Policies are needed to govern indoor calls from wireless phones to 911, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at an Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials conference Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1eZUAf9). More than 70 percent of all 911 calls are made from wireless phones, and a growing number of those calls are made indoors, she said. With wireless services increasingly becoming a substitute for traditional wireline services, more than one in three households is using only a wireless phone, said Rosenworcel. “So I think it is no longer acceptable for FCC policies governing location accuracy to disregard the way we reach out for help.” The FCC has already done some work to address this issue with the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council to examine and make recommendations on indoor location accuracy standards, but the time has come to “formalize our efforts” and make more progress, she said. The FCC should start a rulemaking to “tackle this indoor location accuracy issue head on,” and the FCC can explore whether other technologies such as Wi-Fi hotspots can be used “to complement existing technologies,” said Rosenworcel.
The FCC Media Bureau ordered a $1,500 forfeiture for WDKA Acquisition, licensee of WDKA(TV) Paducah, Ky., for filing a license renewal application more than a month late, said a forfeiture order issued Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1iDneaS). WDKA asked the commission to cancel the fine because the late filing was inadvertent, but the Media Bureau said ignorance of FCC rules is not an excuse. The bureau also proposed a $4,500 fine for Dominion Broadcasting, licensee of Toledo station WLMB, for failing to file children’s TV reports, and not reporting the violation on a renewal application, said a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1eTc64d). It also proposed a $9,000 fine for La Cadena del Milagro, licensee of Humacao, Puerto Rico, station WVSN(TV). La Cadena del Milagro also failed to file children’s TV reports and didn’t disclose the violations on a renewal application, said an NAL (http://bit.ly/1dSJNXb). The bureau has proposed a $13,000 fine for Christian Faith Broadcast and its station WLLA Kalamazoo, Mich., for children’s TV report violations over nine quarters, said an NAL (http://bit.ly/1d1A3oD).
The office of the U.S. Trade Representative seeks comment by Jan. 3 on the “operation, effectiveness, implementation of and compliance with” U.S. telecom product and services provisions in U.S. international trade agreements, said a USTR notice to appear in Friday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1kfCdTZ). USTR seeks input on areas including whether any World Trade Organization member is acting in a manner inconsistent with its obligations under WTO agreements affecting market opportunities for telecom products or services. The office asked about telecom trade issues in countries including Australia, Canada, Mexico and Singapore. Comment also is sought on whether any measures or practices of a WTO member nation or for which a free trade agreement or telecom trade agreement with the U.S. impedes access to its telecom markets. Submit comments to www.regulations.gov, docket USTR-2013-0039.
Harris CapRock won a 10-year contract worth $46 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to continue supporting the Alaskan Satellite Telecommunications Infrastructure (ASTI). Harris CapRock will provide “a fully redundant satellite solution utilizing a two-satellite system to ensure dependable connectivity for voice and data,” Harris said in a press release (http://bit.ly/19jDF2q). The two-satellite system “achieves exceptionally high availability and reliability,” it said. The ASTI program supports the FAA’s air traffic control mission “between remote and hub facilities in Alaska and other remote locations,” Harris said.
A Senate Democrat called for stronger limits on U.S. surveillance activities following revelations from leaked documents that the U.S. tracks the cellphone location information for millions of people abroad. The tracking program described in recent reports focuses on foreigners but collects data from millions of Americans who travel abroad. “Secretly tracking millions of Americans raises urgent, serious legal questions -- never apparently presented to any court,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a statement Thursday, calling for immediate resolution “by Congress and the courts. These reports are additional powerful evidence that the system needs to be reformed, which must include more transparency and accountability enforced by a constitutional advocate.” Blumenthal has backed bills to that effect. The information came from documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, which The Washington Post reported online Wednesday (http://wapo.st/IIaYWp). The American Civil Liberties Union slammed the revelations in a statement from staff attorney Catherine Crump. She called the news “staggering” and labeled the activities “dragnet surveillance,” flouting “international privacy obligations” when the U.S. should be targeting its surveillance. The Center for Democracy & Technology also criticized the practices and pressed for congressional action. “It’s time for Congress to finally act to rein in NSA surveillance,” Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim said in a statement. “Passing the USA FREEDOM Act would be a strong step.” Blumenthal also backs that legislation.
USTelecom asked the FCC for a waiver extension for various rules adopted in the Lifeline order (http://bit.ly/1biS02p). The Wireline Bureau granted the ILEC association a waiver until Feb. 1, but that’s not long enough, USTelecom said. “Some state Lifeline administrators or other state agencies have indicated that they will not be prepared to begin providing [eligible telecom carriers] in their states with copies of subscriber certification forms” by that date, it said. USTelecom asked for an additional six-month extension for these states: Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah and Vermont. USTelecom also asked for a five-month waiver of the same rules for carriers in California.
Martha Wright and other supporters of inmate calling service changes oppose a CenturyLink request to stay the FCC’s prison phone order, they said in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1biRktT). CenturyLink asked for a stay pending judicial review, but the ICS provider is unlikely to be successful in court, said the filing, made by the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, the Policy Initiative, and the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice. “CenturyLink is simply wrong in concluding that third parties will not be harmed by the grant of the Petition,” the filing said. “The record in this proceeding overwhelmingly demonstrates significant and adverse effects are caused the unjust, unreasonable and unfair rates and fees charged by the ICS providers on a daily basis."
Huawei joined the HomeGrid Forum as a contributing member. The company will participate in working groups to define the future of the technology and to promote G.hn (Gigabit Home Networking) plastic optical fiber home networking technology through standards and interoperability and compliance work along with marketing and events, it said. It’s joining due to “the maturity of G.hn and growing demand for the home networking technology worldwide,” said Matthew Leung, head of Huawei’s home network key-tech research and development group. Huawei is focused on future business needs from the cloud to the terminal, with home network connectivity a main area of growth, he said. The China-based telecom gear maker won’t completely exit the U.S. market, it said earlier this week after media reports to the contrary (CD Dec 4 p15).
Version 4.0 of the Connect America Fund Phase II cost model is available, said the FCC Wireline Bureau in a public notice (http://bit.ly/IsNAfF). Comments are due Jan. 7 in docket 10-90 on whether the bureau should adopt this version of the cost model and its default inputs for purposes of calculating costs in price-cap areas.
Tennis Channel filed a cert petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision on the channel’s carriage complaint against Comcast, Tennis Channel said Wednesday. “The lower court strayed from longstanding federal discrimination law to invent an arbitrary and unfair standard for deciding cable carriage complaints,” said Tennis Channel in a news release. “The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has spoken emphatically and unanimously that Comcast did not discriminate against the Tennis Channel,” said a Comcast spokeswoman in an email. “We are confident that this ruling will continue to be upheld.” The D.C. Circuit ruled that the FCC -- which had decided in favor of the Tennis Channel complaint and was the defendant in the D.C. Circuit case -- had failed to show that Comcast unlawfully discriminated against the channel, and said the defendants hadn’t presented evidence to refute Comcast’s contention that the decision not to offer Tennis Channel on a sports tier wasn’t based on financial analysis (CD May 29 p1). Tennis Channel had sought an en banc review of the D.C. Circuit decision, but that request was denied in September. The ruling “misstated and misapplied” discrimination law, and “fundamentally changed” the future standard for discrimination cases, said Covington & Burling attorney Stephen Weiswasser, who represents Tennis Channel, in an interview. “Congress expressly charged the FCC with the responsibility to establish procedures and decide carriage discrimination complaints,” said the Tennis Channel release. “The court’s decision not only failed to recognize where that responsibility lies, but also rewrote a vital portion of Congress’ 1992 Cable Act and federal discrimination law.” Weiswasser said the cert petition also points to cases in the jurisdiction of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals where a different discrimination standard was applied, and argues that this means there is a split between the two circuits. A circuit split would make it more likely for the Supreme Court to get involved, said Fletcher Heald appellate attorney Harry Cole, who isn’t involved with the case. Both Cole and Weiswasser said the odds are long for any one case to be granted cert by the high court. “We think we have an important legal principle involving federal discrimination law and an important point of competition,” said Weiswasser. “But it’s always hard to know what’s going to happen.”