Network’s $25.5 billion offer for the company, unveiled last week (CD April 16 p1), Sprint said Monday. Softbank last year agreed to buy Sprint for $20.5 billion. “The Special Committee plans to evaluate the proposal and additional information that the committee has requested from DISH and provide its assessment to the full Board in due course whether the proposal is, or is reasonably likely to lead to, a Superior Offer” from Softbank, according to a news release (http://bit.ly/XRAEUR). The committee is to be chaired by Larry Glasscock, retired chairman of WellPoint, a health benefits company, and a director since 2007. Sprint board members James Hance, Janet Hill, William Nuti and Rodney O'Neal will also be on the special committee.