CEA’s latest opposition to Charter’s CableCARD waiver request (CD March 12 p15) “tries to re-write history,” the cable operator said in a filing Wednesday in FCC docket 12-328 (http://bit.ly/Z27s9u). CEA said Charter shouldn’t get leeway to use downloadable security for set-tops instead of the cards which separate security from navigation. CEA had said a 2007 waiver to Cablevision that was renewed two years later didn’t give approval similar to what Charter wants. Not so, said Charter. “Without Cablevision’s new promise of downloadable security (which was unrelated to its prior waiver), that ‘extension’ plainly would not have been granted.” CEA’s “puzzling assertion” that the Cablevision and Charter cases are different “is betrayed by the fact that it made exactly the same unsuccessful arguments in Cablevision’s case,” the new filing said. “Four years after Cablevision’s waiver, CEA cannot find any evidence whatsoever that such waiver has reduced consumer adoption of retail devices or Cablevision’s support for CableCARDs."
Time Warner Cable overbilled 18,437 upstate New York customers by $2.2 million and must make refunds to them, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said (http://bit.ly/ZLfHZT). He settled with the cable company after two years of investigating the issue, he said. “Time Warner Cable is prepared to be in full compliance with the settlement Agreement entered into with the Attorney General’s Office,” a company spokeswoman told us. “Impacted cable customers will receive a credit proportional to their monthly video charges on their statement within 90 days.” The state of New York will receive $200,000 in fees and costs as part of the agreement, according to Schneiderman’s office. The overbilling had gone on since 2007 throughout the towns of Glenville, Livonia, Stafford, Oakfield, Geneva, Thompson, Lima, Batavia and the villages of Waterloo and Ellenville, and the refunds will include interest, it said. In a statement, Schneiderman called these charges “direct violation” of the company’s local franchise contracts. The overbilling charges average to $119 per customer with interest, he said. When reviewing the state’s cable franchise agreements, the office identified no other towns in New York where similar practices had occurred, it said.
Governments should recognize open Internet standards, said outgoing Internet Engineering Task Force Chairman Russ Housley, in his farewell speech during the IETF meeting in here Orlando, Fla. “If you've embraced the Internet, you should also embrace the standards that make the Internet work.” Global interoperability was key to making the Internet valuable, he told us, but “no one is in charge of the Internet. Instead, many people cooperate to make it work.” Housley said he'd “strongly encourage all governments to … formally recognize the IETF standards that allow the Internet to work.” Housley’s successor, Finnish IPv6 expert Jari Arkko of Ericsson, said the IETF must “go out more and explain what it does” and talk to governments. Arkko promised a look at issues like lack of participation from participants outside of North America and Europe. IETF is planning its first meeting in Latin America. Arkko rejected the notion that Internet standards are all finished, saying smart objects, the Internet of things and real-time Web communication were all calling for standard work. This week, the IETF discussed a standard videocodec for real-time Web communication.
WealthTV owner Herring Broadcasting said it’s getting ready to introduce a 24-hour news channel called One American News Network. The network will also air talk shows “that offer substantive contrarian viewpoints to a plethora of left-leaning shouting-style political news programs,” the company said.
The uncertain amount of paperwork the FCC requires is scaring Iowa telcos. The FCC has yet to firmly say whether it’s reducing the amount of paperwork required for companies that receive high-cost USF support, the Iowa Telecom Association told the Iowa Utilities Board in a Wednesday filing (http://bit.ly/WgAg2z). The federal deadline for filing paperwork is July 1, but “the comment period governing some of the section 54.313 rules and reporting forms [on paperwork reduction] extends until April 26, 2013, thus final approval of the section 53.313 rules and reporting forms may not be known until a date close to when the July 1, 2013, filings are due,” the association said. But there are rules in Iowa that call for the state’s telcos to file “duplicative” filings on May 1 as part of an annual report to that state commission, it added. The telcos ask that the Iowa regulators bump back the state deadline to July 1 to accommodate the uncertainty of the paperwork involved in the federal filing.
The FCC’s Media Bureau said there will be a filing window from April 1 to April 19 for preclusion showings in FM Translator Auction 83. In a public notice released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/WqpW75), the bureau said the filing window continues its expedited Auction 83 licensing initiative.
CBS introduced a new iOS app that will let users watch full episodes of some CBS shows, the network said. Daytime and late-night programming will be available within 24 hours of initial broadcast and most primetime shows will be on the app after eight days, it said. CBS said it’s developing similar apps for “all major mobile and tablet platforms,” including Android and Windows 8. By the time the next TV season starts in the fall, the app will include integrated social features and live events “that allow fans to engage directly with talent,” it said. Buick is an initial sponsor of the app, which will display shows with fewer commercials for the next few weeks, CBS said.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wants rules that “assure that the Davids can compete with the Goliaths,” the American Cable Association said he told ACA’s conference Tuesday night. He cited pole attachment rights, access to programming at reasonable costs and phone number portability, ACA said. Other members of Congress told ACA they're skeptical the House and Senate will act on much new legislation this session (CD March 14 pp8, 17). A Markey spokesman had no immediate comment.
The FCC Wireless Bureau offered guidance in a Thursday public notice (http://bit.ly/12THVba)to private land mobile radio licensees operating in the VHF/UHF bands. The licensees faced a narrowbanding requirement to operate in a maximum 12.5 kHz channel bandwidth or equivalent efficiency by Jan. 1 of this year, and the bureau warned those who failed to comply: “Licensees who operate in violation of the Commission’s rules or the terms of the licensee’s license, or who cause harmful interference to another licensee, may be subject to appropriate enforcement action. Such enforcement action may include admonishments, license revocation, and/or monetary forfeitures of up to $16,000 for each such violation or each day of a continuing violation, and up to $112,500 for any single act or failure to act.” It alerted people on the best ways to complain to the FCC if they know of any narrowbanding violations. There’s a new narrowbanding licensing tool as part of the Universal Licensing System, the bureau added, describing how to file narrowbanding modification applications now. It also discussed how entities that have received narrowbanding deadline waivers should handle issues related to the wideband-capable equipment they may still need. The bureau outlined the need for licensees to remove wideband emission designators eventually. “A licensee requesting a post-deadline waiver should not assume that the waiver request will be granted, and grant of a waiver request does not insulate a licensee from possible enforcement action for the period of unauthorized wideband operation after January 1, 2013,” the bureau said. “However, the Enforcement Bureau may consider the length of unauthorized operation when evaluating the severity of the violation of the Commission’s rules as well as the appropriate sanction.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau will refresh the record on what it should do about prank calls to 911 from “nonservice-initialized” (NSI) handsets -- cellphones no longer connected to a carrier network. In 2008, the FCC sought comments in response to a petition from public safety groups (CD March 5 p5/08). Many of the calls come from teens aware that calls on old cellphones must be forwarded by carriers under FCC rules, but can’t be traced. The FCC in 1996 at the urging of public safety imposed a requirement that NSI handsets can still make 911 calls. In seeking additional comment, the bureau cited a recent filing by the National Emergency Number Association. “According to NENA, ‘PSAPs face an ever-growing onslaught of non-emergency calls to 911 from NSI devices,'” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1528R3X). “Moreover, in recently filed comments in another docket, NENA states that there is now a ‘consensus view that the promotion of NSI devices does more harm than good.’ NENA further asserts that ‘most charities and domestic violence advocates [have] abandoned the practice of distributing NSI devices.'” Comments and replies will be due following publication in the Federal Register.