Comments on letting the permittee of an unbuilt TV station on Channel 5 in Seaford, Del., move to Dover, Del., via an FCC exemption from a freeze on such community-of-license changes, are due in docket 13-40 on April 3, replies April 18. That’s according to a commission notice in Monday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/ZXuod0) on the request by Western Pacific. That company won the construction permit in the agency’s last auction of DTV allotments and more recently was granted a Media Bureau rulemaking notice proposing the move to Dover (CD Feb 14 p15).
IP-enabled services legislation in Kansas is rapidly moving forward. The Kansas House approved House Bill 2326, which proposes to restrict state regulation of IP-enabled services with a few specific exemptions, in a unanimous 123-0 vote Friday. The bill has now been received and introduced in the Kansas Senate. The bill is at odds with a January Kansas Corporation Commission ruling, which asserted its authority over a fixed interconnected VoIP provider (CD Feb 20 p5). The bill has been modified from its original version. It now recognizes “the authority of the state of Kansas or a political subdivision thereof to manage the use of public rights of way,” among other language changes (http://bit.ly/Y8ZVpe).
NBN Co., an Australia-based broadband provider, chose Arianespace to launch its first two satellites to provide broadband Internet services. The satellites will be launched via two Ariane 5 rockets in 2015, Arianespace said in a press release (http://bit.ly/12oDxR2). They will be built by Space Systems/Loral and will be fitted with Ka-band transponders to deliver broadband Internet access for Australia and the islands of Norfolk, Christmas, Macquarie and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, it said.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology authorized approved TV white spaces databases to provide service nationwide. The move effectively authorizes use of empty TV channels nationwide to access the Internet. Previously, OET had authorized database systems to operate only in the East Coast region, starting last December. “This action will allow the nationwide roll-out of TV white space devices that use new methods for efficiently using unused spectrum (white space) in bands allocated for licensed services,” OET said (http://bit.ly/12os9F5). “It is expected that the opportunities afforded by allowing unlicensed devices in these bands will fuel innovation and investment in new unlicensed wireless technologies, much as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have changed the landscape of communications today."
Sixty-two members of Congress asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to require T-Mobile and MetroPCS to preserve U.S. jobs as a part of the agency’s consideration of the proposed combination. “We trust that the commission will evaluate all aspects of the transaction to ensure that it is beneficial not only for the two corporations but also for the U.S. workers at these companies,” the letter said. “We do not want the merger to lead to a reduction of American jobs and an expansion of offshore facilities.”
The Senate Commerce Committee is planning an FCC oversight hearing March 12 with all five commissioners, telecom industry lobbyists and agency officials told us Friday. The committee declined to comment.
NTCA and Frontier supported a request by West Virginia rural telcos for an “on-going waiver” of the method used to determine if an ILEC has satisfied the rate floor requirements, and the method used to satisfy rate comparability reporting requirements for local service rates. The rate floor requirement, adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, requires an ILEC’s rates to meet an urban rate floor in order to be eligible for full high-cost support. The floor is determined by adding the national average of local rates plus those state regulated fees. The West Virginia companies -- Armstrong, Hardy Telecommunications and Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks -- asked that the end-user rate benchmark be applied to the weighted average of all their respective local service plan rates in the state, rather than separately to each rate on a plan-by-plan basis. NTCA supported the petition generally, subject to “well-defined limits intended to maintain the integrity of the rule,” the association said (http://bit.ly/ZRvE5l). “The use of a weighted average of all applicable rates best reflects the network-based cost recovery process and ensures that each recipient of high-cost loop support is making reasonable efforts to recover costs from end users prior to drawing upon such support,” NTCA said. The association said, however, that it opposes the use of weighted averaging that would respond to “discretionary pricing strategies.” Frontier, which has asked for “essentially the same relief,” said it supports the petition (http://bit.ly/ZRvTNF). Unique rate structures within West Virginia territories make it reasonable to use a weighted average consumer rate when calculating compliance with the FCC’s “rate floor” and “rate ceiling,” Frontier said. “Given the unique circumstances involved, it would be in the public interest” for the commission to grant both Frontier’s and the West Virginia companies’ petitions, the telco said.
More broadcasters asked the FCC to deny (CD Feb 22 p17) a proposed TV station transaction in Alaska. The deal involves General Communications Inc. (GCI), the local cable operator, as the buyer of TV stations from an affiliate of Media News Group. If the transaction goes through, “GCI would hold an almost complete monopoly on providing video to much of rural Alaska, where the only other access now is a single-stream satellite channel relying on analog translators,” said a petition to deny the license transfers filed Friday by Northern Lights Media, Coastal TV Broadcasting, Ketchikan TV and Vision Alaska. Kurt Wimmer, a Covington & Burling partner and counsel for GCI, couldn’t be reached immediately Friday. In an email last week in response to a separate request to deny the license transfer, Wimmer said GCI’s application complies with FCC rules and should be granted expeditiously. “It will increase competition and result in more high-quality news and local programming for underserved audiences in Alaska,” he said. “New entrants into local broadcasting should be applauded rather than criticized.” That’s not how the other broadcasters in Alaska see it. In a declaration attached to the petition, William Fielder, president of Coastal TV Broadcasting, described a meeting with GCI subsidiary Denali Media Anchorage in which an executive from that company said “GCI was not concerned about profitability of the station itself, but was interested in obtaining a unique asset that GCI could use to enhance GCI’s business presence in Alaska.” The executive said GCI planned to offer commercial-free newscasts and develop a statewide news network to “dominate the news market in Alaska and impact the content of news received by Alaska viewers,” the declaration said. The broadcasters asked the commission to designate the applications for a hearing or at the very least put stronger conditions on the deal than those the commission imposed on Comcast when it bought control of NBCUniversal.
The FCC must ensure that any future Connect America Fund Phase I support be used to meet the “original intent” of the funding mechanism, which was to bring broadband to unserved areas, NCTA told several FCC Wireline Bureau officials Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/ZRt6UN). The commission shouldn’t change the Phase I focus to let ILECs upgrade existing DSL service, or overbuild unsubsidized providers by awarding funding for second-mile fiber, NCTA said. NCTA urged the commission to enforce the requirement that ILECs use one-third of their frozen high-cost support to areas that are substantially unserved by an unsubsidized competitor. The FCC should reject ILEC requests to “repurpose” such support if they don’t have any such unserved areas, NCTA said. “This legacy money does not belong to the incumbent LECs to use where they see fit.” NCTA asked for the commission to provide information about the disbursement of USF high-cost funds “in a more transparent and open manner by making such information readily and easily accessible” on the FCC website.
State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance (SECA) members voiced several concerns to the FCC Wireline Bureau in a recent conference call, according to a Thursday FCC ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/Z38xhV). “Recently it has come to SECA members’ attention that the [Schools and Libraries Division] has decided to approve funding for hosted VOIP service offered by one particular vendor that includes bundled handsets without requiring a cost allocation,” the filing said. “This development has created a great deal of frustration among applicants and other vendors offering hosted VOIP service because there is concern that the competitive playing field is not level and applicants are unsure whether they are at risk for denial of funding and the full amount of underlying contract costs if their funding requests include bundled handsets without performing a cost allocation.” Members asked about the status of its Petition for Clarification Regarding the Eligibility of Free VOIP Handsets and Other Bundled End User Equipment filed last summer as well as other details regarding the back and forth since then. The SECA members FCC urge action and called the petition concerns “one of the largest unresolved eligibility issues to face the program since its inception."