The Kentucky Public Service Commission denied a request to arbitrate a proposed interconnection dispute between Duo County Telecom and AT&T Kentucky, it said in a Thursday order (http://1.usa.gov/WTo5sM). Duo County Telecom sought such arbitration last fall, saying it wanted compensation for services it had provided AT&T for the prior four years. AT&T argued for dismissing the petition because the Telecom Act of 1996 “does not allow the Commission to arbitrate claims for services performed and billed in the past” and said the issue should have been brought as a complaint under a different part of the state rules. The PSC calls the multi-year wait “puzzling” and said these past issues aren’t appropriate for a “forward looking” interconnection agreement proceeding.
Representatives of the Competitive Carriers Association pushed for action on 700 MHz interoperability during a meeting Tuesday with Renee Gregory, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “We reviewed CCA’s well-documented position in the record that the costs of restoring interoperability to the Lower 700 MHz band are inconsequential and largely avoidable, while the benefits are large, widely shared, and especially meaningful to consumers,” CCA said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/15B4GfE). “We then urged the Commission to adopt an order in this long-pending proceeding."
The FCC should eliminate remaining obligations from its Computer Inquiry regime, such as the comparably efficient interconnection and open network architecture requirements, CenturyLink told Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/Y4wucz). Those obligations “unnecessarily impose burdens on CenturyLink and other carriers without any corresponding benefits,” the ILEC said. CenturyLink also discussed ways to respond to FCC questions about the potential practical impacts if this relief were granted. The commission last week granted CenturyLink’s request to withdraw its petition for forbearance of certain Computer Inquiry tariffing requirements (CD March 22 p10).
The FCC Enforcement Bureau found General Communications apparently liable for a $10,000 fine for operating a station without commission authority. The bureau proposed the forfeiture for GCI’s continued operation of CMRS station WPSN343 after June 26, 2011, the expiration date of the station license, until March 23, 2013, the date its special temporary authority license was granted, it said in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/Y4yKkh).
Whether an IP-enabled service should be able to obtain direct access to telephone numbers, without accepting the accountability and responsibilities associated with operation as a regulated carrier, cuts to the heart of the industry’s evolution to all-IP, NTCA told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday (http://bit.ly/Y4vp4w). “Nearly no issue is positioned more squarely within the consideration of regulatory processes and constructs (or lack thereof),” NTCA said. Therefore, it is best to consider the questions and issues raised by a numbering waiver petition “within the full discussion of those proceedings” examining the overall transition, it said. Many questions remain regarding how traffic would be routed and compensated in the context of a waiver given to a VoIP provider, the association said, urging the commission to “proceed with extreme caution."
The Women’s Media Center urged President Barack Obama to make history and appoint the first woman to chair the FCC. “We're writing to make sure that with all that crosses your desk, you see a piece of good news,” the group said Friday in a letter to the president (http://bit.ly/Yu372W). “The best qualified candidates to chair the Federal Communications Commission are all women. You will be able make good policy and good history at the same time. You have the chance to democratize the media with one key appointment when you nominate the next Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. We are writing to urge you to pick a woman.” The center lists as candidates former Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, current commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, and former commissioners Susan Ness and Cathy Sandoval. “While there is no easy fix to getting women into the top jobs in the telecom and media industries, the government watchdog can and should be headed by a woman,” the center said.
AT&T wireline employees affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 9 voted down a three-year contract, AT&T said Thursday. The “very fair and reasonable” contract, which would have covered 17,000 employees in California and Nevada, included increases in annual wages and pension benefits, AT&T said in a statement. It’s “unfortunate” that the employees did not ratify the contract, which “would have preserved excellent middle class careers,” the telco said, saying it will “continue to work to reach an agreement.” CWA-affiliated employees previously approved contracts last year and earlier this year with AT&T that covered 60,000 employees in the telco’s Midwest, Southeast and Southwest divisions. CWA and AT&T Mobility agreed on a four-year contract Feb. 22 that covers more than 20,000 employees in 37 jurisdictions, including California and Nevada, AT&T said.
CaptionCall made a “good-faith effort” to develop a firmware update that would comply with the FCC’s interim rules requiring that all Internet Protocol-captioned telephone service phones begin each call with captions turned off, the company told commission officials Tuesday (http://bit.ly/YKGzr1). But due to technical difficulties and consumer confusion, the company requires a five-month waiver to develop and test a new firmware update that functions properly, it said. CaptionCall’s waiver request includes a proposal that, for the duration of the waiver, the company receive compensation for only 85 percent of applicable customers’ minutes of use: “We believe that this solution strikes a proper balance between, on one hand, giving CaptionCall a strong incentive to comply with the default-off rule as quickly as possible, and on the other hand, ensuring that CaptionCall does not lose all compensation for legitimate usage of its service,” the company said.
The FCC accepted 30 applications for low-power TV and translator construction permits. “The applications are not mutually exclusive with other LPTV and TV translators,” the commission said in a public notice (http://fcc.us/YwE3Fo). Some of the accepted applicants include New Moon Communications in Oklahoma, Landover 2 in New York and Texas-based Mako Communications. Petitions to deny the applications can be filed within 30 days of the public notice date, the commission said.
Inmarsat received a $3.5 million contract to continue providing mobile satellite services to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The contract includes an initial contract period of one year and the option to extend the agreement in four one-year increments, Inmarsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/WT8R7f). The agency plans to use Inmarsat’s services “to provide reliable, mission-critical communications between its supporting personnel in the event of a disaster,” Inmarsat said.