Gogo requested a further 60-day extension of its special temporary authority to allow continued operation of four identical Ku-band terminals. The in-flight broadband provider plans to perform ground-based testing with the terminals, it said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/VGgC10).
Panasonic provided FCC staff with some data to back up claims made in a Jan. 22 meeting with Media Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau officials that DVD players are “a mature technology” and that all physical media players, including Blu-ray players, “face increasing competition from online streaming” and VOD services, a letter to the FCC said (http://bit.ly/13b3qie). According to CEA market research, total U.S. shipments of removable media players fell 25 percent from 2010 to 2011 and another 16 percent from 2011 to 2012, it said. Though Blu-ray player shipments increased in those years, shipments of a subset of those players with Internet-streaming connections increased faster than those without the connections, it said. “This increase may be an indication of consumers’ growing interest in connecting to video content from the Internet,” and having access to DVDs and Blu-rays on one device, the letter said.
The FCC should do away with the regulatory fee disparity among VHF and UHF licensees, attorneys for Sarkes Tarzian and Sky Television said in a meeting with Enforcement Bureau staff, an ex parte notice said (http://bit.ly/153FoZg). “While VHF stations were historically considered more desirable for analog broadcasting, UHF is more desirable for digital television broadcasting and it is not longer supportable to assess higher regulatory fees to VHF stations."
The FCC shouldn’t force Time Warner Cable (TWC) to carry WOCB Marion, Ohio, a Class A TV station licensed to the Central Ohio Association of Christian Broadcasters (COACB), on some of its Ohio cable systems, TWC said in an opposition to COACB’s must-carry complaint (http://bit.ly/WMR0fG). The operator said it already carries the station on its Marion systems. “Nevertheless COACB is seeking sweeping mandatory carriage for WOCB that encompass over 120 separate communities located in 11 counties and three separate designated market areas,” TWC said. Such carriage is far in excess of what’s guaranteed to any full-power TV station, it said. The station fails to deliver the required over-the-air signal to TWC’s Columbus headend, it said. TWC already carries several stations that address the local news and information needs of the communities where COACB seeks to have its station’s signal distributed, the opposition said.
FCC members denied Matinee Radio’s request for the full commission to undo a 2005 Media Bureau decision that cut the broadcaster’s 35 percent new entrant bidding credit (NEBC) for five FM stations in an auction of FM construction permits the year before (http://fcc.us/YkZgB3). The bureau said the “acquisition of an attributable interest in a radio station by two of Matinee’s attributable interest holders reduced its NEBC eligibility,” even though that stake was obtained after the broadcaster filed Form 175 for the auction, No. 37, the new order said. That staff decision “properly decided the matters raised, and we uphold its decision for the reasons stated therein,” said the order released in Tuesday’s Daily Digest (http://bit.ly/VG89e4).
The FTC settled with telemarketer Roy Cox, Jr., the agency said Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/UDjkTk). The settlement stems from a December 2011 case against Cox and related companies that claimed the companies illegally failed to transmit identification information to caller ID displays and knowingly called consumers on the Do Not Call Registry. The settlement bans Cox from telemarketing and includes a $1.1 million civil penalty that the agency is waiving due to Cox’s inability to pay. The commission voted to approve the settlement 3-0-2, with Commissioners Joshua Wright and Maureen Ohlhausen not participating, said an FTC news release.
Kansas and Kentucky legislatures both advanced telecom deregulation bills in the last week. In Kansas, the House passed House Bill 2201 Monday 118-1, and it will now go to the Senate. The bill would reduce telecom regulation and create a telecom study committee at the Legislature. Kansas companies would, if the bill becomes law, no longer have to do a number of things. They'd be excused from being carriers of last resort, being subject to price cap regulation for Lifeline services or having to participate in the Kansas Lifeline Service Program, complying with intrastate access charge requirements or state commission requirements on consumer protection, minimum quality of service standards and statewide long distance price regulation, said the bill’s supplemental text (http://bit.ly/Y6VwoP). Kansas Corporation Commission staff told state legislators earlier this month it’s officially neutral on the bill (http://1.usa.gov/132fh6v). Last week, the Kentucky Senate passed by 24-13 Senate Bill 88, now under consideration in the House. It would reduce telcos’ regulatory obligations for delivery and maintenance of landline service. “Nothing in current law requires that basic standalone phone service be delivered using a particular technology, just that it be reliable and provide basic services on a standalone basis,” said Director of the Kentucky Resources Council Tom FitzGerald in a Monday op-ed at KYForward (http://bit.ly/W1Xome). He’s critical of the bill, calling it a “bad deal” for Kentucky consumers and arguing that wireless is no substitute for landline phones. “I think what Kentucky is doing is looking at the map,” American Legislative Exchange Council’s John Stephenson, director of ALEC’s Communications and Technology Task Force, told us. Kentucky’s neighboring states have deregulated telecom to varying degrees, he said, crediting the move with welcoming investment. Kentucky’s driving consideration, in his mind, was: “Why should we miss out on this?” The bill and similar laws passed in other states haven’t hurt consumers, he said.
The recently-formed GPS Innovation Alliance will be engaged in the proceedings on LightSquared’s spectrum and it will look for means “to provide the FCC and others with the tools and data necessary to ensure that the importance of GPS is fully acknowledged in future proceedings and initiatives,” Garmin International said in an ex parte filing in docket 11-109 (http://bit.ly/Y6PYdV). The alliance will represent and advocate on behalf of members of the commercial GPS community, it said, recounting a meeting with Commissioner Ajit Pai. Members of the group include Garmin, Trimble and John Deere, the alliance said on its website.
Copper will long remain a “prevalent and important part of the network,” and the FCC should suspend the current rules regarding copper retirement, TelePacific told FCC Wireline Bureau staff, members of the Technology Transitions Task Force, and aides to several commissioners Wednesday (http://bit.ly/Xsm7gs). The commission should modify the retirement rules to ensure that customers receiving broadband over copper loops don’t lose affordable broadband service, TelePacific said. The commission should also ensure that the rules promote regulatory certainty necessary for further investments in development of new technologies for affordable broadband over copper, it said. “Copper loops are an important input in the deployment of competitive broadband options to small and medium sized businesses,” the telecom provider said, saying Ethernet over Copper offers up to 50 Mbps capacity. The commission “should not condemn customers to a single broadband provider, or to a duopoly."
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a petition to reverse forbearance from dominant carrier regulation and certain Computer Inquiry requirements that had been granted to ILECs in their provision of non-TDM-based special access services (http://bit.ly/UE9Yqa). Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee, BT Americas, Cbeyond, Sprint Nextel and other CLECs made the request in November, asking that forbearance be reversed as granted to Verizon, AT&T, legacy Embarq, Frontier and legacy Qwest. Comments in WC docket 05-25 are due April 16, replies May 31.