The FCC’s Connect America Fund has authorized more than $255 million in funding for broadband access to nearly 400,000 homes and businesses in rural areas of 41 states, said an FCC news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1kg3yp0). This brings the total authorized from the first phase of CAF to nearly $403 million, said the FCC. AT&T, CenturyLink, FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications and Windstream will use the funds in rural portions of their service areas, where broadband expansion was unlikely “absent support from the Connect America Fund,” it said. In August, the five carriers identified 563,767 locations where they wanted to use the funds to reach customers unserved by broadband, but the eligibility of some of those locations was challenged, said the FCC. “Access to modern broadband networks is essential in the information age,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Yet 15 million Americans live in areas where they can’t get wireline broadband no matter how much they want it. These funds will jump-start broadband access in areas that would otherwise be bypassed by the digital economy.” CenturyLink is receiving almost $40 million of the $54 million that the company announced that it would accept from CAF phase I, round 2 money earlier this year, said Steve Davis, the company’s executive vice president-public policy and government relations, in a statement. Frontier will receive approximately $58 million in funds for broadband expansion to 95,000 locations in 23 states over the next three years from Phase 1 support, said Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter in a statement: “We welcome the partnership with Chairman Wheeler and the FCC to carry out our shared goal of broadband expansion in rural America. The CAF funding allows Frontier to accelerate our already robust broadband build-out and network upgrade program. Today’s announcement allows us to continue to invest aggressively in 2014 in rural America."
EAGLE-Net representatives are scheduled to appear before the Colorado Legislative Audit Committee Monday to provide an update on its “new joint venture,” a committee spokeswoman told us (http://bit.ly/18bOCs0). EAGLE-Net appeared before the committee in September to give an update on the network’s next steps following its audit (CD Sept 26 p16). At the September committee hearing, EAGLE-Net CEO Mike Ryan said EAGLE-Net was in negotiations to find a network operator. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., questioned EAGLE-Net’s choice of Affiniti as its operator in a letter to NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling (CD Nov 1 p8). Gardner asked NTIA to look at how Affiniti was formed as a merger between Trillion Partners and Sting Communications, how it plans to work with providers that have been overbuilt by fiber, Affiniti’s fiscal sustainability, and to provide detailed plans of where Affiniti plans to build to unserved and underserved areas in Colorado. EAGLE-Net released an RFP Wednesday seeking price quotes to build a 27.6 route-mile fiber network from Durango to Cascade Village (http://bit.ly/18FXdDK). Proposals are due to EAGLE-Net Dec. 23.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere visited Congress and FCC officials this week during a trip to Washington. He tweeted a photo of himself and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Wednesday. “I absolutely love this woman!” Legere wrote. In another tweet, he wrote, “Two days in DC with FCC, Commerce and Congressional Representatives … wore my clean sneakers out of respect!” and showcased a photo of the shoes. He also visited area T-Mobile stores, according to photos he posted. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai tweeted to Legere that it was great to see him and that Pai would be “ditching the Washington uniform for a t-shirt and Chuck Taylors” for their next visit. T-Mobile declined comment on a request for more information about Legere’s visit, though a spokesman said an ex parte document will be filed.
Comments on the FCC Wireless Bureau proceeding to improve wireless facilities’ siting policies are due Feb. 3, and replies March 5, the FCC said in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/18olNDr). The FCC seeks to promote the deployment of infrastructure “that is necessary to provide the public with advanced wireless broadband services, consistent with governing law and the public interest,” it said.
Several consumer groups objected to a CableCARD bill under consideration in the House Commerce Committee. Consumer Action, Consumers Union, Free Press, National Consumers League, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge sent a letter Thursday to Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., slamming HR-3196 (http://bit.ly/1cdjpjR). Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Gene Green, D-Texas, introduced the bill in September. The bill proposes ending the integration ban requiring cable operators to use CableCARDs instead of built-in security in set-top boxes. TiVo has strongly lobbied against the bill. It “would drive up cable bill prices, reduce consumer choice, and slow down video innovation,” the consumer groups said in their letter. They say it would undermine the existing CableCARD system. Latta’s “legislation stands on its own merit,” Latta Chief of Staff Ryan Walker told us when asked about the letter. Walker labeled HR-3196 a “bipartisan deal” and said the integration ban “went beyond congressional intent.” The bill now has six co-sponsors, with Jim Matheson, D-Utah, signing on Tuesday. Latta is seeking more cosponsors, Walker said.
Arts and culture contributed 3.2 percent or $504 billion to overall GDP in 2011, said a report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis released Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/ISasFW). The gross economic output for arts and culture production was $916 billion. Cable TV production and distribution accounted for $100 billion in output, while the “motion picture and video goods and services” added $83 billion, said the report.
Quick FCC action on Verizon’s petition to increase foreign ownership above 25 percent after buying from Vodafone the rest of Verizon Wireless for $130 billion shows streamlined agency rules are working, said broadcast and wireless lawyers in interviews Thursday. The International Bureau the day before, just under three months after Verizon requested it, granted the company’s petition in the first such approval under an April order on common carrier transactions (CD Dec 5 p5). “The streamlined process is working, and the FCC is taking it seriously, and we look forward to taking advantage of this process for other clients on upcoming endeavors,” said wireless lawyer Michele Farquhar of Hogan Lovells, which represented Vodafone on the transaction. April’s common-carrier FCC order and another last month clarifying that broadcasters can also exceed a 25 percent non-U.S. investor threshold “are nice companion items that are moving forward,” she said. “Having the flexibility to have these new streamlined approaches on foreign ownership should attract more foreign investment capital to the U.S. telecom market, and that can take advantage of these synergies between” broadcast and telecom petition for foreign ownership declaratory ruling policies, said Farquhar. “The commission’s swift action signals that the new streamlined rules for foreign ownership petitions will work as promised -- the FCC staff reacted quickly and efficiently during every step of the process.” Vodafone “welcomes the FCC’s timely consideration of this matter,” said the U.K. carrier in a news release Wednesday night (http://bit.ly/1aDq6e2). It said if Vodafone and Verizon’s shareholders approve the deal, it’s expected to be complete in Q1. Free State Foundation President Randolph May credited the FCC with acting quickly on Verizon’s petition. “There was no legitimate reason for the Commission not to act quickly,” he wrote in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/18bKwju). “But many times in the past, even absent legitimate reasons for delay, there still have been undue delays -- many beyond ‘undue’ -- in acting on transaction reviews.” Verizon-Vodafone isn’t “a good test of how the agency will handle other, more controversial transactions,” but FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and staff got “off on the right foot in the handling” of this deal, wrote May.
The FCC is “in the process of seeking PRA approval” for its special access data request, Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach told the Practising Law Institute telecom seminar Thursday, referring to the Paperwork Reduction Act review performed by the Office of Management and Budget. The bureau is also building the information technology necessary to manage the data collection, from an internal logistical perspective, she said: “How do we house all this stuff in an extremely secure environment” that still allows the FCC to analyze it, while also providing a “portal, or a clean room” for parties in the proceeding to participate “in a meaningful way"? The bureau is “looking at it both from an IT perspective and a policy perspective and a legal perspective” to ensure everything is done with “utmost care” and in a way to “ensure our APA values,” she said, referring to the Administrative Procedure Act. The bureau is also “working to develop an order for the commission’s consideration at the January meeting that will address the next steps for the commission as we move forward with tech transitions.” The bureau plans to submit a report by the end of January about the ongoing trial on direct access to numbers by VoIP providers. The bureau hopes to ensure that “numbers are administered as the finite resource that they are” while still looking toward a future where numbers aren’t necessarily linked to geographic areas, Veach said. The commission is also very concerned about rural call completion problems, she said. The bureau hopes that its recent orders, including banning fake ringing tones, will give the commission “a much better handle at what’s going on,” and enable it to take more targeted enforcement actions, she said.
Aereo will expand its streaming service to the Baltimore metro area starting Dec. 16, the company said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1gaxG7S) Thursday. Along with the city of Baltimore, Aereo’s streaming TV service will also be available in 11 counties in central Maryland, including Anne Arundel, Caroline and Carroll. The streaming service is already available in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Miami, Houston and Dallas, the release said. Users in the Baltimore area will be able to use Aereo to watch special interest channels such as MeTV and local network channels, including WMAR, WBAL, WJZ and WMPT.
NTIA is trying to “get to the bottom of what do people want, versus what they actually need,” on spectrum allocation, said Chief of Staff Angela Simpson at a Practising Law Institute telecom seminar Thursday. “It’s very difficult differentiating,” she said, especially when counsel is “sometimes advocating wants as needs.” NTIA is looking into what constitutes “effective” use of spectrum, said Simpson. The agency will meet with the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee next week to take the lessons CSMAC has learned on spectrum management and “turn them into a game plan,” she said. It’s “imperative that the government agencies and private sector continue to find innovative ways” to solve complex spectrum access issues, she said. Spectrum sharing needs to be a key tool, she said. As time goes by and more spectrum gets allocated, relocating spectrum users becomes more complicated, she said. Spectrum sharing is “not a pie in the sky proposition,” but is really possible now, said Simpson. NTIA is staying active in President Barack Obama’s ConnectED initiative, she said. The agency plans to work closely with the FCC, Department of Education and all other stakeholders to achieve Obama’s goal of connecting K-12 to high-speed circuits within the next 5 years, said Simpson. NTIA expects the lessons it learned from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program to play a role in this discussion, she said. BTOP projects connected 10 percent of U.S. schools to broadband, in a way that saved “significant amounts of money,” said Simpson. She said she hopes the FCC can use those lessons as it looks into E-rate overhauls. The multistakeholder process works, as can codes of conduct. NTIA plans to use such a process in consumer privacy issues, and NTIA will take the lessons it learned from 2013 and expand it to 2014, said Simpson. Facial recognition technology has the potential to significantly improve many services, but brings with it potential privacy concerns, she said. NTIA plans to explore the issue and see what progress it can make on those issues, she said. The agency plans multistakeholder discussions on facial recognition technologies, it said earlier this week (CD Dec 5 p11).