The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association joined the GPS Innovation Alliance as affiliate members. The National Society of Professional Surveyors, American Trucking Associations and Boat U.S. also joined the group, the alliance said in a press release. The group was formed this year to advocate on behalf of members of the commercial GPS community (CD Feb 20 p15).
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she opposed any amendments to the Senate’s budget resolution (S.Con. Res. 8) aimed at limiting USF funding for mobile services. Her comments came in a news release Friday. The amendments, which had not been voted on at our deadline, “fail to take into account how vital a program Lifeline is for low income families to stay connected, help secure and maintain jobs, and reach law enforcement in case of emergencies,” Clyburn said. She acknowledged that the program lacked proper controls when it was first implemented but “last year we took appropriate and significant steps to correct that,” she said. “The Commission is open to making additional adjustments where necessary, but in no uncertain terms should qualifying low-income consumers who have followed the rules, be refused service.” Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry also objected to any proposed amendments which would limit USF funding for mobile services in a separate news release. “This is not the time nor the place for consideration of policies that would fundamentally impact Universal Service Fund programs,” Berry said. “Eliminating USF support does not reduce the Federal Budget; it only harms rural and low income consumers.”
The Senate Commerce Committee plans an April 9 hearing to examine the state of rural communications. The session will start at 10:30 a.m. in 253 Russell, said a press release Friday. Witnesses haven’t been announced.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., sent letters to five wireless billing companies last week asking about their roles in wireless cramming, said a committee news release. The inquiry stems from the committee’s broader investigation into whether and how customers are being charged for weekly text messages, horoscopes, fashion tips and celebrity gossip, the letters said. Rockefeller said AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint told the committee the five “billing aggregators” are responsible for placing third-party charges on wireless customers’ bills. The five companies are: OpenMarket, Motricity, Mobile Messenger, mBlox, and Ericcson, not to be confused with mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson. The letters ask the companies to identify the parties which they have contractual agreements with to place third-party charges on wireless bills, and provide all documents related to consumer complaints they have received about third-party wireless charges, among other questions.
The Senate was scheduled to vote after our deadline Friday on a budget amendment proposed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would allow states to collect e-commerce sales tax from out-of-state online sellers. Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., submitted secondary amendments to Durbin’s amendment to the Senate’s budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 8). Enzi said he was “absolutely” hopeful the amendment would pass, in an interview prior to the budget amendment vote Friday. If the amendment passed he said the next steps would be to “get the markup that Baucus kind of promised yesterday and get it finished.” Enzi acknowledged the continued opposition to the bill from members of his own party: “There are a number of people what are in opposition. Most of them come from states that don’t have a sales tax, so they really don’t have a dog in the fight.” As for the persistent opposition from Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, Enzi said he thought a compromise could be reached. “Grover said that if we put something in where taxes in the state would be reduced in proportion to the sales taxes that come in, he'd be in favor of it. States can do that. This is a states’ rights issue. This won’t impose a tax until states take some action. In the Quill case the Supreme Court said that without a nexus they couldn’t do it but it was something that Congress could fix. So they challenged us 20 years ago to fix it and we are just getting around to fixing it. And part of it is because the Internet used to be an infant tool. It isn’t an infant tool anymore and it is causing [a] $23 billion [tax revenue] drain in states. A lot of states are talking about reducing the property tax by the amount that they get on this. It is not a tax increase at any rate because it is already required. There just isn’t the collection source for it. Now everybody is supposed to report their own online [purchases] and pay their state for the sales tax. It’s kind of hard to keep track of.”
FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel will speak at the NAB Show in Las Vegas next month, the NAB said. The commissioners will participate in a discussion with NAB Chief Operating Officer Chris Ornelas April 9 at 10:30 a.m. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who on Friday announced his plans to leave the commission (See separate report in this issue.) is still scheduled to speak with NAB Joint Board Chair Paul Karpowicz the following day, a spokesman for the agency said.
Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff worry about how federal Lifeline eligibility requirements might conflict with state rules, they told the FCC Wireline Bureau in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/WJWgls). The Colorado Legislature has its own requirements for the state’s Low Income Telephone Assistance Program, it said. The PUC filed a waiver extension of federal Lifeline rules this month. “The public interest is not best served by requiring Colorado and Colorado providers to establish and administer two separate eligibility programs for some interim period,” PUC staff told the Wireline Bureau. “If the current waiver is not extended and expires on April 1, 2013, then indeed, Colorado providers will have to establish and administer this separate federal eligibility program beginning April 1, 2013 and continuing until the state law repeal takes effect.” The effects would hurt Colorado telcos like CenturyLink, PUC staff added -- “to establish this duel [sic] regime is significant and in some ways impractical.” It encouraged the FCC to extend the waiver to July 1.
Cablevision accidentally filed an unredacted version of its trial exhibit list in its carriage dispute with Game Show Network, it said in a letter to administrative law judge Richard Sippel (http://bit.ly/13jgOqi). “Immediately upon discovering the error, we contacted ECFS personnel, who at our request removed the document from public access,” it said. There’s no way to know if the document was accessed during the 25-hour period it was available through the FCC’s website, it said.
South Carolina has run into state USF funding issues with its ILECs. “The incumbent local exchange carriers ('ILECs') that receive disbursements from the State USF pursuant to prior Commission orders file an annual ILEC Data report with [the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff],” Chief Counsel and Director of Legal Services Nanette Edwards told the South Carolina Public Service Commission in a letter posted Friday (http://1.usa.gov/Yu7FGA). “ORS has observed that the forms completed by certain ILECs show that the monthly USF support amount exceeds their reported cost.” Edwards’ office “seeks guidance from the Commission as to what actions, if any, should be taken,” she said.
YouTube led the list of entertainment websites in January with 124 million unique visitors, who spent an average 1:57:28 on the site for the month, according to research from Nielsen. Apple’s iTunes was a distant second at 44.9 million unique visitors spending an average 1:11:58 during the month. Comcast Digital Entertainment came in third at 33.8 million visitors spending 54:42 on average. Netflix, at sixth, drew 28 million viewers spending an average 46:31 on the site during the month, followed by ESPN at 27.3 million spending 1:02:05 on average, Nielsen said. Video site VEVO had 25.2 million visitors spending an average 7:54 for the month, and Fox Sports came in 10th with 24.4 million unique visitors who spent 9:59 per person on average on the site, Nielsen said.