All emergency beacons that operate on frequency 406 MHz must be registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in an enforcement advisory (http://bit.ly/155GR1e). False alarms from or failures to register emergency beacons may result in substantial monetary penalties up to $112,500 for any single act, it said. The three types of emergency beacons for transmitting distress signals are Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons for maritime use, Emergency Locator Transmitters for aviation use and Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) for land-based use, it said. Even a brief inadvertent activation on frequency 406 MHz from an EPIRB “can generate a false alert and is a violation of FCC rules, thereby subjecting the operator to potential monetary penalties up to $112,500.” PLBs are licensed by rule and an individual license is not required, it said.
The three-judge panel hearing oral argument Monday in Comcast v. FCC should “call the FCC for a clear double fault” for requiring the plaintiff to carry the Tennis Channel as widely as the cable operator’s own sports networks, said a foe (CD July 26 p5) of the commission order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should rule that “based on the facts of the case, the FCC should not have found that Comcast committed a statutory violation,” Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote on the group’s blog Wednesday (http://bit.ly/WRkzg3). “If it reaches the constitutional claim, the court should find that the FCC’s decision violates Comcast’s First Amendment rights.” Judges Harry Edwards, Brett Kavanaugh and Stephen Williams will hear Comcast at 9:30 a.m. Monday, said an order Feb. 11 in D.C. Circuit docket 12-1337. It said Comcast’s lawyer gets 20 minutes, and the FCC and federal government respondents’ 20 minutes will be “split with intervenor” Tennis Channel.
Telemarketers who sold fraudulent health insurance are banned from selling healthcare-related products, under a settlement with the FTC, the agency announced Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/XwnlYf). According to a release, the settlement is related to a September 2012 case against Roy and Judy Hamilton and their companies -- Health Service Providers, Inc., Magnolia Health Management Corp., Magnolia Technologies Corp. and Fav Marketing Inc. -- for “fraudulently selling bogus health insurance for the Independent Association of Businesses (IAB).” The FTC claimed that the defendants contacted individuals who had shared their contact information with websites offering information about health insurance and sold those individuals fraudulent insurance for an initial fee of $50 and monthly fees between $40 and $1,000, the release said: Consumers later realized they were “deceived into buying an IAB membership that supposedly provided discounts on services such as golf, travel, and some limited health related services and insured benefits.” The settlement -- which was approved with a vote of 4-0-1 with Chairman Jon Leibowitz not participating -- prohibits the defendants from selling any healthcare-related products, misrepresenting goods and services, financially benefitting from consumers’ information and violating the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, according to the release, and imposes an $11.8 million judgment that has been suspended due to asset surrender.
The FCC should forbear from tariffing and dominant carrier requirements for enterprise broadband services for legacy CenturyTel and Embarq, CenturyLink officials told Wireline Bureau officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/Yn7Q2e). CenturyLink said granting its petition, filed about a year ago, “would enable the company to meet the needs of enterprise customers and to compete more effectively against [Bell operating company] and CLEC competitors that actually have larger market shares."
The FCC needs to find a near-term solution to make USF support available to rural LECs for broadband-capable networks even where a consumer chooses not to take voice service, NTCA told an FCC Wireline Bureau official Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/Yn7A33). Rules denying USF support for broadband-capable networks in high-cost areas based solely upon a rural customer’s choice to purchase only broadband “significantly undermine consumer freedom of choice and inhibit technological evolution,” NTCA said. The commission should “complete the transition it has already adopted on the face of the November 2011 order -- and thereby facilitate technological evolution -- through simple and straightforward technical fixes to existing rules that would implement this vision for consumers in areas served by RLECs,” NTCA said.
The FCC should proceed with the PSTN transition by “first establishing fundamental principles” to guide its decisionmaking throughout the transition, Public Knowledge told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (http://bit.ly/Yn6K6q) and an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell Thursday (http://bit.ly/Yn6N22), ex parte filings said. Rather than “arbitrating between the wish lists” of various parties, the commission should adopt principles that ensure continued service to all Americans, ensure interconnection and competition, protect consumers, guarantee network reliability, and provide key public safety capabilities, it said. The commission should also issue a broader notice of inquiry to adopt a “principled framework for moving forward” and to provide a unifying docket for the many related proceedings, PK said. Such a notice could “create coherence among the many complicated issues in these inter-related proceedings,” and “establish that the basic principles by which the Commission will resolve issues will not vary or shift by proceeding,” it said. The commission must “seize its opportunity to establish guiding principles for the duration of the transition and push for consensus."
Any TDM-to-IP transition must not only take into account competition generally, but also the unique competitive and economic circumstances presented in Puerto Rico, WorldNet Telecommunications told representatives of the FCC’s Technology Transitions Task Force and an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/W46XRM). Puerto Rico still lags behind the mainland in the level of broadband penetration, and WorldNet wants to ensure that the commission gives “careful consideration” to proposals that would “preserve and protect the pro-competition goals” of the 1996 Telecom Act, it said. Especially important is preserving WorldNet’s right of cost-based access to ILEC last-mile facilities, and further establishing a right to IP-based interconnection with the ILEC, it said. “WorldNet cautions against the adoption of a ‘one size fits all’ approach."
Rave Mobile Safety touted the support its Smart911 work is receiving from community institutions across Florida. “With its growing use in the region, community organizations across the state have been offering their support to public safety officials by encouraging Floridians to take advantage of Smart911 and the extra protection it provides,” the company said Wednesday (http://yhoo.it/WX4ib7). The system allows people to upload information about themselves online for potential use by 911 centers if needed. It cited support from the Dixie County 911 coordinator, the Withlacoochee Gulf Area Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Association of the Deaf, the Dixie County Library, Rotary Club of Trenton, Trenton Animal Hospital, Levy Animal Clinic, Hometown Realty of North Florida, Physicians Regional Medical Center of Naples and Chambers of Commerce in Dixie County, Gilchrist County, Greater Chiefland and Williston.
Media Network Services applied for authorization to provide fixed satellite service. MNS plans to offer non-common carrier services for the transmission of satellite-based Internet data services using a Ka-band transmit/receive satellite earth station in Laredo, Texas, MNS said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/Xptsf9). The earth station will be used “to communicate with its customers’ sites in Latin America through leased transponders on U.S.-licensed satellites,” it said.
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee is slated to consider Thursday a final report from its Working Group 1 on rules for opening up the 1695-1710 MHz band for commercial use while protecting federal meteorological earth stations from harmful interference. “The recommendations of the Working Group provide the foundation for agencies to start developing the more refined transition plans and for the FCC to start its rulemaking to implement shared use of the band,” the report said (http://1.usa.gov/VvSSKn). “Therefore, this report and associated sharing framework include recommendations for necessary elements that remain to be addressed. These include developing the coordination, testing, monitoring, and compliance processes and associated funding criteria identified in the sharing framework.” The report recommends that NTIA and the FCC develop a national interference prediction model, associated input parameters and methods for distribution of the aggregate Interference Power Spectral Density (IPSD) limits among commercial wireless licensees. The report also backs development of coordination procedures “including an automated process to assess if the proposed commercial wireless network will meet the IPSD limits, to facilitate coordination of proposed commercial wireless operations within the protection areas” and “on-going real-time monitoring to ensure the IPSD limits are not being exceeded.” The report also recommends “protection zones” rather than “exclusion zones” to protect federal facilities. But this approach requires “a clearly defined and enforceable coordination mechanism” to protect federal users from interference, the report said. The report found that commercial use of the band should be limited to mobile uplink use only. “Through discussions between Federal and commercial entities, it became clear that spectrum in this band would be solely used for mobile transmissions,” the report said. “All analysis done by WG-1 was done under this assumption.” On Tuesday, the NTIA formally recommended that the FCC reallocate the 1695-1710 MHz band for commercial use on a shared basis (CD Feb 20 p8).