Kentucky’s telecom deregulation bill is important for spurring telecom investment, said Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers (R) and AT&T Kentucky President Mary Pat Regan in statements from an AT&T press release Wednesday (http://yhoo.it/1698Y15). Senate Bill 88 passed the Kentucky Senate 24-13 in mid-February and attracted controversy from some consumer advocates who worry state residents will suffer (CD Feb 20 p12). But AT&T plans to invest $600 to $800 million over the next two years “to support its current network capabilities and expand access to next-generation broadband services in Kentucky,” the telco said this week, alluding to its Project Velocity IP plans. “The Kentucky Senate recognizes the importance of creating the right economic environment to support investment in next generation broadband for Kentucky and that’s why the Senate passed SB 88,” Stivers said, praising the effects of high-speed Internet on commerce as well as its importance for health and academic needs. AT&T’s Regan thanked the Senate: “Kentucky is in competition with all states to attract investment, innovation and jobs. We are working with elected leaders to ensure that the Commonwealth benefits quickly from investment in new technology.” Regan wrote a Louisville Courier-Journal op-ed (http://cjky.it/Yd9gwp) praising the bill and calling opponents’ arguments “ridiculous” and “short-sighted” a day before it passed the Senate. Citizens for a Digital Future Chairman John Watson accused the bill’s opponents of “spreading misinformation” about the bill, as he noted in an open Feb. 26 letter (http://bit.ly/15NPnDm). The Kentucky Resources Council continues to warn against the loss of carrier of last resort obligations, among others, as it’s posted on its site since the Senate passage (http://bit.ly/Z1Pp7q). The bill is currently under review in the House Tourism Development and Energy Committee.
The FTC will announce law enforcement actions on Thursday “to protect consumers nationwide from a pervasive series of scams built on text messages,” the agency said Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/Zqyrhg).
The state of New York will invest $25 million across 18 projects throughout the state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, released the list of Connect NY Broadband Grant winners Tuesday (http://bit.ly/13DM0PL), most of the funding going toward last mile projects. “Together, these projects will build approximately 6,000 square miles of new infrastructure and will provide high-speed Internet service to 153,000 New York households, 8,000 businesses, and 400 community anchor institutions -- many without any means to access the Internet,” according to the governor’s office. “In addition to the vast economic benefits derived from broadband access, the projects being funded by Connect NY will create 1,400 new jobs.” Private sector investment will go along with these projects and bring the total funding to $32 million, the governor’s office added. Cuomo chose the projects “based on the endorsement of the Regional Councils and technical scores awarded by a committee who analyzed and ranked projects,” his office said. These grants specifically focus on leveraging existing infrastructure and avoiding overbuilding problems, it added.
The musicFIRST Coalition, a group representing labels and artists’ organizations, said it opposes the recently introduced Local Radio Freedom Act (H.Con. Res. 16). The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, aims to clarify Congress’s opposition to any new charges for radio stations that play recorded music. But the bill attempts to “lock members of Congress into an unbalanced position based on an outdated, anti-music loophole,” said musicFIRST Executive Director Ted Kalo in a news release Tuesday. “We're urging members to allow the judiciary committee to find consensus solutions on music licensing legislation before supporting the deeply flawed and widely discredited arguments made in the resolution. If we value music, we should value those who create it.”
Petitions to deny are due April 4 on a series of spectrum deals among AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Grain Spectrum announced in January (CD Jan 28 p9). Oppositions are due April 15, replies April 22, according to the FCC public notice (http://bit.ly/14tAXVq). AT&T is proposing to buy 39 of Verizon Wireless’s lower 700 MHz B-block licenses in exchange for $1.9 billion cash and the transfer of several AWS licenses. The two carriers also unveiled related spectrum agreements with private equity firm Grain. AT&T said it will lease three 700 MHz B-block licenses in North Carolina that Verizon Wireless is selling to Grain for $189 million, covering the Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham markets. AT&T also plans to sell to Grain an AWS license covering Dallas, which Verizon Wireless will then lease. “According to the Applicants, the proposed transaction would allow AT&T and Verizon Wireless each to further rationalize their spectrum holdings and obtain contiguous spectrum in many markets, enabling more spectrally efficient deployments and assisting AT&T and Verizon Wireless to provide high-quality, high-speed wireless broadband,” the public notice said. “The Applicants also allege that the proposed transaction would further the Commission’s goal of extending opportunities in the wireless market to small and minority-owned businesses by enabling Grain, a minority-owned business, with an existing telecommunications infrastructure business, to participate in complementary spectrum-based services initially on a wholesale basis."
T-Mobile unleashed a series of ads aimed at former merger partner AT&T, which ran Wednesday in some of the nation’s largest newspapers. “Can you see the beads of sweat in this ad?” one of the ads asks. “If you've seen AT&T’s recent ads, someone is obviously worried. With T-Mobile turning up the heat, they apparently feel the need to take cheap shots at our network.” The ads ask people to check T-Mobile coverage for themselves on a company website (http://t-mo.co/Zg3vPs). T-Mobile was responding to full-page ads in several newspapers claiming T-Mobile’s network has “2x more dropped calls, 2x more failed calls, 50% slower download speeds.” A third ad, set to run Thursday, takes on the failed merger directly. “If AT&T thought our network wasn’t great, why did they try to buy it?” it asks.
Microsoft’s failure for 14 months to honor its antitrust commitment to offer a browser choice screen prompted the European Commission Wednesday to impose a fine of 561 million euros ($730 million). The “very serious infringement” is the first time a company has violated legally binding conditions in an antitrust case, Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia said at a news briefing. The compliance failure will lead to heightened monitoring requirements in the future, he said. Microsoft declined to comment but we're told an appeal is considered unlikely. One antitrust attorney called the fine-setting process precedential. The company’s promise to give users a choice of browsers followed an EC antitrust investigation into the tying of Windows and Internet Explorer. Microsoft offered in 2009 to provide a screen allowing users to select their preferred browser, and the EC made that offer legally binding until 2014, it said. Wednesday’s decision found that the software maker had failed to roll out the browser choice screen with Windows 7 Service Pack 1 from May 2011 to July 2012. Fifteen million Europeans Windows users didn’t see the screen during that time, and Microsoft acknowledged that the screen wasn’t displayed then, the EC said. When the failure to comply was discovered in July 2012, the EC began a probe. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, the breach “calls for a sanction,” Almunia said. Commitments are an important tool in the EU antitrust enforcement system, and the Article 9 decision used in this case can be a good way to resolve competition concerns quickly since they avoid long proceedings, he said. Article 9 lets the EC conclude an antitrust investigation by making legally binding commitments offered by the company, rather than Article 7, a longer process used to prohibit behavior and impose fines. The EC keeps track of compliance in some Article 9 cases by appointing a monitoring trustee who reports back to it, he said. Those trustees are generally not from the companies who made the competition commitments but in this case, for reasons Almunia said he can’t explain, Microsoft served as the trustee. He said the trustee was “magnificent.” Almunia has asked the competition directorate to be “extremely careful” from now on about how it designs the monitoring provisions of commitment agreements, he said. Asked whether this case might prompt changes to Article 9, Almunia said he’s not considering amending the measure, only the way it’s executed. The EC will be more precise in defining the responsibilities of the trustee and will pay better attention to the reports it files, he said. He'll send a clear message to possible candidates for Article 9 decisions to be very strict about how they monitor compliance with their commitment and how they set up their internal control mechanisms to prevent breaches. Because this was a breach of commitments rather than an antitrust violation, the EC isn’t bound by its fining guidelines, Almunia said. The penalty took into account the gravity of the noncompliance as well as Microsoft’s cooperation, he said. The amount represents 1 percent of the company’s annual revenues. “I hope this decision will make companies think twice before they even think of intentionally breaching their obligations or even of neglecting their duty to ensure strict compliance,” he said. EC antitrust fines always carry a deterrence component, Jones Day (Brussels) competition partner Bernard Amory told us. If the EC hadn’t set a serious fine, it would have lost credibility, he said. Fining guidelines don’t apply to breaches of commitments, leaving no guidance on how to assess penalties in such cases, he said. “This is a precedent in that respect.”
Rep. Anna Eshoo asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to “promptly consider” Progeny’s request to begin using unlicensed spectrum in the 902-928 MHz band for first responder location services. The commission is reviewing the results of field tests completed in 2011 and 2012 to ensure that Progeny’s services don’t cause unacceptable levels of interference to other users in the band. “With more than 396,000 9-1-1 calls made through wireless devices each day, the need for accurate and reliable location services is increasingly clear,” Eshoo, the California Democrat who is ranking member on the House Communications Subcommittee, wrote in a letter last month posted Tuesday to docket 11-49. “It is important that the 902-928 MHz band remain available for unlicensed devices, while ensuring that Progeny’s location service does not cause unacceptable levels of interference to unlicensed services.”
As the FCC re-examines the regulatory framework needed for an all-Internet Protocol communications system, it should keep in mind six public interest principles, the Communications Workers of America told the commission in a letter Tuesday (http://bit.ly/12s0ove). The rules should stimulate investment in high-speed networks; support “quality jobs” in the telecom industry; and promote high-quality, affordable service for all Americans, CWA said. They should also ensure network reliability, promote public safety, and protect consumers, it said. “The introduction of new technology must not be an excuse to displace workers or send work to outside venders,” the union said.
Spectrum holdings below 1 GHz are not uniquely valuable and do not warrant separate regulatory treatment when it comes to auction eligibility, said the Economic Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition in a letter to the FCC (http://bit.ly/12rKkJR). The coalition doesn’t want any restrictions on who can bid in the forward part of the incentive spectrum auction. “If anything, imposing a secondary screen focused solely on spectrum below 1 GHz would favor select competitors that have chosen not to acquire such lower band spectrum,” the letter said. “The commission should avoid such arbitrary preferences,” it said.